About the Institute
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The Institute of Contemporary History (USD) is an integral part of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. Its function is to undertake primary research into post-1938 Czech and Czechoslovak history in the international context. Within this overall objective, the thrust of the enterprise has changed over time with the main focus of enquiry shifting from the study of key events in the political history of Czechoslovakia during the period of communist dominance, which was paramount in the first years of the Institute’s existence, to a multilayered exploration of contemporary history, which includes the sociological, the everydayness and mundane, as reflected in the lives and thoughts of the ordinary man or woman in the street, the economic and, as already mentioned, the international.
The work of the Institute is structured chronologically into four main areas of expertise, and while the period covered, taken as a whole, spans the years from 1938 to the present, within this schematic framework are two specific sections, one devoted to Jewish and minority studies and the other to oral history. In addition, two other largely autonomous units are attached to the Institute: he Documentation Centre of Property Transfers of Cultural Assets of WW II. Victims, and the Centre of Comparative Contemporary History of Central Europe. Both receive independent funding. In 2002 a further section dedicated to the history of science, which in 2009 became the Centre for the History of Sciences and Humanities, was added to the Institute..
Part of the Institute’s remit is to organize international conferences, specialized seminars, and workshops. Its scholars serve on commissions, and on the field and academic councils of many universities, academies and other institutions. Likewise, when called upon, the Institute cooperates with organs of state and regional administrative bodies. In terms of its role with the universities, the most extensive cooperation is with the Institute of International Studies of the Faculty of Social Sciences and with the Institute of Political Science of the Philosophical Faculty (both of Charles University in Prague), with each of which the Institute has embarked on long-term joint projects.
The Institute has its own unique library, which is open to the public and contains a wide collection of documents relating to contemporary history. This resource base is constantly being added to, particularly as far as post-1989 records are concerned. The Institute also brings out sets of books periodically, either at its own expense or in collaboration with commercial publishers. Since 1993 the Institute has published the field academic journal Soudobé dějiny (Contemporary History). It is furthermore jointly involved in the publication of the journal Dějiny-teorie-kritika (History-Theory-Critique). In addition, the Institute works in tandem with similarly oriented foreign institutions, with some of which indeed it has long-term cooperative agreements.
