معرفی
Václav Zheng is a Dean's Office Postdoctoral Fellow at Johns Hopkins University's School of Arts and Sciences, specializing in the cultural and intellectual history of medieval and early modern East Central Europe. His research bridges historical methodology with critical theory, focusing particularly on utopian-futuristic thinking in sixteenth-century Poland and chronal cultures in the early modern Czech lands.
His research interests span cultural history, intellectual history, utopian history, historiography, and the history of the future, with particular emphasis on East Central European contexts that remain understudied in Anglophone academia. Zheng explores the intersections of mentality, temporality, fantasy, and human experience in the premodern past, seeking to interpret political thought and texts through cultural and experiential lenses rather than traditional art and literature frameworks.
His scholarly output reveals a strong focus on redefining the Czech and Polish Renaissances through unconventional approaches, with recurring themes of utopian thinking, emotional history, and temporal consciousness. Zheng's work demonstrates a commitment to developing new methodologies in cultural history while maintaining deep engagement with historical texts and contexts.
Zheng has taught at Johns Hopkins School of Arts and Sciences from 2019 to 2023 and at the Peabody Institute during 2023-2024, covering four main teaching areas: Medieval and Early Modern Europe, Eastern Europe (500-1990), Theory and Historiography, and Premodern World History: Cultures, Medicine, and Ideas. His pedagogical approach emphasizes unpacking dense texts and cultural ideas rather than memorizing facts, while maintaining a strong commitment to the seminar format and traditional chalk-and-board teaching methods.
He completed his PhD in early modern European history at Johns Hopkins University and continues to develop multiple book projects that push the boundaries of historical inquiry, including efforts to establish utopian history as a distinct field of study.
