Radka Šustrová is a current British Academy Newton International Fellow. She studied History and Political Science as an undergraduate and holds a PhD in History from Charles University in Prague. Her research explores the social history of Central Europe, in particular the history of welfare states, labour, nationalism, and women’s rights. In her PhD, she analysed the ambiguous origin of the welfare state in Czechoslovakia within the broader context of Czech and German nationalism, asking in particular how the Nazi occupation and expansion of Czech and German nationalism reshaped public social welfare and what impact this had on Czech national identity and the structure of post-war society.
In her current research project, Radka is exploring the social history of working women in Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Austria from 1938 to 1968, crossing the mental and disciplinary East-West boundaries to consider the subject from a comparative and transnational European perspective. The project builds on her interests in the history of the welfare states and women’s rights, and raises questions of continuities and discontinuities from National Socialism to State Socialism/liberal democracy in Central Europe and beyond.
