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Faculty of social and economic sciences CU > Departments > Institutes > Institute of Social Anthropology > People > Andrej Mentel

Andrej Mentel

Mgr. Andrej Mentel, PhD.

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Research characteristics:

My general research focus is evolutionary and cognitive anthropology. My current thematic focus is on anthropological research on ritual and religion, linguistic anthropology, and environmental anthropology. My research methods combine classical participant observation and ethnographic interviews with cognitive-psychological and psycholinguistic methods, as well as advanced statistical and psychometric methods of data analysis.
Among the more specific themes addressed in my research, I choose in particular the issue of the renewal of religious life in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and within it the social functions of the dervish (Sufi) orders. At the same time, I use the activities of dervish orders and their involvement in the structure of society to show how social solidarity and cooperation function and how trust is fostered in such groups characterized by intense rituals. Within the framework of linguistic anthropology, I address the social and cultural factors of linguistic socialization, including vocabulary acquisition and the development of the ability to understand written text. In environmental anthropology, I link these approaches with a focus on representations of the landscape and its features and the acquisition of knowledge about nature.

Regional specialization:

  • Western Balkans (mainly Bosnia and Herzegovina)
  • Carpathian mountains

Education:

  • 1996 - 2001 Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia (Mgr. - Biomedical Physics)
  • 2001 - 2009 Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia (PhD - Ethnology)

Occupation:

2008 - 2012: National Institute of Certified Educational Measurements (researcher , psychometrician)
2012 - 2015 Faculty of Arts , University of Trnava, Slovakia (assistant professor)
2009 - 2022: Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia (assistant professor)
2022 - present: Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia (associate professor)

Research stays:

2003 - 2005 Abteilung für Südosteuropäische Geschichte, Karl-Franzens Universität in Graz, Austria: CEEPUS scholarships (2003-2004), grant for PhD students and young researchers, Comenius University in Bratislava (2004), Ernst Mach - ÖAD (2004-2005)
2016 SEEHA (Southeast European History and Anthropology), Karl-Franzens Universität in Graz, Austria: ÖAD Scholarship.

Grants over the last 5 years:

2021 - 2025: APVV-20-0126 “Vocabulary as an indicator of the developmental language level of monolingual and bilingual preschool children” - investigator (joint project with the team at the Department of Speech Therapy, Faculty of Philosophy, Charles University in Bratislava)
2021 - 2023: 022UK-2-1/2021 “Crisis - a threat and a challenge: strategies for coping with pandemic situations in families and schools” - Principal Investigator
2018 - 2021: John Templeton Foundation: The Geography of Philosophy: An Interdisciplinary Cross-Cultural Exploration of Universality and Diversity in Fundamental Philosophical Concepts (Member of the Eastern Europe team)
2015 - 2019: APVV-14-0431: “Anthropology of Exclusion and Integration (ANEXINT)” (Investigator).

Membership in scientific societies:

  • Slovak Association of Social Anthropology (SASA)
  • International Association for Southeast European Anthropology (InASEA)

Teaching:

  • Bachelor’s Study: Field Methods and Techniques 1 and 2, Data Analysis and Coding, Seminar on Statistical Analyses
  • M.A. programme: Field Methods 1 and 2

Selected Publications:

  • Kapalková, S., Polišenská, K., Mentel, A., & Vencelová, L. (In press). Effects of oral language and decoding skills on reading comprehension performance across multiple assessments: a longitudinal study. Reading and Writing, 1-28. https://doi.org./10.1007/s11145-022-10383-2
  • Mentel, A. (2022). Rituals and group solidarity: an ethnographic case study. Slovenský národopis, 70(2), 228-247. https://doi.org./10.31577/SN.2022.2.20
  • Mentel, A. (2022). Farmárstvo ako kontrakultúra: Rodinné hospodárstva v strednej Bosne. Národopisná revue (Journal of Ethnology), 32(3), s. 179-191
  • Mentel, A. (2020). Folklorizmus a kultúra pamäti v súčasnej Bosne a Hercegovine. Národopisná revue (Journal of Ethnology), 30(4), 285-296.
  • Mentel, A. (2014). Kultúrny kapitál a formovanie edukačného poľa v Bosne a Hercegovine počas rakúsko-uhorskej okupácie. Sociální studia/Social Studies, 11(2), 27-50. https://doi.org/10.5817/SOC2014-2-27

Complete list of publications on the UK Publication Activity Register portal: http://alis.uniba.sk:9909/search/query?match_1=PHRASE&field_1=authid&term_1=393654&sort=callNumber&theme=EPC