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Expertise in authoritarian societies. Human sciences in the socialist countries of East-Central Europe
Expertise shapes modern forms of governance. Yet, we know significantly more about the postwar Western expertise than we know about the other side of the Iron Curtain. ExpertTurn will put expertise center stage and analyze socialist countries.

Upcoming events

14. 5. 2026
Prague, Czech Republic

Between Optimism and Warning: Czechoslovak Expertise on Collective Childcare in the Transnational Context of the Cold War

Kateřina Lišková will present at the seminar of the Center for Theoretical Study, Charles University and Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague. 

28. 5. 2026 - 29. 5. 2026
Prague, Czech Republic

Conference Intimate States: New Histories of Medicine, Welfare, and Care under Socialism

ExpertTurn organizes a conference focused on socialist institutional care and intimacy, which will take place at the headquarters of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Prague at Národní třída. 
 

2. 6. 2026 - 5. 6. 2026
London, England

The Transnational History of Attachment Theory in post-war Europe

Kateřina Lišková will present about experts' involvement in documentary films about childhood in socialist Czechoslovakia and will discuss these in a comparative perspective at the workshop “The Transnational History of Attachment Theory in Post War Europe: An Interdisciplinary Study of Agents, Discourses, and Practices” organized by Deutsches Jugendinstitut.

Newest outcomes

8. 4. 2026 - 10. 4. 2026
Stockholm, Sweden

Intimate Connections in Europe

Kateřina Lišková discussed the development of Czechoslovak school-based sex education at a workshop organized by Stockholm University.

16. 3. 2026
Vienna, Austria

1989 and the Great Transformation

Drawing on her chapter "Sexuality and Science" in the Routledge Handbook of 1989 and the Great Transformation, Kateřina Lišková discussed with other authors how expertise in medicine and the human sciences was not merely reshaped by the changes the volume describes, but actively drove them.

5. 2. 2026 - 6. 2. 2026
Granada, Spain

Reproductive healthcare providers across Europe (19th–20th centuries)

Kateřina Lišková presented at the „Reproductive healthcare providers across Europe (19th–20th centuries)“ workshop organized by COST Action and the University of Granada.