Luděk Brož
Luděk Brož
Research profile
Luděk obtained MPhil and PhD degrees in social anthropology at the University of Cambridge and held a postdoctoral position at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle. Fascinated by the predicament of living in – and off – land that is animated by numerous non-human agencies, he focused in Siberia (Altai) on an array of topics such as hunting and pastoral perspectivism, perception of archaeology, suicide, negative externalities of scape industry. In his current work Luděk aims at what he coined ‘veterinarization of society’ and the way it shapes joined human-porcine futures. His ambition is to contribute with the BOAR project to better understanding of the role of veterinary expertise in contemporary societies—in human-animal relations and beyond—thus helping to build the emerging field of veterinary anthropology.
Research output
Books
2024 Evil Spirits and Rocket Debris: In Search of Lost Souls in Siberia. New York, Oxford: Berghahn.
Edited volumes and Special Issues
2023 Research topic of Frontiers in Veterinary Science titled ‘Veterinary Anthropology: Samples from an Emerging Field’. Guest editor with Frédéric Keck and Kerstin Lieselotte Weich.
2015 Suicide and Agency: Anthropological perspectives on self-destruction, personhood and power. Farnham: Ashgate. Edited with Daniel Münster.
2015 Special section of Mobilities on ‘Experience and Emotion in Northern Mobilities’. Guest editor with Joachim Otto Habeck.
2015 Special issue of Cargo – journal of socio-cultural anthropology on ‘Symmetrical Anthropology’. Guest editor with Tereza Stöckelová.
Peer reviewed journals
2023 ‘Veterinary Anthropology: Samples from an Emerging Field’ Frontiers in Veterinary Science 10:1053256. with Kerstin Lieselotte Weich and Frédéric Keck.
2021 ‘Wild Boar Events and the Veterinarization of Multispecies Coexistence’ Frontiers in Conservation Science 2:711299. with Kieran O’Mahony and Aníbal Garcia Arregui.
2018 ‘The culture of orphaned texts: Academic books in a performance-based evaluation system’ Aslib: Journal of Information Management, 70 (6): 623-642. with Tereza Stöckelová.
2018 ‘Ghost and the Other: Dangerous Commensalities and Twisted Becomings.’ Terrain. Anthropologie & sciences humaines 69: 59-75.
2015 ‘Siberian Automobility Boom: From the Joy of Destination to the Joy of Driving There.’ Mobilities 10(4): 552-570. with Joachim Otto Habeck.
2015 ‘Introduction: Experience and Emotion in Northern Mobilities.’ Mobilities 10(4): 511-517. with Joachim Otto Habeck.
2015 ‘Přísliby a úskalí symetrie: sociální vědy v zemi za zrcadlem.’ Cargo – journal of socio-cultural anthropology 1,2: 5-33. with Tereza Stöckelová. (The Promises and Difficulties of Symmetry: Through the Looking-Glass and What the Social Sciences Found There.)
2012 ‘When Good Luck is Bad Fortune: Between too Little and too Much Hunting Success in Siberia.’ Social Analysis – The International Journal of Social and Cultural Practice 56 (1-2): 73-89. with Rane Willerslev.
2009 ‘Substance, Conduct and History: “Altaian-ness” in the 21 Century’. Sibirica: Journal of Siberian Studies 8 (2): 43-70.
2007 ‘Pastoral Perspectivism: A View from Altai’. Inner Asia 9 (2): 291-310.
Book chapters
2019 Holiday Convergences, Holiday Divergences: Siberian Leisure Mobilities Under Late Socialism and After. In Lifestyle in Siberia and the Russian North. Ed. J. Habeck. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, pp. 131-166, with Joachim Otto Habeck.
2015 The anthropology of suicide: Ethnography and the tension of agency. In Suicide and Agency: Anthropological perspectives on self-destruction, personhood and power. Eds L. Broz & D. Münster. Farnham: Ashgate, pp. 3-23, with Daniel Münster.
2015 Four Funerals and a Wedding: Suicide, Sacrifice and (non-)Human Agency in a Siberian Village. In Suicide and Agency: Anthropological perspectives on self-destruction, personhood and power. Eds L. Broz & D. Münster. Farnham: Ashgate, pp. 85-102.
2015 Vom Himmel gefallen: Auf dem Weg zu einer symmetrischen Anthropologie der Raumfahrtindustrie. In Lost in Things: Fragen an die Welt des Materiellen, ihre Funktionen und Bedeutungen. Eds P. W. Stockhammer & H. P. Hahn. Münster: Waxmann, pp. 81-103.
