Angelika Zanki

As for other members of our team, research stays in the field are part of Karin’s work. We usually go to two countries for longer periods of time. For Karin, it is northern Bohemia and central Slovakia, two regions where the German past is still palpable. The field stays are intense, but at the same time often lonely. Ethnographers write down not only what they find out but also their feelings and experiences. To get you familiar with this particular experience, this time we present an excerpt from Karin’s diary from her second stay in central Slovakia. One Saturday in October, she went to Hadviga, originally a large village where mostly German Slovaks used to live, but which after the war became depopulated. Today, there are only a few summer cottages. Karin traveled with E., whom she had met in Hadviga already in the summer.

You can read blog post in Czech here.

In this episode of NCN’s podcast, you can find out more about the most prestigious distinction for early-stage researchers working in Poland – NCN Award. Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska won the NCN Award for defining a new category of resettlement cultures in the research on post-displacement areas.

Karolina and Prof. Joanna Golińska-Pilarek, member of the NCN Council and NCN Award jury panel, talk to Anna Korzekwa-Józefowicz about this year’s awards and research conducted by Karolina.

Link to podcast you can find here.

The town of Krickerhau does not exist on the map, yet it is in Slovakia. Krickerhau is the old German name of Handlová. The city was founded by German colonists and their descendants lived there for a long time. The end of World War II marked a radical change: most of the original German population was deported to Germany. But the traces left by previous inhabitants can still be visible there.

While doing research in Handlová our researcher, Michal Korhel, not only conducted interviews, but also gave one to a local radio station. Michal spoke about the Spectral Recycling project, its aims as well as its impact on the local society. Additionally, he presented his first findings from Handlová. You can listen to the whole interview in Slovak under the link here.

We are proud to announce that our PI, Karolina Ćwiek-Rogalska, is a winner of the NCN Award!

Ceremony was held in the Gallery of 19th-century Polish Art in the Sukiennice, part of the National Museum in Kraków. As always, the ceremony was hosted by Grażyna Torbicka.

The NCN Award is given to researchers under the age of 40, who are affiliated with Polish research institutions and boast a strong basic research and publication record in one of the following three panels: Arts, Humanities and Social sciences (HS), Physical Sciences and Engineering (ST), and Life Sciences (NZ). The main criteria for the selection process are scientific excellence and international recognition.

The jury consists of NCN Council Members and the NCN Director. This year, nearly 700 people were eligible to nominate candidates including, e.g., previous NCN Award winners, former NCN Council members and other outstanding researchers. An important condition is that they have not collaborated, taken part in any joint endeavours or published a paper together in the past 5 years. In addition, they should not have any familial or professional relationship and researchers cannot nominate their current or former PhD students. This year, the NCN received 53 nominations, including 44 candidates (some were nominated by more than one person). Nominees include 20 researchers in Physical Sciences and Engineering, 16 in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and 8 in Life Sciences.

In the weeks that follow, winners will deliver a series of lectures, we will let you know where you can find it. Now, more about award and this year’s winners you can read here.

After the Warsaw Uprising, the Slovak National Uprising was the largest anti-Nazi insurrection in Central Europe. It is a crucial event in Slovak modern history as well as in the country’s culture of remembrance regarding WWII. As such it has its own museum and central memorial in Banská Bystrica, the center of the anti-Nazi resistance during the uprising. Even though the insurrection was suppressed in less than two months, it helped the Allies in the fight against Nazi Germany. Its significance on a moral and political level was central: part of the Slovak nation rose up against the authoritative regime of the First Slovak Republic, a client state of Nazi Germany, in order to restore democracy. However, it also has its negative aspects, such as the treatment of the German civilian population by the partisans. The most tragic event in this regard took place in the predominantly German village of Sklené / Glaserhau. On 21 September 1944, under the pretext of digging trenches, the partisans took about 300 men between 16 and 60 years of age from the village and shot 187 of them at the edge of a nearby forest. In 1994, 50 years later, a monument of the Sklené massacre was established on the mass grave of its victims. Nevertheless, as the historical narrative presented in the current exhibition in the Museum of the Slovak National Uprising shows, the memory of the violence against the German civilian population is being marginalized. This process enables far-right groups and political parties glorifying the First Slovak Republic to take over the memory of murdered Germans and in doing so also instrumentalize the narrative of the whole uprising.

You can read blog post in Slovak here.

We are happy to announce that under our grant project there was an open competition for the position of PhD student/assistant. Based on the evaluation of the submitted documents and an interview, the recruitment committee decided to choose mgr Magdalena Bubík.

Magdalena consistently takes huge pride in her heritage, underlining her identity as a denizen of the borderlands. Although she hails from Czech Cieszyn, she has always viewed the city of Cieszyn as a place unified by the river rather than divided by a border. Generations of her ancestors were marked by a rich tapestry of multiculturalism and religious diversity, which is why during her historical studies at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, she focused on the cultural heritage of Cieszyn Silesia, especially from a religious perspective.

Her deep fascination with diverse cultures fuels her love for globetrotting, exploring historical landmarks and the natural world, engaging in enriching conversations with people and savoring delectable cuisine. She sometimes loses herself in the captivating narratives of Agatha Christie’s novels or “The Lord of the Rings”. Additionally, she has an innate and familial passion for music. Particularly, she enjoys singing duets with her younger sister and listening to traditional Georgian music.

Karolina delves into the history of Polish non-fiction literature focusing on the so called Polish Recovered Territories. She analyzes its allure to writers and its political relevance after the war. She also shed light on the relative obscurity of these works and analyzed their evolution, highlighting their portrayal of shifting societal attitudes and perspectives.

You can read post here.