Dear followers and supporters,

We would like to inform you about organizational changes concerning this profile and its related communication channels.

Due to professional developments, the existing team is transforming. Some members and collaborators of RE:CENT – Center for Medieval Visual Cultures and Research Communication at Masaryk University – are moving to a new institution. This is the newly established CENT:RE – Centre for Visual Studies and Research Communication at the University of Hradec Králové.

For this reason, the current website and social media profiles associated with RE:CENT projects at Masaryk University will be closed to new activity. These channels will remain publicly accessible as a digital archive and an overview of our previous work, but they will no longer be updated in the future.

If you would like to continue following our scholarly and popularization activities, research outputs, and new CENT:RE projects, we would be very pleased if you stayed in touch with us through our newly established communication channels. You can find an overview of them below this post.

Thank you for your support, encouragement, and for the entire inspiring journey we have shared together at Masaryk University.

Team RE:CENT & Team CENT:RE

Web: www.uhk.cz/cs/filozoficka-fakulta/ff/cent-re

Instagram: www.instagram.com/centre_visual/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/vizualnistudia

The site remains preserved in its state prior to the termination of Prof. Foletti's employment, i.e. February 2026.

We cordially invite you to the final lecture of this semester’s StředověC JinaX series, which this time will not be limited to art history – philologist Marie Okáčová, Ph.D., will take us on a fascinating journey through the intertwining of visual and linguistic communication across the centuries in her lecture Text as Image and Image as Text – from (Late) Antiquity to Modernity.

Text and image – the two main media of interpersonal communication – have interacted with each other practically since the beginning of their existence. Sometimes they competed with each other, or even openly raced against each other, while at other times they functioned in complete synergy. Together, we will look at various examples of their perfectly symbiotic relationship, and not only in visual poetry. From its beginnings in ancient Greece, we will move on to the technically sophisticated literary “crossword puzzles” of late antiquity, which even Emperor Constantine could not resist, and through Christian-themed verse mosaics, we will head to modern calligrams. We will reflect on what this work reveals to us about the principles of linguistic and visual communication and what challenges it poses for its readers-viewers, let alone translators.

Thursday, December 18, at 7:00 p.m.
Hans Belting Library, ground floor of the K building of the Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University (Veveří 470/28, 602 00-Brno)

You can also watch the lecture online on our YouTube channel:
www.youtube.com/@center_recent/streams

The lecture will be held in Czech.

We look forward to seeing you!

The lecture is part of the Contexts of Humanity project by energeia o.p.s.

Dear colleagues, 

We warmly invite you to the international scholarly workshop Silent Objects, Speaking Functions? Uses, Reuses, and Receptions of Late Antique Artifacts within the frame of the international project called The Brescia Casket: An Exemplary Object Biography Between Art History, Technical Art History, and Reception History, which will take place on Monday, December 1, at the Hans Belting Library, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University.

We look forward to seeing you,

RE:CENT. Center for Medieval Visual Cultures and Research Communication, Department of Art History, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

Project partners:

• Museo Santa Giulia, Fondazione Brescia Musei, Brescia
• Archäologische Staatssammlung, Munich
• Vorarlberg museum, Bregenz
• RE:CENT. Center for Medieval Visual Cultures and Research Communication, Department of Art History, Masaryk University, Brno
• Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Forschungsstelle Realienkunde, Munich

How to participate online: The event will be broadcast in parallel via Zoom. You can register for the meeting at the following link: https://cesnet.zoom.us/j/93537485751, 
Meeting ID: 935 3748 5751

Programme:

10:00 
Adrien Palladino 
Masaryk University / Musée du Louvre, Paris 
Introduction – Containers, Contents, and Transformations 

10:30 
Ian Randall 
Masaryk University 
The Cultural Inertia of Objects 

11:00 
Catharina Blänsdorf 
Archäologische Staatssammlung, Munich 
The Construction of Roman Boxes and the Brescia Casket 

11:30 
Elisabeth Fugmann 
Vorarlberg Museum, Bregenz 
From Belt Fitting to Lock Plate? Reuse of a Spolium 

Lunch  

14:00 
Ruben Campini 
University of Fribourg / Masaryk University 
Scenting Paradise. Early Christian Ivory Pyxides as Technologies of Salvation 

14:30 
Teodora Georgievová 
Università degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza, Rome / Masaryk University 
Containers of Power: Women’s Interactions with Caskets from Public Bathhouse Spectacle to Private Eucharistic Practice 

15:00 
Esther Wipfler 
Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich 
Ebdomadaria epistole teneat Sepulcrum eboris in manibus in medio choro – The Use of Iconic Objects in the Easter Liturgy of Santa Giulia (Brescia) and in other Medieval Women Monasteries 

We cordially invite you to another lecture in the StředověC JinaX series, in which Nikola Landers will take us high into the mountains of the Georgian region of Svaneti.