2010 ‘Spirits, Genes and Walt Disney’s Deer: creativity in identity and archaeology disputes (Altai, Siberia)’. In The Archaeological Encounter: Anthropological Perspectives. Eds P. Fortis & I. Praet. St Andrews: CAS, pp. 263-297.
2009 ‘Conversion to Religion? Negotiating Continuity and Discontinuity in Contemporary Altai’. In Conversion After Socialism: Disruptions, Modernities and the Technologies of Faith. Ed. M. Pelkmans. Oxford: Berghahn Books, pp. 17-37.
Presentations
2023 Keynote lecture: Beyond the Farm and Back Again? African swine fever between domesticated forests and wild pork markets. Conference: Epizootics Beyond the Farm: Historical and Ethnographic Approaches. University of St Andrews, UK, event held online (15/06).
2022 Bewildering numbers: a social analysis of how population estimates shape human-wild pig relations. 13th International Wild Boar Symposium, Seva (Barcelona), Spain (09/09), with K. O’Mahony and P. Keil.
2022 Veterinarization of Society: the paradox of marginal vets and all-powerful veterinary expertise. Constructing and contesting veterinary expertise: professionals, publics and prospects, University of Nottingham - sponsored by the British Academy and Welcome Trust, Online (05/07).
2022 Fence in Time: Material ecologies of decay, governance, and knowledge. Fencing and Biosecurity Publication Workshop, Sandbjerg Estate – Aarhus University, Denmark (19/05), with A. Pohl Harrisson.
2020 Chasing the Trojan Boar: recreational hunters and the pork industry's war on African Swine Fever. Colloque L'Animal à l'Anthropocène, organised by CNRS and MNHN, Online (11/12).
2020 Keynote lecture: Veterinarization of the Future and its Zoonotic Limits.Conference: Doing Animal Health in more-than-human Worlds. Messerli Research Institute, University of Vienna, Medical University of Vienna & University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Austria (8/10).
2020 Introduction: Towards Veterinary Anthropology. EASST/4S conference – Locating and Timing Matters: Significance and agency of STS in emerging worlds, Online (18/8).
2018 Boar Wars: Necropolitics of Resilience and Vulnerability in the Time of African Swine Fever. Biennial conference of Slovak/Czech Associations for Social Anthropology, Bratislava, Slovakia (9-10/11).
2018 Facing the Pig Multiple: Knowledge Drift Towards Porcine Futures. Porcine Futures 1, Prague, Czech Republic (17/10).
2018 Double Others and the Negotiation of Wildlife Belonging in Europe. 15th EASA Biennial Conference, Stockholm, Sweden (14-17/8), with Erica Von Essen.
2018 The Appeal of Purity: Post-Soviet Religious Revival as Anti-Syncretistic Project. Traditional Religions, Secularisms, and Revivals: Buddhism and Shamanism in Northern Eurasia, Center for Religious Studies, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum, Germany (10/3).
2017 Self and Agency in Suicide: A Composite Theoretical Approach. Suicidology 2.0, Canterbury Christ Church University, Canterbury UK (29/6).
2017 Global Warming and Local Common (non)Sense. Philosophy and Social Science, Prague (17/5).
2017 Letting the Heritage Melt Away? Arctic Science Summit Week 2017, Prague (4/4).
2015 Debris: Towards Symmetrical Anthropology of Space Industry’s Externalities. 114th Annual Meeting of the AAA. Denver, USA (21/11).
2013 Reminding Remainders: Indexes Fallen from Sky Presented at ‘Lost in Things: Questioning Functions and Meanings of the Material World Frankfurt am Main, Germany (28 -29/11).
Organisation
2023 Co-organiser, colloquium Living Through and Acknowledging Disruption: Envisioning Ethnography of Resilience in the Era of Multiple Crises, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic (12/9).
2023 Co-convenor, roundtable ‘Animals in the crosshairs: what do we know about Europe’s hunting nature-cultures?’, SIEF Conference, Brno, Czech Republic (6-10/6).
2023 Co-convenor, panel ‘Hedging bets in more-than-human worlds: joint futures of veterinary and conservation interventions’, ASA Conference, London, UK (11-14/4).
2022 Co-organiser of the workshop What is Hunting? Anthropological perspectives on (pig) hunting, Czech Academy of Sciences, Třešť (27-30/11).
