Research areas

Bob Kuřík is a social anthropologist. He studied at Durham University in England (2006) and was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles in the USA (2013-2014). He also served as Jan Patočka Junior Visiting Fellow at the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen in Vienna (2019) and as UAAT International Young Visiting Scholar at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University in Taiwan (2025). He received his PhD in anthropology from the Faculty of Humanities, Charles University (2015).

In addition to anthropology of the Internet and ethnographic theory, he focuses primarily on topics in political and environmental anthropology. Recently, he has been interested in developing political concepts through the lens of a more-than-human approach as part of the ResisTerra project, of which he is the principal investigator.

He is the editor and co-author of the books Microphone is Our Bomb: Politics and Youth Music Subcultures in Post-Socialist Czechia (Togga, 2018) and We Expect Nothing from Reforms (Herrmann & synové, 2024). He has published in the journals Czech Sociological Journal, Journal of Urban Affairs, and Communications – The European Journal of Communication Research. In addition to academic texts, he strives to bring anthropology closer to other worlds – whether the world of art, natural sciences, documentary filmmaking, or journalism.

• Political anthropology

• Environmental anthropology

• Anthropology of/around the Internet

• Theory of ethnography

• America & Europe

Employment

• 2020 – present: assistant professor, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University (Department of social and cultural anthropology; SP Social and cultural ecology)

• 2017 – 2020: assistant professor, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University (Department of social and cultural ecology)

Education

• 2015: Ph.D., Anthropology, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University in Prague

• 2010: MA., General Anthropology, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University in Prague

• 2007: BA., Humanities, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University in Prague

Residencies

• 2025: UAAT International Young Visiting Scholar, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, February - March, Taiwan

• 2019: Jan Patočka Junior Visiting Fellow, Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen, Vienna, September - November

• 2014: Visiting Lecturer, Northeastern University, USA, March – April

• 2013-14: Fulbright Fellow, UCLA, USA, September 2013 – June 2014

• 2006: Erasmus Program, Durham University, UK, September – December

Funding & Research Projects

• 2024-27: ‘ResisTerra: researching resistant politics across more-than-human worlds,’ PRIMUS, Charles University, Principal Investigator

• 2022-24: ‘Histories of Wildlife and People in Czech and Slovak Borderland,’ VENI-grant by the Dutch Research Council (NWO), Project Collaborator

• 2021-23: ‘Smart for Democracy and Diversity,’ Erasmus + Project, Head of the Charles University Team

• 2020-22: ‘Anarchism in the context of Czech Political Culture: Presumptions, Parallels, Influences,’Research grant, Grant Agency of Czech Republic – FF UK & FHS UK, Co-investigator

• 2018-20: ‘Landslides – Underestimated Danger,’Strategy AV21, Czech Academy of Sciences, Principal Coordinator of Social Science Section

• 2017-19: ‘Disputes over Natures: Forms of Environmental Conflicts in the Anthropocene Era,’ Research grant, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University in Prague, Principal Researcher

• 2014-16: ‘Sources and Forms of the Subculture Politicization in Post-Socialism,’Research grant, Grant Agency of Czech Republic – FSV UK, Member of research team

• 2010-12: ‘Staging the Revolution,’Research grant, Grant Agency of Charles University and Hlávka Foundation, Principal Researcher

• 2011: ‘Ethnography: From Dogma to Heterodoxy,’Research grant, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University in Prague, Member of research team

• 2010: ‘Power of the Powerless: Forms of Resistance in Globalized World,’Research grant, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University in Prague, Member of research team

• 2008: ‘Land of the Zapatistas: Change of Power Relations and Subjectivities,’Research grant, Grant Agency of Charles University, Principal Researcher

Selected Publications

• Kuřík, Bob, Heřmanová, Marie a Charvát, Jan ‘Living Hated: Everyday Experiences of Hate across Online and Offline Contexts,’ Communications, Vol. 49, No. 3: 378-399. https://doi.org/10.1515/commun-2023-0110.

• Kuřík, Bob 2022 ‘Towards an Anthropology of More-Than-Human Resistance,’ Sociální studia/Social Studies, Vol. 19, No. 1: 55-72. https://doi.org/10.5817/SOC2022-29552.

• Kuřík, Bob ‘Monster Farm: Algorithms of Life in the Plantationocene/Farma monster: algoritmy života v plantážocénu,’ in Janečková, Hana, Koťátková, Eva (Eds.) Animal Touch: Art, Labour and Emotion/Dotyk zvířete: umění, práce a emoce. Praha: ArtMap, 171-184

• Kuřík, Bob 2020 ‘Temporal Collisions: Time, Infrastructure, and Protest in the Shadow of Hamburg’s Port/Temporální kolize: Čas, infrastruktura a protest ve stínu hamburského přístavu,’ in Říha, Tadeáš, Pazdera, Miroslav and Kateřina Frejlachová (Eds.) Steel Cities/Ocelová města. Praha/Zürich: Galerie VI PER/ Park Books, 306-327.

• Kuřík, Bob, Novák, Arnošt 2020 ‘Rethinking radical activism: Heterogeneity and dynamics of political squatting in Prague after 1989,’ Journal of Urban Affairs, 2020, Vol. 42, No. 2: 203-221. https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2019.1565820.

• Kuřík, Bob, Slačálek, Ondřej and Jan Charvát 2018 ‘Roviny politizace ve výzkumu hudebních subkultur mládeže,’Sociologický časopis / Czech Sociological Review, 2018, Vol. 54, No. 5: 781–803. https://doi.org/10.13060/00380288.2018.54.5.423.

• Kuřík, Bob a Charvát, Jan (Eds.) 2018 Mikrofon je naše bomba: politika a hudební subkultury mládeže v postsocialistickém Česku. . Praha: Togga.

• Kuřík, Bob 2018 ‘Člověk-chyba z Vraha: existenciální revolta punkem v čase „mrtvých havlů“,’ in Kuřík, Bob a Charvát, Jan (Eds.) Mikrofon je naše bomba: politika a hudební subkultury mládeže v postsocialistickém Česku. Praha: Togga, 161-209.

• Kuřík, Bob 2016 ‘Emerging Subjectivity in Protest’, in Steven Vallas and David Courpasson (eds.) The SAGE Handbook of Resistance. London: SAGE Publishing, 51-77.

• Kuřík, Bob 2015 ‘Křišťál Latinské Ameriky: z punkového klubu k epistemologické involuci’ in Ondřej Horký-Hlucháň and Tomáš Profant (Eds.) Mimo Sever a Jih. Rozumět globálním nerovnostem a rozmanitosti. Praha: Ústav mezinárodních vztahů, 243-266.

• Kuřík, Bob 2013 ‘Prosvítit výzkum: geopolitika a etnografie v proměnlivém světe’ in Yasar Abu Ghosh and Tereza Stöckelová (Eds.) Etnografie: Improvizace v teorii a terénní praxi. Praha: SLON, 52-87.

• Kuřík, Bob 2009 ‘The Struggle for and in Public Spaces in the Zapatista s Chiapas,’ in Mácha, Přemysl (ed.) Lighting the Bonfire, Rebuilding the Pyramid: Case Studies in Identity, Ethnicity and Nationalism in Indigenous Communities in Mexico. Ostrava: Ostravská univerzita press, 124–159.