Conference Participants

Jiří Hanuš is a professor of general history in the Department of History at the Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University. He specializes in 19th and 20th century religious and cultural history and his current research is focused on the roots of modern European culture and education in historical, philosophical and anthropological perspectives. He is also a member of the Brno journal Kontexty’s editorial board and currently holds the position of the Vice-Rector of MU.

Since 2019, Stanislav Balík has been the Dean of the Faculty of Social Studies at Masaryk University. Between 2015-2019, he was the chairman of the Academic Senate of Masaryk University. He is a professor at the Department of Political Science, where he focuses on modern Czech politics, municipal politics and church- state relations.

Prof. PaedDr. Radka Wildová, CSc. graduated from the Faculty of Education at Charles University. After completing her teaching practice at several primary schools, she joined the Faculty of Education in 1993 as an academic staff member, serving as the Dean of the Faculty between 2009 and 2016. From 2016 to the end of January 2022, she held the position of Vice-Rector for Conception and Quality of Education at Charles University. Since February 2022, she has held the position of Deputy Minister for Management of University Education, Science and Research Section at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. She has authored or co-authored a number of professional publications and is a member of several domestic and international expert teams.

Ladislav Dušek is a professor at the Masaryk University's Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Science and the head of the Institute of Biostatistics and Analyses at the Faculty of Medicine. He has also been the Director of the Institute of Health Information and Statistics of the Czech Republic since 2014. His professional interests include clinical and biological data analysis as well as health informatics. He is a member of the Committee of the Czech Society for Oncology and the head of its Section of Cancer Epidemiology and Health Informatics, he also serves on several expert committees for the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic and academic institutions' scientific boards.

Karel Gargulák is a specialist in the strategic management of educational systems as well as analysis, development and implementation of educational policies. Currently, he works mostly for PAQ Research and local governments.

Miloš Gregor is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Masaryk University. His research interests include political communication, election campaigns and disinformation analysis. He has authored and co-authored several books on election campaigns in Central and Eastern Europe, the analysis of modern disinformation and political communication during the pandemic. Together with Petra Mlejnková, he founded the Zvol si info (Choose your Information) and Fakescape organizations, focusing on promoting media literacy and critical thinking in secondary schools and educating the general public. Both projects have been recognised in international competitions. He is also the co-author of the book Nejlepší kniha o fake news, dezinformacích a manipulacích!!! (The Best Book on Fake News, Disinformation and Manipulation!!!) aimed at the general public.

Karla Brücknerová works at the Institute of Educational Sciences, Faculty of Arts, MU. Her research focuses on higher education with a special interest in students' experiences while studying and their learning process. She teaches pedagogical courses on teacher training programmes at the Faculty of Arts and Faculty of Science at Masaryk University. She is the academic guarantor of Masaryk University’s Students’ Advisory Services.

Daniel Münich holds a PhD in economics from CERGE at the Charles University. He has been the Executive Director of the academic think-tank IDEA at CERGE-EI, a joint institution of the Charles University and the Czech Academy of Sciences, since 2012. In addition to teaching, he conducts empirical research on public policies in labour economics, education and schooling economics, public policy impact evaluation and research, and development evaluation. He is currently working in the team of the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic’s external advisors. In the past, he was a member of the government's National Economic Council, NERV II, where he covered the area of education. For many years, he has served as a senior advisor to the European Expert Network on Economics of Education (EENEE) for the European Commission, he is also the national team leader of the pan-European Euromod project. In addition, Daniel is a member of the RIA Advisory Commission on the Czech Government’s Policy Impact Assessment of the Legislative Council.

Jiří Herman has been the Headmaster of Gymnázium Brno at třída Kapitána Jaroše since 1997. Between 1981 and 1990, he worked at this grammar school as a mathematics and physics teacher, then went on to become the Deputy Headmaster. He is a member of the Union of Grammar School Headmasters of the Czech Republic’s Council and chairs its South Moravian section. He is a member of the Mathematical Olympiad Central Commission and chairman of its regional commission in the South Moravian Region. He has been a long-term external lecturer at Masaryk University’s Faculty of Education and is the lead author of a comprehensive series of mathematics textbooks for lower grades of multi-year grammar schools. In 2011, he received the Learned Society of the Czech Republic Prize for Teachers.

Michal Bulant is the Vice-Rector for Education and Quality at Masaryk University. Over the past seven years, he has been involved in preparing conditions for institutional accreditation and restructuring MU's study offer. He is responsible for the quality of education, setting study rules and further development of teaching methods. He works in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the Faculty of Science, where he is involved in number theory and the education of future mathematics teachers. In addition, he supports activities aimed at developing talented high school students.

Kateřina Zábrodská is a senior researcher at the Czech Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Psychology, where she leads the Research Methodology Department and the Organization Studies in Higher Education research group. She also teaches courses in work and organizational psychology in the Department of Psychology at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University. She is a member of the Czech Science Foundation for psychology and pedagogy’s Evaluation Panel, a member of the CAS Academy Assembly and a member of the Institute of Psychology’s CAS Council. Her research specializes in occupational health issues, specifically in the higher education sector. She is the author of a number of professional publications dealing with working conditions and Czech academics’ occupational health.