Johana Wyss
Johana Wyss
QUALIFICATIONS
2018 Ph.D., Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford
PRINCIPAL RESEARCH INTERESTS
Political Anthropology; Collective Memory; Populism; Borderlands; Forced Expulsion and Population Exchange; Ethnicity; Central and Eastern Europe; Silesia.
RESEARCH PROFILE
I am a social anthropologist and tenured researcher at the Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, where I specialise in political anthropology and memory studies. My scholarship explores the interplay of memory politics, identity, and ethnic formation, particularly in the context of Central and Eastern Europe. I have a keen interest in borderlands, examining how these liminal spaces and their histories shape cultural memory, collective identity, and political polarisation.
Currently, my research is organised around two key themes. The first focuses on mnemonic politics and commemorative practices in the Czech Silesia borderland. This research examines how historical events, such as forced expulsions, influence the construction of contemporary identities and memory landscapes. These themes are central to my forthcoming monograph, Negotiating Collective Memory and Identity in Czech Silesia (CEU Press, 2025).
Second, as Principal Investigator of the ERC-funded project MEMPOP: Memory and Populism from Below (2024-2028), my team and I are exploring the intersections of memory and populism. Focusing on regions such as Bukovina, Burgenland, Galicia, Istria, and Silesia, the MEMPOP project decentres elite narratives to understand how local memory practices and populist sentiments shape political movements in post-imperial, transnational borderlands.
Books
2025 Negotiating Collective Memory and Identity in Czech Silesia. Vienna: Central European University Press. Open Access.
Edited Volumes and Special Issues
2023 Narratives and Memory. Special Issue of Narrative Inquiry 33(2). (co-editors Jeftic, Alma – Van de Putte, Thomas).
Journal Articles
2021 Exploring Populism Through the Politics of Commemoration. Europe-Asia Studies 73(9): 1683–1702.
2021 Silence and its Many Forms: A Reflexive Response. Cultural Analysis 19(1): 116-117.
Book Chapters
2024 Slezsko v kontextu evropských hranic a přeshraničních region: vstupní úvaha [Silesia in the Context of European Borders and Cross-Border Regions: An Introductory Reflection]. In: Hlavienka, Lubomír, Kolář, Ondřej & Šopák, Pavel (eds.): Slezsko a třetí Československá Republika 1945-1948 [Silesia and the Third Czechoslovak Republic, 1945–1948]. Opava: Slezské zemské muzeum, pp.15–28.
2023 New Settlers as Implicated Subjects: Case Study of Collective Amnesia in Czech Silesia. In: Wylegała, Anna, Rutar, Sabine & Łukianow, Małgorzata (eds.): No Neighbours’ Land in Postwar Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham., pp.359–381.
2022 Die schlesische Identität: Dem methodologischen Nationalismus zum Trotz.
[Silesian identity: Against Methodological Nationalism.]. In: Maršálek, Zdeněk, Neminář, Jiří (eds.): Zwangsrekrutierte in die Wehrmacht. Mobilisation - Widerspruch - Widerstand - Gedächtnis in der schlesischen, tschechischen und slowenischen Perspektive. Praha: Ústav pro soudobé dějiny AV ČR, v.v.i., pp. 99–112.
2020 Stones Do Not Forget: Forgetting and Being Forgotten in Czech Silesia. In: Gilber, Catherine, McLoughlin, Kate & Munro, Neil (eds.): On Commemoration: Global Reflections Upon Remembering War. Oxford: Peter Lang Ltd., pp. 225–229.
Ongoing Projects and Grants
2024–2028 Memory and Populism from Below (MEMPOP). Horizon Europe. ERC Starting Grant (#101076092). Principal Investigator.
2024-2026 Redefining Change: Exploring Post-ness in Central European's Multifaceted Regions. Mobility Project (# PAN-24-15). Co-Investigator with Dr. Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska.
2021–2025 Slow Memory: Transformative Practices for Times of Uneven and Accelerating Change. COST Action (#CA20105). Management Committee Member.
Past Projects and Grants
2022–2024 Transformation of Silesia 1945-1948. GACR Standard Grant (#22-05263S). Co-Investigator.
Board Memberships
Ongoing Co-Chair of the MSA’s Memory and Populism working group (together with Astrea Nikolovska).
2024–2025 Member of the Local Organization Committee of the 9th Annual Meeting of the Memory Studies Association.
2024 Abstract Evaluation committee member of the 9th Annual Meeting of the Memory Studies Association.
2022–2023 Member of the Local Organization Committee of the 16th SIEF Congress.
External Reviewing
Project Evaluation: GA UK
Book Proposal and Manuscript Evaluation: Berghahn Books; CEU Press; Palgrave Macmillan, Routledge.
Journal Articles Manuscript Review: Anthropological Journal of European Cultures; ASK: Research and Methods; Border and Regional Studies; Český lid; East European Politics and Society; Focaal – Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology; History and Anthropology; History and Memory; Journal of Contemporary European Studies; Memory Studies Journal; Narrative Inquiry; Slovenský Národopis.
Doctoral Thesis Examination: Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki.
Teaching Experience
2019 Teaching Qualification: Associate Fellow of The Higher Education Academy in recognition of attainment against the UK Professional Standards Framework for teaching and learning support in higher education. Recognition reference: PR171539.
2018–2019 Teaching Fellow in Sociology, Warwick Foundation Studies, the University of Warwick, Coventry.
2016–2018 Teaching Assistant, Department of International Development, Oxford University, Oxford.
2016–2018 Tutor, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Oxford University, Oxford.
2015-2018 Faculty Member of Oxbridge Academic Programs (Summer Schools), Pembroke College and Corpus Christi College, Oxford.
Invited Talks, Public Lectures or Roundtables
2025 March, 13. Mnemonic Exclusion and the Politics of Memory: a case study of the Velvet Revolution. Invited talk at the LAMC seminar, Free University of Brussels.
2024 October 4. Reflections on the book Claiming the People’s Past: Populist Politics of History in the Twenty-First century. Online book Launch and Discussion. dMSA online event series.
2024 May, 27. Imperial traces in post-socialist spaces: a conjunctural exploration of inter-imperiality in the Silesian borderland, Invited talk at the REES Seminar, Oxford School of Global and Area Studies, University of Oxford.
2024 May 21–23. Invited talk at the roundtable “Mnemonic Democracy”, Nottingham Trent University.
Conference and Workshop Organisation
2024 December, 1–4. Memory and Populism from the Margins. Conference, Vila Lanna, Prague. (with the MEMPOP team)
2022 October, 13–14. Memory, Migration and Populism: Central and Eastern Europe’s Post-Imperial historical legacies and heritage. Conference, Vila Lanna, Prague.
2021 March, 25. Past in the present: migration and the uses of history in the contemporary era. Workshop, Online. (co-organiser Perron, Catherine).
2020 June, 5. Hegemonic Narratives. Symposium, Online. (co-organiser Barton Hronešová, Jessie).
Public Outreach
2023 Unpacking the Power of Memory and Populism. In: IWM Post 132: Art and Society. Vienna: Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen.
2021 The Power of Silence and Silencing Power. In Fahrun, H. (ed.) Women’s history as a topic and Oral history as a method. Transfer between International Youth Projects, Educational Practice and Research Silenced Memories. Berlin: Kreisau-Initiative e. V.
