Ethnologist focused on the research of traditional and contemporary legends, conspiracy theories and rumours. She studied history and ethnology at the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University in Bratislava. During her doctoral studies she completed a study stay at Georg-August-Universität in Göttingen, Germany, and defended her dissertation on “Conspiracy theories as a narrative phenomenon (genre analysis)” in 2009.
Currently she is an independent researcher at the Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava, in 2016-2020 she was a member of the international event COST COMPACT Comparative Analysis of Conspiracy Theories. She is the author of the monograph Conspiracy Theories: themes, historical contexts and argumentative strategies (2017) and several other studies and chapters on conspiracy theories and rumours.
She is particularly interested in issues of group identification, group conflict, the analysis of ideological discourses, and historical contexts. In her works she deals, for example, with the spread of conspiracy theories in periods of threat, conspiracy apocalypticism in the online environment, argumentative strategies of anti-Semitic and anti-system oriented groups, the topic of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, images of the “enemy” and the “traitor” in political satire and cartoons, elements of victimization in conspiracy theories used in nationalist/populist discourse in Slovakia, etc.
Relevant bibliography:
PANCZOVÁ, Z.(2006) Konšpiračné teórie ako súčasť moderného folklóru (Staronové témy na slovenských a českých internetových diskusných fórach), in: E. Krekovičová – J. Pospíšilová (Eds.) Od folklórneho textu ku kontextu, 101 – 136. Bratislava: Ústav etnológie SAV – Etnologický ústav AV ČR.
PANCZOVÁ, Z. (2011) Konšpiračné teórie a ich argumentačné stratégie ako príklad ideologických diskurzov. Slovenský národopis/ Slovak Ethnology, 59 (1): 8-28.
KREKOVIČOVÁ, E. – PANCZOVÁ, Z. (2013) Obraz nepriateľa v počiatkoch slovenskej politickej karikatúry. Vizuálne stereotypy v časopise Černokňažník v rokoch 1861-1910. Slovenský národopis/Slovak Ethnology, 61(1): 31 – 54.
KREKOVIČOVÁ, E. – PANCZOVÁ, Z. (2013) Visual Representations of „Self“ and „Others““ Images of the Traitor and the Enemy in Slovak political Cartoons, 1861-1910. in: Visual Encounters With Alterity in Central and Eastern Europe. (Edited by D. Demski – I. Sz.Kristóf – K. Baraniecka-Olszewska), 462 – 487. Budapest: L´Harmattan.
PANCZOVÁ, Z. (2015) Image of the Traitor and Enemy in humour and political cartoons in war-time Slovakia: analysis of the magazine Kocúr’, in: War Matters. Constructing Images of the Other (1930s to 1950s). (Edited by D. Demski, L. Laineste, K. Baraniecka-Olszewska), 244-273. Budapest: l´Harmattan.
PANCZOVÁ, Z. (2015) Editoriál: Stručný úvod do tematiky sprisahaneckých teórií. Slovenský národopis/ Slovak Ethnology, 63(3): 187-194.
PANCZOVÁ, Z. (2015) Conspiracy Theories and their Argumentation Strategies as an Example of Ideological Discourses. In Ethnologia Slovaca et Slavica : zborník Filozofickej fakulty Univerzity Komenského, tom 37, 24-40.
PANCZOVÁ, Z. – JANEČEK, P. (2015) Théories du complote et rumeurs en Slovaque et en Tchéque. In: Diogène. Les théories du complot aujourd´hui, 249-250 (Janvier-Juin 2015): 150-167. Paris: UNESCO-IULM-Presses Universitaires de France.
PANCZOVÁ,. (2017) The Image of the West in Conspiracy Theories in Slovakia and Its Historical Context. In Folklore. Electronic Journal of Folklore, 2017, vol. 69, p. 49-68. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7592/FEJF2017.69.panczova
PANCZOVÁ, Z. (2017) Apokalyptické vízie konšpiračných teórií na slovenských antisystémových internetových stránkach. Národopisná revue, 2017, roč. XXVII, č. 4, s. 283-297.
PANCZOVÁ, Z. (2017) Konšpiračné teórie: témy, historické kontexty a argumentačné stratégie. Bratislava: Veda, 2017.
PANCZOVÁ, Z. (2019). Konšpiračné teórie a holokaust: súčasné podoby popierania holokaustu v slovenských internetových zdrojoch. In Tábor smrti Sobibor : dejiny a odkaz. – Bratislava: Ústav etnológie a sociálnej antropológie SAV; Dokumentačné stredisko holokaustu; Marenčin PT, spol. s r.o., 2019, s. 167-199. ISBN 978-80-569-0449-7.
PANCZOVÁ, Z. – JANEČEK, P. (2020). Popular conspiracy theories in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Diogenes, First published August 17, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1177/0392192120945614.
PANCZOVÁ, Z. (2020)The Victims, the Guilty, and “Us”: Notions of Victimhood in Slovakian Conspiracy Theories. In Conspiracy Theories in Eastern Europe : Tropes and Trends [eBook]. – Routledge, October 29, 2020, s. 186-204. ISBN 9780429326073. Dostupné na internete: <https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/victims-guilty-us-zuzana-panczov%C3%A1/e/10.4324/9780429326073-13?context=ubx&refId=be3f1341-113a-42a0-ae8a-fb56b3a2a3e8>
PANCZOVÁ, Z. (2020). Protokoly sionských mudrcov a holokaust. In Ťažké časy : Roky 1938-1945 v aktuálnom spoločenskom diskurze. – Bratislava : Ústav etnológie a sociálnej antropológie SAV : Marenčin PT, 2020, s. 13-43.