In this Zoom talk, Dr. Jana Kopelent-Rehak will present two of her books, Recovering Face: Czech Political Prisoners and The Politics of Joking. She will discuss stories of men and women who survived Czechoslovak concentration camps under the Communist regime and how the post-totalitarian state and society are coming to reconciliation with crimes. Then, she will explore how humor, used as political expression, can provide a powerful critique, a non-violent form of political protest a space for restoring human dignity.
Moderated by Christopher Harwood, PhD, Columbia University.
Free and open to the public. Suggested donation $5. The event will be livestreamed on Zoom. RSVP through Eventbrite to receive the Zoom link.
About
Dr. Jana Kopelent-Rehak, cultural anthropologist, photographer, artist and filmmaker, is currently on the faculty at the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University. She received her Ph.D. in Anthropology in 2006 from American University, Washington DC, MFA in 1997 from the University of Delaware, and B.A. in Film and Photography in 1993 from the Film Academy (FAMU), Prague. Her research embraces a range of issues such as social ecology and climate, urban social inequality, political violence and social justice. In the Czech Republic, she worked with ecological refugees from Chernobyl. She is the author of the book Recovering Face: Czech Political Prisoners, addressing issues of social justice, violence, national identity, communication, reconciliation and memory in the context of post-socialist Central Eastern Europe. Her most recent research embraces a range of issues such as work and aging in coastal environments and urban social inequality in Baltimore, USA. Her most recent book, Politics of Joking, is an attempt to make an original contribution to an anthropological study of humor and joking practice in political life. Her urban anthropology work is based on her involvement with communities in Baltimore, addressing urban environment, public art, housing and health.
This event is organized by the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU), New York Chapter, with support of the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association.