Writing Prague: A Conversation with Cynthia Paces [talk]

Historian Cynthia Paces, author of Prague: The Heart of Europe (Oxford University Press, 2025), will discuss the challenges and rewards of writing a comprehensive history of Prague—from its ninth-century beginnings to its present-day role as the capital of the Czech Republic. Her book explores the city’s shifting identity as both a cultural and political center and a frontier between empires. Attentive to the many voices that shaped Prague over the centuries, Paces highlights the experiences of Czechs, Germans, Jews, Roma, immigrants, women, and men.

While rooted in political and intellectual history, Prague: The Heart of Europe also delves into art, architecture, and everyday life. Paces will share images from her richly illustrated book and discuss her research and writing process in conversation with Thomas Ort, Associate Professor of History at CUNY Queens College. She will also reflect on the personal significance of Bohemian National Hall in her own family’s story.

Discounted copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing.

Cynthia Paces is Professor of History at The College of New Jersey, where she teaches courses on European history, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and Women’s and Gender history. She earned her doctorate at Columbia University and has lived, studied, and worked in Prague. She is the author Prague: The Heart of Europe (Oxford, 2025), Prague Panoramas: National Memory and Sacred Space in the Twentieth Century (University of Pittsburgh, 2009), and co-editor of 1989: The End of the Twentieth Century (W.W. Norton, 2009).

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