Professor Ivana Marková

I am sad to inform the Talking Mats world of the death of Professor Ivana Marková on 1 December 2024.

Ivana was Professor Emerita of the University of Stirling, Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics (UK), Senior Member of Wolfson College Cambridge, Fellow of The British Psychological Society, Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and Fellow of the British Academy.

Born in Czechoslovakia in 1938, Ivana experienced first-hand the impact of WWII in Europe and the historical events that were to have a profound impact on her outlook and life. Assigned by the communist party to work as a technician in a chemical plant and not allowed to study full-time, she became an external student at Charles University in Prague, earning her doctorate in 1964. Following the Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, she was forced to relocate her young family to England. After postdoctoral positions at the University of Cambridge and the University of London, she was appointed lecturer and then professor at the University of Stirling. From there she went on to become a leading voice in linguistics and psychological science, producing influential work on the epistemology of psychology, social and cultural psychology, dialogicality and linguistics.

I first met Ivana in the 1980s when I was a speech therapist working with adults with learning disabilities in Stirling with whom she was carrying out research. What an inspiration she was – gradually encouraging me to do my own research. Her intellect and analytic mind taught so much to my practical therapeutic one. She changed my life.
She was also just a wonderful person – kind, humble, generous and with a gentle sense of humour. We had many laughs over the years in Stirling and I will never forget her un-filing system!  She has given an enormous amount to the world of communication and will continue to be an inspiration to many.

Joan Murphy