Country of residence

United Kingdom

Brief introduction

Lecturer in Twentieth-Century History, School of History, Languages and Cultures, University of Liverpool

Education

Ph.D. History and Civilization, 2008, European University Institute (Fiesole, Italy)

Academic profile

I am a social historian with interests in transnational and comparative approaches to the history of modern – especially East Central – Europe.  Thematically I focus on the history of minorities (especially Roma), gender, nationalism, citizenship, human rights and state socialism.  Methodologically and conceptually I am interested in connecting local and national histories of marginalised groups (such as Roma and women) to larger transnational and international histories of social movements, institutions and norms (eg human rights). My Ph.D. dissertation (2008) in History and Civilization from the European University Institute (Fiesole) used a wide variety of state and private archives, printed sources and interviews to reconstruct the social history of state-society relations concerning the Roma in socialist Czechoslovakia, 1948-1989.  I have held visiting scholarships in Prague, Berlin, Bratislava, Paris and New York (Columbia University).  I have an MA in Slavonic and East European Studies from the University of London and a BA from Oxford University.  Currently I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Contemporary History, Potsdam, Germany where I am preparing my PhD thesis for publication as a monograph. I have been involved with a number of international research projects and I am also on the editorial board of Social History.

Publications

• ‘Charter 77 and the Roma. Human Rights and Dissent in Socialist Czechoslovakia’, in Stefan-Ludwig Hoffman, ed, Human Rights. A Critical History (NY, Cambridge University Press, 2011), 191-211.
• ‘The Struggle for the Soul of the Gypsy’. Marginality and Mass Mobilization in Stalinist Czechoslovakia, Social History 33:2 (May 2008), 123-144.
• ‘Der “internationale Zigeuner” in der Tschechoslowakei. Eine transnationale Geschichte der Grenzkontrolle 1918-1939’, in Christophe Duhamelle, Andreas Kossert, Bernhard Struck eds, Grenzregionen: Ein europäischer Vergleich vom 18. bis 20. Jahrhundert (Frankfurt, Campus, 2007), 295-314.

Keywords

Social history, Roma, gender, human rights

Contact

C.H.Donert@liverpool.ac.uk browse members list