Nominator's project description
| Professor Jindrich Toman has dedicated most of his academic work to the languages and cultures of Central Europe. As a linguist, he is an international authority in the area of formal syntax, where he has made important contributions to the study of Slavic languages and, in particular, to the field of word syntax, where his base of reference was German. He is also a prominent historian of twentieth-century linguistics, especially through his pioneering study of the Prague Linguistic Circle, which combines both linguistics and cultural history.
As of late, cultural history has become a strong research focus as evidenced by his work on Central European modernism. His monographs on visual culture, particularly the role of photography in book design, have set a high standard.
In Germany he will continue yet another focus defined by cultures of Central Europe - ethnic diversity with special reference to Jewish diaspora in the multilingual context of Prague in the late 19th and early 20th century. |
