Ondřej Beránek, Ph.D.

AREA OF INTEREST

• modern and contemporary history of the Middle East
• history of Saudi Arabia
• contemporary Islam and its forms (political, Salafi, etc.)

EDUCATION

• September 2004 – September 2007 doctoral studies at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University, specializing in the History and Cultures of Asia and Africa with a focus on the contemporary development of Saudi Arabia,
• 1999–2004 Master's degree at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague, Arabistics and History and Culture of Islamic Countries, he completed summa cum laude.

Employment

• March 2021 – now: member of the Academic Council and Vice-President of the Czech Academy of Sciences
• February 2013 – March 2021: Director of the Oriental Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences
• 2014-present: external teaching of courses on Islam and the history of the Middle East, Department of the Middle East, Faculty of Arts, Charles University,
• December 2009–2013: Head of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Metropolitan University of Prague - management of the research center and its activities, organization of annual conferences,
• December 2009–2013: internal member of the Department of International Relations and European Studies at the Metropolitan University of Prague, teaching courses on Islam and modern history of the Middle East,
• 2010/2011, 2012/2013: teaching a course on classical and modern Islam, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Faculty of Arts, Charles University,
• 2005-2009: ad hoc lectures at American universities (Harvard, MIT, Brandeis) on various topics related to the Middle East,
• October 2007 – June 2009: Postdoctoral Fellow, Crown Center for Middle East Studies, Brandeis University, USA,
• September 2005 – June 2007: Visiting Scholar, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University, USA,
• September-December 2003: studies at King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,
• July 2003: scholarship to the Institut des langues vivantes in Tunis, an intensive Arabic language course.
  commenting on events in the Middle East for the Czech media (TV, radio, dailies and weeklies).

Membership

• Member of the Academic Assembly of the Czech Academy of Sciences, since 2013
• Member of the editorial board of the Orient edition of Academia publishing house, since 2016
• Member of Doctoral Study Councils (joint accreditation of the Faculty of Arts, Charles University and the Oriental Institute of the CAS) - "Middle Eastern Studies", "History and Cultures of Asia and Africa", "Literature of Asia and Africa" ​​- since 2014

PUBLICATIONS

Monograph

• „Die staatliche Verfolgung von »Magiern« in Brunei Darussalam und Saudi-Arabien“, in Susanne Schröter (ed.), Normenkonflikte in pluralistischen Gesellschaften. Frankfurt, New York: Campus Verlag, 2017, 291–324. (spolu s Dominiken M. Müllerem)
• „Středověký Blízký východ: ve jménu víry, předků a expanze“, in O. Beránek, J. Hrubý, P. Cermanová (eds.), Jedno slunce na nebi, jeden vládce na zemi: legitimita moci ve světě 14. Století.  Praha: Academia, 2017, 199–221.
• „Kontextualizace Islámského státu: Saddámův baasistický stín v džihádistickém hávu“, in O. Beránek, B. Ostřanský (eds.), Islámský stát: Blízký východ na konci časů (Praha: Academia, 2016), 15–31.
• „Ideologie Islámského státu, saúdští režimní duchovní a případ ikonoklasmu“, in O. Beránek, B. Ostřanský (eds.), Islámský stát: Blízký východ na konci časů (Praha: Academia, 2016), 180–198.
• „Ke Goldziherovu pojednání O uctívání mrtvých v pohanství a islámu“. In: Ostřanský, B. Smrt, hroby a záhrobí v islámu: Poslední věci člověka pohledem muslimských pramenů. Praha: Academia, 2014, 28–75.
• „Saúdská Arábie mezi kontrarevolucí a revolucí“. In O. Beránek (ed.), Arabské revoluce: demokratické výzvy, politický islám a geopolitické dopady. Praha: Academia, 2013.
• „Revizionistické přístupy a skepticismus ve studiu Koránu a počátků islámu“, in J. Hanuš (ed.), Boží slovo a slovo lidské: čtení, překlad a výklad posvátných textů v křesťanství, židovství a islámu. Brno: CDK, 2012.
• „Liga arabských států“ in Michael Romancov (ed.), Mezinárodní organizace. Plzeň: Aleš Čeněk, 2011.
• „Soudobé projevy politického islámu v Saúdské Arábii“, in Emil Souleimanov (ed.), Politický islám. Praha: Eurolex Bohemia, 2007 

