Memory studies
Research centre for memory studies
Leader: Kateřina Králová
The Research Center for Memory Studies (RCMS) at the Institute of International Studies, Charles University, promotes and facilitates research in memory studies by bringing together a vibrant community of scholars from various disciplines in dialogue about memory and (non)hegemonic narratives. The purpose of the research centre is to facilitate interaction, exchange, and collaboration among its members and the wider community and provide a platform to increase the visibility of our research. With its initiatives, RCMS aims to shape the trajectory of memory studies by discussing new research questions and methodologies in the field.
Members
Selected projects
- CA20105 - Slow Memory: Transformative Practices for Times of Uneven and Accelerating Change (SlowMemo)
- Claims Conference University Partnership Program in Holocaust Studies
- Minulost přítomností: role traumatické historie v zahraniční politice
- Memory policy in theoretical and practical dimensions
- Vyrobeno polskými soudruhy. Příběhy českých industriálních objektů a polských hostujících pracovníků ve vzájemné perspektivě (completed)
- Populist rebellion against modernity in 21st-century Eastern Europe: neo-traditionalism and neofeudalism (POPREBEL) (completed)
- Za hranice hegemonických narativů a mýtů. "Pohnutá minulost" v dějinách a paměti středovýchodní a jihovýchodní Evropy (completed)
Selected publications
- Králová, K. (2025). Homecoming: Holocaust Survivors and Greece, 1941–46 (The Tauber Institute Series for the Study of European Jewry). Brandeis University Press.
- Asavei, M. (2024). Flawed sainthood in popular culture: Maradona's culture of commemoration in Naples. Religions, 15(8), 981.
- Roginer Hofmeister, K. (2024). Remembering suffering and resistance: Memory politics and the Serbian Orthodox Church. CEU Press.
- Asavei, M. & Králová, K. (2023). Beyond the national museum paradigm: Troubled past vernacular representations in Central and Southeastern Europe. Nationalities Papers, 51(3), 512–517.
- Králová, K. (2023). Memory landscapes in ruins: The example of the Hirsch Quarter in Thessaloniki. In Memory cultures in Southeast Europe since 1945: Proceedings of the International Academic Week at Tutzing, October 2021 (pp. 35–49).
- Asavei, M. (2023). Engraving portraits in the skin: Vernacular commemorative tattoos for Ceausescu, Tito and Stalin. Nationalities Papers, 51(3), 563–582.
- Smith, R. (2022). The museal production of Hungary’s inorganic past and Poland’s postponed victory: The case of the House of Terror and the Warsaw Rising Museum. Soudobé Dějiny, 29(3), 825–851. https://doi.org/10.51134/sod.2022.042
- Juhászová, T. (2022). Post-WWII migration flows in micro-perspective: The case of the East Slovak small town Medzev. Individual and Society | Človek a spoločnosť, 25(1). https://doi.org/10.31577/cas.2022.01.598
- Juhászová, T. (2023). ʻBien Mantaaknʼ: The manifestation of identity in cemeteries in the Eastern Slovak town of Medzev. In F. Kühnel, S. Mikulová, & S. Stanković (Eds.), East Central European cemeteries: Ethnic, linguistic, and narrative aspects of sepulchral culture and the commemoration of the dead in borderlands (pp. 77–106). Peter Lang.
- Králová, K. (2021). Breaking out of silence: Victims of the 1944 Distomo massacre in Greek-German relations. Suedosteuropa-Mitteilungen, 61(2–3), 81–91.
- Asavei, M. (2021). Cultural memory and political resistance through religious/spiritual art in (post)communist Romania. In M. Draga-Alexandru & D. Manea (Eds.), Religious narratives in contemporary culture: Between cultural memory and transmediality (pp. 73–94). Brill.
- Asavei, M. (2021). The artistic memory of the Holocaust as a new direction in commemorative practices in Central and South-East Europe. In R. Bouchet, H. Lecossois, D. Letort, & S. Tison (Eds.), Résurgences conflictuelles: Le travail de mémoire entre arts et histoire (pp. 329–347). Presses Universitaires de Rennes.
- Němeček, J., Koutníková, I., & Šitler, J., et al. (2020). Sweden’s WWII dilemmas: Case study – Czechoslovakia. Institute of History Prague/Paideia Stockholm.
Past events
- Walkability between the Past and Present Workshop
- The workshop, held in Prague from September 11–14, 2024, was co-organized by the Research Centre for Memory Studies and CTU Prague. It focused on sensory walking, mapping, and digital humanities as methodological approaches for slow memory, contributing to the development of educational materials on walkability.
- “Borderlands of Memory” 4EU+ Spring School 2024
- The spring school, organised at the Charles University (CUNI), took place from April 15-19, 2024. It was organised by the 4EU+ Alliance “Plurality of Memories in Europe in a Global Perspective” Consortium, formed by CUNI, the University of Warsaw, Sorbonne University, the University of Copenhagen, Heidelberg University and the University of Milan.
