Head of Project

Petr Jüptner is the Director of the Institute of Political Studies, one of the five institutes of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague. His research interests involve especially local politics, focusing on the issue of direct mayor elections. Petr was the researcher-in-charge of two projects of the Czech Science Foundation (2006-2008 Postdoctoral Grant “Europeanization of Czech Local Politics. Political Science Analysis of European Legislative Trends”, 2010-2012 “Instruments for Amalgamation of Fragmented Local Governments. Analysis of Experiences and Practice across European countries: References for Czech Republic”). Besides his teaching activities in Prague, Petr was also teaching at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, Poland and the University of Potsdam, Germany. Petr is a member of the board of the Czech Political Science Association, a leading organisation of political scientists in the Czech Republic. Since 2012, he is also a member of OLA, the European Network of Observatory on Local Autonomy.

Tomáš Karásek is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Political Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague. He is also the faculty's vice-dean for development. Tomáš earned his PhD in international relations from the same faculty and holds two graduate degrees ­– in international relations and law. He has been teaching numerous courses on topics including the resolution of international conflicts, security and integration in Europe, international security and global terrorism. He has been actively involved in various research activities and has coordinated several grants on the topic of European security. In 2009, Tomáš spent his sabbatical in Shanghai, teaching at the Fudan University. Between September 2009 and June 2010, Tomáš was a Fulbright scholar at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, Columbia University in New York. He was the Director of the Research Center of the Association of International Affairs (AMO) between 2010 and 2013. He currently collaborates with AMO as its chief analyst.

Hana Kubátová is Deputy Director of the Institute of Political Studies (in charge of international cooperation) and Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague. She received her PhD in modern history from the Charles University and an MA in nationalism studies from the Central European University. Her research interests include modern anti-Semitism, nationalism and the relation between state and minorities in post-war Europe. She is the recipient of various awards, including a Marie Curie Fellowship for Early Stage Research Training, a Felix Posen Fellowship from the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism, an Israel Government Scholarship, and a Gisela Fleischmann Scholarship from the Milan Šimečka Foundation. She was a Charles H. Revson Foundation Fellow at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, between 2008 and 2009. Since 2013, Hana is the researcher-in-charge of a three-year postdoctoral grant from the Czech Science Foundation (“The Czechs, Slovaks and Jews: Together but Apart, 1938-1989”). She is also an active member of the Charles University's Center for Collective Memory Research.