Modus vivendi

Earning a citation in a Q1 journal is a sign of certain prestige. Earning a citation outside your field (in a Q1 journal too) feels like that you have finally joined global credibility economies . But when a reference to paper about a trifling academic dispute appears in the Internationl Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics , something is off. Yes, my one of my papers is referenced in a paper about gamete donations! However, I have no idea why and how this happened. I do not know any of the authors. Is it supposed to be a jest? Of the authors or editors? An act of succour intended to help undercited scholars in social sciences and humanities? Some AI devilry? Or do our colleagues in gynecology and obstetrics want to initiate a new Sokal affair? I have no idea.

Quite a lot of my colleagues like to talk about hierarchies that structure the relations in the international academia and create inequalities between scholars from the academic centre and their colleagues from academic peripheries (framed as the East/West, Global North/Global South etc.). I am not always convinced by the arguments that are raised in support of the hierarchies' existence, and I certainly do not share the conviction of Professor Michał Buchowski that the existence of these hierarchies is "visible and undeniable". I tried to tackle the issue during my keynote talk at the 8th meeting of EASA's History of Anthropology Network, which I was kindly invited to deliver. My perspective was based on some arguments that I made in my book on the history of ethnography. You can find my talk here: https://easaonline.org/event/the-8th-hoan-meeting/ I am currently working on a paper for the upcoming SIEF congress in Aberdeen, which will explore other problematic aspe...

  This year, I was in the process of finishing my first book ever. As a newbie to book-writing, I learned a valuable lesson – a finished manuscript is just a first step. Several additional and burdensome steps lurk on the path to the final publication. As the more seasoned among you can vividly imagine, my 2024 was full of multiple rounds of editing and proofing. I also decided to to create the index myself. As a devout book lover and inspired by the wonderful Index, A History of the , I just had to. However, I will gladly hire a professional indexer the next time. In addition to my book-writing duties, I devoted the latter half of summer to prepare two courses for my autumn teaching duties. Sadly enough, the Faculty of Arts at Charles University does not offer its first-time lecturers paid time so that they can prepare in advance. Precarity, here I come! The rumour has it that at least at certain faculties of Masaryk University in Brno, you get paid several months before your teac...

Vzhledem k tomu, že mi odevzdání disertace trochu uvolnilo ruce, měl jsem možnost se vrhnout na knihy, na které v posledním roce nebyl čas. Jedna z mých voleb padla na loni vydanou knihu Slepé skvrny od českého sociologa Daniela Prokopa. Její podtitul – O chudobě, vzdělávání, populismu a dalších výzvách české společnosti – napovídá, že ambice má autor ušlechtilé a nemalé. Chce poukázat na problémy české společnosti, ukázat cesty možné nápravy a přitom oslovit širokou laickou veřejnost i politickou reprezentaci. Kniha mě zaujala natolik, že jsem se rozhodnul napsat menší recenzi.   Daniel Prokop: Slepé skvrny. O chudobě, vzdělávání, populismu a dalších výzvách české společnosti . Brno: Host, 2019 Kniha je rozdělena do sedmi tematických kapitol, které se postupně věnují následujícím tématům: chudobě, školství a vzdělávání, menšinám a radikalismu, populismu a demokracii, daňovému systému, národním stereotypům a mýtům, volbám a volebním průzkumům. Nebudu se zabývat jednotlivými ka...

It has not been long since I stumbled across Fabian's all time anthropology classic. Time and the Other . Another canonical book worthy of my attention! People talk about the book. It's commended, its author hailed. And as I hate Yetti books (in Daniel Dennett's words: "one of those books that is often cited by people who haven't read it but read about it, and think they know what is in it"), I immediatelly ordered it from my favourite trafficker in ideas. The book arrived. Pretty slim. Good. Will not take long to read. I like essay-like condensed arguments (I enjoyed Barth's Cosmologies in the Making  or Goody's The Domestication of the Savage Mind ). Not long after I had began reading it, Colin Hay's lyrics acquired a brand new meaning:  Alone between the sheets  only brings exasperation Desperation... ...produced some action and I googled the book. Ultimately, I found some consolation. So if you face ...

This summer I visited a small Bohemian village Malé Svatoňovice which is situated close to Czech-Polish borders. The village is a birthplace of one of the greatest writers, a seven-time Nobel Prize nominee (how unfortunate), Karel Čapek. Maybe you have heard about him. If you are interested,  there's a museum in the town dedicated to the works and lives of Karel and his older brother Josef.