People
On the department’s staff page, you will find information about the department members, their research interests, and their roles within the department. You will also find information about their office hours.
people in the department in alphabetical order
Department Management
Mgr. Lukáš Friedl Ph.D.
Lukáš Friedl primarily focuses on research in paleoanthropology. He is particularly interested in aspects of the lives of our ancestors related to skeletal robustness and physical activity, which he studies through the distribution of bone tissue in the long bones of limbs. He has contributed to research on fossil remains of human ancestors from both distant and more recent pasts (such as Australopithecines and members of the genus Homo, including H. naledi). His second major research topic is the origin of modern humans (H. sapiens) and their spread across the European continent during the transition from the Middle to Upper Paleolithic. He co-leads an archaeological field project at the Lapa do Picareiro site in Portugal, which preserves sediments covering these periods.
In his teaching, Lukáš enjoys the diversity and breadth of topics, and thus he lectures in courses focused on human evolution, human variability and adaptability, child growth and development, as well as topics at the intersection of biological and sociocultural aspects of human existence. Lukáš also enjoys popularizing science and can occasionally be heard or seen in selected media outlets.
Lukáš earned his Ph.D. from Tulane University in New Orleans, and in addition to his position as an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology, he serves as an affiliated researcher at the ICArEHB research center in Faro, Portugal.
Head of Department
Department of Anthropology
consultation hours
Wednesday / 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM / SP217; by email appointment at any time (preferred)
Mgr. Anna Pankowská Ph.D.
Anna Pankowská is an assistant professor at the Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Arts, University of West Bohemia in Plzeň (since 2012). Her work primarily focuses on reconstructing human behavior through the analysis of human skeletal remains, as well as on the environmental and cultural factors influencing the decomposition of bodies, both cremated and uncremated. She also explores the manifestations of violence on human bones, paleopathology, and the dynamics of past populations. Additionally, her research interests include the digitization of human skeletal remains and the application of advanced methods in anthropology.
Deputy head of department
Department of Anthropology
consultation hours
By email arrangement, including online consultations.
PhDr. Tereza Šlehoferová Ph.D.
Tereza Šlehoferová’s professional work encompasses various (seemingly disparate) areas related to political anthropology, the anthropology of food, and applied anthropology. In her teaching and research, she focuses on topics such as power, memory, and power relations, as well as food, identity, and their related sociocultural aspects. Additionally, she explores civic activities and the planning and implementation of social, educational, and integration projects. Following her experiences in university administration, she has increasingly turned her attention to topics such as audit culture, needs analysis, and the (un)measurability of institutional development. In her personal life, she enjoys cooking, traveling, and gardening.
Deputy Head of Department
Katedry antropologie FF ZČU
Consultation Hours
Monday / 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM / SP322; or individually by email arrangement. Online consultations and phone consultations are also available by individual arrangement.
BC. JANA FOJTÍKOVÁ
There has been a baton pass in the department, but don’t worry, the baton remains in good hands. Jana Fojtíková is taking on the role of secretary with enthusiasm and promises to keep the department’s course steady until Gabriela Prášková returns from maternity leave. Think of it as swapping backpacks on a hike: the contents remain the same, just taken over by someone else for a while to ensure the journey continues smoothly.
Secretary
Department of Anthropology
Office hours
Pondělí a Středa / 9:00 – 12:00 / SP307
Ing. Gabriela Prášková
Gabriela Prášková serves as the Secretary of the Department of Anthropology. Her responsibilities include coordinating the department’s financial, personnel, operational, and organizational matters. She oversees and evaluates the department’s budget spending, manages grants, and ensures the maintenance of the department’s assets. In her free time, she practices Qigong and enjoys cultivating Madagascan succulents.
Internal staff
Mgr. Tomáš Hirt Ph.D.
Tomáš Hirt enjoys teaching introductory anthropology courses with enthusiasm. His lectures and research primarily focus on visual and applied anthropology. Thematically, his professional activities often relate to issues of nationalism, ethnicity, multiculturalism, social integration, and, more recently, the theory and practice of ethnographic filmmaking in the context of social and cultural anthropology.
Internal employee
Department of Anthropology
Consultation Hours
Thursday/ 15:00 – 16:00 / SP301
Mgr. Gabriela Fatková Ph.D.
Gabriela Fatková research spans three areas of interest. Regionally, it focuses on the Balkans, where she conducted long-term fieldwork on the social organization of the formerly nomadic shepherds – the Karakachans. She is also the editor-in-chief of the journal Porta Balkanica, which focuses on social science research in the Balkan region. The second thematic area is the anthropology of gender, covering topics such as balanced representation of cultural heritage (research in the Tachov region focusing on the local resettled population, their daily lives, and the presentation of their own narratives through food and related activities). The third area is the evaluation of quality in higher education, particularly the topic of academic failure (in relation to distance learning, abuse of power, etc.).
Internal employee
Department of Anthropology
Consultation Hours
Tuesday / 11:00 – 12:00 / SP312b
(Online consultations are possible by prior email arrangement.)
Mgr. Patrik Galeta Ph.D.
I am an assistant professor at the Department of Anthropology at the University of West Bohemia in Plzeň. My research and teaching focus on bioarchaeology, paleodemography, and statistical analysis. Together with my colleagues, we are engaged in multidisciplinary research on the lives of people in the past. By studying the characteristics of human skeletons, we examine the social status of individuals and changes in demographic behavior of prehistoric and medieval populations. Additionally, I collaborate with colleagues from other social science disciplines on the statistical analysis of quantitative data.
Internal employee
Department of Anthropology
Consultation Hours
In person or online, by prior arrangement by e-mail.
