European Association of History Educators

Project Co-Ordinators

Blandine Smilansky, EUROCLIO Project Manager

Blandine Smilansky began to work at Euroclio in May 2008. Previously, she studied Humanities in France, before completing a second degree in Contemporary History during a university exchange in the Charles University in Prague. She has also a MA in Cultural Management from the Institute of Political Sciences in Paris (Sciences Po).  She has been working as a project manager for several projects.  For instance, the EUROCLIO Annual Conference 2009 in Cyprus and currently the EUROCLIO/MATRA project Tolerance Building through History Education in Georgia.

Dagmar Kusá, Bratislava International School of liberal Arts

Dagmar is a native of Slovakia, where she received her M.A. in political science from the Comenius University and worked at the Slovak Helsinki Committee for human rights as a Project Coordinator. She has spent the last 8 years in Boston, Massachusetts pursuing her Ph.D. in political science at Boston University and working at the International Center for Conciliation as the Senior Fellow and Program Director. Dagmar worked for EUROCLIO between 2008 and 2009 as a Project Manager. Currently she works at the Bratislava International School of liberal Arts as a lecturer and program coordinator.

Edward Skubisz, Foundation ‘Dom Pokoju’

Edward Skubisz was teaching religious studies and sociology in middle schools in Amsterdam and Amersfoort, and was serving as a pastor in Catholic parishes in Amsterdam and Amersfoort from 1978. From 2004 until present he lectures at the University of Wrocław on culture and grammar, and serve as the Chair of Dutch Studies. Also he is engaged in implementation of projects in the Centre of the Culture of the Netherlands (University of Wrocław). Since November 2007, he is active as a teacher at the British International School in Wrocław and the Centrum Niderlandzkie in Wrocław, providing Dutch lessons.

Steven Stegers, EUROCLIO Project Manager

Steven studied social psychology at the University of Leiden and is currently also finalizing his MA History Thesis for History there. As part of his studies, he did research at the History Department at Georgetown University and the Library of congress in Washington DC in 2007. In 2005 and 2006, he co-organized organized two international symposia on history education in world historical perspective that were both attended by more than 100 participants together with Jonathan Even-Zohar. Steven works for EUROCLIO since the beginning of 2006. As project manager at EUROCLIO, he contributed to successful project proposals for the European Union, Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Soros Foundation and several other grant givers. He contributed to the implementation of projects in over ten mostly European countries. As part of his work, Steven participated in several professional training courses around Europe and various stakeholder meetings with the European Union and Council of Europe.

Project Team Members

Barnabas Vajda: Association of Hungarian History Teachers in Slovakia

Since Sept 2005 Barnabas Vajda is Lecturer, History Department, University of J. Selye, Komárno, Slovakia. Main fields of interest: Post-1945 General History, Everyday Life in the Cold War, History Didactics & Methodology, Analysis of History Textbooks. From 1999-2003 he studied at Comenius University, Bratislava. He obtained his Mgr degree in History and Hungarian Language and Literature. He did his PhD studies and degree in history of society/humanities. His thesis was on the influence of Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalysis on the Austro-Hungarian Society 1900-1933.

Dominik Kretschmann Kreisau Foundation for Mutual Understanding in Europe

Dominik Kretschmann was born 04. October 1972 in Frankfurt / Main, Germany. He studied law in Passau, Irkutsk (Russia) and Frankfurt (Oder) and graduated in May 2002. From September 2002 until July 2004 he took part in the lectureship program of the Robert Bosch Stiftung and taught German and European law at the university of Szeged (Hungary). January 2005 until November 2007 he worked for the the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen e. V. (Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations) as regional coordinator for Poland and the Czech Republic. Since November 2007 he is trainer / expert for educational questions at the memorial of the Kreisau Foundation for Mutual Understanding in Europe.

Iryna Kostyuk, «Nova Doba», All-Ukrainian Association of Teachers of History, Social Studies and Civic Education

Iryna Kostyuk has 25 years of teaching experience as a history teacher and teacher trainer. Currently she is a Living Heritage coordinator of ’Social Inclusion for civic engagement in Ukraine’ which is UNDP project. She cooperates with the All-Ukrainian Association of Teachers of History, Social Studies and Civic Education «Nova Doba» from its creation. From 1994 to 2004 she worked as a lecturer at the Lviv Regional In-service Institute. She was one of the national coordinators of European-Ukrainian project “New times, new history” in 2003, 2004, 2008 and also participated in Council of Europe seminars in Ukraine on standards, curriculums, textbooks problems. Iryna Kostyuk is a co-author and educational editors of several teaching materials.

László Beró, Association of Hungarian History Teachers

László Beró is a senior history teacher, senior English teacher at the Jokai Mor Gimnazium, Komarom since 1991. He obtained his degrees at Janus Pannonius University, Pecs 1986-1991: a History MA and an English MA. László Beró was involved in several professional organisations; Association of Hungarian Historians 1991, Association of Hungarian History Teachers 1993, Board Member 2001, Hannah Arendt Association 1997, Vice-president 2000 and  EUROCLIO Board Member 2002- 2005.

Miroslav Michela,  Historical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences

Miroslav Michela is a native of Slovakia; he is currently junior researcher at Institute of Historical Sciences, Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS). He obtained his MA. (1997-2002) at the Faculty of Paedeutics of Comenius University Bratislava, department: history – civics and ethics. Michela conducted his PhD. studies (2002-2007) at the Institute of Historical Sciences of SAS, Department of Modern history.  His specialization is the History of Slovakia and Central Europe in first half of 20th century; foreign policy, totalitarian propaganda, nationalism, loyalties, collective memory. Until the end of 2007 Miroslav Michela has been participating on 7 major research projects, actually working as a fellow of Center of excellence of SAS. Longer research fellowships: in Budapest and Prague (2003-2009)

Sylvia Semmet, Verband der Geschichtslehrer Deutschlands e. V 

Sylvia Semmet teaches History, English and History for bilingual classes at lower and upper secondary level at Goethe-Gymnasium Germersheim. Having been a teachers´ trainer for four years, she has also led further education courses for teachers of History. She coordinates the international relations of the German Association of History Teachers, which she also supports with translations and contributions to its nationwide magazine. She is active in border-crossing projects with History classes. She studied English and History at the University of Heidelberg, Germany and the University of Stirling, Scotland.During the General Assembly 2009 in Nikosia, Cyprus, Sylvia Semmet has been elected as the New Board EUROCLIO Member.

Viliam Kratochvíl, Pedagogical Faculty, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia

Marie Hůlková, Czech History Teachers Association

The take-off meeting of the EUROCLIO Project Connecting Central Europe Through Local History will take place on October 2-4, 2009 in the border city of Komárno, Slovakia. The core Project Team will share examples of good practices on local history approaches and chose common topics in the regional history of Central Europe. After this first meeting the project team members will start working on the collection of sources and development of innovative educational material addressing these topics, involving their students in this process through small oral history projects.