2022 Co-organiser of the workshop Plants as/and Humans: Southern Epistemologies and ‘Floral Turn’, Czech Academy of Sciences and CEFRES, Prague (21-22/11).
2021 Co-organiser, Nonhuman Heroes and Villains: A Cross Project Conversation, Online (4/3).
2020 Member of the local organising committee - EASST/4S conference – Locating and Timing Matters: Significance and agency of STS in emerging worlds, Prague, Czech Republic (18-21/8).
2020 Co-convenor, panel ‘Veterinary anthropology: the impact of animal studies on medical sciences’ - EASST/4S conference – Locating and Timing Matters: Significance and agency of STS in emerging worlds, Prague, Czech Republic (18-21/8).
2020 Co-convenor, panel ‘Hedging bets in more-than-human worlds: joint futures of veterinary and conservation interventions’, joint RAI and RGS conference - Anthropology and Geography: Dialogues Past, Present and Future Conference, London, UK (16-17/10). (4-7/6). Cancelled due to SARS2-Cov19 pandemics.
2019 Co-organiser of the workshop Emigrating Animals and Migratory Humans: Belonging, Prosperity and Security in More-Than-Human World, Czech Academy of Sciences and CEFRES, Prague (10-11/9).
2018 Co-organiser of the workshop Porcine Futures 1, Czech Academy of Sciences and CEFRES, Prague (16-17/10).
2018 Co-convenor, panel ‘Double Others? Non-human Migrants and Changing Moral Economies of Hunting’, 15th EASA Biennial Conference, Stockholm, Sweden (14-17/8).
2018 Organiser of the workshop Critical Suicidology Network Planning Group: Harnessing Critique for Productive Ends, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague (26-27/4).
2018 Co-organiser of the colloquia Consequences of Ethnography: Knowing Violence via the Self and Its Aftermath, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague (31/1).
2017 Organiser of the conference Haunted Anthropology: Ghosts in Inner Asia and Academic Writing, Czech Academy of Sciences and CEFRES, Prague (29/5).
2017 Co-organiser of the conference Science and Technology in Democratic Society: How to Make Research and Innovation Responsible? Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague (23/6).
2016 Co-organiser of the conference Mezi bibliometrií a peer review: Jak smysluplně a průhledně hodnotit vědecký výzkum? (Between bibliometrics and peer review: How meaningfully and transparently evaluate academic research?) Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague (18/11).
2016 Co-organiser of the conference Parasitic Relations in Academic Publishing. Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague (2/6).
2016 Co-organiser of the conference Suicidology’s Cultural Turn, and Beyond. Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague (19-20/3).
2020-25 ERC Consolidator grant
2018-20 TANDEM - The Czech Academy of Sciences and CEFRES/CNRS
2013-15 Postdoctoral research grant, Czech Science Foundation
2008-11 Postdoctoral research fellowship, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology
2006 Scholarship, Dagmar and Vaclav Havel Foundation
2004-05 Research Grant – Richards Fund
2004-05 Anthony Wilkin Studentship
2004-05 Corpus Christi College Travel Grant
2004-05 Grant in Aid of Research – Committee for Central and Inner Asia
2004-05 Travel Grant – Committee for Central and Inner Asia
2002-05 Cambridge Overseas Scholarship
2002-05 Corpus Christi Research Scholarship
2002-05 Overseas Research Studentship
2002 Scholarship, Dagmar and Vaclav Havel Foundation
2023 Metabolické intimity a africký mor prasat. Academix revue 7: 46-49.
https://www.academixrevue.cz/metabolicke-intimity-africky-mor-prasat
2018 ‘Vampires in Academic Publishing - On the case of Wadim Strielkowski.’ In Predatory Publishing. Ed. E. A. Joy. Coventry: Post Office Press, Rope Press and Punctum Books, pp. 12-17. With Tereza Stöckelová and Filip Vostal.
2015 ‘Symetrie je často stranická: rozhovor se Zdeňkem Konopáskem’ Cargo – journal of socio-cultural anthropology 1,2: 117-132. with Tereza Stöckelová. (Symmetry is Often Partial: An Interview with Zdenek Konopasek.)
2015 ‘Druhý pohled na myslící lesy Eduardo Kohna’ Cargo – journal of socio-cultural anthropology 1,2: 158-161. (A Second Look at Eduardo Kohn’s thinking forests.)
