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CREES Noon Lecture. Polish Towns? Jewish Towns? Urban Development in Interwar Eastern Poland

Kathryn Ciancia, assistant professor of history, University of Wisconsin
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
12:00-1:30 PM
1636 School of Social Work Building Map
With their central market squares, churches and synagogues, and mixed Polish-Jewish populations, the small towns of interwar eastern Poland have come to be viewed, somewhat simplistically, as places of either prewar interethnic tolerance or simmering ethnic tensions on the eve of the Holocaust. The story was of course more complicated—and more interesting. This talk will explore how Polish modernizers in the borderlands framed their attempts to create explicitly “modern” urban spaces—with paved streets, regulated borders, and orderly town councils—through a national lens. In what ways did Poles on the supposedly more “tolerant” wing of the political spectrum seek to transform towns into anti-Jewish spaces? How did the local context intersect with broader ideas about nationalism, civilization, and modernity? Ultimately, to whom did these towns belong—and who decided the answer to this question? By illuminating local stories from the archives, this presentation invites us to explore how global ideas about civilizational hierarchies and the construction of a European-centric civilizing project were used to marginalize certain populations as “foreign” in the very places that they called home.

Kathryn Ciancia is assistant professor in the History Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She received her Ph.D. in history from Stanford University in 2011 and went on to work as a postdoctoral lecturer in two of Stanford’s liberal arts programs before moving to Madison in 2013. She is currently completing her first book manuscript, Civilizers in Their Own Backyard: Interwar Poland and Its Eastern Borderlands; an article based on part of the book, entitled “Borderland Modernities: Poles, Jews, and Urban Spaces in Interwar Volhynia,” is forthcoming in the Journal of Modern History. She is also beginning work on a second book project, which will explore the everyday role of Polish consulates in Western Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas between the wars.

Part of the Minorities series which will focus on the fates and challenges various minorities face, from ethnic and racial groups to people with disabilities and members of LGBT communities. How do different political regimes come to define groups as minorities, and how do they engage with them as a result? What can the experience of minorities in the other parts of the world teach us?
Building: School of Social Work Building
Event Type: Lecture / Discussion
Tags: AEM Featured, European, History, International, Jewish Studies, Poland
Source: Happening @ Michigan from Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, International Institute, Copernicus Center for Polish Studies, Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia

International Institute Programming

The International Institute’s centers sponsor numerous conferences, lectures, exhibits, and cultural performances throughout the year. These events are designed to educate the university community and the public about global issues and inspire discussion and dialogue. 

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