Mgr. Zdenka Sokolíčková, Ph.D.

Assistant professor

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Zdenka Sokolíčková (born 1983 in the Vysočina region) studied culturology and Euroculture. For her, working at the university means freedom, creativity and intense contact with young people, the possibility to teach them and learn from them. Foreign experience is an important part of her professional profile – she completed study, research and teaching visits in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan, Lithuania, Norway and Cyprus.
She lives in Nové Město na Moravě with her children and husband – a polar ecologist.

Work Experience

Since 2026 Senior Researcher
Department of Studies in Culture and Religion, University of Hradec Králové, Czech Republic
EU funded project The Other Way Round: Reaching Sustainability Through Walking Away from Carbon-Intense Lives, time span 2026–2029, mentored by Luděk Brož

2024–2028 Postdoctoral Researcher
Arctic Centre, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
NWO funded project GUIDE-BEST – Growing Understanding of Individual Drivers of Expectations and Behaviours to Enhance Sustainable Tourism in Antarctica, time span 2023–2028

2021–2023 Postdoctoral Researcher
Arctic Centre, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
BELMONT Forum funded project SVALUR – Understanding Resilience and Long-TermEnvironmental Change in the High Arctic: Narrative-Based Analyses from Svalbard, time span 2020–2023

2019–2022 Guest Researcher
Department of Social Anthropology, University of Oslo, Norway
EU funded project boREALIFE: Overheating in the High Arctic, time span 2019–2021, mentored by prof. Thomas Hylland Eriksen
SSF funded project Teenagers without land: Offspring of economic migrants to Svalbard in an overheated world, time span 2021–2022

2011–2019 Teaching Associate / Assistant Professor
Department of Studies in Culture and Religion, University of Hradec Králové, Czech Republic

Education

2011 MA in Euroculture (double degree)
Department of History, Philosophical Faculty, Palacký University in Olomouc, Czechia
Faculty of Arts, University of Groningen, The Netherlands

2010 PhD in Theory of Culture
Department of Theory of Culture, Faculty of Philosophy and Arts, Charles University, Prague, Czechia

2007 Master (Mgr.) in Theory of Culture
Department of Theory of Culture, Faculty of Philosophy and Arts, Charles University, Prague, Czechia

Membership

EASA – European Association of Social Anthropologists (Member, Environment and Anthropology Network)
IASC – International Arctic Science Committee (Representative of Czechia, Social & Human Working Group)
IASSA – International Arctic Social Sciences Association (Member)
CASA – Czech Association for Social Anthropology (Member)
CASC – Czech Arctic Science Consortium (Member)
SSSI – Svalbard Social Science Initiative (Member)

Selected Publications

Sokolíčková, Z., Cooper, L., & Hehir, Ch. (2026). Mind the gaps: The moral journey of tour guides who quit. Annals of Tourism Research.

Cooper, L., Hehir, Ch. & Sokolíčková, Z. (2026). ‘How can I fly there and talk about environmental change?’ Moral (dis)engagement among Antarctic tour guides. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 1–32.

Olsen, J., Meyer, A., Iversen, L., Schildberg, U., Bjørnsen, R. H., Hovelsrud, G. K., Badu, J., Brode-Roger, D., Craciun, A., Christiansen, H. H., Endresen, L. C., Hansen, T. V., Jungblut, S., Markusson, E., Nowak, A., Timlin, U., Sandven, S., Sokolíčková, Z., & Søreide, J. (2025). Building transdisciplinary bridges and learning from the Svalbard context. The Polar Journal, 15(2): 299–323.

Meyer, A. & Sokolíčková, Z. (2024). ‘Melting Worlds’ and ‘Climate Myths’: Diverging Stories of Climate Change in Longyearbyen, an Arctic ‘Frontline Community.’ Ethnos, 1–18.

Elixhauser, E., Boni, Z., Gregorič Bon, N., Kanjir, U., Meyer, A., Muttenzer, F., Pampus, M. & Sokolíčková, Z. (2023). Interdisciplinary, but how? Anthropological Perspectives from Collaborative Research on Climate and Environmental Change. Environmental Science & Policy 151: 103586.

Löf, A., Sokolíčková, Z. & Steins, N.A. (2023). Experiencing Svalbard sustainably? Reflecting on what we can learn about polar cruise tourism from the SEES expedition. The Polar Journal, 13(1): 177—185.

Sokolíčková, Z. (2023). The Paradox of Svalbard: Climate change and globalisation in the Arctic. London: Pluto.

Brode-Roger, D., Zhang, J., Meyer, A. & Sokolíčková, Z. (2023). Caught in between and in transit: forced and encouraged (im)mobilities during the Covid-19 pandemic in Longyearbyen, Svalbard. Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 105(4): 395–408.

Sokolíčková, Z.; Ramirez Hincapie, E.; Zhang, J.; Lennert, A. E.; Löf, A. & van der Wal, R. (2022). Waters that matter: How human-water relations are changing in high-Arctic Svalbard. Anthropological Notebooks, 28(3): 74–109.

Sokolíčková, Z. (2022). The Golden Opportunity? Migration to Svalbard from Thailand and the Philippines. Nordic Journal of Migration Research, 12(3): 293–309.

Sokolíčková, Z. (2022). The trouble with local community in Longyearbyen, Svalbard: How big politics and lack of fellesskap hinder a not-yet-decided future. Polar Record, 58, E36.

Sokolíčková, Z. & Eriksen, T. H. (2022). Extraction Cultures in Svalbard: From Mining Coal to Mining Knowledge and Memories. In S. Sörlin (Ed.), Resource extraction and Arctic communities: the new extractivist paradigm (pp. 66–86). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Sokolíčková, Z., Meyer, A., & Vlakhov, A. (2022). Changing Svalbard: Tracing interrelated socio-economic and environmental change in remote Arctic settlements. Polar Record, 58, E23.

Sokolíčková, Z. (2021). The Chinese Riddle: Tourism, China, and Svalbard. In Y.-S. Lee (Ed.), Asian Mobilities Consumption in a Changing Arctic (pp. 141–154). Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge.

Language competence

Mother tongue: Czech

Other languages:

English C2 proficiency
German C1 proficiency
Italian C1 proficiency
Norwegian C1 proficiency
Dutch A2 elementary

Family

married, sons Josef (born 2013), Vratislav (born 2015), Adam (born 2018) and Hynek (born 2023)

last update June 2026