FFA teacher Ladislav Jackson has been awarded the AKTION Czech Republic – Austria scholarship
Ladislav Jackson, an art historian and teacher at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Brno University of Technology, has been awarded a habilitation scholarship from the AKTION Czech Republic – Austria programme. The scholarship will enable him to undertake a research stay at the Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien, where he will work on completing his habilitation thesis dedicated to the architect and designer Liane Zimbler (1892–1987). The AKTION habilitation scholarship is one of the forms of support offered by the joint Czech-Austrian programme to academic staff at Czech public universities. It is intended for postdoctoral researchers within ten years of obtaining their Ph.D. and supports research stays in Austria specifically aimed at completing a habilitation thesis. The selection process is based on expert assessment by Czech and Austrian specialists and, uniquely among the AKTION scholarship categories, also includes an oral interview. Jackson’s habilitation project, Liane Zimbler (1892–1987): Design for Social Change, is preparing the first comprehensive monographic study of the work of this important yet still insufficiently researched architect and designer. The research examines her work in relation to modernism, feminist thought and social reform, focusing in particular on the transformation of modern housing, domestic labour, women’s emancipation, and new approaches to kitchens, children’s rooms and other spaces of everyday life. During his stay in Vienna, Jackson will be based at the Department of Design History and Theory at the Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien and will conduct research, among other places, in the university archive of the former Kunstgewerbeschule, the Austrian National Library, the Vienna City and State Archives, and the Austrian State Archives.