Category Archives: CEFRES Team

CEFRES Team

Marianna Szczygielska: Research & CV

Wild Pigs and Proud Elephants: Engendering Wildlife in Central Eastern Europe

Research Project: Bewildering Boar

Contact: szczygielska@cefres.cz

Marianna Szczygielska holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Gender Studies from the Central European University. She is a member of the Environmental Arts and Humanities Initiative (Central European University) and an affiliated researcher of “The Seed Box: Environmental Humanities Collaboratory” (Linköping University). She also co-chairs a strand at GEXcel International Collegium for Advanced Transdisciplinary Gender Studies. With a background in philosophy her research interests include environmental humanities, animal studies, queer theory, critical race studies, and feminist science and technology studies.

Marianna’s project is organized around two stages, each focused on a particular “wild species” in its various relations to wildlife management and further politics enacted in Europe through the practices of hunting and zookeeping. Starting with a comparative analysis of human-wild boar interspecies relations in Poland and the Czech Republic, and leading towards a study of the history and present politics of keeping elephants in captivity in Central Eastern Europe (CEE), this interdisciplinary project aims at problematizing the category of wilderness and wildlife conservation in a specific geographic setting of CEE. In this sense, through a comparison between endemic and exotic species Europe will be brought into perspective in its complex relations to global environmental politics, as well as issues of nationalism, imperialism, post-colonialism and post-socialism.

CV

Education

2011–2017: Ph.D. in Comparative Gender Studies, graduated with Distinction; Central European University, Budapest, Hungary. Thesis title: Queer(ing) Naturecultures. The Study of Zoo Animals. Supervisor: Hadley Z. Renkin.

2009–2010: M.A. in Gender Studies, graduated with Distinction; Central European University, Budapest, Hungary. Thesis title: Becoming (with) Animal Others: Is the Anthropological Machine Set up in the Zoo?

2004–2009: M.A. in Philosophy, graduated with Distinction; Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland. Thesis title: Ethics of Responsibility in the Face of Environmental Risks

Selected Publications

Peer Reviewed Journal articles
  • “Jedząc kebaba… Zwierzęta i zwierzęcość a islamofobia,” [“Eating a kebab… Animals/Animality and Islamophobia.”] Praktyka Teoretyczna, 4(26)/2017: 238-248.
  • “Hyenas and Hormones: Transpecies Encounters and the Traffic in HumAnimals,” in: Angelaki: Journal of Theoretical Humanities, Vol. 22 (2), April 2017: 61-84.
  • “Animals Off Display,” UnderCurrents: Journal of Critical Environmental Studies, Special issue “From Queer/Nature to Queer Ecologies: Celebrating twenty years of scholarship and creativity,” Vol.19/2015.
  • “Posthumanizm: dzień po rewolucji,” Czas Kultury 2015/1 (184), pp. 140-147.
  • “Transbiological Re-imaginings of the Modern Self and the Nonhuman: Zoo Animals as Transbiological Entities,” Identities: Journal for Politics, Gender and Culture, Vol. 10/2014.
  • “Technologically Assisted Life. Between Biopolitics and Thanatopolitics,” Annali di studi religiosi, Vol. 12/2011, Bologna.
Book Chapters in Edited Collections
  • (Forthcoming) “Pandas and the Reproduction of Race and Sexuality in the Zoo,” (eds.) McDonald, T. and Vandersommers, D., Zoo Studies and a New Humanities, McGill University Press, 2019.
  • “Zoos” (ed.) Salazar Parreñas, J., Gender: Animals Macmillan Interdisciplinary Handbooks. Farmington Hills: Macmillan Reference USA, 2017: pp. 247-262.
  • “The heroines of sustainable development. Gender and sustainable development in  a critical perspective”, in Proceedings from the international conference Equality, Growth & Sustainability. Do they mix?, (ed.) A. Fogelberg Eriksson, Linköping University, 2010:135-42.
Editorials
  • (In prep.) Cielemecka O. and Szczygielska, M. (eds.), “Plantarium: Human-Vegetal Ecologies.” Special issue of Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, and Technoscience, Fall 2019.
  • Steinbock, E., Szczygielska, M. & Wagner, A. (eds.), “Thinking Linking,” Special issue on “Tranimacies: Intimate Links between Affect, Animals, and Trans* Studies”; Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, Vol. 22(2), April 2017: 1-10.
  • Nitis, M., Szczygielska, M., & Stark, W. (eds.), “The Conditions of Praxis: Theory and Practice in Activism and Academia,” Graduate Journal of Social Science, Vol. 10 (3), September 2013.
Book reviews
  • Szczygielska, M., “Viewing the World Through the American Zoo,” a review of The Animal Game. Searching for Wildness at the American Zoo. by Daniel E. Bender in: Diplomatic History. Oxford University Press, September 2018, Vol. 42(4): 740–743.
  • “The Bittersweet Dimensions of Racial Mattering” a review of Habeas Viscus: Racializing Assemblages, Biopolitics, and Black Feminist Theories of the Human. by Alexander G. Weheliye in Parallax, November 2015, Vol. 21(3).
  • “Cloning Wild Life. Zoos, Captivity, and the Future of Endangered Animals.” by Carrie Friese in Pulse: A History, Sociology, & Philosophy of Science Journal, September 2014, Vol. 2(1).
  • “The Queer Art of Failure.” by Judith Jack Halberstam in Graduate Journal of Social Science, July 2012, Vol. 9(2).
Outreach
CEFRES Team

