Veronika Kupková

Veronika Kupková is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Science, UJEP. She graduated from the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen (Teaching Geography and Social Sciences, 2013) and later extended her Master Degree with Teaching English as a Foreign Language (2017). After her studies, she gained pedagogical experiences abroad, namely in Denmark (Hjalleseskolen, Odense), in Myanmar (Education Gathering Group, Hpa An) and in Germany (Grüne Schlue grenzenlos, Zethau). These experiences influenced her in terms of focusing on the global issues, environmental and place-based education, as well as paying attention to the value of international cooperation.

During her stay in Germany, she conducted non-formal educational projects for Czech and German pupils. Additionally, together with the team of her colleagues, she filmed a documentary movie „Generation N: Deutschböhme“ (Czech-German Journalist Award, 2017).

After her arrival back to Czechia, she worked as a teacher at grammar school where she a. a. also coordinated the Czech-German project „Pressnitz lebt – Přísečnice žije“ which brought together her students and eye-witnesses in search of a lost place. Within the project, the students actively participated in public dissemination of the findings, co-created an exhibition (2018), a book (2019) and a movie (2021).

Apart from the formal education, she has also been involved in non-formal educational environment, namely within the Scout Institute, where she developer learning materials for place-based learning and learning for sustainability.

Also in her free time, she deals with the international cooperation, volunteering, slow travelling, global education, sustainable way of life, personal development and explores the relationships of people towards the place they live.

This is also why she decided to develop her dissertation project, a. a. to explore the possibilities of (place) heritage, particularly when the place has been transformed to a great extent. She aims to find ways how to interpret the invisible heritage and mediate its legacy to current and future generations.

• Erasmus+ (Lohr am Main, 07/2023)
• Erasmus+ (München, 08/2023)
• Erasmus+ (Freiburg, 10/2023)

• Travelling musicians from the Czech Lands (a contribution to the conference „Migration from Europe and across Europe: Mobility of the inhabitants within the multinational states“, Praha – Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures, 22.5.2023)
• Public forgetting and searching for the „memory“ of a lost place (interdisciplinary case study of Pressnitz, Czechia) (a contribution to the conference „Creative Searching in Geography“, Bratislava – Institute of Geography, Slovak Academy of Science, 12.10.2023)
• Out of sight, out of mind? Remembering and forgetting a significantly modified place (An interdisciplinary case study of a former town Pressnitz, Czechia) (a contribution to the conference “From Change to Transformation – Cultural Transformation”, Marienthal – ACC Forum Zittau, 19.10.2023)
• The Legacy of the Museum Pressnitz – Cultural Heritage that Noone Searched for (?) (a contribution to the 29. colloquium „German minority and its culture, both in the centre and in the peripheries, between 1945-89“, Ústí nad Labem – Faculty of Philosophy & Museum of Ústí nad Labem, 20.10.2023)
• Heritage Without Heirs? Czech-German Borderscape, its Dissonant Legacy & the Way to Socio-Cultural Sustainability (a contribution to the conference “Challenging Mindsets Through Heritage Interpretation”, Koper – University of Primorska & Interpret Europe, 22.3.2024)
• Landscape Transformation and the Cultural Heritage, case study Pressnitz (a contribution to the conference „Landscape – Place – Monuments“, Brno – Faculty of Architecture, Technical University, 17.4.2024)
• From the Ore Mountains to the Egyptian Pyramids and Beyond: Entangled History of Pressnitzer Musicians (a contribution to the conference “Change from Below: Mobility, Transformation, and Exchange across Europe”, Regensburg – University Regensburg & Leibniz ScienceCampus Europe and America in the Modern World: Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies, 24.5.2024)

• UJEP-SGS-2024-53-004-2 (2024-2025) The Future of Our Pasts: Engaging “Lost”/”Invisible” Cultural Heritage

• Czech Geographical Society (2023)
• Czech association for heritage interpretation (2022)
• Interpret Europe (2022)