CEFRES Team

PhD Fellows | 2024-2025

Josefina Formanová

Contact: josefina.formanova(@)cefres.cz

is a doctoral candidate in Philosophy at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague. Her PhD thesis, entitled Philosophy of Failure: Negativity and Error in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit, contributes to CEFRES research area 2. She received a CEFRES Platform fellowship for the academic year 2024–2025.

Vera Guseynova

Contact: vera.guseynova[@]cefres.cz

Is a doctoral candidate in sociology at the Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS, Paris). Her PhD project entitled The Internationalization of Russian Art, 1957–1991: A Socio-Historical Analysis of Artistic Transfers and Circulations, the Case of Unofficial Art contributes to CEFRES research areas 1 et 2. She received a „France & Visegrád“ fellowship for the academic year 2024–2025. Continue reading PhD Fellows | 2024-2025 →

CEFRES Team, Non classé

Ruslana Koziienko – Research & CV

“The effects and affects of the (im)mobility of men during Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine”

Contact : Koziienko_Ruslana@phd.ceu.edu

Research Area 2 : Norms and Transgressions

Ruslana Koziienko is a social anthropologist and a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at Central European University (Vienna). Her doctoral research explores the experiences of Ukrainian adult civilian men as affected by the limited mobility—outside, due to the travel ban, and within the country, due to the mobilization processes—under martial law, which was introduced in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The project focuses on three interrelated themes. First, it examines the coping strategies civilian men develop under conditions of constrained mobility in order to support and provide for themselves and their families. Second, the research analyzes the transformations of masculinities and sense of manhood civilian men have undergone, especially in the light of the masculinity of the defender occupying the hegemonic position, as well as, more broadly, how the hierarchy of masculinities in Ukrainian society has been reshaped over more than three years of the all-out war. The third theme (and the general framework) of the project explores the transformations of and contestations over citizenship and what it means to be a “good (male) citizen” in times of war. Finally, the research also looks at the dynamics, processes, and regimes at different—national, regional, and international—levels that have shaped the historical moment when the sex-selective travel ban in times of war became possible and supported, or at least tolerated, by many in the first place. Among these are the national gender order, the European migration regime, the international humanitarian regime, and the tension between, on the one hand, state sovereignty and, on the other, the international regime of human rights.

Methodologically, the research draws on online and in-person, in-depth semi-structured interviews with Ukrainian civilian men, as well as, in a few cases, their partners, in Ukraine and across nine countries (Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, the UK, and Canada). Research participants include men who remained in Ukraine, those who left the country, men who left but later returned, and those who were abroad when the full-scale invasion started. The research is also complemented by an analysis of the transformations of the law and regulations governing the border crossing regime and mobilization processes, media materials, and elements of digital ethnography.

CV

Education

  • 2020 – exp. 2026: PhD candidate, Sociology and Social Anthropology, Central European University, Vienna
  • 2018 – 2020: MA, Sociology and Social Anthropology, Central European University, Budapest
  • 2011 – 2015: BA, Cultural Studies, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Kyiv

Teaching experience

  • 01/2025 – in progress: Certificate of Teaching in Higher Education, Central European University
  • 01/2024 – 04/2024: Teaching Assistant, Central European University, Vienna, Ethnographic Methods, Asst. Prof. Johanna Markkula (MA level)
  • 04/2022 – 06/2022: Mentor, Invisible University for Ukraine, Vienna, Transformation, Conflict, and Migration (mixed levels)

Publications

  • Koziienko, Ruslana. 2023. “Against false solidarity. A call for true solidarity among people with experiences of displacement.” Allegra Lab, March. (Link)
  • Biziukova, Volha, Ruslana Koziienko, and Anna Lazareva. 2023. “‘Arrival’ Infrastructures: Ukrainian Displaced People in Vienna.” IWM Post, no.131 (June). (Link)
  • Koziienko, Ruslana. 2016. “Listening to the Rhythms of Cultural Trauma,” A Visit from Ghosts, 1 (October): 10-12. (Link)

