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Mary Heimann

Professor Mary Heimann

Professor of Modern History

School of History, Archaeology and Religion

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Media commentator
Users
Available for postgraduate supervision

Overview

My approach to the history of ideas is rather like that of an anthropologist. I try to recover and make sense of how people, living at different times and in different places, conceptualise their own and rival religious faiths, scientific paradigms, national identities and political utopias.

I have particular expertise in Czechoslovakia, English Catholicism and Communist-Catholic relations during the Cold War.

My best-known publications are Catholic Devotion in Victorian England (Oxford University Press), ‘Christianity in Western Europe from the Enlightenment’ in A World History of Christianity, and Czechoslovakia: The State That Failed (Yale University Press).

My next book, Catholicism behind the Iron Curtain, will also be published by Yale University Press.

My work on Czechoslovak history has attracted the attention of governments, diplomats and policy-makers, including NATO.

In 2016 it was selected as an AHRC Impact Case Study for Wales.

Impact Case Study

Czechoslovakia: The State that Failed featured at international writers’ and book festivals, including the Prague Writers Festival.

Prague Writers Festival

A new Czech edition was brought out by Petrkov in 2020 with an introduction by the first Czech Prime Minister.

In Spring 2021, it was one of the 10 most-read books in the Czech Republic. http://maryheimann-ceskoslovensko.cz/

I founded and direct Cardiff's Central and East European Research Centre and Czechoslovak Special Collection

I supervise postgraduate students in modern European history, especially Catholic and Czechoslovak history.

I have been nominated by my students for 'Teaching Excellence', 'Personal Tutor' and 'Most Uplifting Member of Staff' awards.

In the most recent (2024) Enriching Student Life awards run by Cardiff University and Cardiff Students' Union, I was nominated for both 'Personal Tutor of the Year' and 'Most Outstanding Learning Experience'.

My research-led teaching was made the subject of a feature article in the Times Higher Education magazine.

Recent media interviews include New York Times, BBC Radio 4, DV TV, Sunday Supplement and All Things Considered

Publication

2025

2024

2023

  • Heimann, M. and Delay, C. 2023. Saints and devotional cultures. In: Harris, A. ed. Oxford History of British and Irish Catholicism, vol. V: Recapturing the Apostolate of the Laity, 1914-2021. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 146-164.
  • Heimann, M. 2023. Evangelicals and the Communist regimes in postwar East-Central Europe. In: Bebbington, D. ed. The Gospel and Religious Freedom: Historical Studies in Evangelicalism and Political Engagement. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, pp. 167-182.

2022

2021

2020

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2005

  • Heimann, M. 2005. Catholic revivalism in worship and devotion. In: Gilley, S. and Stanley, B. eds. The Cambridge History of Christianity: Volume 8, World Christianities c.1815–c.1914. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

2004

2002

  • Heimann, M. 2002. English Catholic particularism in piety and politics. In: Lamberts, E. ed. The Black International: L'Internationale Noire 1870-1878 - The Holy See and Militant Catholicism in Europe/Le Saint-Siege et le Catholicisme Militant en Europe. KADOC Studies Leuven: Leuven University Press

1999

1996

1995

Articles

Book sections

Books

Conferences

Research

My approach to the history of ideas is rather like that of an anthropologist. I treat the past as a series of foreign cultures whose mental outlooks, prejudices and assumptions are different from our own.

My research seeks to recover and make sense of how people, living at different times and in different places, conceptualise their own and rival religious faiths, scientific paradigms, national identities and political utopias.

I publish in two distinct fields:

  • nineteenth and twentieth-century religious history, especially British
  • twentieth-century East European political history, especially Czechoslovak

My best-known publications are Catholic Devotion in Victorian England (Oxford University Press), ‘Christianity in Western Europe from the Enlightenment’ in A World History of Christianity, and Czechoslovakia: The State That Failed (Yale University Press).

A new Czech edition, Československo - stát, který zklamal, was published in 2020, with a foreword by the first Czech Prime Minister, Petr Pithart, and endorsements by former Civic Forum leader Jan Urban and Slovak deputy Foreign Minister Magdaléna Vášáryová.

My next book, Catholicism behind the Iron Curtain, is also to be published by Yale University Press.

I have received various research awards, including from The Leverhulme Trust, the AHRC and the ESRC.

My research has been the subject of both REF (2014) and AHRC (2016) Impact Case Studies.

I am grateful to BASEES, the Czech Embassy in London, the Slovak Embassy in London, and the Honorary Slovak Consul in Wales for support with following recent research-related, wider engagement events:

Commemorating 100 years since the founding of Czechoslovakia:

Czechoslovakia100

Taking witness testimony 30 years after the 1989 Velvet Revolution:

Generation '89 Witness Seminar

Teaching

I teach a mix of modern European history, focussing mainly on Czechoslovakia and twentieth-century East-Central Europe.

