Country of residence

Czech Republic

Brief introduction

Lecturer, University of West Bohemia

Education

Ph.D., Ethnology, 2010, University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, Czech Republic

Academic profile

I have been concentrating on theories of ethnicity and nationalism since my PhD studies in ethnology. The approach I employ stresses cultural contexts and social significance of performing specific practices that can be identified as ethnic or national behavior. The primary focus is the question of imperativeness of practices promoted by social organization or, in other words, whether it is in certain contexts imperative to act as a (self-defined or ascribed) member of a kind of ethnic/national (i.e. Roma/Slovak) organization and what are these contexts. Observation has shown that Roma membership is (re)defined as biological which has serious implications for the general “majority” attitude toward people perceived as Roma. Other academic interests include multiculturalism approaches within political philosophy and post-socialism in Central Europe. I have collaborated with dr. Marek Jakoubek, Czech anthropologist, in a Czech translation of Ethnicity and Nationalism by Thomas Hylland Eriksen. Besides active lecturing in relevant subjects at political science department I have conducted participatory research in Slovakia and Czech Republic. As a young researcher I have participated in several university-level research projects, two of which relate to Roma as objects within nation-oriented (exclusive) discourses of state institutions, politicians and political parties.

Publications

• Towards a new past: Some Reflections on Ethnicity and Nationalism in Post-Socialist Slovakia. Under review
• Slovak Nation, Nationalism and Nationing: Beyond Groupism with Groups. Dissertation thesis. Faculty of Philosophy and Arts, University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, 2010
• O banalite (slovenského) nacionalizmu. [On Banality of (Slovak) nationalism] In LUPTÁK, Ľubomír; ONDREJCSÁK, Róbert; Valášek, Tomáš (eds.). Panoráma 2007-2008. Mapping Security Discourse. CENAA, 2008, p. 155-175

Keywords

Nationalism, ethnicity, multiculturalism, post-socialism

Contact

burzova@kap.zcu.cz browse members list