Professor of International Studies · University of Miami
From Prague, through exile,
to Global International Relations.
About
Musician, lawyer, theorist — and, for most of her life, an exile.
Professor Vendulka Kubálková
is a Full Professor of International Studies
at the University of Miami.
Professor Kubálková holds a JUDr. from Charles University, Czechoslovakia, and a Ph.D. in International Politics from Lancaster University, England. She is also a graduate of the Prague Conservatoire. During the Cold War, obtaining a scholarship to study in Western countries required confronting the KGB and its Czech affiliate, the StB. To secure permission to travel to England, she was compelled to agree to serve as their operative. Upon her arrival, she reported herself to the British authorities, which led to the lifelong exile discussed in her recent book, My Path to Global International Relations: An Autobiographical Textbook (2026), and also in a new podcast.
She currently serves as a Professor of International Studies at the University of Miami in Florida. Her previous appointments include academic positions in England, New Zealand, and Australia, as well as fellowships at the University of Munich, Stanford University, and the University of California, Berkeley. She has served as Assistant Provost for International Studies and Director of the M.A. program in International Administration (MAIA). Since 2016, she has been a Visiting Professor at VSE, University of Economics and Business, Prague.
Professor Kubálková is a past President of the International Studies Association South and served for ten years as a trustee of the Social Science Research Foundation Board at the Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver. She co-edited the eight-volume M. E. Sharpe series, “International Relations in a Constructed World,” and was a founding member and co-chair of the ISA section Global International Relations (GIRS). Following years in exile, she received the Jan Masaryk Medal “Pro Amicitia Inter Naciones” for expertise in International Relations and has been inducted into the “Memory of the Nation” of the Czech Republic.
Her research, publications, and teaching focus on International Relations theory, Marxism, Constructivism, post-Soviet studies, religion, civilizations, culture in world affairs, non-Western perspectives, pedagogy, and the application of information technology in education. She discusses in her new book Orbis Pictus: World Affairs in the Visual Digital Era (2026), including some 130 teaching videos she made. See also YouTube: Kubálková Orbis Pictus.
2026
The account of a life shaped by coercion and exile — from a Prague conservatoire, through the demands of the StB and the KGB, to a career remaking International Relations theory from the outside.
Buy Now — V. Kubálková 2026 My Path to Global International Relations: A semi-autobiographical textbook.![V. Kubálková 2026: Orbis Pictus: World Affairs In The Visual Digital Era [Videobook With 140 Videos]. — book cover](https://drvkubalkova.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/orbis-pictus-1-1024x801.png)
2026
How the visual and the digital are remaking the teaching of world affairs — a videobook accompanied by 140 videos made for students of international relations.
Buy Now — V. Kubálková 2026: Orbis Pictus: World Affairs In The Visual Digital Era [Videobook With 140 Videos].Her story
Prague
Six years of study, and a diploma in music. She would go on to spend a decade as chapel organist and Minister of Music at the University of Miami.
Prague
A JUDr. in Law, by dissertation. Behind the Iron Curtain, a scholarship to study in the West meant an appointment with the state security service.
The turn
To be allowed to travel to England, she was made to agree to serve as an operative of the KGB and its Czech affiliate, the StB. On arrival she reported herself to the British authorities. The exile that followed lasted the rest of her life.
England
A Ph.D. in International Politics — then academic posts across England, New Zealand and Australia, and fellowships at Munich, Stanford and UC Berkeley.
Miami
Assistant Provost for International Studies, Director of the M.A. in International Administration, and Full Professor (tenured) in the Department of International Studies.
Return
Awarded the medal “Pro Amicitia Inter Naciones” — for friendship among nations — and inducted into the Memory of the Nation of the Czech Republic. Visiting Professor at VSE Prague since 2016.
“To secure permission to travel, she agreed to serve as their operative. On arrival, she reported herself.”