Denisa Nečasová

Associated professor
Department of History, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, Czech Republic

Visiting Fellowship 2025/26 (June 1, 2026 – July 1, 2026)

I am an associated professor at the Department of History, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University in Brno. I am specialized in gender history and cultural history of state socialism and have been primarily focused on feminism, women´s emancipation, gender structures of contemporary societies, new socialist man/woman, and images of enemy.I published books on the issues in Czech (Buduj vlast – posílíš mír! Ženské hnutí v českých zemích 1945–1955, 2012, Nový socialistický člověk. Československo 1948–1956, 2018, Obrazy nepřítele v Československu 1948–1956, 2020), co-edited books in Czech (Člověk na Moravě ve 20. století, 2011, Svůdnost sociálního experimentu. Nový člověk 20. století, 2018) and chapters in books, studies in journals in Czech and other languages.

Statement of interest

The primary aim of my stay at the Institute of Contemporary History is to establish collaboration with members and other fellows, especially on the above-mentioned topics and issues of state socialism within East-Central European perspectives (discussions, guest lectures at my home faculty, co-writing studies, developing and preparing an international research project, etc.). The secondary aim of my stay is to write a part of a book manuscript on Czechoslovak Stalinism (will be published in Czech and English). I am currently working on specific aspects (e. g. gender, national vs. international, collective vs. individual) of key images/representations within the Communist party in 1929–1953 in Czechoslovakia. It is a part of a larger project devoted to genealogy of Czechoslovak Stalinism, enchored in a concept of Gesamtkunstwerk (in collaboration with the Department of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Science).

Selected publications

• Women´s Organizations in the Czech Lands, 1948–89: An Historical Perspective. In: Havelková, Hana – Oates-Indruchová, Libora (eds.), The Politics of Gender Culture under State Socialism. An Expropriated Voice. London – New York: Routledge, 2014, s. 57–81.
• Ein Bild des katholischen Priesters im offiziellen Diskurs. Die Tschechoslowakei nach dem kommunistischen Umsturz im Jahre 1948. Kunštát, Miroslav – Schmoller, Hildegard (Hg.): Religiőse Kulturen in Osterreich und in der Tschechoslowakei/Tschechein im 20. Jahrhundert. Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2019, s. 253–288.
• The Creation of New Elites in Czechoslovakia after 1948. In Fasora, Lukáš; Hiebl, Ewald; Pál, Judit; Popelka, Petr. Elitenforschung in der Geschichte des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts. Wien: LIT Verlag, 2020. s. 159-174.
• “I couldn’t live without my factory now.” The recruitment of women into the workforce in Communist Czechoslovakia in the 1950s, Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 2021, č. 2, s. 144-160
• Women Village Leaders. Increased Female Participation in National Committees in Czechoslovakia. In: Osterkamp, J. – Puttkamer von J. (eds.): Sozialistische Staatlichkeit. München 2011, s. 133–143.