- 4EU+ Online Seminar. Twentieth Century in European Memory
- The online seminar was co-led by researchers from the Universities of Prague, Warsaw, Sorbonne, Milan, Heidelberg and Copenhagen in collaboration with COST CA20105 Slow Memory and the Centre for Social Memory Research (Warsaw). The course was taught in the spring of 2024.
- Transformation of Memory Cultures and Politics Workshop
- The workshop, held at Humboldt University Berlin from February 29 to March 1, 2024, was co-organized by CENTRAL partners from Berlin, Prague, Warsaw, Vienna, and Budapest universities. It focused on transformations in memory cultures and politics across post-Yugoslav, post-WWII, and post-communist contexts, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration among researchers.
- Social Memories and Historical Narratives: Sources & Methodology
- On Friday, 15 September 2023, the Research Centre held an internal workshop entitled "Social Memories and Historical Narratives: Sources & Methodology". The workshop featured presentations by junior and senior members of the Center.
- Borderworlds: Temporal, Geographical and Psychosocial Exploration of Symbolic Border Conference
- The conference took place from 7-10 June 2023. It was held as part of the Borderwords project, funded by the St Andrews Joint Seed Funding. It enables participants to create new forms of collaboration and discuss the boundaries of migration, memory and narratives of the past and present.
- Train to Freedom Project's Bloc Seminar & Fieldwork
- The seminar and fieldwork are being conducted in June 2023 as part of the Train to Freedom project, initiated by the Berlin-based Mamlock Foundation and the Department for Democracy Education and Human Rights and now jointly implemented by Charles University in Prague and Freie Universität Berlin.
News
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Successful Dissertation Defense by Modern History PhD Candidate Tereza Juhászová
Yesterday, on September 15, 2025, Tereza Juhászová, PhD candidate in Modern History, successfully defended her dissertation with the highest distinction (Summa Cum Laude). Her thesis, entitled “Navigating Turbulent Times: A Microhistory of a Multilingual Small Town in Mid-20th Century Slovakia”, was prepared within a cotutelle program between our Institute and the University of Regensburg, under the supervision of Prof. Kateřina Králová and Prof. Ulf Brunnbauer. The defense committee was chaired by Prof. Guido Hausmann, with Prof. Pavel Kolář and Prof. Chad Bryant serving as reviewers. -
CENTRAL Workshop 2025: Materialities of Memory in Central, East and South-East Europe
Last week, four RCMS members – Kateřina Králová, Tereza Juhászová, Ivana Koutníková and Claudia Macey, joined colleagues from Warsaw, Berlin, Vienna and Budapest at the CENTRAL Workshop 2025: Materialities of Memory in Central, East and South-East Europe! -
Interview with Prof. Králová: “Memory studies help make the past present and teach us to think about why we remember some things, what we do not remember, and what value this has for today.”
In her interview for UK Forum magazine Kateřina Králová, head of the Research Center for Memory Studies, not only reflects on the recently held international conference on memory studies in Prague but, together with editor Jitka Jiřičková she also opens up a number of other topics—from the challenges of contemporary research in the field of memory, through the problematic historical illusion of peace in Europe, to the need for dialogue and interdisciplinary international cooperation. -
Remembering crises: FSV UK as a host of the Annual Meeting of the Memory Studies Association
From July 14 to 18, 2025, the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University (FSV UK) served as one of the main hosts of the 9th Annual Meeting of the Memory Studies Association (MSA). Themed “Beyond Crises: Resilience and (In)Stability”, the conference brought over 1,200 academics, artists and activists from nearly 100 countries to Prague to explore how societies remember, respond to, and recover from crises—both past and present. -
FSV UK collaborates on a successful international research Project supported by NCN and the Czech Science Foundation
The international research project "Displacement and (Post)secular Memory: Contemporary Crises and Historical Legacies in Southeastern and East-Central Europe" (MEMCRIS) has been awarded funding by Narodowe Centrum Nauki (NCN) in Poland and the Czech Science Foundation (GAČR). The project is co-led on the Czech side by Professor Kateřina Králová from the Institute of International Studies at FSV UK, alongside Dr. Karin Roginer Hofmeister. -
New Publication: Homecoming. Holocaust Survivors and Greece, 1941–46 by Kateřina Králová (Brandeis University Press, 2025)
The newly published book Homecoming by Kateřina Králová, Professor of Contemporary History at Institute of International Studies (FSS CUNI), explores the rarely discussed history of Jewish survivors returning to post-Holocaust Greece. Released by the renowned Brandeis University Press in 2025, the book sheds light on the struggles, silences, and resilience of those who attempted to rebuild their lives in a hostile postwar environment.