Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska presented a paper at the “Narratives of Migration” conference, which took place at the University of Oxford on June 16, 2023. The conference brought together scholars from different disciplines, such as the humanities and the social sciences, and creative professionals who work on migration issues. The conference was organized by Isavella Vouza from the Faculty of English Language and Literature and Professor Emma Bond from the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, with the facilitation of Migration Oxford. The conference showcased diverse and innovative works from academic and creative fields, spanning different cultures and media. The organizers wanted to demonstrate how cultural representation can enrich, question, or create new possibilities for integrating a humanities perspective within migration studies through the conference.
Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska’s paper was titled “How Polish Migrants Reshaped Memories of Things Left Behind: A Study of Spectral Transformation”. She used qualitative content analysis of diaries preserved in Szczecin, Koszalin, and Poznań archives. She investigated how Polish migrants to the Recovered Territories modified their memories of things left behind by Germans. They did so in accordance with the state narrative of recovery and its attempts to eradicate signs of Germanness in the newly acquired lands. She introduced the concept of spectral transformation in this study, which her analysis was based on.
The organizers are planning to publish the conference proceedings in the near future. Stay tuned to read more about this concept and other fascinating topics!