Biography

I am a cultural historian focusing on contemporary history in Central and Eastern Europe. My research interests explore the political dimensions of representing history and social phenomena through popular culture. My PhD research, which I conducted at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, examined the cultural responses to the period of state socialism in the Czech Republic after the collapse of the former Eastern Bloc. Focusing on nostalgia and retro as significant memory regimes in popular representations, I analysed the ways in which they intersected with public debates and institutional means of dealing with the socialist past.

As a Max Weber Fellow, I intend to embark on a new research project focusing on the 1990s, which will explore how cultural production was influenced by and interacted with the introduction of free market mechanisms in Central Europe after 1989.

I have a background in Comparative Literature and Film Studies and have held fellowships at Yale University and the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna during my PhD.

While at UCL, I taught Czech and German literature and film, as well as an introductory history course.