• KY16 9AR

    United Kingdom

Accepting Postgraduate Research Students

PhD projects

Modern history and politics of Central Europe
Modern history and politics of Eastern Europe
Modern history and politics of the Balkans (Southeastern Europe)
Language politics across the globe
History of language politics
Political and social history of languages
Language building (esp. in Eurasia)
Nationalism and ethnicity studies
Nation-building across the globe
Nation-state-building

Personal profile

Biography

I was born in Upper Silesia, at that time in communist Poland. I received education at universities in the Czech Republic, Poland and South Africa. I did postdoctoral research at universities and institutes in Austria, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the US. I worked in Poland and Trinity College Dublin, before moving to St Andrews in 2011.

Research interests

I am an interdisciplinary historian of modern central and eastern Europe, with a focus on language politics and nationalism. In 2001 received a PhD in Political Science from the Institute of Western Affairs (Instytut Zachodni), Poznań, Poland. (It is a leading think tank of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.) A decade later, in 2011, I obtained a Habilitation ('continental 2nd PhD') in Cultural Studies from SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw, Poland. Between 1995 and 2007 I worked at Opole University, Poland, and afterward in Trinity College Dublin and Cracow University of Economics, before joining the University of St Andrews in 2011. Meanwhile, I did research as a postdoctoral fellow in the European University Insitute in Florence, the Kluge Center for Scholars in the Library of Congress, the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) in Vienna, the Herder-Institut in Marburg, and the Slavic-Eurasian Research Center in Sapporo, Japan.

In the first decade of the 21st century I published several books on the history and politics of language in Upper Silesia and across central Europe. In 2007, the Purdue University Press (West Lafayette IN) brought out my doctoral monograph on how ethnic and national groups emerged in Silesia, between 1848 and 1918, from the early modern society of unequal estates. Two years later, in 2009, Palgrave published my highly-acclaimed encyclopedia-size Habilitation work on how languages and nationalisms were constructed across modern central Europe, leading to the emergence of ethnolinguistic nation-states in this region. As a result, in central Europe, the nation is defined as all speakers of a language, for whom a state should be carved out with diregard for any historical borders or polities.

The methodological problem is that historians treat language as a 'black box,' while linguists perceive languages as ahistorical entities. For both groups I wrote a brief monograph (Palgrave 2015) on how languages were constructed in line with political needs in Europe during the last millennium. I followed with another 'corrective' monograph (Palgrave 2017) on the nationally-induced anachronism of treating the early modern Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania as an 'early Poland,' or an 'early Lithuania.'

With scholars from Australia, Europe, Israel, Japan and Zimbabwe I co-edited volumes on the political and social history of languages in southern Africa (Pagrave 2018) and in Slavophone Europe (Palgrave 2016), alongside a volume on modernity and national identity in Upper Silesia (Routledge 2016). Recently, I published a monograph on the unduly forgotten 1989 ethnic clenaisng of Bulgaria's Turks, which precipitated the end of communism in this country (Routledge 2018).

At present I work on Historical Atlas of Language Politics in Modern Central Europe, the politics of the number of Slavic languages during the last two centuries, and the transfer of the idea of the ethnolinguistci nation state from central Europe to southeast Asia and Ethiopia. For further details see my profiles on Academia.edu and ResearchGate.

 

 

Research overview

I am an interdisciplinary historian of modern central and eastern Europe, with a focus on language politics and nationalism. In 2001 received a PhD in Political Science from the Institute of Western Affairs (Instytut Zachodni), Poznań, Poland. (It is a leading think tank of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.) A decade later, in 2011, I obtained a Habilitation ('continental 2nd PhD') in Cultural Studies from SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw, Poland. Between 1995 and 2007 I worked at Opole University, Poland, and afterward in Trinity College Dublin and Cracow University of Economics, before joining the University of St Andrews in 2011. Meanwhile, I did research as a postdoctoral fellow in the European University Insitute in Florence, the Kluge Center for Scholars in the Library of Congress, the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) in Vienna, the Herder-Institut in Marburg, and the Slavic-Eurasian Research Center in Sapporo, Japan.

