Do you want to apply for a Ph.D. in history in Central Europe?
The Institute of History of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Pardubice is an excellent place for professional development, not only because of its professional staff and rich international contacts, but also because of the university’s own facilities, which include a library rich in resources and with a special collection donated by the eminent Austrian historian Karl Vocelka. Another advantage is the Institute’s location between Prague, Brno, and Wroclaw, and within a wider radius of Dresden, Berlin, Bratislava, and Vienna, which enables easy access to these cities for research purposes. At the same moment the Institute is a friendly place that respects gender, national, and social diversity.
What doctoral study topics do we offer in particular?
New Diplomatic History
New Diplomatic History
The Institute of History has established itself as a centre of excellence in historical studies and a prominent place for New Diplomatic History research. In this sphere recent years have witnessed a deepening of its cooperation with historical institutes in the Czech Republic, Europe, and the USA and several prominent scholars analysing the history of diplomacy and international relations within the broader context of social, economic, cultural, legal, and gender history from the early modern period to the present. These scholars, with their international experience and publications on the world stage, offer expert guidance to PhD students that transcends the narrow horizon of the Czech academic environment and enables the development of knowledge and skills essential for success in a highly competitive international arena.
Leading scholars
Prof. Dr. Miroslav Šedivý
Doc. Dr. Jiří Kubeš
Doc. Dr. Pavel Marek
Miroslav Šedivý is a professor of Modern European and World History, dealing primarily with the history of Austria, Germany, Italy, the Mediterranean, the Near East, and the USA, spanning the period from the late 18th to the early 20th century.
He studied at the University of Vienna, Ludwig-Maximilian-University in Munich, and the University of Newcastle upon Tyne prior to completing his PhD at Charles University in Prague in 2008.
He has been a guest lecturer or researcher at the Universities of Delaware, Hildesheim, Klagenfurt, Lodz, Vienna, Prague (Charles University), Berlin (Humboldt-Universität), and Moscow (Russian State University for the Humanities). He has already published a trilogy on the functioning of the system of post-Napoleonic states in the Near East (Metternich, the Great Powers and the Eastern Question, Pilsen 2013), Central Europe (Crisis among the Great Powers: The Concert of Europe and the Eastern Question, London–New York 2017), and Italy (The Decline of the Congress System: Metternich, Italy and European Diplomacy, London–New York 2018). His most recent book, Si vis pacem, para bellum: The Italian Response to International Insecurity 1830–1848, was published by the publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Science in 2021.
He is about to publish a fifth English monograph, entitled The Victory of Realism: The German Quest for International Security 1839–1853 through Ferdinand Schöningh/Brill during 2024. He is the author of three scholarly monographs in Czech on German and Mediterranean history and 100 articles in English, German, and Czech published in scholarly journals and memorial volumes, for example in the English Historical Review, European History Quarterly, European Review of History, Diplomacy & Statecraft, International History Review, Central European History, Austrian History Yearbook, German History, Slavonic & East European Review, Journal of Modern Italian Studies, Mediterranean Historical Review, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, and Middle Eastern Studies.
Jiří Kubeš, Ph.D., is Associate Professor at the Institute of Historical Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, University of Pardubice, and currently also Dean of the Faculty. His scholarly specialisation focuses on early modern history, especially the history of the courts of the Austrian Habsburgs, the Central European nobility and its lifestyle in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, the history of diplomacy, the Holy Roman Empire, aristocratic residences, and elite travel in the early modern period.
He studied history and English at the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, where he later completed his doctoral studies in Czech history with a dissertation on the representative function of the residences of the higher nobility in the Czech lands between 1500 and 1750. In 2011, he received his habilitation in Czech and Czechoslovak history at the University of Pardubice, with a habilitation thesis on the Grand Tours of the Czech and Austrian nobility between 1620 and 1750. He has worked at the University of Pardubice since 2000 and has been Associate Professor at the Institute of Historical Sciences since 2011.