Mgr. Jan Kapusta Ph.D.
Jan Kapusta studied ethnology at Charles University in Prague. He specializes in the anthropology of religion, focusing particularly on pilgrimage and sacrifice, the perception of landscapes and non-human beings, animism, and shamanism. He has conducted field research among the Maya in Guatemala. Currently, he is exploring the relationship between indigenous cultures around the world and Western alternative spirituality, dealing with issues such as glocalization and cultural hybridization, the creation of a global spiritual discourse, and religious revitalization movements. Theoretically, he works at the intersection of existential-phenomenological and ontological approaches in anthropology.
Internal employee
Department of Anthropology
Consultation hours
Monday / 9:30 – 11:00 / SP311
Mgr. Petr Kupka Ph.D.
Internal employee
Department of Anthropology
Consultation Hours
In person or online, by prior arrangement by email.
Doc. Petr Lozoviuk Ph.D.
Petr Lozoviuk studied ethnology, history, and Slavic studies at the Institute of Ethnology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague (UK FF), Humboldt University in Berlin, and the University of Gdańsk. He completed his postgraduate studies at the Institute of Ethnology, UK FF, and at the Institute of German and Comparative Folklore at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich. Professionally, he has served as an assistant professor at the Institute of Ethnology, UK FF Prague, the Institute of Ethnography and Folklore of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and simultaneously taught at several other academic institutions, including the Department of Social Sciences at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Pardubice, the Technical University of Liberec, the Institute of European Ethnology at Masaryk University in Brno, and Technische Universität Dresden.
From 2000 to 2002, he was a member of the international research team “FOROST” at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, representing the Czech Republic, and also collaborated with the Munich Southeast Europe Institute within this project. Subsequently, he spent ten years as a research fellow at the Institute of Saxon History and Folklore in Dresden. He is a member of several scholarly societies, including the “Johann Gottfried Herder Research Council” in Marburg and “Collegium Carolinum” in Munich, and serves on the editorial boards of numerous domestic and international academic journals.
His research interests are diverse and fall within the domain of “Ethnologia Europaea” – European comparative ethnology. These include the study of interethnic relations and intercultural communication, the study of migration and migrants in the Central European context, the history of the discipline, methodological and epistemological issues in the field, the ethnography of transformation processes, German-speaking and Russian-speaking traditions of ethnographic/ethnological research, Czech-German relations, borderland ethnology, and current issues of ethno-emancipatory processes in Eastern Europe.
Internal employee
Department of Anthropology
Konzultační hodiny
Individually by appointment SP310.
doc. PhDr. Blanka Soukupová, CSc.
1984-1988: Faculty of Arts, Charles University, major in Ethnology (formerly Folklore Studies). Graduated with honors, awarded the Charles University Rector’s Prize.
1988-1993: Institute of Ethnography and Folklore Studies, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (later Institute of Ethnology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic); scientific aspirant (1988-1991), research fellow (1991-1993).
1993-present: Academic and research staff at the Faculty of Humanities, Charles University (until 2000, Institute for Foundations of Education, Charles University); specialization: collective identities (primarily national and ethnic, supra-ethnic); life worlds of Central European cities; nationalism and anti-Semitism; ethnology of the family; history of ethnology; marginalized populations. 1988: PhDr., 1994: CSc. (Institute of Ethnology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic), 2008 (Faculty of Arts, Charles University, field of economic and social history), 2023: academic and research staff at the University of West Bohemia in Plzeň (modern and postmodern city, history of ethnology and anthropology, Jewish identity, national identities, and anti-Semitism).
Internal employee
Department of Anthropology
Consultation Hours
By prior arrangement by email in office SP306.
Mgr. Laco Toušek Ph.D.
Laco Toušek specializes in issues of marginalization, poverty, criminalization, and victimization. He has conducted field research in Roma settlements in Slovakia, socially excluded localities in the Czech Republic, and among homeless people. In the past, he worked in market research, for the organization People in Need, and conducted applied projects for the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. He collaborates with the organization FEANTSA. In addition to courses on these topics, he teaches methodological subjects and is the trainer for the MAQDA program in the Czech Republic. In his free time, he runs a cooperative café with friends.
Internal employee
Department of Anthropology
Consultation Hours
By individual arrangement, including the possibility of online consultations.
External Staff
PhDr. František Bahenský
Externí zaměstnanec
Department of Anthropology
Konzultační hodiny
Monika Baumanová M.A. Ph.D
Externí zaměstnankyně
Department of Anthropology
Konzultační hodiny
Doc. Ing. Petr Janeček Ph.D.
.
Externí zaměstnanec
Konzultační hodiny
Doc. PhDr. Václav Soukup CSc.
Externí zaměstnanec
Konzultační hodiny
Mgr. Monika Stehlíková
Externí zaměstnankyně
Konzultační hodiny
Mgr. et Mgr. Nela Štorková Ph.D.
Asistentka pro studijní náležitosti doktorského studia
PHD students
Mgr. Christoph Mauerer
Doktorand
E-mail:
Mg. et Mgr. Michal Pečený
Doktorandka
E-mail:
Research staff
Mgr. Benjamin Petruželka, Ph.D.
Výzkumný pracovník
E-mail:
Mgr. Viktor Rumpík, Ph.D.
Výzkumný pracovník
E-mail:
Mgr. Václav Walach, Ph.D.
výzkumný pracovník
E-mail:
in memoriam
doc. Ladislav Šmejda, Ph.D.
† 27. 11. 2022
Bc. Jitka vlasáková
† 2. 6. 2022
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