Short Biography

Ondřej Žíla is Assistant Professor at the Department of Russian and East European Studies. His chief research interests are ethno-demographic changes, forced migrations, conflicts, postwar reconstruction, and post-socialist transformation in the countries of the former Yugoslavia, especially in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He published a monograph ‘You Are My Only Homeland’: Ethno-Demographic Metamorphoses of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Years 1945–2013 (in Czech) and more than twenty studies. He has conducted a lot of field research in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Croatia. His current research is focused on the topic of the reintegration of divided Sarajevo after the end of the Bosnian conflict in the beginning of 1996 (January-March) and its specific consequences (especially the flight of Bosnian Serbs from Sarajevo). Since 2017 he is Senior researcher in the PRIMUS Research Programme (“Beyond Hegemonic Narratives and Myths. Troubled Pasts in the History and Memory of East-Central & South-East Europe”).

Positions

Education

Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Philosophy and Arts, Institute of World History, Modern World History, Ph.D., 2013

Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Philosophy and Arts, Institute of World History, Modern World History, PhDr., 2010

Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Philosophy and Arts and Faculty of Science, Graduate Program in History and Geography, Mgr., 2007

Sorbonne-Paris IV., Paris, France, Erasmus Exchange Program, 2007

Academic awards

Are You the One and Only Homeland I have?” Ethno-demographic Changes in Bosnia and Herzegovina 1945–2013, Prague: Nakladatelství Filozofické fakulty. „Soutěž vysoce kvalitních monografií na UK“ 2015

Research grants

UNCE – VITRI – The Center for the Transdisciplinary Research of Violence, Trauma and Justice

Charles University, Faculty of Social Sciences, PRIMUS Research Programme (PI: 2017-2019)[PRIMUS/HUM/12]

Project title: Beyond Hegemonic Narratives and Myths. Troubled Pasts in the History and Memory of East-Central & South-East Europe (BOHEMs)

Senior Researcher (2017-2019)

Czech Science Foundation

Project title: “The Perspectives of the Western Balkans in the Context of its Political, Ethnic and Demographic Development in the Last Twenty Years

co-researcher (2010–2015)

Research fellowships

Masaryk-Fulbright programme

University of Pittsburgh, Department of Anthropology

(2018-2019)

Visegrad Fund

University of Sarajevo, Faculty of Political Science

project title: The Flight of Serbs from Sarajevo

main researcher (2016-2017)

CEEPUS

University of Zagreb, Faculty of Arts

2010

Recent conferences

- Narrating the Flight of Bosnian Serbs from Sarajevo after the end of the war. IOHA, Finnland 2018.

- Ehno-demographic changes in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Dayton era. Kliofest, Zagreb, Croatia 2018.

- The impacts of forced migrations in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Estimation of ethno-demographic

changes due to the civil war. In: Sympozium Balcanicum, Praha, Czech Republic 2015.

- The war refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina in their new Czech habitat and their desire to return

home. In: ASEEES: Association for Slavic, East European and Euroasian Studies, New Orleans, USA

2015

Memberships

- Member of the Czech Committee for Slavic, Balkan, and Byzantine studies (Slovanský ústav AV ČR)

- Member of the Redaction Committee of the Journal Porta Balkanica (published by Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University Brno)

- Member of the Redaction Committee of the Journal The Twentieth Century – Dvacáté století

(published by Faculty of Arts, Charles University Prague).

Selected publications

Books and book chapters:

1) ŽÍLA, Ondřej, 2016. Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Era of Dayton. In: PELIKÁN, Jan (ed.), The Perspectives of the Western Balkans in the Context of its Political, Ethnic and Demographic Development in the Last Twenty Years. Prague: Nakladetelství Filozofické fakulty (in Czech).

2) ŽÍLA, Ondřej, 2015. „Institutionally guided“ repatriation versus „spontaneous“ return of refugees. A comparison of repatriation strategies and their results in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina. In: BITTNEROVÁ, Dana, MORAVCOVÁ, Mirjam (eds.), Ethnic communities. Balkan ways I. Prague: FHS, pp. 113–151. ISBN 978-80-87398-72-2 (in Czech).

3) ŽÍLA, Ondřej, 2015. From a Multi-Ethnic Blending to Hegemony: The Reconstruction of Ethno Demographic and Spatial Impacts of the Civil War in Bosnia and Hercegovina. In: ZUDOVÁ-LEŠKOVÁ, Zlatica (ed.), Resettlement and Extermination of the Populations. A Syndrome of Modern History. Prague: Institute of History, pp. 111–138. ISBN 978-80-7286-260-3.

4) ŽÍLA, Ondřej, 2014. “Are You the One and Only Homeland I have?” Ethno-demographic Changes in Bosnia and Herzegovina 1945–2013, Prague: Nakladatelství Filozofické fakulty, 412 p. ISBN: 978-80-7308-523-0 (in Czech).

Articles:

1) ŽÍLA, Ondřej, 2015. The War Conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Phenomenon of Ethnic Cleansing. Czech Journal of Contemporary History. 3, pp. 157–188. ISSN 2336-3142.

2) ŽÍLA, Ondřej, 2015. The Myth of Return: Bosnian Refugees and the Perception of “Home”. Geographica Pannonica. 19(3), pp. 130–145. ISSN 0354-8724.

3) ŽÍLA, Ondřej, 2014. “Return Home”: Different Evolution of Repatriation process [chosen case studies]. Porta Balkanica. 6, 2014, pp. 34–49. ISSN 1804-2449 (in Czech).

4) ŽÍLA, Ondřej, 2015. Ethnic engineering, or unavoidable reality? The exodus of Bosnian Serbians from Sarajevo after the end of the civil war. Reasons, results, solution. Český lid. 102(2), pp. 129–150. ISSN 0009-0794 (in Czech).