He is the author of the monographs Trnitá cesta Leopolda I. za římskou korunou (1657–1658): Volby a korunovace ve Svaté říši římské v raném novověku [Leopold I’s Thorny Path to the Roman Crown, 1657–1658: Elections and Coronations in the Holy Roman Empire in the Early Modern Period] and Náročné dospívání urozených: Kavalírské cesty české a rakouské šlechty (1620–1750) [The Demanding Coming of Age of the Well-Born: Grand Tours of the Czech and Austrian Nobility, 1620–1750]. He also edited Kryštof Václav z Nostic, Deník z cesty do Nizozemí v roce 1705 [Kryštof Václav of Nostic, Diary of a Journey to the Netherlands in 1705] and was the lead author of V zastoupení císaře: Česká a moravská aristokracie v habsburské diplomacii 1640–1740 [In the Emperor’s Service: The Bohemian and Moravian Aristocracy in Habsburg Diplomacy, 1640–1740].
His studies have appeared in Czech and international scholarly journals and collective volumes, dealing with topics such as imperial envoys, diplomatic ceremonial, aristocratic education, Grand Tours, Bohemian electoral rights in the Holy Roman Empire, and the everyday life of Habsburg diplomats. He led the GA CR project on the Bohemian and Moravian nobility in the diplomatic service of the Austrian Habsburgs and is currently involved in the COST Action SENSES: Sensing Europe’s Court Spaces at the Crossroads of Past, Present and Future.
Pavel Marek, Ph.D., is Associate Professor at the Institute of Historical Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, University of Pardubice. His scholarly specialisation focuses on early modern political communication, the history of diplomacy, the history of the princely and imperial courts in the sixteenth and first half of the seventeenth centuries, and the history of Spain and Czech-Spanish relations. His research is particularly concerned with the Habsburg courts, aristocratic networks, patronage, clientelism, and symbolic forms of communication in early modern Europe.
He studied history and Spanish at the Faculty of Education of the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, and later completed doctoral studies in Czech history at the Historical Institute of the same university. In 2014, he received his habilitation at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, in the field of Ibero-American studies. He has worked at the University of Pardubice since 2013/2014 and has been Associate Professor at the Institute of Historical Sciences since 2015.
He is the author or co-author of several monographs, including Svědectví o ztrátě starého světa: Manželská korespondence Zdeňka Vojtěcha Popela z Lobkovic a Polyxeny Lobkovické z Pernštejna [Testimony to the Loss of an Old World: The Marital Correspondence of Zdeněk Vojtěch Popel of Lobkowicz and Polyxena Lobkowicz of Pernštejn] (České Budějovice, 2005), La embajada española en la corte imperial 1558–1641: Figuras de los embajadores y estrategias clientelares [The Spanish Embassy at the Imperial Court, 1558–1641: Ambassadors and Clientelist Strategies] (Prague, 2013), Pernštejnské ženy: Marie Manrique de Lara a její dcery ve službách habsburské dynastie [The Pernštejn Women: Marie Manrique de Lara and Her Daughters in the Service of the Habsburg Dynasty] (Prague, 2018), and Gesandte und Klienten: Päpstliche und spanische Diplomaten im Umfeld von Kaiser Rudolf II. [Envoys and Clients: Papal and Spanish Diplomats in the Milieu of Emperor Rudolf II] (Berlin–Boston, 2020), co-authored with Tomáš Černušák.
His studies have appeared in Czech and international scholarly volumes and journals, addressing topics such as Spanish diplomacy at the imperial court, the political and cultural influence of the Hispanic world in the Bohemian lands, the Pernštejn and Lobkowicz families, aristocratic women at the Habsburg courts, diplomatic gifts, ceremonial culture, and the political communication of early modern elites. He has also led a research team devoted to early modern diplomacy, patronage and clientelism, and communication networks between European centres of power.
Cultural History of Central and Eastern Europe
The Institute of History is well known as a research hub for cultural history, particularly gender history, spatial studies, the social history of medicine, and non-anthropocentric history, reflecting the new challenges established in the humanities by the new materialism paradigm. We encourage our PhD students to conduct innovative interdisciplinary research on contemporary social and cultural issues and the search for their historical roots. As every research project should transcend the limits of the geographical boundaries of Central and Eastern Europe, we ensure the transnational aspect of our research through close cooperation with all the scientific institutions in Western and Central Europe that focus on research in social and cultural history. Thus, we are well-equipped to supervise social, political, and cultural research projects covering the broad spectrum of analysis based on innovative methodological and conceptual approaches to the history of Central and Eastern Europe with an emphasis on contemporary trends in historiography, the humanities, and the social sciences.
