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James Krapfl is a historian of modern European political culture and mentalities. Inspired by the experience of revolution and resistance to oppression in central Europe, his work asks how power and meaning are interrelated, what constitutes the power of the powerless at different times and places, and how the solidarity of those shaken by violence can become a force in history.

Prof. Krapfl鈥檚 first book reinterpreted the revolutionary experience of 1989 by gathering an unprecedented wealth of evidence on grassroots political thought and action. The book, which won the George Blazyca Prize and the Czechoslovak Studies Association book prize, showed that the democracy most citizens envisaged in 1989 was not exactly liberal, and that their attachment to socialism was stronger than most foreign observers realized, making such later phenomena as populism and Ostalgie less surprising than they were seen. These findings inspired Prof. Krapfl鈥檚 current research, which asks what changed in the minds of Czechoslovak, East German, Hungarian, and Polish citizens during the era of the Prague Spring and its aftermath, from 1968 to 1971. With this project nearing completion, Prof. Krapfl has begun writing a general history of Europe since 1989, emphasizing transformations in mentalities and political culture across the continent. In addition to these major projects, Prof Krapfl has written on topics as diverse as Macedonian nationalism and Ukraine鈥檚 Revolution of Dignity, veterans鈥� memories of World War I and central European phenomenology. His research has been funded by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council, les Fonds qu茅b茅cois de la recherche sur la soci茅t茅 et la culture, the Slovak Research & Development Agency, the Mellon Foundation, and the American Council of Learned Societies. He has been a visiting scholar at universities and research institutes in Bratislava, Jena, Olomouc, Prague, and Vienna.

In his teaching, Prof. Krapfl emphasizes creative problem-solving and the relevance of history to navigating the present. He has received the H. Noel Fieldhouse Award for Distinguished Teaching and the Arts Undergraduate Society鈥檚 Excellence in Teaching Award. Prof. Krapfl edits Canadian Slavonic Papers / Revue canadienne des slavistes, having previously edited East European Politics & Societies, and in the course of this work he has coordinated special issues or sections on the Belarus Uprising of 2020鈥�21, Russia鈥檚 2022 invasion of Ukraine, histories of emotion, approaches to the decolonization of Slavic studies, the Euromaidan, and Europe since 1989. He also worked with Paul Wilson to publish a revised, definitive translation of V谩clav Havel鈥檚 landmark essay, The Power of the Powerless. Prof. Krapfl is a vice president of the Canadian Association of Slavists, and he co-organizes the Montreal Central European Studies Workshop.