“Political Ideas of Europe in Czechoslovak Dissent from 1975 to 1992”
Research areas 1 & 2: Displacements, “Dépaysements” and Discrepancies: People, Knowledge and Practices & Norms and Transgressions
Contact: zihan@post.cz
The subject of this dissertation is an analysis of the development of political ideas about Europe among Czechoslovak dissident intellectuals. It approaches debates on “Europe” not as fixed ideological positions, but as political languages shaped by changing international and domestic contexts.
The project identifies two major currents within dissident conceptions of Europe. The first emerged from the Helsinki process and the discourse of universal human rights. It promoted what I term “Helsinki Europe”, grounded in transnational legal norms, civil society, and grassroots cooperation across the Iron Curtain. The second understood Europe primarily as a civilizational and cultural community rooted in historical, cultural traditions, and, at times, religious heritage.
Rather than reducing these dissident thoughts about Europe to a single coherent tradition, the dissertation reconstructs its internal plurality, tensions, and negotiations. In doing so, it seeks to highlight Czechoslovakia’s distinctive contribution to late Cold War debates on Europe and to examine how these ideas influenced post-dissident political practices after 1989.
Methodologically, this dissertation situates itself within the methodological debates of the history of political thought and adopts an approach informed by the contextualist school associated with Quentin Skinner, complemented by the theory of ideological morphology developed by Michael Freeden.
CV
Education
from 2023 till present: PhD Candidate, Contemporary European Cultural History under the supervision of PhDr. Michal Kopeček, Ph.D. (AV ČR) at FHS, Charles University, Prague, Czechia.
2021-2023: Mgr., Master in Area Studies at FSV, Charles University, Prague, Czechia.
Academic activities
- UACES 56th Annual Conference 2026 (7 September – 9 September 2026), Prague, Czechia. Article Presenter. Envisioning Helsinki Europe: Ex-Reform Communists and Their Reimagining of Political Ideas of Europe in Czechoslovak Dissent
- “Introduction to Conceptual History” Summer School (August 17 – August 28. 2026), Helsinki, Finland.
- Summer School of Slavonic Studies 2018, Prague, Czechia. Holder of a reciprocal scholarship of the MEYS CR.
Recent publications
Envisioning Helsinki Europe: Ex-Reform Communists and Their Reimagining of Political Ideas of Europe in Czechoslovak Dissent (Forthcoming) Soudobé dějiny (Czech Journal of Contemporary History).
