Lumina quaeruntur (Czech Academy of Sciences)
The Lumina quaeruntur Fellowship established by the Academic Council of the Czech Academy of Sciences as an instrument to support scientific excellence at the CAS is designed to reward outstanding prospective researchers when setting up new scientific teams at CAS institutes. The Lumina quaeruntur Fellowship makes it possible for those awarded the Fellowship to develop their science programmes, focusing on conceptually new topics that significantly shift the frontiers of knowledge. The science programme is carried out within the bounds of institutional support for institutes at AV ČR v. v. i. according to Section 3(3)(f) of Act No. 130/2002 Sb.
https://www.avcr.cz/en/academic-public/support-of-research/lumina-quaeruntur-bonus/index.html
Migration and mobility in Prague’s Jewish community at the transition of the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period
Institutes involved in carrying out the science programme: Historický ústav AV ČR, v. v. i. (Institute of History of the Czech Academy of Sciences)
Principal researcher in the programme: Mgr. Marie Buňatová Dr. phil.
Subject-matter of the programme: Migration and mobility in Prague’s Jewish community at the transition of the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period
Identification code of science programme: LQ300151901
Duration: 2019–2024
The research programme, 'Migration and Mobility in Prague's Jewish community at the Transition from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period', was led by Marie Buňatová and carried out by a research team consisting of Eva Doležalová, Lenka Blechová, Kajetán Holeček, Jana Synovcová Borovičková and Sabina Dočekalová.
The project focused on the migration processes affecting the Jewish community in Prague over a long period — from the beginning of the reign of Vladislaus Jagiellon to the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries (1471–1601). The main goal was to describe these processes and shed light on the extent to which immigration contributed to the formation and transformation of the Prague Jewish community. Our research, conducted in Czech and foreign archives (in Poland, Germany, Austria and Italy), mapped internal migration from the Czech lands and migration from abroad. We examined both forced migration due to expulsions from various countries and voluntary movement, which was most often motivated by family or economic reasons. We also examined the mobility of rabbis, scholars and other specialists within Jewish society, such as physicians and printers.
Our findings were presented in 24 contributions at 13 predominantly international conferences and congresses. The most significant of these were the 18th World Congress of Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2022) and the 12th EAJS Congress, 'Branching Out: Diversity of Jewish Studies' at Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main (2023). Our team also organised a two-day international conference in Prague in 2021, and in collaboration with Judaic scholars from the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at Charles University's Faculty of Arts, we hosted a lecture panel on Jewish history at the 12th Congress of Czech Historians in Ústí nad Labem in 2022.
The research yielded numerous new findings, which we primarily published in world languages. The main outputs include two monographs (category B). The first is a German-language publication containing thirteen contributions by an international group of authors (expanded versions of papers from the international conference in Prague). The main research results are summarised in an English-language collective monograph, which is scheduled for publication in 2025 by Böhlau Verlag. We also published 14 chapters in foreign-language monographs (category C) and seven scholarly articles in journals (categorized as Jimp and Jost).
