About us
ALEŠ CHALUPA
Contact:
chalupa@phil.muni.cz
Academic Position:
Assistant Professor, Department for the Study of Religions, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University.
Fields of Interest:
History of religions (Graeco-Roman religions, especially the Roman cult of Mithras, Graeco-Roman magic and divination), cognitive science of religion, cognitive historiography and new theoretical approaches to the study of (ancient) history, including mathematical and computational modelling as well as network analysis.
GEHIR Research Focus:
Aleš is working on the MITHORIG project (acronym for MIThraic ORIGins) focusing on the Roman cult of Mithras generally and more specifically on the vexed problem of its origins and initial propagation.
DALIBOR PAPOUŠEK
Contact:
papousek@phil.muni.cz
Academic Position:
Assistant Professor, Department for the Study of Religions, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University.
Fields of Interest:
History of religions (early Christianity, Second Temple Judaism), comparative study of religions, spatiality in ancient religions, archaeology and network analysis.
GEHIR Research Focus:
Dalibor is working on the MARLUK project (acronym for MARcionate and LUKan Christianity) which reconsiders the influence of the Jewish heritage in the spread of early Christianity throughout the Mediterranean. He hopes to use mathematical and computational network modeling to find a way to bridge the total lack of archaeological evidence in the formative period of Christianity.
VOJTĚCH KAŠE
Contact:
vojtech.kase@gmail.com
Academic Position:
Ph.D. candidate, Department for the Study of Religions, Masaryk University & Faculty of Theology, University of Helsinki.
Fields of Interest:
Cognitive science of religion, ritual studies, cognitive historiography, theory of historiography, cultural transmission, early Christianity, Christian origins, early Christian rituals.
GEHIR Research Focus:
Vojtěch is interested in the potential of quantitative methods to study the Christianization of the Roman Empire; he specifically focuses on the role of ritual innovations in that process. In his PhD. dissertation project, he aims to test particular hypotheses from cognitive theories of ritual while using the data concerning early Christian meal practices. In order to achieve this, he aims to use a set of agent-based models, which could be validated against the historical material. Apart the GEHIR project, he is also a member of the project REECR: Ritual and Emergence of Early Christian Religion: A Socio-Cognitive Analysis under the University of Helsinki.
TOMÁŠ GLOMB
Contact:
tomas.glomb@gmail.com
Academic Position:
Ph.D. candidate, Department for the Study of Religions, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University.
Fields of Interest:
History of religions (Hellenistic religions, especially the Isiac and royal cults under the early Ptolemies and the cult of Asclepius), cognitive archaeology, cognitive historiography, historical databases.
GEHIR Research Focus:
Tomáš is working on the ISIS-CULTS project focusing on uncovering the key factors standing behind the successful spread of the Isiac cults from Ptolemaic Egypt to the rest of the ancient Mediterranean.
TOMÁŠ HAMPEJS
Contact:
tomas.hampejs@gmail.com
Academic Position:
Ph.D. candidate, Department for the Study of Religions, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University.
Fields of Interest:
Cognitive science of religion, cultural transmission, ecological approaches to social cognition, generative social science, method and theory in the study of religions.
GEHIR Research Focus:
Tomáš is fascinated by epistemological aspects of different scientific imaginations and their methodological consequences. He tries to facilitate communication between team members and their disciplinary backgrounds. His ambition is to achieve an integrative meta-theoretical perspective towards individual research problems through iterative reflection of thinking shifts between different conceptual levels and scales.
ADAM MERTEL
Contact:
mertel.adam@gmail.com
Academic Position:
Ph.D candidate, Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University.
Fields of Interest:
Spatio-temporal data exploration, geovisualization, web GIS.
GEHIR Research Focus:
As the one of cartographers in the GEHIR project, Adam is responsible for spatial data collection, map visualizations or geographic analyses. One of his motivations in the historiographical research is the possibility to work both with spatial and temporal aspect of information.
ZDENĚK POSPÍŠIL
Contact:
pospisil@math.muni.cz
Academic Position:
Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University.
Fields of Interest:
Differential and difference equations, time scales, mathematical modelling of real phenomena (ecology, evolution, epidemiology), philosophy and history of mathematics, probability and general questions of scientific reasoning.
GEHIR Research Focus:
Zdeněk is captivated by early Christianity - the absence of hard data is an opportunity for a deductive approach (i.e. a mathematical approach) to the problem. He hopes that his experience studying epidemiology, ecology and biological evolution can bring insight into cultural transmission, the competition of ideas, and non-designed phenomena in history.
ZDENĚK STACHOŇ
Contact:
zstachon@geogr.muni.cz
Academic Position:
Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University.
Fields of Interest:
Cognitive aspects of cartographic visualization, thematic cartography, old map information mining, cartographic semiotics.
GEHIR Research Focus:
Zdeněk is focused on historical data spatial analysis and spatiotemporal cartographic visualization. His main research interest is cartographic representation of (un)certainty aspects of generated models.
EVA VÝTVAROVÁ
Contact:
eva.vytvarova@mail.muni.cz
Academic Position:
Ph.D candidate, Faculty of Informatics, Masaryk University.
Fields of Interest:
Network science, spatio-temporal patterns, digital humanities, neuroscience.
GEHIR Research Focus:
Eva is interested in exploring the idea of using networks to better understand history and the processes of information spreading. She is currently investigating how the transport networks of the Ancient Mediterranean can provide insight into the diffusion of religious beliefs.
JAN FOUSEK
Contact:
izaak@mail.muni.cz
Academic Position:
Ph.D candidate, Faculty of Informatics, Masaryk University.
Fields of Interest:
Dynamic system modelling and simulation, network science, data assimilation, neuroscience, digital humanities.
GEHIR Research Focus:
Jan focuses on computational models of dynamic processes in the Ancient Mediterranean. Specifically, he focuses on modeling the transport networks of the time and how they might address the sparse historical evidence related to the spread of religious beliefs and innovations.
EVA HLADKÁ
Contact:
eva@fi.muni.cz
Academic Position:
PAssociate Professor, Faculty of Informatics, Masaryk University, Head of Department of Program Systems and Communication.
Fields of Interest:
Computer networking, multimedia, assisted technologies, network science
GEHIR Research Focus:
Eva is supervising the work of Eva Výtvarová and Jan Fousek. She is interested in exploring the use of network analysis of historical data and modelling of their relations.
DAVID ZBÍRAL
Contact:
david.zbiral@mail.muni.cz
Academic Position:
Associate Professor, Department for the Study of Religions, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University.
Fields of Interest:
History of religions (medieval Europe), inquisitional records, historical anthropology, digital humanities.
GEHIR Research Focus:
David is an external advisor in the GEHIR project. He is currently working on the preparation of a related project that intends to use geographic information systems and social network analyses to facilitate research in medieval inquisitional records.
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