Ivan Souček is a Lecturer in Anthropology at the Department of Social Studies and Ethnology (Matej Bel University). His research interests are Medical Anthropology and Anthropology of Religion, and particularly focuses on cultural traditions in India and their perception in Europe. He has published extensively on religious healing, alternative medicine, rituals, health and medicine. He has conducted ethnographic research in India and Eastern Europe. He is editor and co-author of the books Indian Paths to the Spiritual World (2016) and Understanding Unconventional Medicine (2022). He has held fellowship at University of Vienna and currently is working on a research project on use of complementary and alternative medicine in the general population in Slovakia.  

A press release highlighting research on CAM in Slovakia

https://spravy.pravda.sk/domace/clanok/538330-vyskum-slovaci-oblubuju-ludovych-liecitelov/

Monography and edited books

2022

Understanding Unconventional Medicine. MUNI Press. 10.5817/CZ.MUNI.M210-8643-2022

2017

Indické cesty do duchovného sveta.  CAD Press

Selected recent articles (peer-reviewed)

2023

We are (not) Different from the Others: Religious Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Slovakia and India

In: Journal of Religion and Health.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-023-01777-9

2022

Medical Pluralism in East and West Europe: A Comparison of People Visiting Healthcare Practitioners Specializing in Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

In: Complementary Medicine Research Vol. 29, No. 4. 297-308

doi: https://10.1159/000524330

2022

Initiation and Asceticism in India: Insight into the Viewpoint of Renouncers.

In: Journal of Anthropological Research. Vol. 78, No. 3. 338-358

https://doi.org/10.1086/720696

2022

Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use in Slovakia: Results of a National Population Survey.

In: Sage Open Vol. 12, No. 1.

http:/DOI: 10.1177/21582440211068480

2022

The Wedding with a Stolen Goddess: The Ethnography of a Cult in Rural Tamil Nadu.

In: Journal of Religion and Health. Vol 61, No.3. 2500-2513.

doi: http:/10.1007/s10943-020-01010-x.

2021

Imagining ‘the Orient' on ‘the Other' side of Europe: perceptions of India in the Slovak tourism sector.

 In: Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change. Vol. 18, No. 5., 2020. 591-605.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/14766825.2019.1668399.

2020

Medical pluralism in central European countries: from medical monopoly to free medical competition?

 In: Cesky lid. Vol. 107, No. 1, 2020. 51-70.

https://doi.org/10.21104/CL.2020.1.03

2017

Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Slovakia from the Social Science Perspective.

In: Sociologia. Vol. 49, No. 4, 2017. pp. 427-450.

2017

Obraz indickej medicíny: od koloniálnej minulosti po súčasnosť

In: Cargo Journal. Vol. 15, No. 1-2, 2017.

Selected projects

2022 - 2025

Cultural and value context of contemporary use of complementary and alternative medicine

VEGA - National Research Agency 1/0381/22

2021 - 2024

Alliance for Research on Cultural Heritage in Europe.

Horizon-CSA

2019 - 2021

Analysis of selected social contexts of using alternative forms of health care in Slovakia.

VEGA - National Research Agency 1/0356/17

2017 - 2020

Ruins Project. Interreg Central Europe

2014 - 2016

Ritual Tradition and Dynamics in India - Diksha Initiation.

VEGA - National Research Agency 1/0064/14