Mgr. Martin Pehal, Ph.D.

Job

• proděkan (management member) - Faculty of Arts

• E-mail: martin.pehal@ff.cuni.cz
• Phone: (+420) 221619304

Address

Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies
Místnost č. 225

Office Hours

See our office hours web page.

Research Interests

• ancient egyptian religion (myth and ritual)
• ritual studies (public festivities)
• anthropology of religion
• gnosticism

Education

• 9/2017–6/2018 Fulbright-Masaryk post-doctoral fellow (Brown University, prof. J. P. Allen)
• 11/2015 Ph.D. in Religious Studies, Charles University, Prague (11/2010–7/2011 research stay at K. U. Leuven, prof. H. Willems)
• 6/2008 M.A. in Egyptology and Religious Studies (Charles University, Prague)
• 2002–2008 Study of Egyptology (Major), Philosophy (2002–2004, Minor), and Religious Studies (2004–2008, Major), Charles University in Prague

Career History

• director of undergraduate studies (Religious studies)
• since 1/2017 Assistant professor (Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Faculty of Arts, Charles University)
• 5/2013–12/2016 Researcher–lecturer at the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Faculty of Arts, Charles University.
• 6/2014–11/2016 European projects coordinator, assisstant to the vice dean for science
• 9/2011–12/2016 grant co-ordinator (Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies)

Member of research teams

• since 1/2018 junior researcher within the KREAS excllence cluster (Creativity and Adaptability as Conditions for the Success of Europe in an Interrelated World)
• since 1/2017 junior researcher within the Progres Q14 excellence cluster, Rationality Crisis and Modern Thought
• since 1/2016 junior researcher within the University Centre for the Study of Ancient and Medieval Tradition (UNCE)

Publications

Monographs

• Interpreting Ancient Egyptian Narratives: A Structural Analysis of the Tale of Two Brothers, the Anat Myth, the Osirian Cycle, and the Astarte Papyrus, Nouvelles études orientales, Bruxelles–Fernelmont: EME, 2014 [ISBN 978-28-0662-921-0], 305 p.

English articles and book chapters

• co-authored with B. Stephenson, ‘“If Not Now – When? If Not Us – Who?”: Ritual and Material Landscape of the “Velvet Revolution” Celebrations (17 November 1989) in the contemporary Czech Republic’, in preparation.
• “Velvet Carnival: Play and Embodied Reflexivity”, in A. Koubová, M. MacLean, P. Urban, Play and Democracy: Philosophical Perspectives, Routledge, in press.
• “New Kingdom Royal Succession Strategies and Their Possible Old Kingdom Antecedents”, in M. Nuzzollo and J. Krejčí (eds.), The Rise and Development of the Solar Cult and Architecture in Ancient Egypt: Latest Researches and Recent Discoveries, Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz, in press.
• “Personified Object and Objectified Persons in Ancient Egypt”, in J. Kemling (ed.), The Cultural Power of Personal Objects: Traditional Accounts and New Perspectives, SUNY Press, in press.
• co-authered with Markéta Preininger Svobodová, “Death and the Right Fluids: Perspectives from Egyptology and Anthropology”, Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 17 (March 12, 2018): 114–136.
• “Culturally Reflexive Aspects of Time and Space in New Kingdom Mythological Narratives”, in J. Winand and G. Chantrain (eds.), Time and Space at Issue in Ancient Egypt, Hamburg: Widmaier, 2018, p. 151–182.
• co-authored with J. Dahms a H. Willems, “Ramses II Helps the Dead: An Interpretation of Book of the Dead Supplementary Chapter 166”, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology [JEA] 300 (2014): 395–420.
• co-authored with O. Cieslarová “Corporeality as a Key to the Assessment of the Dynamics of Ritualization”, Yearbook for Liturgical and Ritual Studies/Jaarboek voor Liturgie-Onderzoek (2011): 67–85.