Leading scholars:
Prof. Dr. Milena Lenderová
Prof. Dr. Martin Čapský
Dr. Vladan Hanulík
Dr. Zbyněk Vydra
Milena Lenderová, CSc., is Professor at the Institute of Historical Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, University of Pardubice. Her scholarly specialisation focuses on nineteenth-century history, women’s and gender history, the history of everyday life, the history of childhood, the history of the body, ego-documents as historical sources, and Czech-French cultural relations. She was among the first Czech historians to establish the history of women and childhood as major fields of research from the perspective of historical anthropology.
She studied history and French at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague, where she also received her PhDr. and CSc. degrees. She later worked at the University of South Bohemia, where she was appointed Associate Professor and, in 2001, Professor of Czech History. She came to Pardubice in 1999 as Director of the then Institute of Languages and Humanities and subsequently became the first Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, now the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, at the University of Pardubice.
She is the author or co-author of numerous monographs, including K hříchu i k modlitbě: žena devatenáctého století [For Sin and Prayer: The Nineteenth-Century Woman], Dcera národa?: tři životy Zdeňky Havlíčkové [A Daughter of the Nation? The Three Lives of Zdeňka Havlíčková], and Donne in viaggio: le viaggiatrici delle Terre ceche e la loro immagine dell’Italia negli anni 1782–1936 [Women Travelling: Female Travellers from the Czech Lands and Their Image of Italy, 1782–1936]. She is also co-author of Vše pro dítě: válečné dětství 1914–1918 [Everything for the Child: Wartime Childhood, 1914–1918] and Z dějin české každodennosti: život v 19. století [From the History of Czech Everyday Life: Life in the Nineteenth Century].
Her work has played a formative role in Czech gender history and in the study of everyday life, childhood and the body in the nineteenth century. She founded a research team at the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy of the University of Pardubice devoted to gender history and the history of the body, and has led or participated in major research projects on midwives, the professionalisation of female occupations, and the history of the body in the long nineteenth century. She is the author or co-author of twenty-five publications and approximately two hundred scholarly studies, and is a member of several scientific and editorial boards, including the editorial board of the French journal Histoire, Économie, Société.
Milena Lenderová adores horse riding.
Martin Čapský, Ph.D., is Professor at the Institute of Historical Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, University of Pardubice. His scholarly specialisation focuses on the late medieval history of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown, urban history, community studies, political communication, and the study of conflict in pre-modern societies. His research also deals with medieval Silesia and Central Europe, the Bohemian Reformation, material culture, identity formation, and the relationship between violence and concord in medieval culture.
He studied History and Museology at Silesian University in Opava and completed his doctoral studies at the Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University in Brno, where he defended a dissertation on Duke Přemek of Opava. In 2015 he received his habilitation in Czech history at Masaryk University, with a habilitation thesis on the political integration of late medieval Silesia, and in 2023 he was appointed Professor of Historical Sciences. Since 2016, he has worked at the University of Pardubice.
He is the author of several monographs, including Vévoda Přemek Opavský (1366–1433): Ve službách posledních Lucemburků [Duke Přemek of Opava (1366–1433): In the Service of the Last Luxembourgs], Zrození země: Komunikující společenství pozdně středověkého Slezska [The Birth of a Land: Communicating Communities in Late Medieval Silesia], and Město pod vládou kazatelů: Charismatičtí náboženští vůdci ve střetu s městskou radou v pozdně středověkých českých korunních zemích [The City under the Rule of Preachers: Charismatic Religious Leaders in Conflict with Town Councils in the Late Medieval Lands of the Bohemian Crown]. He has also edited or co-edited volumes such as Processes of Cultural Exchange in Central Europe, 1200–1800, Hejtmanská správa ve vedlejších zemích Koruny české, Komunikace ve středověkých městech, and Spolu i vedle sebe.
