Lidia Zessin-Jurek, Ph.D.
Curriculum Vitae
Education
- 2006–2010: PhD, Department of History and Civilisation, European University Institute, Florence, Italy
- 2006–2007: Master of Research, Department of History and Civilisation, European University Institute, Florence, Italy
- 2001–2006: MA, Faculty of Philosophy and History University of Łódź
Research Interest
Polish Jewish refugees, memory of the Holocaust and the Gulag, Polish and East Central European nationalism
Research projects since 2010
- Unlikely refuge? Refugees and citizens in East-Central Europe in the 20th century, ERC Consolidator grant, Research fellow, 09/2019-2024
- The Siberian Odyssey of the Polish Jews, Die Zeit Stiftung and Szloma-Albam-Stiftung, 2015-2019
- The Gulag memory in East Central Europe, Imre Kertesz Kolleg, 2012-2013
Teaching Practice
- Since 2017: European University Viadrina (Zentrum für Interdisziplinäre Polenstudien), Teaching Assistant: MA and BA Courses, awards: DAAD Teaching Grant (2019) and Holocaust Educational Foundation of Northwestern University Teaching Grant (2018)
- Since 2018: Krzyżowa/Kreisau Stiftung – project coordinator “Entangled History as a perspective for non-formal education” (Holocaust education)
Fellowships abroad since 2010
- 02/2018: Shvidler Visiting Research Fellow of Fordham University, New York
- 09/2017: Deutsches Historisches Institut Research Fellow, Warsaw
- 09-10/2016: European Holocaust Research Infrastructure, European Council’s Research Fellow, the International Tracing Service, Bad Arolsen
- 2015: Polish-German Research Institute, Collegium Polonicum, Research Associate
- 2012-2013: Imre Kertész Kolleg, Friedrich Schiller Universität Jena, Junior Research Fellow
- 2015, 2010: Polish Studies Association in the United States (Columbia University, New York) and The Copernicus Endowment for Polish Studies (Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor) travel grants
Publication List at MIA CAS
ASEP Database (Records of the Publication Activity at the MIA CAS)
Publications since 2010
Books
- Zessin-Jurek, Lidia, and Katharina Friedla. Syberiada Żydów polskich. Warsaw: Jewish Historical Institute 2020.
- Zessin-Jurek, Lidia. Polish Risorgimento. Visions of the Modern Polish Nation and their Italian Foundations. Frankfurt, Oxford, New York, 2012, 417 pp.
Book chapters
- Zessin-Jurek, Lidia. Foreword to: Yoram Eckstein, An Involuntary Traveler. A Memoir from the First Twenty Years, Dorrance Publishing, 2022.
- Zessin-Jurek, Lidia. A Matzeva Amid Crosses: Jewish Exiles in the Polish Memory of Siberia, in: Katharina Friedla, Markus Nesselrodt (eds.), Polish Jews in the Soviet Union (1939–1959), Boston, Academic Studies Press 2021, 236-260 (the book awarded Anna M. Cienciala Award for the Best Edited Book in Polish Studies of 2022 by the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America, PIASA).
- Zessin-Jurek, Lidia. Uchodźstwo jako manifestacja wolności i oporu na przykładzie relacji polskich Żydów o jesieni 1939 roku, in: Pola Wolności, ed. by Alicja Bartuś, Oświęcim-Poznań: Wydawnictwo WSB 2020, pp. 39-58, http://www.oipc.pl/pliki/Lidia%20Zessin-Jurek.pdf; https://mdsm.pl/fileadmin/user_upload/home_page/news/pola_wolnoscipdf/Lidia_Zessin-Jurek.pdf
- Zessin-Jurek, Lidia. Macewa pośród krzyży. Żydzi w polskiej pamięci Sybiru, in: Syberiada Żydów polskich, edited by Lidia Zessin-Jurek, Katharina Friedla, Warsaw: Jewish Historical Institute 2020, pp. 61-130.
- Zessin-Jurek, Lidia. The rise of an Eastern European community of memory? – On Lobbying for Gulag Memory via Brussels. In European Memory: Eastern Perspectives, edited by Małgorzata Pakier and Joanna Wawrzyniak, Berghahn Books, 2015, pp. 131-149.
