Michael L. Smith, Ph.D. Email & Phone Number

I am a Senior Research Scientist in Social Stratification at the Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences. I am also Director of the Comparative History of Ideas Prague Program at the University of Washington, Seattle. In 2018, I completed the Center of Excellence project “Dynamics of Change in Czech Society,” where I co-led the research team developing the Czech Household Panel Study. I received B.A. degrees from the University of Washington in Seattle (1998), M.A. from Boston College (2000), and my PhD in Political Science (2008) from the New School for Social Research in New York, where I also received the Hannah Arendt Prize for Best Dissertation. During my studies I was a David L. Boren Fellow, a Jacob K. Javits Fellow, an IREX fellow, and a short-term scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. I have helped spawn different social-political projects, such as www.politickefinance.cz. I am dedicated to both basic and applied research, and I am focused on gaining and carrying out research grants necessary for investigating fundamental questions of social inequality, mobility, and well-being in the Czech Republic and around the world.Outside of research and teaching, I have actively promoted public speaking and leadership skills in the Czech Republic, above all through positions in Toastmasters International, including the role of Division Director of Czech Toastmasters and my current role as Club President of Prague Business Toastmasters. I have organized the Toastmasters Winter Camp and Residential Weekend, as well as numerous workshops on public speaking. Beyond that, I was at the origins of Democrats Abroad Czech Republic, and have volunteered time at various Czech human rights and environmental organizations. Google scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=zDAWA-QAAAAJ&hl=en

Listed skills include Research, Public Speaking, Data Analysis, Policy Analysis, and 9 others.