In preparation

  • Biziukova, Volha, Ruslana Koziienko, and Ayşe Çağlar. “Beyond exception: the Ukrainian displaced in Vienna and the mazes of temporary protection in the EU and global contexts.” (Advanced draft; will be submitted to Ethnic and Racial Studies)

Conference presentations

  • 11 – 13/06/2025: Men and Masculinities in Transition, organized by the Nordic Association for Research on Men and Masculinities, Stockholm University; Panel: Military-2 & Prison; Presentation title: Transformations of civilian masculinities: Ukrainian men and (im)mobility during Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine.
  • 14 – 15/11/2024: Ukrainian Un/Certainties: Mobilities, Memories and Representations in Times of War, organized by Prisma Ukraїna, Berlin; Panel: Gender and (Im)Mobility; Presentation title: Contesting citizenship: (Im)Mobility of adult civilian men under martial law during the Russian war against Ukraine.
  • 23 – 26/07/2024: EASA2024: Doing and Undoing with Anthropology, Barcelona; Panel: The Gender of the State; Presentation title: The effects and affects of the (im)mobility of civilian men under martial law during the Russian war against Ukraine.
  • 13 – 14/10/2022: Solidarity, Displacement & the University Workshop, Berlin; Presentation title: Against false solidarity. A call for true solidarity among people with experiences of displacement.

Co-authored conference presentations:

  • 04 – 05/11/2023: Dialogues of the Peripheries, online; Feuerbach 11 conference, organized by the Commons journal; Co-presented with Volha Biziukova and Ayşe Çağlar; Panel: Approved or Refused: How the international refugee system has to work? (Link)
  • 30/09/2023: Migration and Arrival in Turkey: Urban and Spatial Approaches, Istanbul, organized by ReROOT Project; Co-presented with Volha Biziukova and Ayşe Çağlar; Presentation title: Arriving in “perpetual temporariness”: the displaced from Ukraine in Vienna and the mazes of temporary protection.
  • 01 – 02/03/2023: Cities and Human Mobility Research Collaborative Research Symposium, Vienna; Co-presented with Volha Biziukova; Presentation title: “Arrival” Infrastructures of the Displaced from Ukraine in Vienna.

Public talks and presentations:

  • 13 – 15/06/2025: Participant, conference Einsam in der Neuen Welt (Lonely in the New World); Project Group Central, Eastern, and South-Eastern Europe, The Evangelical Academy, Tutzing, Germany.
  • 22/02/2024: Invited speaker, public discussion War, Flight and Civil Society. The Ukrainian perspective; Dialogue Office for Civil Society Cooperation, Vienna, Austria.
  • 09/11/2023: Presentation of research findings and invited speaker, public discussion What’s next for Ukrainian refugees? Lived experiences between state “welcome infrastructures” and self-help ecosystems; Research Center for the History of Transformations (RECET), Vienna, Austria.
  • 22/02/2023: Presentation of key findings of the research “Arrival” Infrastructures of the Displaced from Ukraine in Vienna, Central European University, Vienna, Austria; Co-presented with Volha Biziukova, Ayşe Çağlar, and Anna Lazareva.
  • 09/02/2023: Presentation of key findings of the research “Arrival” Infrastructures of the Displaced from Ukraine in Vienna, Institute for Human Sciences (IWM), Vienna, Austria; Co-presented with Volha Biziukova. (Video)

Conferences/workshops organized

  • 08/07/2025: Un/Making Protection: The Proliferation of Temporary Protection Regimes Across Space and Time, co-organizer, Institute for Human Sciences (IWM), Vienna, Austria.
  • 17 – 18/10/2024: EthnoDoks: 16th Edition, co-organizer, Vienna, Austria. (Link)

Other work experience

  • 2015 – 2019: Visual Culture Research Center, Kyiv, Ukraine; Project manager, researcher, co-curator
  • 2015 – 2016: The National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine; Research Associate in the Education Department
  • 08/2015 – 10/2015: The School of Kyiv (Kyiv Biennial 2015), Ukraine; Coordinator

