Dr Tereza Eva Valny (PhD, MRes, BA)

Lecturer

Biography

Background

I finished my PhD at Lancaster University in 2014, after which I worked as an Associate Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University in the Department of History, Politics and Philosophy. In the summer of 2015 I moved to the Czech Republic, where I worked for Charles University and Anglo-American University as a lecturer in History. I also held an editorial position with New Perspectives, a peer-reviewed journal published by the Institute of International Relations in Prague. I began my teaching fellowship at Edinburgh in September 2017. 

Undergraduate teaching

  • The Era of the Witness: Trauma in Contemporary History [HIST10444]
  • The Holocaust [HIST10164]
  • Historical Skills and Methods I [HIST10426]
  • Historical Skills and Methods II [HIST10425]
  • Themes in Modern European History [HIST08043]

Postgraduate teaching

  • Historical Research: Skills and Sources [PGHC11334]
  • Introduction to Contemporary History [PGHC11362]
  • The Holocaust ODL [PGHC11466]
  • Revolutions in Modern Europe [PGHC11434]

Research summary

Places: 

  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Europe

Themes: 

  • Comparative & Global History
  • Culture
  • Ethnicity
  • Ideas
  • Landscapes & Monuments
  • Politics
  • Religion
  • Society
  • War

Periods: 

  • Nineteenth Century
  • Twentieth Century & After

Research interests

My current research focuses on trans-, inter-, and multi- disciplinary approaches to the areas of landscape, collective memory, ethnic cleansing, genocide and commemoration. Since a significant portion of my teaching has focused on genocide, this has led to a relatively recent research interest in comparative genocide studies, particularly the themes of witnessing and reconciliation. 

Going back to my doctoral thesis, the following areas continue to be a part of my research interests: landscape and memory in Eastern Europe, Pan-Slavism, Slavic identity, and the Munich Agreement.

Current research interests

I am in the process of working on a monograph which considers the collection and use of testimony in post-genocidal societies. I am also currently finishing a series of articles based on my PhD, titled ‘Fragments of Slavdom: An Inventory of Language and Imagery’. These articles focus on Slavic identity in the following contexts: nineteenth-century anthropology, eugenics, phrenology, the history of scientific racism, Bolshevism, Pan-Slavism, human geography and constructs of post-Soviet spaces.

Affiliated research centres

  • Centre for the Study of Modern and Contemporary History, Edinburgh Centre for Global History

Project activity

In the summer of 2019 I conducted some fieldwork on sites of mass murder associated with the Holocaust in Poland and the Czech Republic. I have currently started working on a long-term research project which considers the intersections of tourism, daily life and memory within and around these spaces. 

For a longer period of time I have also been working on a project which explores, from a Czechoslovak/Czech perspective, the ways in which the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans is being remembered in the public sphere and in the landscape of the former Sudetenland (with a particular emphasis on northwest Bohemia).  

The list below is a subset of the information held on the University of Edinburgh PURE system, and includes Books, Chapters, Articles and Conference contributions. For a full list, including details of other publication types (e.g. reviews), please see the Edinburgh Research Explorer page for Dr Tereza Eva Valny.

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