Radka Šustrová

PhDr. Radka Šustrová, Ph.D.

Professional Profile

  • Researcher
  • Member of the Department of Social History

Contact

  • Researcher unique identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3281-8080 Research fields

     

  • My research focuses on the social history of 20th-century Central Europe, with particular emphasis on the welfare state, social justice, nationalism and the intersections of gender, labour, and social movements. I am especially interested in how nationalism and collective identities have been shaped and contested through welfare policies and institutional practices. A central strand of my work examines authoritarian regimes—particularly National Socialism and State Socialism—and their impact on everyday realities. The history of the Second World War, especially the experiences of occupied societies and the everyday consequences of authoritarian rule, forms a substantial part of my research. This focus is embedded within a broader historical trajectory that extends into the interwar and postwar periods. My scholarship connects the study of social policy, ideology, and identity, offering a nuanced understanding of how states and societies negotiated inclusion, exclusion, and solidarity during periods of profound political, social, and economic upheaval.

     

    Education

    2018       Ph.D. (in History)

    Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague

    Doctoral dissertation: “Social Welfare Policies and Nationalism in the Nazi Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, 1939–1945”

    2011       Mgr. (a joint degree in History and Politics)

    Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague

    MPhil dissertation: “The Project of Kinderlandverschickung in Bohemia and Moravia, 1940-1945”

     

    Professional experiences

    2019–            Assistant Professor, Department of Economic and Social History, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague (on non-paid leave until August 2025)

    2023–2025     Marie-Skłodowska-Curie Action Fellow, University of Vienna

    2020–2022     British Academy Newton International Fellow, University of Cambridge

    2020–2022     Bye-Fellow, Christ’s College, University of Cambridge

    2018–2020     Team member of the KREAS, a project of the Operational Programme Research, Development and Education (OP RDE), call: Excellent Research. The project holder: the Faculty of Arts, Charles University

    2019–2020     Postdoctoral Researcher, Collegium Carolinum, Munich – Branch Office Prague

    2014–2019     Postdoctoral Researcher (2014-2018 doctoral Researcher), Masaryk Institute and Archives of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague

    2012–2014     Historian, Lidice Memorial

    2010–2012     Researcher, The Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes, Prague, 1938–1945 Research Department

     

    Bibliography (selected):

    Books

    • Radka Šustrová. Nations Apart: Czech Nationalism and Authoritarian Welfare under Nazi Rule, Oxford University Press 2024, 349 p. (Hardcover & Open Access) ISBN 9780197267639
    • Radka Šustrová – Václav Šmidrkal – Laurence Cole – Rudolf Kučera – Hannes Leidinger and Julia Walleczek-Fritz. Vanquished and Victorious. World War One Veterans in Austria and Czechoslovakia 1918-1938, Berghahn 2024, 336 p. (Open Access) ISBN 978-1-80539-774-8
    • Radka Šustrová, Zastřené počátky sociálního státu. Nacionalismus a sociální politika v českých zemích, 1938–1945 [Ambiguous Origins of the Welfare State. Nationalism and Social Policy in Bohemia and Moravia, 1938–1945], Prague: Masaryk Institute and Archives of CAS & Argo, 2020, 530 p. ISBN 978-80-257-3280-9.
    • Radka Šustrová – Jakub Rákosník. Rodina v zájmu státu. Populační růst a instituce manželství v českých zemích, 1918–1989 [Family in the Interest of the State. Population Growth and the Institution of Marriage in Czech Lands, 1918–1989], Prague: Nakladatelství Lidové noviny, 2016, 272 p. ISBN 978-80-7422-378-5
    • Radka Šustrová. Pod ochranou protektorátu. Kinderlandverschickung v Čechách a na Moravě: politika, každodennost a paměť, 1940–1945 [Safeguarded by the Protectorate. Kinderlandverschickung in Bohemia and Moravia: Politics, Everyday Life and Memory 1940–1945], Prague: Faculty of Arts, Charles University 2012, 315 p., ISBN 978-80-7308-424-0.

     

    Edited Volumes

    • Šustrová, Radka (ed.). Demokracie a socialismus: Dva programové dokumenty demokratické levice z první poloviny 20. století. Olomouc: Masarykova demokratická akademie – Burian a Tichák, s. r. o., 2018. ISBN 978-80-87274-48-4; 978-80-87348-35-2
    • Šustrová, Radka – Rákosník, Jakub (eds.). War Employment and Social Policies in the Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia 1939–1945. Praha : Filozofická fakulta, 2018. ISBN 978-80-7308-771-5
    • Šustrová, Radka – Hédlová, Luba (eds.). Česká paměť: Obraz národa a místa paměti. Praha : Academia – Památník Lidice, 2014. ISBN 978-80-200-2411-4

     

    Chapters

    • Smetana, Vít – Šustrová, Radka, České země za druhé republiky a nacistické okupace, 1938-1945, In Klápště, Jan – Šedivý, Ivan (eds.), Dějiny Česka, Praha: NLN, 2019, s. 251-281.
    • Šustrová, Radka: Schutz und Erziehung im volkspolitischen Kontext: Die Lager der Kinderlandverschickung im Protektorat Böhmen und Mähren, In: Jugend in der Tschechoslowakei: Konzepte und Lebenswelten (1918–1989)Vorträge der Tagung des Collegium Carolinum in Bad Wiessee vom 7. bis 10. November 2013, Hrsg. von Christiane Brenner, Karl Braun, Tomáš Kasper. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht – Collegium Carolinum 2016, pp. 209–234.
    • Šustrová, Radka ; Rákosník, Jakub. Privathaushalte im Spannungsfeld der Staatspolitik: Sozial- und Familienpolitik im Protektorat Böhmen und Mähren, In: Historie. Jahrbuch des Zentrums für Historische Forschung Berlin der Polnischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Folge 7, 2013–2014, s. 305–320.
    • Šustrová, Radka ; Vajskebr, Jan. Niemeckie środki bezpieczeństwa na terenie Protektoratu Czech i Moraw przed i podczas ataku na Polskę, In: Kampania Polska ´39. Militarne i polityczne aspekty z perspektywy siedemdziesięciolecia. Jerzy Kirszak, Daniel Koreś (ed.). Wroclaw: Oddział Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej – Komisji Ścigania. Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu we Wrocławiu, 2011, pp. 275–285.

     

    Articles

    • Šustrová, Radka ; Rákosník, Jakub. Towards a Population Revolution? The Threat of Extinction and Family Policy in Czechoslovakia 1930s–1950s. Journal of Family HistoryVol. 43, Issue 2, 2018, pp. 177–193.
    • Šustrová, Radka. Von der Gesudheitspflege zur politischen Kontrolle der Gesendheit: Das öffentlichen Gesundheitswesen und die Pflege der Kinder und Jugend im Protektorat Böhmen und Mähren. Bohemia. Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Kultur der böhmischen Länder, Vol. 57, No. 2, 2017, pp. 367–393.
    • Šustrová, Radka. “It Will Not Work without a Social Policy!” Research on Social Policy Practice on the Territory of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Czech Journal of Contemporary History. Vol. II, 2014, pp. 31–56.
    • Šustrová, Radka. “Bez sociální politiky to nejde!” K výzkumu sociálněpolitické praxe na území Protektorátu Čechy a Morava. Soudobé dějiny. 2013, Vol. 20, No. 1–2, pp. 40–64.
    • Šustrová, Radka. Dětský válečný prožitek: Říšské děti v programu KLV na území Protektorátu Čechy a Morava. Historie – Otázky – Problémy. 2010, No. 1, pp. 137–150.
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