Exhibitions

  • 05/2017 – 07/2017: Custodial Settings, co-curator, Visual Culture Research Center, Kyiv (Link)
  • 11/2016 – 04/2017: Points of Approaching, co-curator, CSM/Foundation Centre for Contemporary Art, Dnipro-Kharkiv-Kyiv (Link)
  • 11/2016 – 12/2016: KINOTRON: Exhibition of an Unrealized Idea. Felix Sobolev – Stanisław Lem – Viktor Glushkov, co-curator, Visual Culture Research Centre, Kyiv (Link)
  • 08/2016: Olympics’84 in Donetsk, co-curator, Visual Culture Research Centre, Kyiv (Link)
CEFRES Team

Dominika Drobná – Research & CV

“Theory and Practice of Architecture in Bratislava around 1800”

Research Area 3 – Objects, Traces, Mapping: Everyday Experience of Spaces

Dominika Drobná is a PhD candidate at the Department of Art History, Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava. Her dissertation, titled Theory and Practice of Architecture in Bratislava around 1800, contributes to Research Area 3 at CEFRES.

The aim of the dissertation is to explore the relationship between architectural theory and practice in Bratislava between 1770 and 1830. The research began with a focus on the development of sacred architecture in western Slovakia during this period, particularly in the context of Theresian and Josephine reforms in the Church and education. These reforms significantly influenced architectural production and led to the discovery of a previously overlooked figure in architectural theory – Johann Nepomuk Schauff. Schauff worked for many years as a drawing teacher at the Normalschule in Bratislava, where he taught drawing to local craftsmen, including masons and stonemasons. These craftsmen increasingly participated in architectural design, particularly in religious and secular buildings, often in collaboration with Viennese architects. Schauff also developed his own theoretical ideas focused on the architecture of the Kingdom of Hungary and published several works in Bratislava related to this topic.

In addition to Schauff, the dissertation focuses on the work of architect Matthäus Walch, who was active in Bratislava especially during the 1770s. Walch played a key role in the construction of several aristocratic palaces, a theatre, and two Evangelical churches built even before the issuance of the 1781 Patent of Toleration.

The core objective of the dissertation is to address the theoretical and practical aspects of architecture – particularly sacred architecture – by analysing the work and ideas of these two important figures. It seeks to trace the stylistic development of architecture in Bratislava during a pivotal transition from the late Baroque to Classicism, and to demonstrate Bratislava’s significance as a secondary centre of architecture and art in the Habsburg monarchy and the Kingdom of Hungary.

The research methodology consists of several phases. The first involved heuristic and critical evaluation of existing literature. This was followed by in-depth analysis of primary historical sources, including archival documents, maps, architectural plans, and historical depictions, especially prints. Special attention is given to Schauff’s theoretical texts, whose interpretation helps illuminate broader architectural discourse around 1800.

The material basis of the study is formed by three key sacred buildings in Bratislava: The Large Evangelical Church (1774–1776), The Small Evangelical Church (1776–1777), and The Roman Catholic Church of St. Ladislaus (1830–1831). Notably, the two Evangelical churches were constructed before the Patent of Toleration in 1781. After a comprehensive analysis of the selected objects, the characteristic features of the architecture of the given period and region will be determined by comparison, and their development and style will be defined. In the final phase, I’m focusing on interpreting the acquired knowledge about sacred architecture. The aim is to highlight the broader context of the issue under investigation within the architecture of the selected period, not only in the territory of present-day Slovakia, but also in the context of the situation in Hungary, the Habsburg Monarchy and Europe.