Specialist double-semester modules developed for Cardiff include:

  • HS1884 Czechoslovakia: The View From Central Europe
  • HS6224 Language Skills for Historians
  • HS1772 Martyrs and Collaborators: Catholicism behind the Iron Curtain
  • HST685 The 1989 Revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe
  • HS1135 Modern Britain (with colleagues)

New single-semester modules developed in 2023/2024:

  • HS6218 The Dark Twentieth Century
  • HS6321 Czechoslovakia: The Twentieth Century in Miniature
  • HS6224 Language Skills for Historians

I contribute to various team-taught modules in History (Making of the Modern World, Debating History, Making History, History in Practice, Exploring Historical Debate, Dissertation Masterclass).

I supervise both undergraduate and postgraduate research projects in Modern European History, especially Czechoslovak history.

I am currently supervising two MPhil dissertations in Czechoslovak history and co-supervising one PhD thesis.

Biography

I'm an historian specialising in Czechoslovakia, English Catholicism, and religion in Eastern Europe during the Cold War.

I founded the Central and East European Research Centre and the Czechoslovak Special Collection at Cardiff University.

I was educated at Vassar College in upstate New York (BA in History and English, 1987) and at Magdalen College, Oxford (1988-1992).

My DPhil (PhD) in Modern History was awarded from the University of Oxford in 1993.

Before being appointed to the Chair of Modern History at Cardiff University, I was a Research Fellow at Newnham College, Cambridge (1992-5), Lecturer in History at the University of York (1995-6), Research Editor at the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (1996-7) and Senior Lecturer, then Reader, at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland.

I have won various research funding and fellowships (AHRC, Leverhulme, Maguire), held visiting fellowships (Charles University in Prague, Masaryk University in Brno) and had policy recommendations adopted by NATO’s Partnership for Peace (2015).

I serve on the editorial boards of The English Historical Review (Oxford University Press) and British Catholic History (Cambridge University Press).

I was for many years Associate Editor for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press) with responsibility for Roman Catholic subjects; I also worked on The Gladstone Diaries and History of the University of Oxford projects. Until 2016 I was also on the editorial boards of The Innes Review (Edinburgh University Press) and Europe-Asia Studies (formerly Soviet Studies).

I became a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2005.

I belong to the Europe Science Foundation College of Expert Reviewers.

Professional memberships

  • Society of Authors
  • Czechoslovak Studies Association
  • Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES)
  • Forum for Czech and Slovak Studies (UK)
  • British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies (BASEES)
  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
  • Fellow of the Royal Historical Society

Academic positions

  • 2016-present: Professor of Modern History, Cardiff University
  • 2016: Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Reader, Stathclyde University
  • 1996-1997: Research Editor, Oxford DNB, University of Oxford
  • 1995-1996: Lecturer in History, University of York
  • 1992-1995: Research Fellow, Newnham College, Cambridge

Supervisions

I welcome and enjoy supervising Masters (MPhil) and Doctoral (PhD) research students in Modern History.

My areas of particular expertise and scholarly interest include:

  • Czechoslovakia
  • Political Trials
  • English Catholicism
  • Communism
  • Science and Religion
  • East-Central Europe
  • The Cold War
  • Underground Religion

Current supervision

James Moffatt

James Moffatt

Research student

Liz Kohn

Liz Kohn

Research student

Ben Wilde

Ben Wilde

Research student

Past projects

Current/recently supervised postgraduate research topics include:

  • Liz Kohn, 'The Invisible Women of the Slánský Trial in Czechoslovakia' (expected completion 2024).
  • James Moffatt, 'The Rudolf Battěk Trial in Normalized Czechoslovakia' (expected completion 2024).
  • Kristof Smeyers, 'Blood Ties: Stigmatics and Society in Victorian Britain' (co-supervised with Tine van Osselaer at University of Antwerp), PhD awarded 2021. 
  • Stephen O'Donnell, 'Trans-national Slovak Nationalism, circa 1890-1914' PhD awarded 2018.
  • David Green, 'The Czechoslovak Communist Party's Revolution' PhD awarded 2014.
  • Jennifer Dowie Roe, 'Spiritualist Sunday Schools, 1860-1900' PhD awarded 2011.

Contact Details

Email HeimannM@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone +44 29208 75157

Research themes

Specialisms

  • Central and Eastern European History
  • British history
  • History of ideas
  • History of religion
Looking East

Looking East

25 September 2023

Czechoslovakia rediscovers its past in its own words

Czechoslovakia rediscovers its past in its own words

02 April 2020

Generation89: Witnessing the Velvet Revolution 30 years on

Generation89: Witnessing the Velvet Revolution 30 years on

12 November 2019