Aníbal Arregui: Research & CV

Animating the Wild Pig: Bows and Arrows in European Ecopolitics

Research Project: Bewildering Boar

Contact: anibal.arregui@cefres.cz

His thematic focus is on Amazonian ethnology and the bodily responses to environmental, technological and economic transformations. Anibal has since 2006 conducted fieldwork in the lower Amazon region in ribeirinho and quilombola communities. In the frame of the “Bewildering Boar” project, he is currently opening a second field in Spain, where he follows the ongoing reconfigurations of “urban” wild boars- humans relationality.

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CEFRES Team

Thomas Clément Mercier: Research and CV

Derrida’s Europes: Deconstruction, Marxism, Democracy

Research Area 1: Displacements, “Dépaysements” and Discrepancies: People, Knowledge and Practices

Research project :  Archives and Interculturality 

Contact: thomas.mercier@cefres.cz

Thomas Clément Mercier was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Political Theory by King’s College London (War Studies Department) in May 2017. He specializes in the study of violence, democratic legitimacy, and political resistance, at the intersection between international political theory and deconstruction. His research interests include critical international studies, postcolonial and decolonial thought, deconstructive biopolitics, gender studies and queer theory, animal and environmental ethics.

His research at CEFRES deals with Jacques Derrida’s relationship to Central and Eastern Europe, with a focus on his travels to the so-called ‘Eastern Bloc’ before and after the end of the Cold War. Special attention is given to Derrida’s arrest in Prague in 1981 as he was participating in clandestine seminars in support of Czechoslovak dissidents—intellectuals, philosophers and professors—in the context of his political-institutional engagements as Vice President of the Jan Hus Association. 

Thomas Clément Mercier’s research heavily relies on archival documents, letters and unpublished seminars, and blends biographical, historical, and political-theoretical analyses in order to elucidate a series of problems concerning the nature of Derrida’s political-institutional engagements:

  1. The articulation between the deconstruction of philosophy and the practical transformation of socio-political institutions, starting with Derrida’s critique of the institution of philosophy and its potential complicity with political or ideological forces;
  2. Derrida’s critical engagements with Marxist thought and politics, such as displayed by numerous unpublished seminars, notes, and personal letters from the 1960s and 1970s. These unpublished notes prefigure Specters of Marx (1993), wherein Derrida reassessed Marxism as an unavoidable part of the European heritage and promise, while opposing the narrative presenting neoliberalism as the homogeneous teleological destiny of ‘Europe’ in the wake of Marx’s supposed ‘death’. In doing so, Derrida aimed to challenge the Cold War narrative of a strict opposition between Western and Eastern Europe, between liberal and Marxist traditions;
  3. Derrida’s deconstruction of the idea of Europe — or, rather, ‘Europes’ — understood both as a philosophical concept and as a political notion. In several pre- and post-1989 texts, Derrida questioned the homogeneity and unity of the European heritage, and pluralised its legacies in view of offering a deconstructive analysis of democracy-to-come — an idea of Europe more open to its own heterogeneity.

Through the analysis of archival materials, Thomas Clément Mercier wishes to shed new light on the relationship between deconstruction, democratic theory, and Marxist thought, and to emphasise the ethical-political implications of Derrida’s thought as they appear as early as the 1970s.

Three articles on the topic have been published, and four others are currently under review. A monograph is also in preparation.

CV

Education

2017: PhD — King’s College, London (War Studies Dpt.). Thesis title: ‘The Violence of Legitimacy: Democracy, Power, Antagonism’, under the supervision of Professor Vivienne Jabri and Professor Mervyn Frost.

2007: Master’s Degree – Sciences-Po Paris, Joint degree (double Master’s) in International Relations (Professional Degree) and Political Science (Research Degree). 

2005: Master’s Degree – Université Paris-III (Sorbonne Nouvelle), Literature and Linguistics.