Education

  • From 2022 till present: PhD. candidate, Art studies, Department of Art History, Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava
  • 2021–2024: Master, Archaeology, Department of Archaeology and Museology, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University in Brno
  • 2019–2021: Master, Art History, Department of Art History, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University in Brno
  • 2016–2019: Bachelor, Art History, Department of Art History, Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava

Recent publications

  • Šintava a Sereď: premeny stredovekého hradu na renesančnú pevnosť a klasicistický kaštieľ: doklady vo svetle poznatkov z oblasti archeológie, dejín architektúry a pamiatkovej starostlivosti (Šintava and Sereď: transformation of a medieval castle into a Renaissance fortress and a Classicist manor house : evidence in the light of knowledge in the field of archaeology, history of architecture and monument care). In: Studia archaeologica Brunensia, roč. 29, č. 1, 2024, s. 109–151.
  • Vila pro stavitele (Villa for the Builder). In: Tajemství české minulosti, č. 103, 2024, s. 24–27.
  • Bratislavskí stavební majstri a ich vplyv na premeny mesta v druhej polovici 18. storočia (Bratislava’s Master Builders and Their Influence on the Transformation of the City in the Second Half of the 18th Century). In: Umělec a město: sborník příspěvků z odborné konference. Brno 2023, s. 91–104. ISBN 978-80-88145-69-1.
  • Kontexte der Kunst um 1800 aus dem Gebiet der heutigen Slowakei (Contexts of Art around 1800 from the Territory of Present-Day Slovakia). In: Internationales Doktorand/innen Forum Kunstgeschichte des östlichen Europas [elektronický dokument]: Beiträge / Papers 2023. Berlin 2023, s. 1–2.
  • Možnosti inšpirácie architektúrou (Posibilities of Inspiration through Architecture). In: Prostor Zlín, roč. XXX, č. 4, 2023, s. 43–47.
  • Pressburger Baumeister Matthäus Walch a jeho stavebná činnosť v Bratislave (Pressburger Baumeister Matthäus Walch and his building activities in Bratislava). In: Kolbiarz Chmelinová, Katarína – Beňová, Katarína: Umenie a umělci v meste okolo roku 1800. Bratislava 2023, s. 86–112. ISBN 978-80-8127-388-9.
  • Národní divadlo Nitranské župy (National Theatre of the Nitra County). In: Opuscula historiae artium, roč. 70, č.2, 2021, s. 142–153.

Participation in conferences

  • November 2024: “National Styles in Architecture: The Formation of the Hungarian National Columns Order in the European Context“, paper presented in the conference Ex Arte: Fortresses, Bridges and Borders, Masaryk University, Brno
  • October 2023: “Johann Nepomuk Schauff and the Study of the Hungarian National Style in Architecture“, paper presented in the conference Ex Arte: From Material to Theory, Palacký University, Olomouc
  • October 2023: “Bratislava’s Master Buliders and Their Influence on the Transformation of the City“, paper presented in the conference The Artist and the City, Museum of Kroměříž
  • May 2023: “Contexts of Art around 1800 from the Territory of Present-Day Slovakia“, short paper presented in the conference VIII. Internationales Doktorand*innenforum Kunstgeschichte des östlichen Europas, Humboldt-University, Berlin
  • November 2022: “Pressburger Baumeister Matthäus Walch and his building Activities in Bratislava“, paper presented in the conference Art and Artists in the City around 1800, Comenius University, Bratisava
CEFRES Team, Non classé

Adam M. Aksnowicz – Research & CV

“Towards What Homeland?
(Trans)National Armies in Exile and Renegotiations of Polish and Czechoslovak National Narratives, 1938-48“

Contact: aksnowicz_adam@phd.ceu.edu

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

Adam M. Aksnowicz is a doctoral candidate at the Department of History, Central European University in Vienna, Austria. His dissertation, Towards What Homeland? (Trans)National Armies in Exile and Renegotiations of Polish and Czechoslovak National Narratives, 1938-48, under the supervision of Constantine Iordachi and Charles Shaw, is being developed in cooperation with CEFRES Research Area 1.

