Stepan Pellar

Štěpán Pellar

Štěpán Pellar, PhD Candidate in Modern History, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Czech Republic

After graduating from "Russian and Eastern European Studies" at Charles University's Faculty of Social Sciences in 2003, having had the most enriching student experiences from abroad (Cracow, Moscow, Marburg an der Lahn, Lublin) I decided to go to Lisbon and to find there an illegal job, in order to manage another sociologically interesting experience before the Czech Republic's enterance to the EU. Nevertheless, as every blue-collar job in Portugal was evidently occupied already at that time, I resorted to a simulation of having mastered the Portuguese language sufficiently and became a kind of senhor Professor clandestino, teaching illegaly the Czech language at the Instituto Superior de Ciências do Trabalho e da Empresa.

As I was offered the publication of my magister thesis concerning the Polish anti-Semitism in 2003, I focused on making a book from it since 2004, earning the outlive money as a translator from English to Czech and a journalist, especially in ČTK (Czech Press Agency). The book with the title The Proud Eagles in Lethal Encirclement gained a prize from the Czech Authors of Nonfiction's Club in 2010.

Since 2009 I am a PhD. student of Modern history at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, having there a course concerning the Emancipation of the European paesantry from feudalism. In my dissertation I try to grasp the history of Polish anti-Semitism better and to compare it with the emancipation of the (Polish) paesants in Austria, Russia and Prussia/Germany within their respective policies, try to answer the question how has it worked, this anti-Semitism, and privately: what would Poland have been without its Jews.

As a perhaps rather venturesome subject, I like to have traveled to various "exotic" countries like Albania, (the former Soviet republic of) Georgua, Siberia, Syria, Yemen. As I strongly appreciate the idea of an institution dealing with the legacy of Austria-Hungary, my current question would be: how could I contribute to this effort?

Contact

E-mail: pellar@ualberta.ca
Telephone: 780-492-6390
Address:
University of Alberta
Wirth Institute for Austrian and Central European Studies
Suite 300 G
Arts & Convocation Hall
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada T6G 2E6