Dr Antonie Dvorakova

Antonie's cultural psychology work has been promoting the ways in which members of Indigenous/tribal, racialised, socio-economically disadvantaged, first-generation in college, and otherwise vulnerable populations can utilise their culturally-specific resources to transcend the limitations and pathology that dominant/mainstream societies impose on these populations through structural and systemic conditions that create inequities.

Antonie is a member of the Research Centre for Better Living's Applied Health and Social Justice research group.

[email protected]

Background

Antonie's career to date has been developed through academic training, research and teaching at institutions in the Czech Republic and the USA, and in collaboration with members of Roma and Indigenous Peoples populations in the USA. She studied at the University of Chicago, Stanford University, and University of Kansas in the USA, and at Masaryk University in the Czech Republic.

In the UK, she explores the experiences of Roma people who migrated from the Czech Republic and ultimately attained UK higher education degrees, to be compared with experiences of highly educated Roma in the Czech Republic.

Research interests

• Cultural psychology and Indigenous psychologies
• Resilience and well-being
• Identity, stereotypes and dehumanisation
• Social inclusion and mobility in Roma and other marginalised populations
• Racialised/Indigenous and working-class/first generation students and faculty in higher education

Antonie's research has been untangling how psychological differences affect and at the same time are affected by historically based developments in heterogeneous socio-cultural contexts. It has been not only developing conceptual frameworks, but also facilitating practical applications to address issues of poverty, marginalisation, discrimination and dehumanisation, through building strength-based models to support empowerment, self-determination, resilience and well-being, on both individual and community levels.

Memberships, editorial boards

Peer-reviewing for academic journals

• American Psychologist
• Social Science Journal
• Current Psychology
• Scientific Reports
• Group Processes and Intergroup Relations
• Applied Psychology: An International Review
• Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy
• Czech and Slovak Psychology (Ceskoslovenska Psychologie)
• Indigenous Nations Studies Journal
• Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
• Current trends in Education
• Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture

Professional memberships

• American Psychological Association
• Society for Qualitative Inquiry in Psychology
• International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology
• Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science
• Working-Class Studies Association
• European Society for Research in Adult Development
• The Entwined Collective: Recovering Black and Indigenous Histories of the Northeast

Research grants, consultancy, knowledge exchange

• Horizon-MSCA-PF grant #101198010, European Commission/UKRI, UK, 2025–2027.
• Independent and Creative Works Award, Charles Redd Center for Western Studies, USA, 2025.
• MSCA-CZ grant #CZ.02.01.01/00/22010/0002593, Czech Ministry of Education, Czech Republic, 2023–2024.
• Munson Institute Fellowship, Mellon Foundation, USA, 2023.
• Distinctive Collections Travel and Access Award, Montana State University, USA, 2023.
• Paul Cuffe Memorial Fellowship, University of Connecticut & Mystic Seaport Museum, USA, 2023.
• GACR grant #19-04800S, Czech National Science Foundation (GACR), Czech Republic, 2019–2022.
• ERASMUS higher education mobility program award (short stay in the UK), 2021.
• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowship Seal of Excellence Award, European Commission, 2020.
• Jack Kent Cooke Dissertation Fellowship Award, Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, USA, 2013–2014.

Selected recent publications

Dvorakova, A. (2025) 'All psychologies are indigenous: Addressing historical grounding of WEIRD social psychological knowledge in colonialism and racism', Psychological Studies. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12646-025-00867-w

Dvorakova, A. (2025) 'From Resistance to Resilience: A First-Generation Scholar’s Global Mission'. In: Gaulee, U. and Bista, K. (Eds.) (2025) Transformative Journeys. Lumina Foundation & STAR Scholars.

Dvorakova, A. (2023) 'Can socio-economically disadvantaged, marginalized backgrounds facilitate resilience and educational attainment?', Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 54(3), pp. 499–517. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2022.2149240

Crapolicchio, E., Prati, F., Dvorakova, A., Di Bernardo, G. A. and Ruzzante, D. (2023) 'Effective Ways for Reducing Dehumanization: Interpersonal and Intergroup Strategies', Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 51. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2023.101277

Dvorakova, A. (2022) 'Identity in heterogeneous socio-cultural contexts: Implications of the Native American master narrative', Culture & Psychology, 28(1), pp. 43-64. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/1354067X19877913

Dvorakova, A. (2019) 'Contextual identity experiencing facilitates resilience in Native American academics', The Social Science Journal, 55(3), pp. 346-358. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soscij.2017.12.001

Dvorakova, A. (2019) 'Relational individuality among Native American academics: Popular dichotomies reconsidered', Culture & Psychology, 25(1), pp. 75-98. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/1354067X18763799

Dvorakova, A. (2018) 'Negative stereotypes deconstructed and transformed in the experience of Native American academics', American Journal of Education, 124(3), pp. 345-371. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1086/697213

Dvorakova, A. (2016) 'The cultural psychology endeavor to make culture central to psychology', American Psychologist, 71(9), pp. 888-889. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000053

Dvorakova, A. (2016) 'Native American Tribal Family Structure'. In: Wagner, J. (Ed.) (2016) The World of the American West. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.

Recent presentations and conferences

Dvorakova, A. (2026) 'Social mobility and Roma identity experiencing in highly educated Czech professionals', invited presentation for the symposium Advancing Gypsy, Roma, Traveller Inclusion and Belonging in Higher Education, Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland, 8 May.

Dvorakova, A. (2026) 'Cultural psychology explicates the cultural foundations of human mind', Invited presentation for the Applied Health and Social Justice Research Group seminar', Research Centre for Better Living, ARU, Cambridge, UK, 22 April.

Dvorakova, A. (2025) 'Giving back: Existential analysis meets complex contemporary embodiments of traditional Indigenous worldviews/spiritualties', Presentation at the Society for Qualitative Inquiry in Psychology (SQIP) conference, Milwaukee, WI, USA, 18 July.

Dvorakova, A. (2024) 'Cultural psychology in action: Holistic tribal worldviews facilitate transcendence, resilience in Native American scholars', Presentation at the Psychology and the Other conference, London, UK, 7 July.

Dvorakova, A. (2024) 'Addressing historical grounding of psychological knowledge in colonialism and racism', Presentation at the SQIP annual meeting, Boston, MA, US, 15 June.

Dvorakova, A. (2024) 'Socio-cultural capital in socioeconomically disadvantaged environments', Presentation at the Working Class Studies Association conference, Old Westbury, NY, US, 7 June.

Dvorakova, A. (2023) 'Northern Cheyenne women warriors of the 19th century', Invited presentation for the Equine History Collective annual conference, Bristol, RI, US, 28 September.

Dvorakova, A. (2023) 'Why history is important: Mainstream interpretations and Northern Cheyenne tribal empowerment', Invited presentation for Friends of Montana State University Library, Bozeman, Montana, US, 14 August.

Dvorakova, A. (2023) 'Kalmar Nyckel: Reimagining maritime Colonial Era in today Delaware', Presentation for the Munson Institute at the Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic, CT, US, 20 July.

Dvorakova, A. (2022) 'Impact of dehumanisation discourses on psychical well-being among Roma people in the Czech Republic', Presentation at the European Association of Social Psychology Meeting on Dehumanisation, Tenerife, Spain.