Hana Cervinkova Receives CEU’s 2026 European Award for Excellence in Teaching
Image credit: CEU / Daniel Vegel
The award, administered by CEU’s Yehuda Elkana Center for Teaching, Learning, and Higher Education Research, is accompanied by the €5,000 Diener Prize and was presented to Professor Cervinkova at CEU’s academic year Opening Ceremony on September 1 by Eva Fodor, Pro-Rector for Teaching and Learning:
“Prof. Cervinkova’s distinguished international career exemplifies the possibility of bringing together outstanding research and exemplary teaching. In both, she brings the sensitivities of an anthropologist to understanding the relationship between citizenship, democracy, power, and education as societies face challenges of inclusion, memory, and transition.”
Cervinkova has built an academic career spanning several countries and institutions. After schooling in the former Czechoslovakia, and undergraduate and graduate education in the United States (Ph.D., New School for Social Research) she has held several distinguished positions, including Rector of the University of Lower Silesia in Wroclaw, Poland; member of the Czech Academy of Sciences; and more recently, full professor of anthropology at Maynooth University in Ireland.
A political anthropologist, Cervinkova has focused her work on questions – and paradoxes – of citizenship, democracy, power, and education. Alongside her scholarship, she has created award-winning models for international education and study abroad experiences, doctoral education, and anti-racist curricula. The Award Selection Committee was deeply impressed by her decades-long commitment to excellence in teaching, her innovation, and her transformative impact.
“This award is particularly important to me for two reasons. First, because it is granted by an extraordinary European institution, which has been a beacon of academic excellence, transnational humanism and intellectual freedom. Secondly, it is deeply meaningful, because it is awarded for excellence in the teaching of humanities and social sciences, which I believe have a critical role to play in a world whose predicaments drive people to turn inwards, into isolationism and growing concentration on being-with-oneself rather than with others. For me, the pedagogical imperative of the moment is to confront fears and atomization with knowledge and courage, to generate through our teaching relationalities and publicness in order to foster critical, responsible and caring democratic citizens” - said Professor Cervinkova.
“In a world in which both governments and universities are walking away from their commitments to open inquiry and open societies, Hana Cervinkova’s teaching has instead shown the potential of international education, anti-racist curricula, and doctoral training. Her work in all three areas has been transformative in her institutions, as well as at the national and European levels,” - said Michael Kozakowski, Director of CEU’s Yehuda Elkana Center for Teaching, Learning, and Higher Education Research.
Notes for Editors
The European Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Social Sciences and Humanities was launched by CEU for its 20th anniversary in 2011, to honor academics in the social sciences and humanities who teach at higher education institutions in the European Higher Education Area. As part of CEU’s commitment to excellence in teaching, the award is administered by the University’s Yehuda Elkana Center for Teaching, Learning, and Higher Education Research. The Diener Prize is made possible by a generous gift from Steven and Linda Diener in memory of Ilona Diener. For further information on the award and previous recipients, visit the Elkana Center.
About CEU
Central European University is accredited in the United States and Austria and offers English-language bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs in the social sciences, the humanities, law, environmental sciences, management and public policy. Each year, CEU enrolls around 1,400 students from more than 100 countries and has faculty from more than 50 countries. Next to the Vienna campus, CEU has a research and civic engagement presence in Budapest, Hungary, through its Democracy Institute, and the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archivum.
About Maynooth University
Maynooth University is an internationally recognized institution located 25 kilometers outside of Dublin, Ireland. One of four constituent universities of the National University of Ireland, Maynooth University is in the top 90 global Times Higher Education Young University Rankings 2024 and with more than 17,000 students, including over 2,700 postgraduates, it is one of Ireland’s fastest growing universities. Established as an autonomous university in 1997, it traces its origins to the foundation of the Royal College of St. Patrick in 1795, drawing inspiration from a heritage that includes over 200 years of education and scholarship. Maynooth University offers a range of programs at undergraduate, Master’s and PhD levels in the humanities, science and engineering, and social sciences, including business, law, education. It is also the home to the only and growing Anthropology Department in the Republic of Ireland.
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