Research interests
Director of the Literature & Society Laboratory
Education
| 2015-2021 | Ph.D. in sociology, Masaryk University |
| 02/2018–07/2018 | Erasmus+ Ph.D. mobility program, University of Porto |
| 2013–2015 | M.A. in sociology, Masaryk University |
| 07/2013–06/2014 | Erasmus mobility program, University of Bergen |
Employment
| 01/2024-present | Director of the Literature and Society Laboratory at the Institute for Czech Literature of the Czech Academy of Sciences (Junior Star grant, The Czech Science Foundation) |
| 07/2022–12/2023 | Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute for Czech Literature of the Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS); Postdoctoral Fellows Support Program granted by the CAS |
| 09/2021–05/2022 | Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Cultural Sociology, Yale University |
| 01/2021–03/2021 | Jan Patočka Fellow, Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen, Vienna |
| 2021 | Graduate Fellow at the Department of Sociology, Masaryk University |
| 2020 | Graduate Fellow at the Institute for Population Studies, Masaryk University |
| 2019 | Research Fellow at the Center for the Cultural Sociology of Migration, Masaryk University |
| 2018 | Graduate Fellow at the Department of Sociology, Masaryk University |
| 2015-2017 | Graduate research assistant, grant project “Remembering Hus: Cultural Memory in Contemporary Festivity”, in cooperation with the Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada and the University of Konstanz, Germany; funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada |
Awards
| 2021 | Nomination for the SAGE Prize for Innovation/Excellence by the British Sociological Association |
| 2021 | Miloslav Petrusek Award, 1st place for the best student peer reviewed article, honored by the Czech Sociological Association |
| 2018 | Miloslav Petrusek Award, 1st place for the best student peer reviewed article, honored by the Czech Sociological Association |
| 2016 | Jan Hus Educational Foundation, award and scholarship for independent research in human and social sciences |
| 2015 | Junior Scholar Grant at the 12th conference of the European Sociological Association in Prague |
Selected bibliography (ASEP)
Book chapters
Váňa, J. 2022. The Sociological Truth of Fiction. The Aesthetic Structure of a Novel and the Iconic Experience of Reading. In: Thumala Olave, M. (ed.), The Cultural Sociology of Reading. The Meanings of Reading and Books Across the World. Cham, Palgrave Macmillan, 111-139. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-13227-8_5
Articles
Váňa, J. 2025. Sally Rooney and Cultural Sociology of Literature. Towards Epistemological Symmetry within Literature-and-Society Research. Journal of Literary Theory 19(1), 28-55. DOI: 10.1515/jlt-2025-2002
Váňa, J. 2021. Knowing through feeling. The aesthetic structure of a novel and the iconic experience of reading. American Journal of Cultural Sociology 9(2), 211-241. DOI: 10.1057/s41290-021-00130-5
Váňa, J. 2020. Fiction and Social Knowledge. Towards a Strong Program in the Sociology of Literature. Sociologiceskoe Obozrenie 19(4), 14-35. DOI: 10.17323/1728-192x-2020-4-14-35
Váňa, J. 2020. More than just a product. Strengthening literature in sociological analysis. Sociology Compass 14(6), 1-16. DOI: 10.1111/soc4.12789
Váňa, J. 2020. Theorizing the Social Through Literary Fiction. For a New Sociology of Literature. Cultural Sociology 14(2), 180-200. DOI: 10.1177/1749975520922469
Váňa, J. 2017. Kultura mezi materialitou a diskursem. Případ Higgsova bosonu a „božské částice“. Sociální studia 14(2), 123-140. DOI: 10.5817/SOC2017-2-123