• Ťupek P. – O. Beránek, “Monotheism of the Divine Names and Attributes as a Defining Criterion of Salafism,“ Die Welt des Islams, January 2025.
• "ISIS’s Destruction of Mosul’s Historical Monuments: Between Media Spectacle and Religious Doctrine," International Journal of Islamic Architecture 6, 2 (2017) - s M. Melčákem.
• “The (Mis)use of Islamic Charity: Past, Present, and Future,” Archiv orientalni 78, 2 (2010).
• “From Visiting Graves to Their Destruction: The Question of Ziyara through the Eyes of Salafis,” Crown Paper 2, Brandeis University, July 2009.
• “Divided We Survive: A Landscape of Fragmentation in Saudi Arabia,” Crown Center Middle East Brief 33 (January) 2009.
• “The Sword and the Book: Implications of the Intertwining of the Saudi Ruling Family and the Religious Establishment,” Crown Center Middle East Brief 28 (April) 2008.
• “The Surrealist Movement in Egypt in the 1930s and the 1940s,” Archiv Orientalni 73 (2005).

• „Popravte všechny čarodějnice – islám, politika, Saúdská Arábie a evropské paralely“. Nový Orient 70:2 (2015): 2–8.
• „Islamismus a arabská povstání – transformace, či kontinuita?“ Nový Orient 69, 2 (2014), 2–12.
• “Une puissance régionale sur la défensive”, Moyen-Orient 24 (2014), 64–69 (spolu s C. Steuer).
• „Tasdíq: Ibn Rušdovo pojetí víry“, Nový Orient, 67, 2 (2012).
• „Zijára: kult mrtvých a návštěva hrobů v salafitském islámu“, Religio 18, 2 (2010). (spolu s P. Ťupkem).

• Sun‘alláh Ibráhím. Komise. Praha: Dar Ibn Rushd, 2005. (novel).

OTHER ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES

Conferences

• July 2018: WOCMES (World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies) conference, Seville. Paper “Monuments of Mosul: The process and consequences of ISIS’s destructive activities”.
• November 2016: 50th Annual MESA (Middle East Studies Association) Conference, Boston, USA. Post: “The Islamic State and taswiyat al-qubur”.
• October 2015: “Islamism and the State: Contested Normativities in the Muslim World”, organizer of the Cluster of Excellence “Normative Orders” at Goethe-University Frankfurt, Germany. Paper “The Internal Mechanisms of Saudi Arabia's Religious Establishment”.
• September 2015: “The Middle East and the Islamic World in the Mirror of Humanities and Social Sciences”, organized by DAVO (German Middle East Studies Association) and DMG (Islamic Studies Section of the German Oriental Society), Bochum, Germany. Paper “The Islamic State and the Destruction of Monuments”.
• October 2014: “Bureaucratization of Islam in Muslim States and Societies” - Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF), Bielefeld University, Germany, contribution: “The Institutionalization of the Saudi Religious Establishment and the Spread of Iconoclasm”
• May 2013: "Arab Revolutions: Democratic Challenges, Geopolitical Impacts" - Metropolitan University of Prague - organizer, panelist, editor of the resulting monograph,
• March 2012: "From Revolution to Evolution: Current Dynamics in the Arab-Israeli Conflict" - Metropolitan University of Prague - organizer, panelist,
• April 2011: "Iran - Democratization, Civil Society, and Human Rights" - Metropolitan University of Prague - organizer, editor of the resulting monograph,
• March 2010: "The Middle East After the War on Terror" - Metropolitan University of Prague - organizer, editor of the resulting monograph.
    

Grants

• 2014-2016: Principal Investigator of the GACR Grant No. 14-16520S: "Death, Graves and Graves in Islam: Muslim Perceptions of Man's Last Things in the Middle Ages and the Present"
• 2013-2014: Principal investigator of the TAČR grant No. TB020MZV028: “Comprehensive strategy of the Czech Republic towards the MENA region”
• 2009: Grant from Mellon Foundation for research into Islamist activities in Yemen (not implemented for security reasons),
• 2007–2008: Co-investigator of the grant of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs RM 01/02/07 - Activities and political influence of Islamic charities.