In connection with Ilana Hartikainen's defense on populism in the Czech Republic and Slovakia on Friday 6 June, we are hosting an interdisciplinary symposium on Czech and Slovak studies. Both local researchers and visitors will present their research on these two fascinating and ofter overlooked countries. This event is held by the Horizon Europe-funded CO3 project, and it will feature two CO3 researchers as its discussant panel. You can find the programme and the presenters' abstracts and bios below. This will be a hybrid event; you can join online here or through the link below the program.
"People of whom we know nothing”? An Interdisciplinary Symposium on Czech and Slovak Politics and History
5 June 2025
University of Helsinki, Faculty of Social Sciences
Fabianinkatu 24 A, Seminar Room 524
Chairs: Ilana Hartikainen & Emilia Palonen
Discussant panel: Alex Alekseev & Anna Björk of the CO3 project
Panel 1: History
9:30 – 11:30
Jana Lainto, Doctoral researcher, University of Helsinki
The Scandinavian Horizons of Arnošt Kraus: Cultural Brokering as a Strategy to Support the Czech National Project
Erica Harrison
Radio and the performance of government broadcasting by the Czechoslovaks in Exile in London, 1939–1945
Jitka Štollová, Core Fellow, Helsinki Collegium of Advanced Studies
Václav Havel's Split Ego in His Last Play, Odcházení (Leaving)
Coffee break, 11:30 – 12:00
Panel 2: Memory
12:00 – 13:30
Vojtěch Ripka, Charles University
Politics of Memory and Pedagogy in Czech History Education: Curricular Contentions
Zea Szebeni, Postdoctoral researcher, University of Helsinki
Blurring Histories: King Svätopluk I and the Shaping of Slovak Identity through Pseudohistory and Slow Memory
Lunch
13:30 – 15:00
Panel 3: Politics today
15:00 – 16:30
Josef Řídký, Post-doctoral researcher, Charles University
Teaching state socialism digitally: What do we teach about when we teach about communism?
Tim Haughton, Professor of Comparative and European Politics, University of Birmingham
Evidence of Erosion, Signs of Stubbornness: The State of Democracy in Slovakia
Presenters & Abstracts
Erica Harrison
Radio and the performance of government broadcasting by the Czechoslovaks in Exile in London, 1939–1945
Between 1939 and 1945, Czechoslovakia disappeared from the maps, existing only as an imagined ‘free republic’ on the radio waves. Following the German invasion and annexation of Bohemia and Moravia and the declaration of independence by Slovakia on 15 March 1939, the Czechoslovak Republic was gone. From their position in exile in wartime London, former Czechoslovak President Edvard Beneš and the government that formed around him depended on radio to communicate with the public they strove to represent. The broadcasts made by government figures in London enabled a performance of authority to impress their hosts, allies, occupying enemies, and claimed constituents.
In this presentation, Harrison will discuss her book, which examines this government program for the first time, making use of previously unstudied archival sources to examine how the exiles understood their mission and how their propaganda work was shaped by both British and Soviet influences. This study assesses the strengths, weaknesses, and limitations of the government’s radio propaganda as they navigated the complexities of exile, with chapters examining how they used the radio to establish their authority, how they understood the past and future of the Czechoslovak nation, and how they struggled to include Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia within it.
Tim Haughton, Professor of Comparative and European Politics, University of Birmingham
Evidence of Erosion, Signs of Stubbornness: The State of Democracy in Slovakia
Why is Slovakia currently experiencing democratic erosion? Given that the most compelling explanations for the state of democracy in Slovakia tend to be agency-centred explanations, drawing on survey data and fieldwork in Slovakia this presentation explains how Fico returned to power in 2023, what has been done since his return and how the politics of reversal/restoration/revenge provides a key to unlocking an understanding of how and why the Fico government has behaved in the way it has. The Slovak case provides wider lessons for those studying democratic resilience, not just the causes and fuel, but also the processes and paths.
Bio:
Tim Haughton is Professor of Comparative and European Politics at the University of Birmingham. His research interests encompass party and electoral politics, political campaigning, democratic resilience and the politics of time. He has written extensively on Czech and Slovak politics as well as on wider regional trends. In addition to having published academic articles on every parliamentary election in Slovakia since 2002 (except 2016!), he has published on many aspects of party politics, especially new parties. He is the co-author with Kevin Deegan-Krause of The New Party Challenge: Changing Cycles of Party Birth and Death in Central Europe and Beyond (Oxford University Press, 2020) and is currently writing another book with Kevin on the transformation of party politics across Europe since the second world war.
Jana Lainto, Doctoral researcher, University of Helsinki
The Scandinavian Horizons of Arnošt Kraus: Cultural Brokering as a Strategy to Support the Czech National Project
This paper examines Czech-Scandinavian cultural exchanges at the turn of the twentieth century. The main point of departure is Arnošt Vilém Kraus (1859–1943), a small nation intellectual who, at this time, served as the central cultural intermediary between the Czech and Scandinavian cultural milieus. It is argued that Kraus’s interest in Scandinavia was inspired by Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk’s conceptualization of small nations. According to Masaryk, small nations could achieve “greatness”– in other words, international recognition – only through cultural or economic achievements. Kraus recognized such cultural strengths in Scandinavia, especially in Modern Breakthrough literature, which he sought to disseminate among Czech-speaking audiences as part of his contribution to the Realist program.