His recent publications include the monograph Příběh polabské vsi: Dějiny Čepí a jeho obyvatel do konce 17. století [The Story of an Elbe Village: The History of Čepí and Its Inhabitants to the End of the Seventeenth Century] (Prague, 2025) and the article “Quarter Captains and Their Role in Prague’s Municipal Self-Government in the 15th and 16th Centuries”, published in Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung in 2023. He has undertaken research stays at institutions including the University of Wrocław, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, the Herder Institute in Marburg, the University of Potsdam, and the University of Cambridge, where he spent part of 2022 as a visiting scholar.
Vladan Hanulík, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Historical Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, University of Pardubice. His scholarly specialisation focuses on the social history of medicine, the history of spas in the Czech lands in the nineteenth century, gender history, and the history of the body.
He studied history at the Faculty of Arts, Palacký University Olomouc, and subsequently completed a master’s specialisation in Gender History within the Cultural History programme at the University of Pardubice. He also completed his doctoral studies in historical sciences at the Institute of Historical Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, University of Pardubice. Since 2009, he has worked there as an Assistant Professor of the cultural history of the nineteenth century.
He is the author of the monograph Historie nekonvenčních léčebných praktik v době profesionalizace medicíny: vznik a vývoj lázní Gräfenberg v první polovině 19. století [The History of Non-Conventional Therapeutic Practices in the Age of the Professionalisation of Medicine: The Emergence and Development of the Gräfenberg Spa in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century] (Pardubice, 2017). He is also editor of the source edition Porodila šťastně děvče: Porodní deníky čtyř porodních babiček z 19. století [She Safely Gave Birth to a Girl: The Birth Diaries of Four Nineteenth-Century Midwives] (Pardubice, 2017).
His research has dealt with the history of hydropathy, spa culture, the doctor-patient relationship, midwifery, gender identities, and the lay reception of medical knowledge in the nineteenth century. He was principal investigator of the project The Making of the Doctor and the Patient: The Doctor-Patient Relationship in the History of the Bohemian Lands, 1769–1992, and co-investigator of projects on midwives and the history of the body in the long nineteenth century. His studies have appeared in journals and volumes including Dynamis, Dějiny – teorie – kritika, Theatrum historiae, and Jesenicko.
Zbyněk Vydra, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor and currently Head of the Institute of Historical Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, University of Pardubice. His scholarly specialisation focuses on the history of Russia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, especially the cultural history of the nobility, the history of diplomacy, the radical right, and antisemitism.
He studied history at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague, where he completed his master’s degree with a thesis on anti-Jewish pogroms in Russia in 1881–1882. He then undertook doctoral studies in history at the Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University in Brno, defending a dissertation entitled The Jewish Question in Tsarist Russia, 1881–1906: Government, Jews and Antisemitism. He has worked at the University of Pardubice since 2004/2005 and has been Assistant Professor at the Institute of Historical Sciences since 2005.
He is the author of the monographs Život za cara? Krajní pravice v předrevolučním Rusku [Life for the Tsar? The Far Right in Pre-Revolutionary Russia] (Červený Kostelec, 2010) and Židovská otázka v carském Rusku, 1881–1906: Vláda, Židé a antisemitismus [The Jewish Question in Tsarist Russia, 1881–1906: Government, Jews and Antisemitism] (Pardubice, 2006). He is also co-author of Dějiny Ruska [A History of Russia] (Prague, 2017) and Židovský bojkot nacistického Německa 1933–1941 [The Jewish Boycott of Nazi Germany, 1933–1941] (Pardubice, 2020).
His recent work has focused in particular on the Russian radical right in exile, aristocratic culture in late imperial Russia, Russian refugees after the Civil War, and the memory of the Russian Revolution. He is the editor and co-author of the collective monograph Russian Radical Right in Exile, 1918–1945: Without the Tsar and Fatherland (London, 2025), published by Routledge, and author of the article “‘For Russia’s sake, everything is permitted.’ The Russian radical right and legitimation of violence, 1900–1940”, published in Violence: An International Journal in 2025.