In the mountainous region of Georgia called Svaneti, in the remote community of Ushguli, there is a small but charming object, referred to by researchers as a liturgical chalice. Art historians have not paid much attention to it so far, for two main reasons: its visual language is completely different from anything else preserved from the past, and the extreme remoteness of the Svaneti region, combined with the difficulty of penetrating this “corner of the world” full of cultural monuments, has rather discouraged researchers. Who would travel to the very “end of the world” for a small silver artifact such as the Ushguli chalice? In this lecture, we will therefore focus on existing theories about its origin, open up the question of its function, and try to look at it from new perspectives. Together, we will uncover the extraordinary cultural wealth hidden in this unusual object.

Thursday, November 13, at 7:00 p.m.
Hans Belting Library, ground floor of the K building of the Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University (Veveří 470/28, 602 00-Brno)

You can also watch the lecture online on our YouTube channel:
www.youtube.com/@center_recent/streams

The lecture will be held in Czech.

We look forward to seeing you!

The lecture is part of the Contexts of Humanity project by energeia o.p.s.

We cordially invite you to another lecture in the StředověC JinaX series!

The lecture, entitled Fascism vs. Late Antiquity, will take place on Thursday, October 23, at 7:00 p.m. in the Hans Belting Library on the ground floor of building K of the Faculty of Arts at Masaryk University (Veveří 470/28, Brno). The lecture will be delivered by Michaela Jánešová, who will guide us on a journey to the Eternal City.

A return to its original form – this is how the restoration of the Roman basilica of Santa Sabina, which took place in the first half of the 20th century under the leadership of art historian and Roman monument administrator Antonio Muñoz, is described. But when you walk through the restored basilica surrounded by white walls dominated by large windows, doesn’t it feel more like Roma Termini station than a Christian temple? What led Antonio Muñoz to return to the 5th century at a time when the fascist regime was coming to power in Italy? Can we consider the final form of St. Sabina to be an attempt to revive late antique visual culture, or is it a modern, primarily fascist invention? And isn’t our interpretation of the past always merely a reflection of our present?

We will attempt to answer these questions in the upcoming SCJX lecture, which you will also be able to watch online on our YouTube channel:
www.youtube.com/@center_recent/streams

The lecture will be held in Czech.

We look forward to seeing you there.

The lecture is part of the Contexts of Humanity project by energeia o.p.s.

We cordially invite you to attend the scientific workshop Beyond Digital Humanities: Revolution, Revisionism or Political Agenda?, which will take place as part of the project Ready for the future: understanding long–term resilience of the human culture (RES-HUM) on Monday, October 6, and Tuesday, October 7, at the Hans Belting Library at the Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University (Veveří 470/28, ground floor of building K/L, 602 00 Brno).

We look forward to welcoming you,
RE:CENT. Center for Medieval Visual Cultures and Research Communication, Department of Art History, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.

Abstract:
The media through which we conduct our work as scholars has been irrevocably altered by the digital age. Pen and paper have largely been replaced by the computer, and even physical books and maps have largely given way to digital versions. Like the save icon, our sensory landscapes are littered with skeuomorphs as we adapt to humanitates digitales. But to what degree has our thinking been altered by these new tools? In interpreting the past, do new tools such as databases, 3D reconstructions, and GIS technologies help, complete, or hinder our ability to ‘think with’ and through pre-modern epistemologies and ontologies? Where do they intersect with memory, phenomenology, and non-Cartesian subject/object paradigms? What are the economies, agendas, and histories attached to these new digital media? And what challenges arise when these tools move from being complementary aids to replacing the methodological foundations of our disciplines, including the ways they are taught?

This workshop, organized within the framework of the project “Ready for the future: understanding the long-term resilience of the human culture” (RES-HUM), is designed as a critical assessment of the digital humanities and the tools now in common use in Art History, Archaeology, and the human sciences writ large. We seek to create a space for creative dialogue on responsible praxis, and to chart an innovative, considered path for further integration of these tools into our thought worlds. This is all the more urgent given the recent explosion of digital tools and uncritical ‘digital ways of thinking’ into nearly every aspect of our lives, including government, commerce, and healthcare. Having now become largely accustomed to these new media, but still retaining memory of many previous forms of habitus in the academy, we believe the time is now ripe for an evaluation of our digital past, present, and future as scholars.

