Ethics; Applied Ethics (especially medical ethics)

History of fascism; European fascisms, British and Czechoslovak interwar history; history of Central and Eastern Europe in the 20th Century

Ripka established and headed the Department of Education at the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes in Prague, Czech Republic, from 2008 to 2023. Among his most significant achievements are the Silver European Belma Award 2022 for the second-best educational material in Europe and establishing the Institute as the most crucial educational content provider among history teachers (according to the Czech School Inspection Survey 2021-2023). 

In the field of digital humanities, he has extensive experience in the creation of educational aids, including at School; ; ; and , and expert consultancy on documentary films: Vergessene Grenze, 2022, and War Correspondent, 2024.

Generative Artificial Intelligence in the context of pedagogy and historiography; social science research methods; history education; digital humanities; history of Central and Eastern Europe after 1945; comparative welfare systems

His PhD thesis was published in 2012 as聽A European Frontier Elite: The Nobility of the English Pale in Tudor Ireland, 1496-1566聽(Hannover). He also edited, with Ond艡ej Piln媒, a collection of essays on聽Ireland and the Czech Lands: Connections and Comparisons in History and Culture聽(Bern, 2014).

Dr. Power鈥檚 research interests have recently broadened to encompass problems in modern British foreign policy. He has published studies on the reception of Margaret Thatcher in the Czech lands and British cultural diplomacy in the Middle East, and is currently researching princely education as a diplomatic tool in the British world of the late Empire and Cold War.

Dr. Power organizes the popular Meet the Ambassador series at 国产乱伦, which brings together students and diplomats in open discussion, and has been chair of the Department of History and Philosophy since 2022.

He welcomes students wishing to research theses in the areas of early modern history, British imperial history, the history of education, cultural diplomacy/soft power, and Britain and the Arab Gulf.

Specializations:

British and Irish history, European history, history of British foreign policy, cultural diplomacy, Tudor British Isles

Select Publications:

POWER, Gerald. ‘The British Council, English Language Teaching and Britain’s Struggle for Educational Influence in Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar, 1955-69.’ Middle Eastern Studies 59.5 (2023): 777-789

POWER Gerald. 鈥楨ducation, Culture, and the British Position in the Arabian Gulf: The Establishment of the British Council in Kuwait, 1952-1955鈥�. Britain & The World 15.1 (2022): pp. 47-65.

POWER Gerald and WEINFURTER Jaroslav. 鈥楥zech Responses to Thatcher and Thatcherism: The Evidence of the Newspapers, 1984-2013鈥�, Central European Journal of International and Security Studies 11.4 (2017):. 44-65.

POWER Gerald. 鈥楲egitimizace moci na anglick茅m tr暖n臎 [Legitimacy of the power of the English crown].鈥� In B臍R脕NEK Ond艡ej, 膶ERMANOV脕 Pavl铆na and HRUBY Jakub (eds.) Jedno slunce na nebi, jeden vl谩dce na zemi: legitimace moci ve sv臎t臎 14. stolet铆 [One sun in heaven, one government on earth: the legitimization of power in the world of the fourteenth century], Prague: Academia, 2017. pp. 106-26.

POWER Gerald and MAGINN Christopher (eds). Frontiers, States and Identity in Early Modern Ireland and Beyond. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2016, pp. 240.

POWER Gerald and WEINFURTER Jaroslav. Thatcherismus v 膷esk媒ch zem铆ch: V媒voj a recepce [Thatcherism in the Czech Lands: development and reception]. Prague: Libri, 2015, pp. 164.

POWER Gerald and PILN脻 Ond艡ej (eds). Ireland and the Czech Lands: Contacts and Comparisons in History and Culture. Bern: Peter Lang, 2014, pp. 235.

POWER Gerald. 鈥楪ypsies and Sixteenth-Century Ireland鈥�. Romani Studies 21.2 (2014): 203-9.

POWER Gerald. A European Frontier Elite: The Nobility of the English Pale in Tudor Ireland, 1496-1566. The Formation of Europe vol. 4. Hannover: Wehrhahn Verlag, 2012, pp. 215.

He was Assistant and Associate Professor at Pontifical College Josephinum, Columbus, Ohio, USA (1995-2000) and Dean of the Faculty of Theology at the University of South Bohemia (2002-2008).

He joined Anglo-American University in Prague in 2009. He is Senior Lecturer in both the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and the School of Law.

Jurisprudence, Legal Theory, Philosophy of Law

Books

Book Sections

Articles in Peer-Reviewed Professional Periodicals

Entries in Encyclopedia

Theories of civilisation and progress from the Enlightenment until the early 20th century. The impact of linguistically-based racial theories on the study of the history and archaeology of the ancient Near East from the early 19th until the early 20th centuries, with particular reference to the racial theories of Archibald Henry Sayce (1845-1933). The rise of biological racism and of racially-based theories of progress in mid-19th century England, France and the United States. The Cold War and Nations and Nationalism. The work of George Lachmann Mosse (1909-1999) on nationalism, racism and fascism.

Dr. Akcasu received her Ph.D. in Near and Middle Eastern Studies from SOAS, University of London, in 2017. She holds a BA in History (California State University, San Jose), an MA in History with a concentration in Modern Europe and a minor in Modern World History (California State University, San Francisco), and an MA in the History of the Modern Middle East (SOAS, University of London).  She has been advising BA and MA theses relevant to her field and convening introductory-level and more specialized courses at Anglo-American University since 2015.

Modern Middle East, migration, gender, identity, legal and affective belonging