Who am I?

I am a Ph.D. candidate in Public Policy at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University located in Prague, Czech Republic. My research lies in the areas of governance and public administration, exploring the possibilities and limits of the use of various regulatory instruments that are used by governments to achieve intended goals and policy changes. In practical terms, I focus on the areas of public affairs, particularly drug and migration policy. I observe various statistics, regulatory measures such as laws, secondary legislation and public policy documents, from which I try to extract information for the basis of my research. I like creativity and that includes using cutting-edge research methods. For my analyses I therefore try to use a mixed research design, with a combination of quantitative data from a variety of public sources and primary qualitative data to better understand and interpret the research outputs. I have a teaching experience in academics, having been a lecturer for about 50 students in the undergraduate Public Sector course and a supervisor in the graduate Doctoral Seminar in Public Policy course (both at Charles University, Prague).

I also have experience from international environment, studied abroad at the School of Planning, Public Policy and Management of the University of Oregon in the USA, the University of Konstanz in Germany and the Lisbon University Institute in Portugal. And currently I am a Visiting Researcher at the School of Public Affairs, University of Colorado Denver, where my research focuses on the regulation of recreational marijuana. Professionally, I have worked as a civil servant and Program Coordinator at the Ministry of Interior, where I was responsible for the development of strategic documents for the use of EU funds in the areas of border control, visa policy, migration, integration and asylum. I also have experience in the implementation of EU funds from the position of a managing authority and in project management of specific projects in the field of homeland security.

In my spare time I enjoy all kinds of technology and sports, especially American football and snowboarding. However, I also like to read a good book; apart from academic texts, I especially like Stephen King's fiction. Music rounds out my interests, I love guitars, especially distorted ones, which I play occasionally, so you can find me most often at metal music shows, but I also listen to rap and electronic music.

If you have finished reading here, thank you for your interest and welcome to my blog! I hope you will either have fun or learn something interesting. And if you want to get in touch, you can reach me on LinkedIn or social media profiles.

Tom