Jitka Králová
Jitka Králová
QUALIFICATIONS
2020 M.Sc., Social Anthropology, University of Oxford
2018 B.A., Social Anthropology and Development Studies, SOAS University of London
PRINCIPAL RESEARCH INTERESTS
Financialization and Debt; Economic Anthropology; Political Mobilization; Populism; Political Anthropology; Anthropology of Capitalism; Poverty and Precarity; Postsocialism; East Central Europe; Czech Republic
RESEARCH PROFILE
I am a PhD Candidate in Social Anthropology currently based at the UCL. I obtained my MSc at the University of Oxford and BA at SOAS University of London. In my doctoral research, I examine the interplay of politics and personal indebtedness in a deindustrializing town situated in the region of North Bohemia, Czechia.
My broader scholarly interests include the anthropology of capitalism and more specifically the study of inequality, precarity, and political mobilisation, particularly in post-socialist contexts. Prior to my PhD, I worked as an ethnographer on a large Horizon 2020-funded project, POPREBEL (Populist Rebellion Against Modernity). As part of my role, I analysed changing political attitudes and the emergence of populist movements during the COVID-19 pandemic in Czech online spaces. Currently, I collaborate as a research fellow on the ERC-funded MEMPOP (Memory and Populism from Below) project, which investigates everyday mnemonic practices and populist sentiments in Central Eastern European borderland regions.
Edited Volumes and Special Issues
2022 A large-scale ethnography of populism in the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland (Version 1). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7494327 (co-contributors Davidov, Veronica – Kubik, Jan – Cottica, Alberto – Góralska, Magdalena – Kocian, Jiří – Mole, Richard – Rivera-Cardona, Santos – Sauerborn, Djan – Sloboda, Zdeněk – Szymański, Wojciech).
Ongoing Projects and Grants
2024–2028 Memory and Populism from Below (MEMPOP). ERC 2022 Starting Grant, Horizont Europe, European Commisssion. (ERC, MEMPOP, 101076092). Research Affiliate.
Teaching Experience
2023 Department of Russian and East European Studies (Institute of International Studies), Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague
Invited Talks, Public Lectures or Roundtables
2023 May, 26. Seminar ‘Perspectives on entanglements of household debt and politics in East-Central Europe’. Emmy Noether Group - Peripheral Debt. The Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. Halle.
2023 May, 9. SSEES Research Student seminar ‘Between Debt and Democracy: Indebtedness and Resistance in the deindustrializing regions of the Czech Republic’. UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies. London.
2022 October, 28. The presentation of ‘Mutual Core’ project (Inspiration Forum Lab). 26th Ji.Hlava International Documentary Film Festival. Jihlava.
Conference and Workshop Organisation
2024 October, 25. Digital Ethnography Workshop, IE CAS, Prague.
2022 October, 27. Workshop – On challenges of interdisciplinary research-based collaborations. Online symposium Planet B. UMPRUM, Prague.
Public Outreach
2022 Exhibition of a multi-media essay ‘Mutual Core’ produced as part of a research residency organized by Inspiration Forum Lab 2021/22: Limits to Growth. Display Gallery, Prague.
