From 21 to 24 July 2026, members of our project team took part in the biennial conference of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA), held in Poznań under the theme “Anthropology: Possibilities in a Polarised World”. The event brought together anthropologists from across Europe and beyond to discuss current challenges, methodological innovations, and new directions in anthropological research.

Researchers from the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences were strongly represented at the conference, presenting their work and co-organising panels and workshops. Our project team actively contributed to these activities.

Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska co-organised the panel “Entangled Ruins: Polarised Temporalities and the Afterlives of Decay” together with Václav Sixta (Charles University, Prague). The panel explored different ways in which ruins can be powerful actors of the polarised temporalities of our age, as they embody collisions between past and future, decay and renewal, endurance and disappearance. Thanks to the collaboration with colleagues from Charles University, Karolína Pauknerová and Eliška Fulinová, who served as discussants, the panel sparked inspiring discussions, creating new opportunities for future collaboration. We are happy that it was again an occasion to meet our colleagues from the project “The Land Gone Wild. Archaeological and Transdisciplinary Research on Resilience Strategies in the 20th Century”, affiliated with several Czech institutions and interested in tracing German traces.

Karina Hoření presented the paper “Ethnography to Make It to the Pre-School – New Vocabulary for Ethnographic Practice” as part of the panel on Patchwork Ethnography. Her presentation reflected on methodological adaptations in contemporary ethnographic research and contributed to ongoing conversations about flexible and sustainable fieldwork practices. She used her experience in Spectral Recycling, conducting fieldwork in Liberec.

Magdalena Bubík presented the paper “Can a Ghost Hinder Urban Development? The Site of the Former Town Church and Victory Square in Piła” in a panel dedicated to the agency of religious buildings. Her presentation examined how the memory of a demolished church continues to influence urban space and local perceptions, demonstrating the lasting social significance of places that have physically disappeared in post-displacement regions.

Participating in EASA 2026 provided an excellent opportunity to share our research with the international anthropological community, receive valuable feedback, strengthen existing collaborations, and establish new academic connections that will contribute to the further development of the project.

The swastika is widely recognized as the emblem of Nazism and the Second World War. Yet today it also appears in parks, cemeteries, on walls, and in other public spaces, where it often carries meanings that extend beyond its historical association.

Drawing on field research conducted in Central Europe, Michal Korhel examines how the swastika functions as a dynamic symbol whose significance is continually redefined in changing social and political contexts. While its connection to Nazism remains central, the symbol is increasingly employed to express anger, hostility, protest, or moral condemnation in contemporary public discourse.

Rather than treating the swastika as a symbol with a single, fixed meaning, the blog post demonstrates how its interpretation is shaped by the contexts in which it appears, the spaces it occupies, and the ways it is understood within collective memory.

Link to the blog post you can find here.

From 26 June to 1 July, Magdalena participated in the international summer school “Recording & Transformation,” organized by the Anthropos Doctoral School and the Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History of Polish Academy of Sciences in collaboration with the University of Liverpool, Leipzig University, and the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO). The summer school took place in the picturesque village of Pozorty in the Masuria region, right by a lake. After intensive days filled with lectures and workshops, participants enjoyed relaxing by the water – especially as the exceptionally hot weather made the lakeside setting particularly welcome. 

The program featured lectures, workshops, and practical sessions led by distinguished scholars from various academic institutions: Prof. Harald Braun (Liverpool), Prof. Megan Maruschke (Leipzig), Dr. Nuala Caomhanach (Graduate Institute, Geneva), Dr. Izabela Mrzygłód (DHI, IH PAN) & Dr. Zachary Mazur (POLIN, IH PAN). Together with an international group of doctoral researchers, participants discussed contemporary archival studies, transformations of archives, and the role of archives during periods of social and political change. 

Magdalena was part of the group that prepared a presentation and discussion on Michelle Caswell and Marika Cifor’s article From Human Rights to Feminist Ethics: Radical Empathy in the Archives (2016). The discussion focused on the concept of radical empathy in archival and research practice. Magdalena sees this approach as highly relevant to her own doctoral research, as her project explores the relationships between the researcher, archives, archivists, and interviewees, who not only contribute source material but also actively participate in the creation of historical narratives. Another important component of the program consisted of workshops designed to develop participants’ presentation skills, including Elevator Pitches and Public Speaking & Job Talks. For Magdalena, the summer school was not only an opportunity to acquire new skills but also to refine and further develop the key arguments of her doctoral dissertation. 

The organizers also included a field excursion in the program. Participants took a boat trip along the Elbląg Canal, where they learned about one of Europe’s most remarkable achievements in hydraulic engineering. Particular attention was devoted to the canal’s unique inclined-plane system, which allows boats to travel over land on specially designed rail-mounted carriages. Invented in the nineteenth century by Prussian Georg Jacob Steenke, this engineering solution also serves as a reminder of the region’s multicultural past, when much of Masuria was inhabited by German-speaking communities. In this way, the summer school successfully combined theoretical reflection on archives and memory with the direct experience of a landscape that itself bears witness to historical transformations.

A new chapter titled “Historia poruszających się przedmiotów. O pojęciu poniemieckości” by Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska has been published in a collective volume “Ziemie Odzyskane. Przestrzeń, przyroda, rzeczy”, edited by Małgorzata Praczyk and Emilia Kledzik, and issued by the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań.

In her chapter, Karolina addresses the problem of the category of being formerly German, which was incorporated into Polish law as early as 1946, and examines its consequences. To do so, she analyzes a specific case involving two clockmakers in the town of Koszalin, formerly the German city of Köslin, in Central Pomerania. She demonstrates that former Germanness (Polish poniemieckość) can be understood as a pragmatic category and that it was not necessarily preceded by an object’s having been German property. In this way, she contributes to one of the main objectives of our research.

A link to the full text you can find here.