In the first decade of the 21st century I published several books on the history and politics of language in Upper Silesia and across central Europe. In 2007, the Purdue University Press (West Lafayette IN) brought out my doctoral monograph on how ethnic and national groups emerged in Silesia, between 1848 and 1918, from the early modern society of unequal estates. Two years later, in 2009, Palgrave published my highly-acclaimed encyclopedia-size Habilitation work on how languages and nationalisms were constructed across modern central Europe, leading to the emergence of ethnolinguistic nation-states in this region. As a result, in central Europe, the nation is defined as all speakers of a language, for whom a state should be carved out with diregard for any historical borders or polities.

The methodological problem is that historians treat langauge as a 'black box,' while linguists perceive languages as ahistorical entities. For both groups I wrote a brief monograph (Palgrave 2015) on how langauges were constructed in line with political needs in Europe during the last millennium. I followed with another 'corrective' monograph (Palgrave 2017) on the nationally-induced anachronism of treating the early modern Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania as an 'early Poland,' or an 'early Lithuania.'

With scholars from Australia, Europe, Israel, Japan and Zimbabwe I co-edited volumes on the political and social history of languages in southern Africa (Pagrave 2018) and in Slavophone Europe (Palgrave 2016), alongside a volume on modernity and national identity in Upper Silesia (Routledge 2016). Recently, I published a monograph on the unduly forgotten 1989 ethnic clenaisng of Bulgaria's Turks, which precipitated the end of communism in this country (Routledge 2018).

At present I work on Historical Atlas of Language Politics in Modern Central Europe, the politics of the number of Slavic languages during the last two centuries, and the transfer of the idea of the ethnolinguistci nation state from central Europe to southeast Asia and Ethiopia. For further details see my profiles on Academia.edu and ResearchGate.

Former Phd & MPhil students

  • Lukáš Bagin (MPhil) From Centre to Periphery: Reassessing the Velvet Revolution from the Slovak Perspectives
  • Catherine Gibson (European University Institute > External PhD Advisor) Nations on the Drawing Board: Ethnographic Map-making in the Russian Empire's Baltic Provinces, 1840-1920

Teaching activity

Honours modules

  • MO3332 From Commonwealth to Nations and Nation-States: Poland-Lithuania in the Long Nineteenth Century and Beyond
  • MO3333 Language and Nationalism in Central Europe
  • MO3353 The Rise of the Nation State in Central Europe, 1810-1923
  • MO3425 Stalinism, Nazism and Central Europe, 1912-1941
  • MO4965 Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide in Twentieth-Century Europe

Masters (MLitt) modules

  • HI5010 Directed Reading (MLitt in Strategic Studies)
  • MO5151 Global Times - Plural Spaces
  • MO5503 Central and Eastern Europe Since 1945
  • MO5602 Directed Reading
  • MO5606 Perceptions of Central and Eastern Europe
  • MO5710 Crossing Borders: European History in Transnational Perspective

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 4 - Quality Education
  • SDG 5 - Gender Equality
  • SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth
  • SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities
  • SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Education/Academic qualification

: Habilition (2nd PhD) Degree in Cultural Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw, Poland., SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw

20072011

Award Date: 11 Nov 2011

PhD in Political Science, Institute of Western Affairs (Instytut Zachodni), Poznań, Poland., Institute of Western Affairs (Instytut Zachodni)

19952001

Award Date: 21 Feb 2001

MA in European Studies with Distinction, Department of International Relations and European Studies, Central European University, Budapest & Prague; accredited by The Open University, London, United Kingdom , Central European University

19931994

Award Date: 22 Jun 1994

MA in English Philology – ELT (English Language Teaching) Specialization, Institute of General Linguistics and English Philology, University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland , University of Silesia in Katowice

19861992

Award Date: 24 Jun 1992

MA in English – South African Literature, Department of English, Potchefstroom University, Potchefstroom, South Africa., Potchefstroom University

Jan 1991Sept 1991

Award Date: 11 Feb 1992

External positions

Foreign Visitor Fellow, Hokkaido University

1 Jun 201131 Dec 2011

Adjunkt (Senior Lecturer), Cracow University of Economics

1 Sept 201030 Aug 2011

Thomas Brown Lecturer in Polish Studies, Trinity College Dublin

1 Sept 200731 Aug 2010

Research Fellows, Herder-Institut Marburg

1 Jul 200630 Sept 2006

Mellon Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Human Sciences (Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen)