At least three scholars demonstrate that the Institute of Historical Sciences at the University of Pardubice has a strong and distinctive profile in the cultural history of warfare. Their research approaches war not only as a matter of military operations, institutions and strategy, but also as a social and cultural phenomenon shaped by experience, memory, representation, masculinity, everyday life and elite self-fashioning. Chronologically, their work covers a broad period from the early modern Habsburg Monarchy through the long nineteenth century to the First World War and the modern era. Taken together, their scholarship shows that the Institute is an important centre for the study of warfare in its wider cultural, social and political contexts.
Leading scholars:
Doc. Dr. Jiří Hutečka
Doc. Dr. Tomáš Jiránek
Dr. Vítězslav Prchal
Jiří Hutečka, Ph.D., is Associate Professor at the Institute of Historical Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, University of Pardubice. His scholarly specialisation focuses on the history of masculinities, the military history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the social and cultural history of warfare, the history of the late Habsburg Monarchy, the history of the First World War, and the history of the United States in the nineteenth century.
He completed his doctoral studies in general history at the Department of History, Faculty of Arts, Palacký University Olomouc. In 2018, he received his habilitation in Czech and Czechoslovak history at the Faculty of Arts, University of Hradec Králové. Since September 2025, he has been based at the University of Pardubice as Associate Professor.
He is the author of the monographs Muži proti ohni: motivace, morálka a mužnost českých vojáků Velké války, 1914–1918 [Men against Fire: Motivation, Morale and Masculinity among Czech Soldiers of the Great War, 1914–1918] (Prague, 2016), Země krví zbrocená: Americká občanská válka, 1861–1865 [A Land Soaked in Blood: The American Civil War, 1861–1865] (Prague, 2008), and Generál a jeho historikové: Robert E. Lee a americká historiografie [The General and His Historians: Robert E. Lee and American Historiography] (Olomouc, 2005). He is also co-author of the monograph Olomouc v první světové válce, 1914–1919 [Olomouc in the First World War, 1914–1919] (České Budějovice, 2026, forthcoming).
His articles have appeared in leading international and Czech scholarly journals, including Austrian History Yearbook, Nationalities Papers, The Journal of Slavic Military Studies, Revue des études slaves, and Český časopis historický. Among his recent publications is, together with Vítězslav Prchal, the article “Česká historiografie vojenství: trendy a přehled bádání 2002–2022” [“Czech Military Historiography: Trends and an Overview of Research, 2002–2022”], published in Český časopis historický in 2024.
Tomáš Jiránek, Ph.D., is Associate Professor at the Institute of Historical Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, University of Pardubice. His scholarly specialisation focuses on the economic history of the Czech lands in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, especially economic corporations and foreign trade, Czech-German relations in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including economic nationalism, and the military history of the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century, with particular attention to military everyday life and ego-documents.
He studied history and Russian at Charles University, where he later completed his doctoral studies in economic history with a dissertation on the organisational basis of export support in interwar Czechoslovakia. In 2004, he received his habilitation in Czech history at the Institute of History, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, with a habilitation thesis on manifestations of economic nationalism in chambers of commerce and trade in the Czech lands during the Habsburg Monarchy. He has worked at the University of Pardubice since the early 1990s and has been associated with its Department, later Institute, of Historical Sciences since 2001.
He is the author of the monograph Projevy hospodářského nacionalismu v obchodních a živnostenských komorách v Českých zemích 1850–1918 [Manifestations of Economic Nationalism in Chambers of Commerce and Trade in the Czech Lands, 1850–1918] (Pardubice, 2004). He is also co-author of the monograph Židovský bojkot nacistického Německa 1933–1941 [The Jewish Boycott of Nazi Germany, 1933–1941] (Pardubice, 2020) and of Z dějin české každodennosti: Život v 19. století [From the History of Czech Everyday Life: Life in the Nineteenth Century] (Prague, 2017).
His studies have dealt with topics such as economic nationalism, antisemitism and boycott movements, Czech-German-Jewish relations, military everyday life in the long nineteenth century, and the memoirs of Emanuel Salomon von Friedberg-Mírohorský. He has served as principal investigator of several research projects, including projects on economic nationalism in the chambers of commerce and trade of the Czech lands, the memoirs of Emanuel Salomon von Friedberg-Mírohorský, and the Jewish boycott of Nazi Germany.