The workshop, organized by RE:CENT – Center for Medieval Visual Cultures and Research Communication, will bring together scholars who fully engage with digital media and the human past to encourage a lively, self-reflexive dialogue on the implications of their work for the potential of digital tools to shape scholarship and human resilience. They are invited to participate in three panel discussions: I) Constructing the Myth of the Database: Between Natural Sciences and the Humanities II) Mapping the Past on the Present Environment: A Methodological Trap?, and III) 3D Reconstructions: Precious Instruments or Visual Manipulation. A series of questions will be pre-circulated for the participants of each panel; answers that consider the historiography on digital media, the economic interests involved, bias, and driving ideologies, are highly encouraged.

Organizers:
Prof. Ivan Foletti, Masaryk University, Brno – foletti@phil.muni.cz
Dr. Adrien Palladino, Masaryk University, Brno – adrien.palladino@phil.muni.cz
Dr. Ian E. Randall, Masaryk University, Brno – ian.randall@phil.muni.cz

We warmly invite you to the international scholarly conference Shared and Contested Heritage in Greater Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, 1870-1991. Art, Scholarship, and Fragility, which will take place on Monday, September 29, and on Tuesday, September 30, at the Hans Belting Library, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University.

We look forward to seeing you,

RE:CENT. Center for Medieval Visual Cultures and Research Communication, Department of Art History, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.

We cordially invite you to the introductory lecture of this semester’s StředověC JinaX series, which will be led, as usual, by Prof. Ivan Foletti.

From school desks to Hollywood blockbusters, the Middle Ages are synonymous with decadence, filth, and violence. In this context, the question of whether the Middle Ages are modern sounds like pure provocation. The opposite is true. The aim of this lecture is to reflect on the extent to which this period is intensely linked to modernity, both in terms of shared aesthetic values and in terms of how modernity perceives itself.

We will meet on September 25 at 7:00 p.m. in the Hans Belting Library on the ground floor of buildings K and L of the Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University.

You will also be able to watch the entire lecture online on our YouTube channel:
youtube.com/@center_recent

We look forward to seeing you there!

The lecture is part of the Contexts of Humanity project by energeia o.p.s.

BEST BOOK ON MEDIEVAL ART

In the aim to promote international excellence and multilingual research, the Association of Friends of the Center for Medieval Visual Cultures and Research Communication (AF RE:CENT) decided to establish a yearly prize for the BEST BOOK ON MEDIEVAL ART (ALL PRE-MODERN WORLD CULTURES INCLUDED). The prize will be awarded during the annual AF RE:CENT meeting in December 2025. BOOKS PUBLISHED IN 2023 OR LATER will be considered. The submissions should be works written in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek or Russian.

The publication’s author(s) are EXPECTED TO BE CURRENT MEMBERS OF THE AF RE:CENT (to join, visit https://center-recent.com/en/member/).

SELECTION COMMITTEE

Direction: MICHELE BACCI (Université de Fribourg) | IVAN FOLETTI (Masaryk University, Brno) 

Members: ANNA ADASHINSKAYA (Central European University) | ALEJANDRO GARCÍA AVILÉS (Universidad de Murcia) | MEEKYUNG MACMURDIE (The University of Utah) | ERIK THUNØ (Rutgers University) | CÉCILE VOYER (Université de Poitiers)

Submit your book to the address: Center for Medieval Visual Cultures and Research Communication, MU, Faculty of Arts, Arna Nováka 1, 602 00 Brno, Czech Republic | For any queries, please contact: petr.kozeluh@phil.muni.cz

The author of the winning book will receive 1000 €.

The link to the official FF MU job advert and the e-application form can be found here.

——————————————————————————————————————–

Workplace: RE:CENT (Center for Medieval Visual Cultures and Research Communication) Department of Art History​, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University
EU Researcher Profile: R3
Amount of Working Hours:   full-time – 40 hours per week
Number of Open Positions:  1
Expected Start: by agreement but not before 1. 9. 2025
Type of Employment Contract: ​​fixed term​ until 30. 6. 2028
Application Deadline:   30 June 2025

WHO ARE WE LOOKING FOR

We are looking for a colleague to join RE:CENT (Center for Medieval Visual Cultures and Research Communication) and Department of Art History, Department of Archaeology and Museology, Faculty of Arts, Masaryk university, Brno, Czech Republic with focus on the historiographical reflection of the interaction between humanities and politics, and on the dialogue between humanities and natural sciences in the 20th and 21st centuries. 

The position is open for a four-and-a-half-year OP JAK project “Ready for Future: Understanding the Long-Term Resilience of Human Cultures” (RES-HUM), reg. no. CZ.02.01.01/00/22_008/0004593, implemented at the Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University. 

The position is offered on a full-time basis of 1,0 FTE (i.e. 40 hours per week). The successful applicant will take up the position upon agreement with the employer in 2025, no earlier than 1 September 2025. 