1 Jun 200530 Sept 2005

Postoctoral Research Fellow, United States of America Library of Congress

1 Sept 200330 Jul 2004

Jean Monnet Postdoctoral Fellow, European University Institute

1 Aug 200230 Jun 2003

Adjunkt (Senior Lecturer), University of Opole

1 Mar 200130 Aug 2010

Regional President's Advisor on International Cooperation (Doradca Marszałka ds. Współpracy z Zagranicą), Self-Governmental Regional Authority of Opole Region

1 Feb 199931 Aug 2001

Opole Governor's Advisor on European Integration to the Regional Governor (Pełnomocnik Wojewody ds. Integracji Europejskiej), Opolski Urząd Wojewódzki (Opole Regional Authority)

1 Mar 199631 Jan 1999

Lecturer, University of Opole

1 Sept 199528 Feb 2001

Lecturer, Teachers' Language College (Nauczycielskie Kolegium Języków Obcych)

1 Sept 199430 Sept 1995

Keywords

  • D204 Modern History
  • nationalism
  • ethnolinguistic nationalism
  • language politics
  • Genocide Studies
  • ethnic cleansing
  • minorities
  • border studies
  • politics of script
  • history of ideas
  • D839 Post-war History, 1945 on
  • Central Europe
  • Eastern Europe
  • Poland
  • Czechoslovakia
  • Czech Republic
  • Slovakia
  • Hungary
  • Austria
  • Balkans
  • nationalism
  • ethnolinguistic nationalism
  • language politics
  • Genocide Studies
  • ethnic cleansing
  • minorities
  • border studies
  • Roma studies
  • politics of script
  • history of ideas
  • D901 Europe (General)
  • Eastern Europe
  • Central Europe
  • Balkans
  • nationalism
  • ethnolinguistic nationalism
  • language politics
  • minorities
  • Roma studies
  • border studies
  • politics of script
  • history of ideas
  • DK Russia. Soviet Union. Former Soviet Republics
  • Estonia
  • Belarus
  • Latvia
  • Lithuania
  • Ukraine
  • language building
  • language politics
  • language destruction
  • Genocide Studies
  • ethnic cleansing
  • nationalism
  • ethnolinguistic nationalism
  • politics of script
  • history of ideas
  • Imperial Russia, western provinces
  • DR Balkan Peninsula
  • ethnolinguistic nationalism
  • ethnoconfessional nationalism
  • nationalism
  • Genocide Studies
  • ethnic cleansing
  • minorities
  • language building
  • language destruction
  • language politics
  • Yugoslavia
  • Albania
  • Bosnia
  • Croatia
  • Slovenia
  • Bulgaria
  • Montenegro
  • Romania
  • Kosovo
  • Greece
  • Turkey
  • history of ideas
  • H Social Sciences (General)
  • social reality
  • material reality
  • construction of reality
  • imagined community
  • nation
  • nationalism
  • nationalism studies
  • ethnicity
  • language construction
  • P Philology. Linguistics
  • Slavic languages
  • Slavic literatures
  • language construction
  • language politics
  • language destruction
  • PG Slavic, Baltic, Albanian languages and literature
  • Czech
  • Polish
  • Belarusian
  • Ukrainian
  • Serbo-Croatian
  • Bosnian
  • Croatian
  • Montenegrin
  • Slovak
  • Serbian
  • Slovenian
  • Bulgarian
  • Macedonian
  • JA Political science (General)
  • nationalism
  • nationalism studies
  • ethnicity
  • Genocide Studies
  • ethnic cleansing
  • language politics
  • politics of script
  • border studies
  • minorities
  • human rights
  • democracy
  • authoritarianism
  • Central Europe
  • Eastern Europe
  • Balkans
  • JC Political theory
  • nationalism
  • nationalism studies
  • ethnicity
  • Genocide Studies
  • ethnic cleansing
  • language politics
  • politics of script
  • border studies
  • language construction
  • minorities
  • human rights
  • democracy
  • authotarianism

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