- Zessin-Jurek, Lidia. Forgotten Memory? The Vicissitudes of the Gulag Memory in Poland. In Life Writing and Politics of Memory in Eastern Europe, edited by Simona Mitroiu, Palgrave Macmillan 2015, pp. 45-65.
Articles
- Zessin-Jurek, Lidia. Poland, a Country of Refuge: Revisiting the Historiography Patterns of Migration, in Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung Vol. 71 No. 4 (2022).
- Zessin-Jurek, Lidia. Whose Victims and Whose Survivors? The Memory of Polish-Jewish Wartime Exiles in the USSR, in Holocaust and Genocide Studies Vol. 36 No. 2 (2022).
- Refugees Welcome to History and Memory: Polish (and Jewish) World War II Exiles in Hungary, in Hungarian Studies Review Vol. 49 No. 1 (2022), with Ágnes Katalin Kelemen.
- Who is a ‘true’ refugee? On the limits of Polish hospitality, Center of Migration Research, Spotlight, Vol. 41 No. 6 (2022), with Olena Babakova, Kamila Fiałkowska, Marta Kindler.
- Zessin-Jurek, Lidia. Trapped in No Man’s Land: Comparing Refugee Crises in the Past and Present, in Cultures of History Forum (December 2021).
- Zessin-Jurek, Lidia. Hide and Seek with History – Holocaust Teaching at Polish Schools. In Cultures of History Forum. Section: Remembering the Shoah (03.09.2019), DOI: 10.25626/0103.
- Zessin-Jurek, Lidia.The Ebbs and Flows of the Holocaust and Gulag memory in Europe. Memory Dynamics in the National and Transnational Contexts. In Zbudować wspólną przyszłość, edited by Joanna Sondel-Cedarmas, Serie Studia nad Autorytaryzmem i Totalitaryzmem. Wrocław 2018, vol. 40, pp. 87-103.
- Zessin-Jurek, Lidia. Different Events – Same Story. ‘Multidirectional Memory’ of the Holocaust as a method of non-formal education. In Entangled History as a perspective for non-formal education, edited by Merle Schmidt and Carolin Wenzel, Berlin 2017, p. 99-105.
- Zessin-Jurek, Lidia. Zwangsdeportationen nach Sibirien und gespaltene Erinnerung in der EU. In: Forced migrations under communist rule – differences and similarities, Thuringian Commissioner for the Rehabilitation of Injustice Perpetrated by the Socialist Unity Party in the GDR website (http://www.thla-thueringen.de/images/Zessin-Jurek_Final.pdf ), pp. 1-10.
- Zessin-Jurek, Lidia. Un entusiasmo in declino: un nuovo sguardo sulla percezione del Risorgimento in Polonia (1848-1871) “Diacronie. Studi di Storia Contemporanea” 2011, no. 5 Italie ‘altre’. Immagini e comunità italiane all’estero, pp. 1-20.
- Zessin-Jurek, Lidia. The Italian Role in the Construction of the Concept "Pole-Catholic". East European Politics and Societies 2010 vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 254-268.
- Zessin-Jurek, Lidia. A Completely Different 1968. Dekadentzya. A Literary Journal from Poland 2010, vol. 2, pp. 117-124.
Reviews
- Zessin-Jurek, Lidia, Review for: Shira Birnbaum, Trauma and Resilience in Holocaust Memoir: Strategies of Self-preservation and Inter-Generational Encounter with Narrative, in Australian Journal of Jewish Studies Vol. 35 (2022).
- Zessin-Jurek, Lidia, Review for: Oksana Kis, Survival as Victory, in: Slavic Review, Vol. 81 No. 2 (2022), 487-489.
- Zessin-Jurek, Lidia, Review for: Andrew Kornbluth, The August Trials: The Holocaust and Postwar Justice in Poland, in: The Polish Review Vol. 67 No. 4 (2022), 158-161.
- Zessin-Jurek, Lidia, Review for: Jochen Lingelbach, On the Edges of Whiteness. Polish Refugees in British Colonial Africa during and after the Second World War, in: War in History Vol. 29, No. 3 (2022), 750-753.
- Zessin-Jurek, Lidia, Review for: Julius Margolin, Journey into the Land of the Zeks and Back: a memoir of the Gulag, in: East European Jewish Affairs Vol. 51 No. 1 (2021), 129-131.