MAIN JOB CONTENT

• to carry out research focused on the historiographical reflection of the interaction between humanities and politics, and on the dialogue between humanities and natural sciences in the 20th and 21st centuries; 
• to present and publish research results in internationally recognized scholarly journals and on other research platforms (articles, presentations at conferences, lectures for public, etc.); 
• to contribute to the research activities of RE:CENT – Center for Medieval Visual Cultures and Research Communication and the Department of Archaeology and Museology. 

WE REQUEST

Professional education, qualifications and experience

• Ph.D. – Doctoral Degree Programme completed in history or art history within 7 years prior to the onboarding – a condition 
• professional focus on the historiography of humanities and their interaction with politics (including historical, economic, and social implications) in the 20th and 21st centuries; knowledge of the historiographical discourse(s) in and about Central Europe in the 20th and 21st centuries – a condition  

Length of experience required 

• significant international experience (at least 2 years of PhD studies or 2 years of research work experience with at least 0,5 FTE abroad in the past 5 years) – a condition 
• publication activity, including at least 2 publication outputs within the past 3 years registered in the Thomson Reuters Web of Science or Scopus databases – a condition 

Other knowledge and skills

Language skills 

• knowledge of English language at C1/C2 level 

Requirements related to job content

• capacity to work with a large variety of sources; 
• excellent written and spoken knowledge of English; 
• ability to:
  • clearly formulate research results; 
  • prepare an international research project (e.g. ERC Starting Grant); 
  • work in an international and interdisciplinary team. 

The advantage is 

• experience with research projects  

WE OFFER

Working environment

• employment in a prestigious institution awarded by the HR Excellence in Research
• the opportunity to work in an international, interdisciplinary team
• friendly and inspiring working environment
• convenient location of the faculty in the city centre

Employee benefits

6 weeks of paid vacation per year, flexible working hours with the possibility to work partly from home for better work life balance, meal allowance in the salary or for meals in canteens, pension insurance contribution or nursery school/ playgroup allowance, selected vaccinations free of charge, favourable mobile tariffs Vodafone, Multisport card, sports lessons organized by the Faculty of Sports Studies, the nursery school Elánek for children of employees near the faculty.

Training and development

Opportunities for training and personal development, e.g., language and other courses provided by MU, use of MU libraries, use of placements and mobilities abroad, participation in conferences, etc.

HOW TO APPLY

Please send your application via the electronic application link by 30. 06. 2025(please use the link in the Electronic Application section below) and please attach all required documents.  

The following documents are required as a part of your application:

• cover letter;
• ​​structured CV with an overview of previous experience;
• copies of proof of education;
• overview of scientific and publishing activities. 

Once your application has been successfully submitted, you will receive an automatic confirmation of acceptance to your e-mail address. After the e-application deadline, you will receive information about the next steps.

If you are unsure, please contact the FF MU Personnel Office: Mgr. Lída Oplatková, e-mail: oplatkova@phil.muni.cz
 

SELECTION PROCESS

Selection criteria:

• submitting of all required documents in the e-application
• compliance of the candidate’s profile with the requirements for the job as stated above

Suitable candidates will be invited to a personal interview, which may also take the form of a videoconference.

Selection procedures rules at the Faculty of Arts of MU can be found on our careers page.

Thank you for your interest and we look forward to hearing from you!

 

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY, THE FACULTY AND THE DEPARTMENT

Masaryk University is the second largest university in the Czech Republic, with 10 faculties and a number of other specialized units, more than 6,000 employees and 32,000 students. We are a university with a wide range of research areas in the humanities and natural sciences and a strong international position. Our mission is to provide education and research of the highest quality.

The Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University is one of the four founding faculties of Masaryk University and since its foundation in 1919 it has been not only an important centre of humanities and social science education, science, research, and development, but also an institution that actively participates in shaping the cultural life of the city and the region.

Traditionally, it has been profiled as a research-oriented faculty generating approximately one fifth of MU’s research volume. The faculty has more than 600 employees and by the student population of over 6,000 is the largest faculty at the university.

Since 2021, the faculty has been the proud holder of the HR Excellence in Research Award from the European Commission. You can find out more information about the faculty on the website  or on Facebook.

For information on HR work set according to European standards, visit the HR Award faculty website.

Department

Information about the Department RE:CENT (Center for Medieval Visual Cultures and Research Communication) at the Faculty of Arts of MU can be found at: https://center-recent.com/  

Contact person at the department for questions about the position:  

First name and surname: prof. Ivan Foletti, MA, Docteur ès Lettres, Docent in Church History 

E-mail: foletti@phil.muni.cz 

Telephone: +420 549 49 3480