My dissertation reassesses the historical phenomenon of national armed forces in exile during the Second World War by analyzing military nation-building projects of Polish armies in exile and the Czechoslovak resistance abroad from transnational, comparative, and global perspectives. Building from my previous MA thesis entitled, “Without Lwów and Wilno There is No Poland” The Cause of Kresy in Exiled Polish Army Press and Propaganda in Italy, 1944-1946, my current project explores conceptual-historical complexities and persistent legacies of national-military exile(s) in renegotiations of nation, state, and homeland between the downfall of the young post-Versailles republics and the radical post-war reconstruction of East Central Europe. By contextualizing Polish and Czechoslovak military exile within transnational, global, and imperial-colonial entanglements of Europe’s early twentieth-century’ “age of catastrophe” (Doumanis 2016), I aim to move beyond dominant national-patriotic approaches and binary Cold War frameworks to contribute to new critical scholarship of exiled state apparatuses during WWII and engage with interdisciplinary discussions surrounding topics like exile, civil-military relations, transnationalities of nation-building, and collective narrative (re)construction.

As a researcher with a background in both sociology and history, my research to date has primarily focused on historical and collective memory studies of interwar, wartime, and early Cold War Poland/Polish diaspora in global contexts. However, during my time in Prague with CEFRES, I look forward to further developing the comparative Czechoslovak dimension of my dissertation by visiting the Czech state archives as well as discussing other analogous cases of exile/displacement with like-minded colleagues to strengthen the project’s overall conceptual framework.

Education

  • 2022 – current: PhD Candidate, Comparative History at Central European University, Vienna, Austria.
  • 2019-2020: MA, Comparative History at Central European University, Budapest, Hungary.
  • 2016-2018: MA, Sociology – Intercultural Mediation at University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland. Winner of the Dean’s Award for Best MA Thesis at UWr Faculty of Social Sciences (2018).
  • 2012-2014: BA, History at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Teaching Experience

  • 2023/2024 Fall: Teaching assistant in Comparative, Transnational and Global Histories: Rethinking Geographical and Temporal Scales, under the instruction of Balázs Trencsényi. Department of Comparative History at Central European University, Vienna, AT.

Conferences & Summer Schools

  • Presenter – (Non)Polish Army in Exile? Researching the Red Army’s Kościuszko Division Between History and Contested Memory. VIII Public History Summer School. The Historical Institute of the University of Wrocław, Poland (HI UWr), Wrocław, PL, 9-13 June 2025.
  • Presenter – Antisemitism, Propaganda, and Polish Armies in Exile during WWII. ComFas Summer School on Fascism, Antisemitism and the Holocaust: Theory, Methodology, and Case Studies. International Association for Comparative Fascist Studies (ComFas), Rijeka, HR, 9-14 July 2023.
  • Presenter – Echoes of Wartime Trauma: Children of Polish Deportees Living in the West after WWII. XIX International Student Conference “Communication and Culture” at University of Wrocław, PL, 23-24 May 2018.
  • Presenter – The Holy Constitution? Sacred Roles of Historic Legal Text in Democratic Nation-States. IV International Conference “Law-Religion-Politics.” SKN Doctrines of Politics and Law at the University of Wrocław, PL, 13-14 April 2018.
  • Panel Moderator – Postwar Generations Remember (Concluding Panel). Kresy Siberia Foundation “Generations Remember” Conference at The History Meeting House, Warsaw, PL, 15-17 September 2017.
  • Presenter – Orange Dwarves and Pepe the Frog: A Comparison of Absurdity as Political Tactic by Poland’s Historic Orange Alternative and the Contemporary American Alt-Right. XVIII Annual International Student Conference “Communication and Culture” at the University of Wrocław, PL, 25-26 May 2017.

Publications and Projects

  • Nowy rozdział starej Res Publica Nowa, 4 July 2022.
  • A New Approach to CEE Communism Studies. Reassessing Communism: Concepts, Culture, and Society in Poland, 1944–1989. Visegrad Insight, 5 October 2021.
  • Uses and Abuses of Political Appeals to ‘Civilization’: Kathryn Ciancia’s Book on Interwar Borderland in Poland. Visegrad Insight, 31 March 2021.
  • A Century of Demagogues in Europe: Ivan T. Berend’s Portraits of Populists between Past and Present. Visegrad Insight, 7 January 2021.
  • Co-Editor of The Polish Museum of America Visitor Brochure, Chicago, USA. Grant Project Funded by the Republic of Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, 2015.
  • Co-Creator of The Polish Museum of America’s Online Collections Database, Chicago, USA. Grant Project Funded by the Republic of Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, 2014. URL: https://polishmuseum.pastperfectonline.com/
CEFRES Team

