The Department for Theatre Research at Theatre Faculty JAMU was established in 2002 as a research department with close links to the school’s doctoral study programme.
Prof. PhDr. Bořivoj Srba, DrSc was its first head, holding the post until 2008. Under his direction the research of the Department focused mainly on the principle of “light theatre” in the work of the director E. F. Burian and on the dramatic works of Ludvík Kundera (prof. PhDr. Bořivoj Srba, DrSc), the issues of devised (or “authorial”) theatre (prof. PhDr. Josef Kovalčuk), and the intellectual legacy of the philosopher Josef Šafařík (doc. MgA. David Drozd, Ph.D.).
From 2007, when doc. PhDr. Jan Roubal, Ph.D. joined the Department’s staff, its scope of interest was broadened to include German and Polish theatre studies, introducing predominantly impulses related to the study of performativity and theatricality.
In the years 2008-2016 the Department was led by prof. PhDr. Josef Kovalčuk, who refocused its activity chiefly towards the documentation of studio theatres in Brno. As a coordinator of two consecutive projects under the Czech Science Foundation he formed a large research team which published a total of sixteen monographs recording mainly the work of HaDivadlo and Husa na provázku Theatre, but also of Ochotnický kroužek and Divadlo U stolu.
Further research work focused for instance on drama productions of the Brno Studio of the Czechoslovak TV (doc. MgA. Marek Hlavica, Ph.D.) and the shifting boundaries of the authoritative discourse in Czech theatre under the so-called Perestroika (Mgr. et Mgr. Radka Kunderová, Ph.D.).
After the death of Bořivoj Srba, the Department underwent a generational renewal in 2015. The team was expanded to include MgA. Jan Motal, Ph.D., Mgr. Tereza Konývková, and MgA. Lucia Repašská, Ph.D. From 2016 to 2017, Radka Kunderová was in charge of the Department.
Further changes occurred in 2017 and 2019 when Mgr. Bc. Dominika Polášková, Mgr. Naďa Satková, Ph.D., Mgr. et Mgr. Klára Škrobánková, Mgr. Jiřina Hofmanová, and Mgr. MgA. Eva Schulzová, Ph.D. joined the team.