Selected publications

Edited volumes
Book chapter
  • ‘Resisting Legitimacy’, in Contending Legitimacy in World Politics: The State, Civil Society and the International Sphere in the Twenty-First Century, edited by Bronwyn Winter and Lucia Sorbera (London and New York: Routledge, 2017).
Articles
Published translations
Reviews
CEFRES Team

CEFRES Team of Researchers 2017-2018

István Pál Ádám

Contact: istvan.adam@cefres.cz

is from January 2016 until December 2017 a post-doctoral researcher at CEFRES and at the Faculty of Humanities of Charles University, benefitting from the support of the Charles University in Prague. His research project is entitled The Spatial Control of Central European Concierges and contributes to CEFRES research area 3.

Chiara Mengozzi

Contact: chiara.mengozzi@cefres.cz

is from January 2016 until December 2017 a post-doctoral researcher at CEFRES and at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University, benefitting from the support of the Charles University in Prague. From January 2018 she is a CEFRES associated researcher. Her research project is entitled Animal Matters. Challenging the Anthropological Difference and Literary Norms and contributes to CEFRES’s research area 2.

CEFRES Team

Julien Wacquez: Research & CV

The Horizon of Planetary Possibilities. Dynamics and Shifting Boundaries between Science and Science Fiction.

Research Area 1 – Displacements, “Dépaysements” and Discrepancies: People, Knowledge and Practices

Contact: julien.wacquez@cefres.cz

Julien Wacquez is a sociologist currently affiliated with the Labex les passés dans le présent at Paris Nanterre University in France, as a postdoctoral researcher. His work focuses on the epistemic values of science fiction literature, speculative writing, futurology, and the scientific uses of science fiction through history. He defended his PhD dissertation, entitled The Horizon of Planetary Possibilities: Dynamic and Shifting Boundaries between Science and Science Fiction at the EHESS in 2020. He published several articles which appeared in journals of sociology (Socio), anthropology of arts (Gradhiva), and comparative literature (Modern Language Notes). Since 2014, he is the editor-in-chief of the online magazine Angle Mort, which has been honoured as the ‘Best European Science Fiction Magazine’ by the Eurocon Award 2018.

CV

Education

2012-19: PhD studies in Sociology at École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS, Paris) under the supervision of Jean-Louis Fabiani. Thesis title: La Grammaire de la Vraisemblance : l’attachement à la réalité des praticiens de la science-fiction. Disciplines: Sociology of knowledge, sociology of sciences, sociology of writing, sociology of literature, ethnomethodology

2011: Master Research in Sociology at EHESS under the supervision of Sylvie Tissot. Thesis title: Faire la mixité sociale dans le grand ensemble de Meaux : la constitution d’un problème public

Research

2020-21: Post-graduate researcher, Labex les passés dans le présent, Université Paris Nanterre. Under the direction of professor Emmanuel Grimaud.

2018-19: Phd fellow, CEFRES, French Research Center in Humanities and Social Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic

2017-18: Phd fellow, CEFRES, French Research Center in Humanities and Social Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic

2015-16: Visiting Scholar, Harvard University, Department of Sociology, Massachusetts, United States

2014-15: Bourse d’Immersion, Musée du quai Branly, Département de Recherche et d’Enseignement & Labex Créations, Arts et Patrimoine, Paris, France. Intitulé du rapport : Faire dire aux objets. Images de l’activité connaissante et mise en scène dialogique du savoir par le service de médiation du musée du quai Branly.

Conference & Seminars

  • 2019 (June): “The Scientific Existence of the Dyson Sphere,” International Conference Paradise on Fire, organized by the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE), University of California, Davis.
  • 2019 (June): “How Does Science Fiction Literature Shape Scientific Imagination?” International Conference Anthropology Off Earth, organized by Périg Pitrou (CNRS – LAS), Régis Ferrière (ENS – University of Arizona), Istvan Praet (University of Roehampton, London), Joffrey Becker (PSL) & Elsa De Smet (PSL), Collège de France & Observatoire de Paris, Paris, France.
  • 2019 (April): “Is ‘Hard Science Fiction’ a Limit to the Concept of Literary Field?” Epistemological Seminar, CEFRES, Prague, Czech Republic.
  • 2018 (May): “The Ways of Science Fiction in the Study of the Anthropocene,” Workshop Debating the Norms of Scientific Writing, FLU, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic.
  • 2016: “Elements for a Sociology of Credibility: How to Use Knowledge in Science Fiction Stories?” – Culture and Social Analysis Workshop, Department of Sociology, Harvard University
  • 2015: “Faire dire aux objets. Images de l’activité connaissante et mise en scène dialogique du savoir par le service de la médiation culturelle du musée du quai Branly” – Workshop Art et performance – Musée du quai Branly (Paris, France)