Czech articles and book chapters

• “‘To Já jsem matkou svého otce’: ženský princip a staroegyptské náboženské prvky v gnósi.” [“Tis I, Mother of My Father”: The Feminine Principle and Ancient Egyptian Religious Motifs in Gnosticism] Religio 28.1 (2020): 56–84.
• “Doslov” [Afterword], in A. van Gennep, Přechodové rituály: systematické studium rituálů, přel. H. Beguivinová z fr., Les rites de passage, Praha: Portál, 2018, p. 209–223.
• co-authored with R. Chlup, “Úvod”, in A. Ferjenčíková, R. Chlup, E. Koubková, M. Pehal (eds.), Happening: Mezi záměrem a hrou, Praha: Akademie múzických umění v Praze (NAMU), 2015 [ISBN 978-80-7331-377-7], s. 133–137.
• “Sametové posvícení jako hra symbolů”, in A. Ferjenčíková, R. Chlup, E. Koubková, M. Pehal (eds.), Happening: Mezi záměrem a hrou, Praha: Akademie múzických umění v Praze (NAMU), 2015 [ISBN 978-80-7331-377-7], s. 138–152.
• “Rituál a tělesnost: ritologie Ronalda L. Grimese”, Theatralia (2014): 25–51.
• “Mocné bezmocné: ženy ve společnosti a mytologii starověkého Egypta”, Pražské egyptologické studie [PES] VIII (2011): 49–54.
• “Papyrus Astarte a (egyptská) mytologie – otázka výkladu”, Prague Egyptological Studies [PES] VI (2009): 48–59.
• ​“Kanáanská Astarte v egyptském pantheonu: Astarte válečná – Astarte egyptská – Astarte milostná (osobní)”, Pražské egyptologické studie [PES] III (2004): 98–120.
• “Kanopy z českých sbírek”, in: M. Dospěl a P. Onderka (eds.), Egypt pod vládou faraonů/Katalog k výstavě Egypt pod vládou faraonů, Praha, 2003, p. 80–85.

Conference presentations

• 13.1.2021 “Re-enchanting the 1989 Commemorative Celebrations in the Cezch Republic”, Thinking with the Concept of Re-enchantment in CEE (Prague, on-line).
• 15.11.2019  “Velvet Carnival: What Makes it Go?!”, 1st Symposium on Public Festivities: What Makes Them Go? (Prague, Czech Republic)
• 26.6.2019 “‘Positional Succession’ as Key to Understanding New Kingdom Royal Ideology”, Solar Cult and Royal Ideology in Ancient Egypt (Prague, Czech Republic)
• 24–26.6.2019 “Velvet Carnival: Germinator of Democracy”, Play and Democracy (Prague, Czech Republic)
• 9–11.5.2019 “The Wor(l)d is an Image: Bodily Metaphors and Graphic Puns in Ancient Egypt”, Workshop on Conceptual Metaphors and Body Symbolism (Bergen, Norway)
•  19–20.4.2018 “Transforming Society Through Satire”, Performance as Activism (New York, USA)
• 25–26.7.2017 “‘Positional Succession’ as Key to Understanding New Kingdom Narratives”, Egyptology and Anthropology Symposium (Cambridge, UK).
• 19.–22.11.2016 “Play of Symbols: New Skin for the Old Celebration of the Velvet Revolution”, Annual Conference of the American Academy of Religion (San Antonio, USA).
• ​1.6.–3.7.2016 “Case of the Prince and His Dog: Accommodating Ambiguity”, 1st International Symposium on Animals in Ancient Egypt (Lyon, France).
• 15–16.7.2015 “Korean Buddhist Mortuary Rituals and Ritual Critics”, Prague Symposium on Buddhist Rites of Death (Prague, Czech Republic).
• ​29.9.–2.10.2008 “Corporeality as a Key to the Assessment of the Dynamics of Ritualisation”, Ritual Dynamics and the Science of Ritual International Conference (Heidelberg, Germany).

Teaching