- Zessin-Jurek, Lidia, Review for: Ewa Stańczyk, Commemorating the Children of World War II in Poland: Combative Remembrance. Palgrave Macmillan 2019. In: Acta Poloniae Historica 122, 2020.
- Zessin-Jurek, Lidia, Rezension zu: Connelly, John: From Peoples into Nations. A History of Eastern Europe. Princeton 2020. ISBN 978-0-691-16712-1, In: H-Soz-Kult, 29.10.2020, www.hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/reb-28713.
- Zessin-Jurek, Lidia, Komentarz do ‘świata, którego miało już nie być’. O Pamiętniku 3 Henryka Grynberga, “Twórczość” 05.2018, http://tworczosc.com.pl/artykul/komentarz-do-swiata-ktorego-mialo-juz-nie-byc/
- Zessin-Jurek, Lidia, Review for: Anna Lisa Tota, Trever Hagen: Routledge International Handbook of Memory Studies, 2016, in: https://www.pol-int.org/en/publications/routledge-international-handbook-memory-studies#r7106.
- Zessin-Jurek, Lidia, Review for: Regina Grol: Saving the Tremors of Past Lives. A Cross-Generational Holocaust Memoir, 2014, in: https://www.pol-int.org/en/publications/saving-tremors-past-lives-cross-generational-holocaust#r5919.
- Zessin-Jurek, Lidia. Review for: Patrice M Dabrowski: Poland: The First Thousand Years. HABSBURG, H-Net Reviews, January, 2016.
- Zessin-Jurek, Lidia, Review for: Alexander Etkind, Rory Finnin, et al.: Remembering Katyn “H-Memory, H-Net Reviews” June, 2014.
Public media
- Unia Europejska bez Polski i Węgier? Nie unikajmy otwartej debaty, with Philipp Zessin-Jurek “Polityka”, 26 October 2022.
- Putin wywołał Europejczyków do tablicy - na ile jesteśmy wspólnotą liberalnych państw i społeczeństw, with Philipp Zessin-Jurek, Gazeta Wyborcza, 29 April 2022.
- Interview by Adam de Nisau for: Polskie Radio, Deutsche Redaktion: “Russische Propaganda: Welche Strategie verfolgt der Kreml in Polen?“, 24 May 2022, https://www.polskieradio.pl/400/7779/Artykul/2964729,Russische-Propaganda-Welche-Strategie-verfolgt-der-Kreml-in-Polen.
- A Union without ‘Unionists’, a Europe without Liberals?, with Philipp Zessin-Jurek, The New Fascism Syllabus, 4 April 2022.
- Wojna, punkt zwrotny. Oby przebudzenie Europy nie było kruche, in cooperation with Navid Kermani, Polityka 3 April 2022.
- Real refugees, fake refugees, Eurozine, 28 March 2022.
- “Prawdziwe” uchodźczynie i “fałszywi” uchodźcy, Gazeta Wyborcza, 27 March 2022.
- Seen from the “West” – What Went Wrong with Ukraine?, with Philipp Zessin-Jurek, The New Fascism Syllabus, 2 March 2022.
- Zachodnia granica dla Ukraińców jest nadzieją, a dla Polski - szansą, Gazeta Wyborcza, 24 February 2022.
- Debate: Solidarity on the Border: The Role of Civilian Activists in the Poland-Belarus Migrant Crisis, December 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Th6PZ765JQ4.
- Debate: Migranci na granicy 1938-1939-2021, with Dariusz Stola, Maciej Duszczyk, and Robert Traba, November 2021, https://www.facebook.com/events/475611527083156.
- Die Rückkehr des Niemandslands, with Michal Frankl, Der Standard, 14 November 2021.
- Zamknięcie granicy to rezygnacja z suwerenności, with Michal Frankl, Gazeta Wyborcza, 19 October 2021.
- Zoufalá situace běženců na polsko-běloruském pomezí vyvolává tísnivé vzpomínky na předpeklí v roce 1939, with Michal Frankl, Deník N, 27 September 2021.
- Polscy uchodźcy na ziemi niczyjej. Gdy linia graniczna była próżnią prawa, Gazeta Wyborcza, 6(18), September 2021.