The funny thing is, Jakub actually didn’t study history, he studied anthropology and sociology. Anthropology comes from the Greek word Anthropos (human) and logos (study). “A lot of anthropology relies on fieldwork where you go as an anthropologist to certain societies and spend a long time there. You observe, you can interact with people to sort of try to get an idea of how certain things are organized. For example, in early anthropology, it was very common for anthropologists to go to different countries and just study how things are done somewhere else. It’s a study of human societies. Not historically but contemporarily and through the people.” I have never met someone who studied in this field before and Jakub talked about it with such interest it made me reconsider my career choices! 

I asked Jakub what was the coolest place he visited in his career and what does he specify in. “I work a lot with the environment. When I was in the U.S. I worked with environmental anthropology like oil and pollution and now when I moved to Europe my work is in borders and migration. I don’t really travel anywhere cool to do my research. I also did most of it during COVID so I was mostly sitting at home researching online and calling people and working like that. So I haven’t traveled anywhere cool for work yet.” Even though Jakub didn’t think I’d find borders and migration cool, I really did. 

Moving on from studying and career choices, as mentioned, one of Jakub’s passions is theater. “I used to do a lot of theater when I was a teenager. I went to a drama school and for my undergrad, I studied playwriting, but I’m more interested in the writing part than the acting part. I still work at the theater. For the past six years, every summer I travel to Norway to work for a theater company for about a month.” I also asked Jakub if he talks with people that work there in English, and his answer surprised me. He actually speaks some Norwegian, since it was the mandatory foreign language at his high school. 

When I asked about music, there was not much to say. Literature is Jakub’s cup of tea, though. “I have to admit that I am not really a music person. I listen to any old rubbish. I’m more of a literature person so I’ll tell you that I’m reading a lot of contemporary Japanese literature and contemporary literature from West Africa. So for example there is a very good Japanese author called Banana Yoshimoto. I really recommend it if you’re into literature. She writes very short books, one of them is a short novel called Kitchen. I think it was one of the most interesting and enjoyable books I’ve read. And from West African literature, there’s a really good book called My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite. It was really funny.” All of these books are going on my reading lists, thank you, Jakub! 

But what about his home? Jakub enjoyed growing up in a small town, Kremnica, in the hills. The kind of town where you know everyone and it’s quiet. “Of course, it was a little bit boring for me as a teenager, since there is not much to do, but now I love to come back as a visitor.” I didn’t grow up in a small town, but sometimes I think of how peaceful it must be. Does Dúbravka count?