Organisation of Scientific Events

  • 2020-21         Co-organisation and co-animation of the Labex Les passés dans le présent entitled « Futurologie : atelier de narration spéculative » avec le professeur Emmanuel Grimaud. Description : http://passes-present.eu/fr/futurologies-latelier-de-narration-speculative-1ere-seance-44401
  • 2018 (mai)     “Debating the Norms of Scientific Writing” Partenaires : CEFRES (Prague, République Tchèque), EHESS (Paris, France) et la Faculté de Philosophie de l’Académie des Sciences Tchèque. Keynotes speakers: Jan Balon (FLU, Czech Academy of Sciences); Jean-Louis Fabiani (EHESS, CEU); John Holmwood (University of Nottingham).

Teaching Experience

In English (252 hours)
  • 2017-2020: The Fiction is already there. The writer’s task is to invent the reality, Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Science Fiction Literature, Charles University, Faculty of Arts, Department of Sociology, Prague, Czech Republic.
  • Digital Sociology. In collaboration with Dino Numerato. Charles University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology, Prague, Czech Republic.
  • 2017-2018: Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic, course: Knowledge Trouble. Introduction to the sociology of science and the sociology of intellectuals, in cooperation with  Dan Cirjan (PhD at CEU)
In French (108 hours)
  • 2019-2020: Lycée Français de Prague, course:  Sciences Économiques et Sociales:
  • 2014-2017: Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle University, course:  The Sociology of Writing.
  • 2013-2014: Paris 12 University, course: Introduction to Sociology.
  • 2012-2013: Paris 13 University & Institut Régional du Travail Social, course: Introduction to Sociology.

Prizes & Awards

  • 2018: Recipient of the Fellowship of 8/9 of the EHESS Endowment Fund (topic: writing).
  • 2018: Recipient of the best science-fiction of European Science Fiction Convention for review Angle mort.
  • 2014: Recipient of the PhD Fellowship (Région Île-de-France Mobi’Doc).

Publications

Edition
  • 2019: Review Socio, number 13, topic: “Science et Science-Fiction”, in cooperation with Stéphane Dufoix (SciencePo, Paris)
Scientific Articles
  • 2021: « Re-searching Fiction: Interspecies Assemblages between Science and Fiction in the Anthropocene », submitted to Configurations (05/02/2021), Johns Hopkins University Press.
  • 2020, « Le Dire des choses : de l’entaille à la surface. Parcours de lecture à propos du livre de Romain Bertrand ‘Le Détail du monde’ », Carnet de Recherches du CEFRES, available online: https://cefres.hypotheses.org/1766
  • 2020: « La Défamiliarisation du monde : trois exemples de ‘fiction climatique’ française », Modern Language Notes, Johns Hopkins University Press (with Chiara Mengozzi, Charles University).2019 (November), « ‘Welcome to the real world:’ Champ libre à la science-fiction », Socio, issue 13.
  • 2020, « Le Dire des choses : de l’entaille à la surface. Parcours de lecture à propos du livre de Romain Bertrand ‘Le Détail du monde’ », Carnet de Recherches du CEFRES, available online: https://cefres.hypotheses.org/1766
  • 2019 (November): « Les Réalismes de L’Anneau-Monde », Socio, issue 13.
  • 2019 (May): « La ‘Faillite de l’imagination’. De l’existence scientifique de la sphère de Dyson », Gradhiva, issue 29.
  • 2019 (March): « La Sphère de Dyson : objet de fiction et de science », Revue de la BNF, issue 58.
Other Activities
  • 2016: Founder and editor-in-chief of the bilingual magazine Blind Spot – Angle Mort. 
CEFRES Team

Adéla Bricínová (born Klinerová) : Research & CV

“Modern French Architecture in the Context of Czech and East-Central European Nineteenth-Century Architecture”

Research Area 1 – Displacements, “Dépaysements” and Discrepancies: People, Knowledge and Practices

Contact: ad.bricinova@gmail.com

My PhD deals with the appropriation of French architectural language in modern times in the Czech lands and more largely, in East-Central Europe. It focuses on a singular trend of 19th century historicism pertaining to Neo-Renaissance and eclecticism.

Though not as spread as the dominant inspirations drawn from Italian Renaissance architecture, French style—or mode—can nevertheless be found in every European country, and thus deserves better interest than it has so far. The aim of my PhD is to establish a sensible catalogue of the representations of the studied phenomenon and to unfold studies on the signification of French-style architecture.

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