Judita Matyasova
journalist - lecturer - researcher
JUDITA MATYASOVA
+420 724 905 379
www.linkedin.com/in/juditamatyasova/
International journalist, historian, lecturer, researcher,
and freelancer with 20 years of experience.
Connecting people through inspiring stories with the same passion in their hearts.
EDUCATION
POSTGRADUATE
(2018 – present)
PHD LONGEVITY STUDIES
Faculty of Humanities, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic
MASTER’S DEGREE
(2015 – 2017)
ORAL HISTORY AND MODERN HISTORY
Faculty of Humanities, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic
BACHELOR OF ARTS
(2008 – 2011)
CREATIVE WRITING AND JOURNALISM
Literary Academy of Josef Škvorecký in Prague, Czech Republic
EXPERIENCE
FREELANCER
(2003 – present)
JOURNALIST
Historical stories, interviews with personalities (cultural and historical), exhibition reviews and travel stories for the main Czech newspapers
Popularization of journalistic work in the form of lectures and workshops for the public and professionals at home and abroad
LECTURER
Lectures and workshops on how to present inspiring stories to the media
Series of lectures on journalistic work for Radio Free Europe, The World
Holocaust Remembrance Center “Yad Vashem” in Jerusalem, European
Parliament, or Jewish Museum in Copenhagen and in Stockholm
GUEST LECTURER
(2020)
LECTURES IN AARHUS UNIVERSITY (DENMARK)
Series of lectures on journalistic work during the winter semester at the Danish School of Media and Journalism, and the Department of History
LECTURER
(2017 – 2020)
LECTURES IN CHARLES UNIVERSITY IN PRAGUE (CZECH REPUBLIC)
Series of lectures on journalistic work for students of 4th and 5th grade of master’s degree in the Department of Journalism
GUEST LECTURER
(2013)
LECTURES IN CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY (CALIFORNIA, USA)
Series of lectures on Holocaust Education at the Rodgers Center
RESEARCH PROJECTS
SOPHIE'S CHOICE - THE CZECH WAY
I founded this project in 2010 when I found a forgotten story of 80 Czech Jewish teenagers. They left Czechoslovakia in 1939 and went to Denmark, where they survived in foster families. Later they lost connection for 70 years. I found 30 of them all around the world, wrote a book "Friendship in spite of Hitler", am author of the exhibition about this story and wrote the script for documentary “Into the North” directed by Natasha Dudinski and produced by Mimesis.
JOURNEYS OF FRANZ K.
A Czech photographer, Jan Jindra, is author of a project about famous writer Franz Kafka. I joined him in 2003 and became the co-author of this project. Jan and I did documentation of 70 places in Europe, where Kafka travelled for holiday or for a business trip. The main result of the project was exhibition "Journeys of Franz K." and a book “In the footsteps of Franz Kafka” including Jan's photos of authentic Kafka's places and my texts.
A LETTER TO GRANDCHILDREN
The international project compares letters of elderly people from Poland, Germany, and Czech Republic, which they wrote to their grandchildren. I coordinated this project in Czech Republic and organized an international conference in Prague with speakers from Poland and Germany.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
HAREDIM (2018, NABLIZKO)
An interview with Czech photographer Eliska Blazkova who spent eight years with documentation of the daily life of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe
IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF FRANZ KAFKA (2009, ACADEMIA)
A guide to places connected with the life of Franz Kafka
FRIENDSHIP IN SPITE OF HITLER (2013, MLADÁ FRONTA)
A story of a forgotten group of 80 Czech Jewish teens, who left home in autumn 1939 and survived thanks to foster families in Denmark and helpful people in Sweden
OUR OR THE OTHERS (2013, JEWISH MUSEUM PRAGUE)
A chapter about oral history in a textbook for teachers of elementary and secondary schools