Zbynek Mucha

Zbynek Mucha

Zbynek Mucha, PhD Candidate in History and Asian Studies in the Faculty of Arts at Charles University.

 Zbynek is a doctoral student at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University, in History and Asian Studies, and focuses on the culture and history of the Indian Subcontinent. Specifically, he focuses on the region of Bengal and the history of labour migration in the Bay of Bengal. As a graduate of South Asian Studies, he received a thorough linguistic training in Indian languages, particularly in the Bengali language, but also in Tibetan languages (Modern Colloquial and Classical Tibetan). 

In his dissertation, titled ‘Asia to Europe Brokerage from Colonial Times to the Present: The Role of Migration Brokers in the Bangladeshi Migration to Central Europe’, he combines historical research with anthropological methods, including digital methods, and a critical reflection of policy-making and policy practice.

Besides his alma mater, as a visiting doctoral student, Zbynek studied at leading European universities, including the University of Bonn (2019-2020), Oxford University (2020), and the University of Warsaw (2020-2021). He was also a visiting student at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Vienna (May, 2022). Since early 2022, he has been affiliated as a junior research fellow with the Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento, Italy. During the academic years 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 he was awarded a full fellowship from the Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund at the Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research.

In addition to research, Zbynek has participated in diverse public outreach activities, namely the popularisation of current issues related to migration (e.g. the genocide of Rohingyas in Myanmar and the so-called refugee crisis in Europe), Bangladesh, and Tibet via various online platforms, public lectures and debates and through public presentations of the student-led project Online Encyclopedia of Migration. Since early 2023, he has served as a board member of the Czech Association of Doctoral Students.

 

Contact

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