Department for the History of the Academy of Sciences

This Department focuses on research into the history of science with special emphasis on the history of research institutes and researchers, together with associated methodological and theoretical issues. Its priority is to deal with the history of the ASCR
and its predecessors, the way science and scholarship are reflected within society, science policy conceptions and the development of relations between university and nonuniversity science and scholarship. Within this subject area it also coordinates scholarly research activities at the Masaryk Institute and Archive. It primarily brings out the results of its research work in special series published by the Institute and in well-known domestic and foreign periodicals and series. We work together with research and higher education establishments both at home and abroad. A research grant project on prominent CSAS representative and official Ivan Málek and science policy 1952-1989 has been completed. Members of the Department also take part in the Czech Science Foundation projects Josef Pfitzner – from history to ideology and Seeking the centre – German research and educational institutions in Bohemia in the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. The popular-science publication Bohemia docta on the history of non-university research institutes in the Czech Lands from the 18th century to the present has won acclaim in scholarly circles and among the broader public.