The CRC welcomes its new Mercator Fellow Sam Čermák.

Sam Čermák completed his PhD at Queen Mary University of London in 2024. His dissertation was published in 2026 by Manchester University Press under the title Abnormal Peripheries: Slovak and Czech performance art in the 1960s and 70s.

In his current research, Sam Čermák examines the vocabularies of protest in Eastern and Central Europe since 1989. Given this geographic focus, as well as his exploration of issues related to the current rise of populism and authoritarianism and his work on performance and protest, his research is of particular interest to project A01 Collectivity and Delegitimization: Frictions in Political Theatre and Activist Performance in Publics Transformed by Populism.

During his stay in Berlin, a workshop on the topics of protest, authoritarianism and populism in Central Europe is planned, to be held in collaboration with project C03 Lyrical Intervention for Human Rights in Ukraine, led by Annette Werberger.

The project on which Sam Čermák will be working as part of the Mercator Fellowship is entitled Velvet Demonstrations: Vocabularies of protest in East-Central Europe, 1989-2024.