Andrej Vašíček – Recherche & CV

“Cultural and Historical Memory of the Landscape in Hungary in the 18th Century”

Research Area 3 – Objects, Traces, Mapping: Everyday Experience of Spaces

Introduction

This dissertation examines the cultural and historical memory embedded in the rural and semi-rural landscapes of 18th-century Hungary. It explores how local communities perceived, shaped, and remembered their surroundings, focusing on the material traces, spatial practices, and symbolic representations that connected people to the land over time.

Research Questions

  • How was the landscape remembered and represented in legal, religious, and social contexts during the 18th century?
  • What material or symbolic traces of past uses and meanings can be identified in the landscape (e.g. crosses, boundary markers, hydrological structures, routes)?
  • How did natural features (rivers, forests, hills) become part of collective memory or identity?
  • In what ways did the transformation of the landscape—through cultivation, regulation, or settlement—affect the cultural memory of its inhabitants?

Methodology

The research combines approaches from environmental history, historical anthropology, and critical cartography. It draws on a variety of historical sources:

  • Urbaria and conscriptions, reflecting the socio-economic use of land.
  • Historical maps and cadastral plans, to track spatial organization and memory.
  • Parish records, inscriptions, and religious monuments, to trace symbolic landscape elements.
  • Narrative sources (such as local chronicles) for mental and lived geographies.

The project uses microhistorical case studies from specific regions of historical Upper Hungary to reconstruct the interaction between people and landscape.

Empirical Foundation:

The primary empirical basis includes:

  • Archival material from the Hungarian National Archives and Slovak regional archives.
  • 18th-century maps from military and ecclesiastical collections.
  • Fieldwork involving the documentation of surviving landscape features (e.g. stone crosses, remnants of old field systems, flood regulation structures).

Contribution to CEFRES Research Area 3 – Objects, Traces, Mapping

The dissertation contributes to the understanding of landscape as a palimpsest of objects and traces—a space marked by layers of past meanings, uses, and representations. It proposes that the memory of place is not only transmitted through texts or rituals but also inscribed into the terrain through spatial practices and preserved physical remnants. By investigating how people inhabited and interpreted their environment, this research offers a historical perspective on the production of space, connecting tangible objects with intangible memory. It also engages in mapping these traces, both literally (through GIS) and conceptually, as a way to understand how landscapes become historical and cultural archives.

CEFRES Team

List of interns 2024-2025

Saša Sláma Floriánová

Student in the second year of the Master’s program ‘Teaching French and Philosophy’ at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University.

Professional interests: language didactics, philosophy didactics, teaching philosophy with literary texts

Internship period: April 2025 – July 2025

Antonin Vuillemin

Fifth-year student in the ERIG programme: ‘International Relations and Global Studies’, NEI course: ‘Negotiations and Expertise’ at Science Po Strasbourg.

Professional interests: specialising in international relations, cultural diplomacy and in research and expertise, with a focus on the Slavic countries, central and Eastern Europe and, in particular, the Czech Republic. Strong multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary interests in economics, political science and history.

Internship period: April 2025 – July 2025

Administrative and research internship

Bleuenn Bidois

Second-year Master´s degree student of History at Rennes 2 University, specialization in “International Relations, Globalisation and Interculturality” / fifth year at Sciences Po Rennes

Professional interests: politics of memory in Europe and Latin America, memory tourism, history and memory of the Holocaust, cultural diplomacy, international relations

Internship period: February 2025 – April 2025

Administrative and research internship

Barbora Musilová

First-year Master’s student of French philology at Faculty of Arts, Charles Univesity.

Professional interests: romance languages, dialectology, comparative linguistics, translation, francophone areas.

Internship period: December 2024 – February 2025

Administrative and translation internship

French Research Center in Humanities and Social Sciences – Prague