Kraus’s transnational activities extended beyond transferring Scandinavian modernity into Czech culture. He utilized his position as a broker to advance the Czech national cause. For Kraus, Scandinavian cultural figures like Norwegian writers Henrik Ibsen and Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson and the Danish literary critic Georg Brandes became epitomes of success, having garnered international prestige for their respective national cultures. By capitalizing on the Scandinavian reputation, Kraus aimed to gain international respect for Czech national culture as well as to support the Czech national movement within the multinational Bohemian Lands. This is illustrated by several examples: Betty Hennings’s and Ellen Key’s visits to Prague, Kraus’s journal Čechische Revue, and his lobbying efforts with the Swedish Nobel Prize Committee to support Czech nominees for the literary prize.
Bio:
Jana Lainto is a PhD candidate at the Centre for Nordic Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland. In her doctoral project, she studies Czech-Scandinavian cultural exchanges at the turn of the twentieth century and their entanglements with the Czech national movement. Her main research interests are Czech cultural history, cultural transfer studies and Czech-Scandinavian cultural relations.
Vojtěch Ripka, Charles University
Politics of Memory and Pedagogy in Czech History Education: Curricular Contentions
How should schools address cultural memory in history teaching? While Western European systems often integrate memory frameworks, Czech curricula tend to avoid direct engagement with contested pasts, reflecting what Pierre Nora terms Memory-History. This paper examines how Czech history education negotiates these tensions across theory, practice, and policy.
It presents a framework based on the “relationship to memory,” drawing on Assmann and Seixas, and promoting inquiry-based learning. Implemented via the HistoryLab.cz platform and tested in over 350 schools (2021–2023), this approach helps students critically analyze memory narratives.
Yet, attempts to embed these aims into national curricula face political resistance. Debates over textbook content—e.g. Holocaust or communist-era memory—highlight ideological struggles over identity, history, but also educational objectives. Drawing on examples from HistoryLab and curriculum documents, this paper explores how curricula become sites of political contention in the Czech case.
Bio:
Vojtěch Ripka is a historian and social scientist based at Charles University. His work explores the intersection of history education, memory politics, and social science. He co-developed the HistoryLab platform and leads projects on historical literacy and the use of cultural memory in schools.
Josef Řídký, Post-doctoral researcher, Charles University
Teaching state socialism digitally: What do we teach about when we teach about communism?
This workshop explores how digital tools can transform the teaching and understanding of history, with a focus on HistoryLab, a digital platform developed for history education. It will present the platform’s methodology and its application in Czech classrooms, showing how it unexpectedly provided new insights into how students understand the totalitarian past. Although not originally intended as such, HistoryLab has proven to be a valuable diagnostic tool. Building on this discovery, the second part of the workshop will focus on how students perceive state socialism and what shared preconceptions they hold. These findings will serve as a starting point for a broader reflection: Why are authoritarian parties and attitudes gaining support at a time when so much effort is invested in educating about the dangers of authoritarianism? What went wrong? One possible answer may lie in the very language and messaging we use when discussing the state socialist past. The workshop will conclude by considering how this could be addressed or improved.
Bio:
Josef Řídký is a historian and educator specializing in historical methodology and the history of science at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University. He has been active in the field of digital humanities and history education, contributing to projects such as HistoryLab.cz, SocialismRealised.eu, and an AI-driven educational chatbot developed under the CZDEMOS4AI project at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University. His work bridges academic research and pedagogical innovation, aiming to enhance how history is taught and understood in contemporary classrooms.
Zea Szebeni, Postdoctoral researcher, University of Helsinki
Blurring Histories: King Svätopluk I and the Shaping of Slovak Identity through Pseudohistory and Slow Memory
This study examines how fabricated historical narratives and slow memory processes can shape nation-building efforts We propose an expansion of Wüstenberg’s (2023) slow memory framework, suggesting that the gradual accumulation of positive pseudohistorical accounts significantly influences collective remembrance. These processes cultivate what we term ‘slow joy’ – the gradual accumulation of positive emotions through sustained engagement with mythologized narratives of national greatness. Employing rhetoric performative discourse analysis, we explore performative actions and communication surrounding the medieval King Svätopluk I and the controversy over his statue erected at Bratislava Castle in 2010 to uncover how Slovak cultural organisations and governmental entities interweave historical facts with nationalistic lore for nation-building endeavours. Our findings reveal that these curated historical accounts, marked by a cherry-picked chronology and the elevation of particular historical icons like Svätopluk I, construct a continuous national identity with ancient origins. This paper contributes to memory studies by demonstrating the interaction of pseudohistory and slow memory in national identity formation, offering insights applicable beyond the Slovak context.
Bio:
Zea Szebeni is a social psychologist and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki, Faculty of Social Sciences. Her dissertation examined personal and systemic factors in disinformation susceptibility and how individuals construct their understanding of truth in Hungary. She currently works in the DECA (Democratic Epistemic Capacities in the Age of Algorithms) project, studying collective epistemic ownership. Her research interests include visual politics, social epistemology and social media.
Jitka Štollová, Core Fellow, Helsinki Collegium of Advanced Studies
Václav Havel's Split Ego in His Last Play, Odcházení (Leaving)
Václav Havel’s final play, Odcházení (2008), holds a distinctive place within his oeuvre. It is the only play he completed after the end of his presidential term and allowed him to realize a long-held ambition: directing a film adaptation of his own work. The play explores the political decline and personal humiliation of a former Chancellor, Vilém Rieger. This paper investigates how Havel’s authorial identity—and his potential self-reflection through Rieger—is constructed through elements of autobiography, literary allusion, and paratextual framing.
This event is funded by the CO3 project, which is funded by the European Commission through Horizon Europe. Any views expressed here only reflect the views of the speakers, not the position of the European Commission.