Radka Šustrová

PhDr. Radka Šustrová, Ph.D.

Member of the Modern History Department

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”
  • 2012 PhDr. (Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague)
  • 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
  • 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

  • Radka Šustrová. ‘Hácha’s Protectorate: Limping Corporatism and Calibrated Collaboration in Bohemia and Moravia under Nazi Rule’, In Building Dictatorships under Axis Rule. War, occupation and Political Regimes, eds. António Costa Pinto and Goffredo Adinolfi, London: Routledge 2025, pp. 39-63.
  • Radka Šustrová. ‘Social Justice in Authoritarian Central Europe: Czechoslovakia under Nazism and Communism,’ In Social Justice in 20th-Century Europe, eds. Martin Conway and Camilo Erlichman, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2024, pp. 116–138.
  • Radka Šustrová – Jakub Rákosník. ‘State Socialist Biopolitics. Four Stages of Human Development in Post-War Czechoslovakia,’ In Biopolitics in Central and Eastern Europe in the 20th Century: Fearing for the Nation, eds. Barbara Klich-Kluczewska, Joachim von Puttkamer and Immo Rebitschek London: Routledge 2023, pp. 197-225.
  • 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.
  • Radka Šustrová. ‘A Dilemma of Change and Cooperation. Labour and Social Policy in Bohemia and Moravia in the 1930s and 1940s’, In Nazism Across Borders: The Social Policies of the Third Reich and their Global Appeal, eds. Sandrine Kott and Kiran K. Patel, London: Oxford University Press 2018, pp. 105–138.ISBN 9780198828969.
  • 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

  • Radka Šustrová. ‘“Labour that Serves the Good of All”. Technocratic Ideals and Czech Experts in Cooperation with Nazis in Bohemia and Moravia’, In Střed / Centre. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies of Central Europe in the 19th and 20th Century, No. 2, 2020, pp. 36–69.
  • Radka Šustrová. ‘Struggle for Respect. The State, World War One Veterans, and Social Welfare Policy in Interwar Czechoslovakia’, In Zeitgeschichte, Vol. 47, Issue 1, 2020, pp. 107–134.
  • Šustrová, Radka ; Rákosník, Jakub. Towards a Population Revolution? The Threat of Extinction and Family Policy in Czechoslovakia 1930s–1950s. Journal of Family History. Vol. 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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