Vítězslav Prchal, Ph.D., works as Assistant Professor of Early Modern History at the Institute of Historical Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, University of Pardubice, where he has been based since 2006. His scholarly specialisation focuses on the history of the Habsburg Monarchy in the early modern period, particularly the military history of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, the cultural history of the nobility, the social representation of elites, and the history of early modern diplomacy. He is also interested in approaches associated with New Military History and is currently concerned with the careers of the Bohemian and Moravian aristocracy in the imperial army after the Peace of Westphalia.
He studied history and archive studies at Palacký University Olomouc and later completed doctoral studies in Czech history at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague. Since 2013 he has held the position of Assistant Professor at the University of Pardubice. He has also undertaken research stays at institutions including the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel and the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna.
He is the author of the monograph Společenstvo hrdinů: Válka a reprezentační strategie českomoravské aristokracie 1550–1750 [A Fellowship of Heroes: War and the Representational Strategies of the Bohemian and Moravian Aristocracy, 1550–1750] (Prague, 2015), which was awarded the title Historical Book of the Year 2015 by the journal Dějiny a současnost. He has also edited or co-edited several collective volumes, including Mezi Martem a Memorií: Prameny osobní povahy k vojenským dějinám 16.–19. století [Between Mars and Memory: Ego-Documents as Sources for Military History from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century] and Živé pevnosti: Města, lidé a opevnění v časech válečných, poválečných a v kulturní imaginaci [Living Fortresses: Towns, People and Fortifications in Times of War, Post-War Periods and Cultural Imagination]. He was also a member of the authorial team of V zastoupení císaře: Česká a moravská aristokracie v habsburské diplomacii 1640–1740 [In the Emperor’s Service: The Bohemian and Moravian Aristocracy in Habsburg Diplomacy, 1640–1740].
His studies have appeared in scholarly journals and collective volumes, addressing topics such as early modern military masculinities, imperial officers, aristocratic representation, fortifications, military historiography, and the institutional history of the Habsburg Monarchy. Among his recent publications is, together with Jiří Hutečka, the article “Česká historiografie vojenství: trendy a přehled bádání 2002–2022” [“Czech Military Historiography: Trends and an Overview of Research, 2002–2022”], published in Český časopis historický in 2024.
Modern Europe (15th–18th Centuries)
Economic History of Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe (15th–18th Centuries)
The Institute of History is one of the few departments that systematically develops research on the economic history of the late Middle Ages and early modern period. The focus of research interest is the region of Central Europe, but with a significant overlap with other parts of the world, which is, of course, related to the global nature of the trade in precious metals at the time. The basic source research is not limited only to original archival sources (mainly accounting documentation, property records at the level of all social classes, the economy of towns, and noble estates, but also serfs), but also deals with material sources (the physical form of money, coin hoards, the history of monetary development). We consider a good knowledge of economic history to be the basis of all further historical research, since without an economic context it is difficult to interpret social, cultural, political, or diplomatic history, as well as the causes and consequences of wars and confessional conflicts. The research team, which includes PhD students, regularly presents the results of its research at major congresses and conferences, including the World Economic History Congress, World Numismatic Congress, and Numismatica Centroeuropaea, and in national and international scientific journals.
Leading scholar
Prof. Dr. Petr Vorel
Petr Vorel is a professor of early modern history who has been working for almost forty years, mainly on the history of Central Europe, the economic history of the early modern period, and the history of monetary development.
He is the author of around forty monographs and about two hundred articles in English, German, Italian, Polish, and Czech published in scholarly journals and memorial volumes. In the last decade his research has focused on the late medieval and early modern history of the Holy Roman Empire and on the financial and monetary crisis of Central Europe at the beginning of the 17th century.
