Libora Oates-Indruchová
Professor of Sociology of Gender , Department of Sociology, University of Graz, Austria
UGO business card: LINK
Libora Oates-Indruchová studied literary and cultural theory and obtained a PhD in English from the University of Lancaster, U.K., and a habilitation in Literary and cultural studies from Szeged University, Hungary. She also studied Gender studies in a non-degree postgraduate programme at the Central European University. Her research focuses on late state-socialist Czech and Central European culture and on the development of gender studies in postsocialism.
Before coming to Graz in 2015, she directed the PhD in Sociology at Palacký University in Olomouc and led the research field “Communist and Postcommunist Times in Central Europe” at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for European History and Public Spheres in Vienna, Austria. She has taught at Charles University, Pardubice University, Masaryk University and Szeged University.
Research interests:
- Gender and everyday creativity
- Cultural representations of gender
- Gender and social change
- History of gender critique in East Central Europe
- Censorship
- Narrative research
Professional Service:
- Co-speaker of the Field of Excellence “Dimensions of Europe”
- Curriculum Commitee for the MA in Interdisciplinary Gender Studies, University of Graz, member, chair 2017-2026
- Coordination Centre for Gender Studies and Equal Opportunities, University of Graz
- Academic Board of the Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, Prague, member
- International Editorial Board member, European Journal of Women's Studies
- Full member of the Kuratorium of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), reporter for Sociology and Interdisciplinary Social Sciences (2015-2026)
Research projects (ongoing):
- The History of Feminist Political Thought and Women’s Rights Discourses in East Central Europe 1929-2001 (HERESSEE), ERC Starting Grant, Grant holder and lead: Zsófia Lóránd, University of Vienna. Core team member (without employment contract). 2023-2028
Research projects (completed):
- Everyday Creativity in (Post)socialism (Elisabeth List Fellowship; 2022-2024)
- GenderedCoronaTime (exploratory phase launched in April 2020-2022): a team of 11 sociologists from Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, Romania, Sweden and the UK investigate the impact the COVID-19 crisis has had on the time-use in families with schoolchildren.
- Strengthening Higher Education Capacities in Palestine for Gender Equality (SHE_GE), Academic Cooperation grant, Austrian Partnership Programme in Higher Education and Research for Development, project leader for the Austrian partner, University of Graz (grant holder: Islamic University of Gaza) (2017-2020).
- Remote Mentoring für Mädchen beim Programmieren-Lernen mit Pocket Code, Netidee programme of the Internet Privatstiftung Austria, project partner (grant holder: Graz University of Technology) (2017-2018).
- Border Communities: Microstudies in Everyday Life, Politics and Memory in European Societies from 1945 to the Present (2010-12; research management).
- Transformation of Gender Culture in the Czech Republic 1948-1989 (2009-2011).
- Academic Censorship under State Socialism: Czech Republic and Hungary (2003-2004, 2008-2009).
Selected Publications
Imagined Conversations: a methodological proposal for slow remembering, Memory Studies, 19 (2026), 2: 573-589, special issue on Slow Memory Studies.
Meze myšlenek: Cenzura v české a maďarské vědě, 1969–1989 [The Limits of Ideas: Censorship in Czech and Hungarian Academia, 1969–1989]. Prague: Karolinum/Slon, 2026. Expanded and updated version of Censorship in Czech and Hungarian Academic Publichsing (Bloomsbury 2020).
The History of the Czech Women’s Movement: A Casualty of War?, East European Politics and Societies 39 (2025), 4: 795-805, The Anniversary Forum: 80 years since 1945.
Blind Spots in Post-1989 Czech Historiography of State Socialism: Gender as a Category of Analysis, East European Politics and Societies and Cultures 36 (2022), 3: 1061-1085.
Creative Families: Gender and Technologies of Everyday Life, co-editor with Jana Mikats and Susanne
Kink-Hampersberger. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021.
Censorship in Czech and Hungarian Academic Publishing, 1969-89: Snakes and Ladders. London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020.
Vyvlastněný hlas: Proměny genderové kultury v české společnosti, 1948-1989 [Transformation of Gender Culture in Czech Society, 1948-1989]. Praha: Slon, 2015, second edition 2025. Co-editor with Hana Havelková. 513 pp.
The Politics of Gender Culture under State Socialism: An Expropriated Voice. London and New York: Routledge, 2014, pbk 2015. Co-editor with Hana Havelková. 243 pp. Winner of the BASEES Women’s Forum Book Prize.
Unraveling a Tradition, or Spinning a Myth?: Gender Critique in Czech Society and Culture, Slavic Review 75, 4 (Winter 2016): 919-943.
The Beauty and the Loser: Cultural Representations of Gender in Late State Socialism. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 37, 2 (Winter 2012): 357-383.