Mgr. Martin Pehal, Ph.D.

Function

• zástupce ředitele (deputy head) - Department of Arts and Religious Studies

• Email: martin.pehal@ff.cuni.cz
• Phone: (+420) 221619304

Address

Department of Arts 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

•  11/2015 Ph.D./Religious Studies, Charles University, Prague, CZ
• 2008 Mgr./Egyptology and Religious Studies (double Major), Charles University, Prague, CZ

Career History

• 2/2022–1/2025 Vice-Dean for Project and Grant Management (Faculty of Arts, Charles University = CUFA)
• since 1/2020 BA Study Programme Head (Religious Studies)
• since 1/2017 Assistant professor (Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, CUFA)

Career-related Activities

• since 1/2022 (ends 12/2026), Steering Committe Member, Theology and religious Studies Research Area, Cooperatio Programme, CUFA
• since 4/2018 Executive Committee Member, Czech Association for the Study of Religions (ČSR)
• 1/2024–1/2025 Co-ordinator of the Post mass-shooting (21.12.2023) ritual-renewal at CUFA
• 1/2019–12/2024 Steering Committe Member, Ritual Studies Panel, American Academy of Religion (AAR)
• 9/2017–6/2018 Fulbright-Masaryk Scholarship. Post-doc Position at Brown University (RI), supervisor: James P. Allen
• 11/2012–10/2020 Co-founder and Organizational Committee Member of the Velvet Carnival Initiative (Iniciativa Fór_Um, z.s.)
• 11/2010–8/2011 Vlaamse Gemeenschap (Flemish Community) Doctoral Scholarship, K.U. Leuven (Belgium). Supervisor: Harco Willems

Member of Research Teams

• since 9/2023 (ends 6/2028) Senior Researcher, Beyond Security: Role of Conflict in Resilience-Building (EH22_008/0004595-01, OP – EU Operational Programme, CZ Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports)
• since 7/2021 (ends 12/2026) Senior Researcher, Alchemies of Scent. Reconstructing the Practices of Ancient Greco-Egyptian Perfumery: An Experimental Approach to the History of Science (GM21-30494M, CZ Science Foundation)
• 1/2018–6/2023 Researcher, Creativity and Adaptability as Conditions for the Success of Europe in an Interrelated World (EF16_019/0000734-01, OP – EU Operational Programme, CZ Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports)
• 1/2018–12/2023 Junior Researcher UNCE Excellence Cluster, University Centre for the Study of Ancient and Medieval Tradition (CUFA)
• 1/2017–12/2021 Junior Researcher PROGRES excellence cluster, Rationality Crisis and Modern Thought (CUFA)

Conference Papers (last 5 years)

• June 2025 “Beneath the Laarve: Masking during the Basel Carnival of Fasnacht”, Performing Carnival! Ekstasis–Subversion–Metamorphosis, University of Cologne – International Federation for Theatre Research (Cologne, Germany)
• 15.11.2024 “Bodies in Motion: November 17th Festivities as Civil Religion”, To Whom Does the Public Space Serve?, Prague City Gallery (Prague, Czechia)
• 15.11.2023 “Future of Religious Studies in Czechia”, Invited Panel Member, 30th Anniversary of the Founding of Religious Studies in Brno, Masaryk University (Brno, Czechia)
• 24.5.2023 “On the Ancient Egyptian Concept of Innovation as Rooted in Eternal Sameness [djet] and Eternal Repetition [nekhekh]”, Practice and Theory: The Structures of Scientific and Technological Knowledge in the Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean Worlds, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
• 21.6.2022 “Creating Ritual: From the Basler Fasnacht to the Velvet Carnival” and “Velvet Carnivalisation: Creating Verbal and Visual Symbols in the Velvet Carnival”, Ritual Creativity , Fribourg University (Fribourg, Switzerland)
• 19.9.2021 “Dancing to the Sound of DISCOvid: Pandemic Mutations of One Prague Carnival”, Ritualising in Corona Tmes: 2nd Symposium on Public Festivity, Charles University (Prague, Czechia)
• 13.1.2021 “Re-enchanting the 1989 Commemorative Celebrations in the Czech Republic”, Thinking with the Concept of Re-enchantment in CEE, Charles University (Prague, on-line)
• 28.1.2020 “Being a Father to Oneself: Succession Strategies in Ancient Egypt”, Winter Conference of the University Centre for the Study of Ancient and Medieval Tradition excellence cluster, Charles University (Prague, Czechia)

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

• with H. Wilde, D. Míčková, and S. Coughlin, “The Antu-List Reconsidered: A Synoptic Reading of Edfu and Athribis Scented Material”, Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde (ZÄS) 251(1): 1–19, in press
• with Barry 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”, under review
• with H. Wilde, D. Míčková, and S. Coughlin, “The Nenib-List Reconsidered: A Synoptic Reading of Edfu and Athribis Ingredients”, in progress
• with Olga Věra Cieslarová, and Werner Kern. “Beneath the Laarve: Masking during the Basel Carnival of Fasnacht (Faasnacht)”. Journal of Material Culture 28, no. 3 (1 September 2023): 451–78. https://doi.org/10.1177/13591835221149681
• “Velvet Carnival: Play and Embodied Reflexivity”, in A. Koubová, M. MacLean, P. Urban (eds.), Play and Democracy: Philosophical Perspectives, London – New York: Routledge, 2022, p. 125–14
• “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, 2021, p. 199–234.
• “Personified Objects and Objectified Persons in Ancient Egypt”. In The Cultural Power of Personal Objects: Traditional Accounts and New Perspectives, Jared Kemling (ed.), SUNY Series in American Philosophy and Cultural Thought. Albany, N.Y: SUNY Press, 2021, p. 53–74.
• 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.
  with J. Dahms and 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. – the above mentioned article prompted a written reply: Joachim F. Quack, “Zur Situierung von TB 166 Pleyte”, Studien zur altägyptischen Kultur 45 (2016): 283–293.
• 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 27 (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.
• with Olga V. Cieslarová, “Svátek medvěda” [The Day of the Bear], Dingir 22.3 (2019), p. 89–91.
• “Doslov” [Afterword], in A. van Gennep, Přechodové rituály: systematické studium rituálů, trans. by H. Beguivinová from the French Les rites de passage, Praha: Portál, 2018, p. 209–223.
• “Sametové posvícení jako hra symbolů” [Velet Carnival: Game of Symbols], in A. Ferjenčíková, R. Chlup, M. Pehal, E. Koubková (eds.), Happening: Mezi záměrem a hrou [Happening: Interplay of Intention and Game], Praha: Akademie múzických umění v Praze (NAMU), 2015 [ISBN 978-80-7331-377-7], p. 138–152, [209 p.].
• “Rituál a tělesnost: ritologie Ronalda L. Grimese” [Ritual and Corporeality: Ritology of Ronald L. Grimes], Theatralia 17/1 (2014): 25–51.
• “Mocné bezmocené: ženy ve společnosti a mytologii starověkého Egypta” [Powerful Powerless: Women in Ancient Egyptian Society and Mythology], Prague Egyptological Studies [PES] VIII (2011): 49–54.

Teaching