His major source articles and books are published mainly in Czech; however, some of his more important works have already been made available in world languages. See, for example: From Medieval Multinational Empire to Early Modern National States (The Holy Roman Empire and Central Europe during the 14th–16th Centuries), in: Český časopis historický 121, 2023, 2, pp. 365–388; The function of the thaler in determining the exchange rates of European currencies in the second half of the 16th century, in: Wiadomośći Numismatyczne 66, 2022, 210, pp. 277–298; Economic and political consequences of limiting of the statutory maximum interest rate in Central Europe from 10% to 6% since 1543, in: A History of the Credit Market in Central Europe: The Middle Ages and Early Modern Period (London–New York 2021), pp. 177–187; Emperor´s Insolvency and the Economic causes of Beginning of the "Bohemian War" in 1618, in: Comenius: Journal of Euro-American Civilization 2021, 2, pp. 217–226; European merchant trading firms and the export of the precious metals from the Kingdom of Bohemia during the 16th century, in: Cheryl Susan McWatters (ed.), Mercantilism, Account Keeping and the Periphery-Core Relationship (London–New York 2019), pp. 49–60; Funding of the Papal Armyʼs Campaign to Germany during the Schmalkaldic War (Edition of the original accounting documentation “Conto de la Guerra de Allemagna” kept by the Popeʼs accountant Peter John Aleotti from 22 June 1546 to 2 September 1547), in: Theatrum Historiae 21, 2017, pp. 9–96; From the Silver Czech Tolar to a Worldwide Dollar (The Birth of the Dollar and its Journey of Monetary Circulation in Europe and the World from the 16th to the 20th Century) (New York 2013); La storia della piastra dʼargento di Urbano VIII (L’attività della zecca romana sul finire del pontificato di Urbano VIII e il catalogo dettagliato delle piastre d’argento pontificie degli anni 1634–1644) (Rome 2013); The War of the Princes: The Bohemian Lands and the Holy Roman Empire 1546–1555 (Santa Helena 2015).
At the Institute of Historical Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, University of Pardubice, we also conduct scholarly research into the history of early modern and modern art. This includes both Baroque art, within which we specialise particularly in emblematics, iconography and saintly cults, and modern Czech and Central European architecture and heritage conservation.
Leading scholar:
Doc. Dr. Pavel Panoch
Pavel Panoch, Ph.D., is Associate Professor at the Institute of Historical Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, University of Pardubice. He is an art historian whose scholarly specialisation focuses on Czech and Central European architecture of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, cultural heritage and its interpretation, modern Czech architecture, and Baroque art, especially emblematics, iconography and saintly cults. He has worked at the University of Pardubice since 2006, after several years in heritage conservation.
He studied art history at the Faculty of Arts, Palacký University Olomouc, where he completed both his master’s degree and doctoral studies. His doctoral dissertation dealt with the cult of St John of Nepomuk in Baroque art in eastern Bohemia. In 2015, he received his habilitation in Czech and Czechoslovak history at the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, University of Pardubice, with a habilitation thesis on sculptural Stations of the Cross and Calvaries in the Baroque culture of Bohemia and Moravia.
He is the author or co-author of a number of publications on architecture, art and cultural heritage in eastern Bohemia, including Karel Řepa: Pardubický architekt ve věku nejistot [Karel Řepa: A Pardubice Architect in an Age of Uncertainty], Kaleidoskop tvarů: Století moderní architektury v Pardubickém kraji [A Kaleidoscope of Forms: A Century of Modern Architecture in the Pardubice Region], Ve víru modernosti: Architektura 20. století v Královéhradeckém kraji [In the Vortex of Modernity: Twentieth-Century Architecture in the Hradec Králové Region], Slavné vily Pardubického kraje [Famous Villas of the Pardubice Region], Josef Gočár, and Barokní umění na Chrudimsku [Baroque Art in the Chrudim Region]. He also co-authored Smrtí ke svobodě: Východem Čech za pomníky světové války a architekturou 1. republiky [Through Death to Freedom: Eastern Bohemia through Monuments of the World War and the Architecture of the First Republic].
His recent work has addressed sepulchral monuments, cemeteries as part of the cultural landscape, the architecture of crematoria, interwar modernism, Baroque devotional imagery, and the protection of historical monuments. Alongside his teaching and research, he has also held university leadership responsibilities, including serving as Vice-Rector for Education and Quality at the University of Pardubice.
