Papers by Marcin Wilk
Kultura i Społeczeństwo, 2022
The aim of the article is to answer the question of how girls could have agency in interwar Tarnó... more The aim of the article is to answer the question of how girls could have agency in interwar Tarnów. The analysis of discourses framing how these girls functioned was preceded by an attempt to define the social structure and its transformations in the city between the wars. The source base included selected issues of periodicals published in Tarnów at the time, concerning local issues, school protocols, as well as statistical data and personal documents. The research adopted a microhistorical perspective and focused on selected aspects of everyday life. Girlhood studies constituted the methodological framework. Although the world of traditional values played an enormous role in shaping the life choices of girls and young women in interwar Tarnów, it is noticeable that girls from different groups increasingly expanded their scope of autonomy. Their agency was mainly manifested in micro-activities, while the processes of democratisation and individualisation were a significant context.
Roczniki Dziejów Społecznych i Gospodarczych, 2021
Zarys treści: Artykuł poświęcony jest wybranym aspektom funkcjonowania młodzieży w międzywojennym... more Zarys treści: Artykuł poświęcony jest wybranym aspektom funkcjonowania młodzieży w międzywojennym Tarnowie w opinii lokalnej prasy. Główne źródło stanowiły ukazujące się w latach 1918-1939 na tamtym terenie wybrane periodyki. Dobór tytułów uwzględniał strukturę społeczno-etniczną miasta. Analiza zawartości pozwoliła odtworzyć charakter i treść oczekiwań formułowanych wobec młodych ludzi. The content outline: The article discusses selected aspects of the life of young people in interwar Tarnów as described in the local press.
The principal source used in the paper are selected periodicals published in the city in the years 1918-1939. Their selection refl ects the social and ethnic structure of Tarnów in the discussed period. The analysis of their contents has helped reconstruct the nature of the expectations towards the youth and how they were expressed in the press.
Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały, 2020
Conference Presentations by Marcin Wilk
Writing the Self in Pain, 24-25 X 2024, Helsinki (FI), 2024
The social changes brought about by the Great War significantly transformed the lives of girls an... more The social changes brought about by the Great War significantly transformed the lives of girls and young women coming of age in interwar Poland. Voting rights, access to secondary and higher education, and new employment opportunities led to the emergence of the modern woman, primarily in urban communities. Concurrently, traditional values persisted, with girls and young women being socialized into the roles of mothers and wives, emphasizing their role in managing positive emotions (joy, love) within the domestic sphere. However, does this imply that negative emotions were entirely repressed?How did women cope with pain? How did they express it? Where in their bodies did they locate it? To what extent did the changing political and economic conditions transform the ways girls and young women defined pain? This presentation aims to answer these questions concerning Jewish girls and young women in interwar Poland. The research draws on memoirs and diaries submitted to JIWO (Jewish Historical Institute) competitions targeting Jewish youth of the interwar period. The paper pays particular attention to the influence of factors such as place of residence, social background, religion, and gender identity. It explores how pain is narrated and embodied, as well as the contexts in which pain becomes unspeakable and must be concealed. The political, cultural, social, and economic transformations of interwar Poland, along with the escalating crisis of the 1930s, provide crucial context for this analysis.
ASEEES Convention, 2024, Virtual/Boston (USA), 2024
Seminarium im. Profesor Anny Żarnowskiej, 29 XI 2023, Warszawa (PL), 2023
Negotiating Modern Ways of Life: Life-Reform Movements in Central and Eastern Europe since 1900, 18-19 IX 2023, Marburg (DE), 2023
Zakazany owoc. Życie seksualne a Kościoły w Europie Środkowo-Wschodniej na przestrzeni wieków, 22-24 XI 2022, Warszawa (PL), 2022
Dziewczynki i dziewczyny. Wstęp do girlhood studies, 7-8 X 2022, Warszawa (PL), 2022
Social History Society. 46th Annual Conference. 6-8 VII 2022, Lancaster (UK), 2022
The conference organisers would like to thank all those involved for their hard work Outline Prog... more The conference organisers would like to thank all those involved for their hard work Outline Programme Wed 6 July 1pm for 1.15pm-2.30pm Tour of Lancaster Castle Coach to campus for registered attendees Wed 6 July 3pm-4pm Arrive at Lancaster University and Registration/Help Desk Wed 6 July 4pm-5.30pm Careers in History Workshop (GFX LT5/6) Wed 6 July 5.45pm-7.15pm Roundtable: Education, Training and Opportunity (GFX LT1
Szkoły uczuć. Płeć w historycznych procesach kształtowania emocji, 23-24 VI 2022, Warszawa (PL), 2022
Młodość-emocje-egodokumenty (XIX-XX wiek) Youth-Emotions-Egodocuments (19th-20th century) Pierwsz... more Młodość-emocje-egodokumenty (XIX-XX wiek) Youth-Emotions-Egodocuments (19th-20th century) Pierwsza miłość w egodokumentach dziewcząt z dwudziestolecia międzywojennego. Analiza przypadku Ireny Kwiatkowskiej / First love in the egodocuments written by girls during the interwar period. A case study of Irena Kwiatkowska
Kobiety i młodzież. Stosunki polsko-żydowskie na ziemiach polskich, 23 XI 2021, Warszawa, 2021
RE: START. Socjologia Historyczna. Problemy, Metody, Rozwiązania, 8-9 X 2021, Kraków, 2021
Mother, Father, Child, Health – The History of Reproduction, 3-4 VII 2021, Berlin, 2021
Reproduction is a subject in the ongoing debates on "marriage for all" and "rainbow families" and... more Reproduction is a subject in the ongoing debates on "marriage for all" and "rainbow families" and has sociocultural implications with regard to medical progress, such as uterus transplantation, not to mention the decades old intense debate on the topic of abortion. The aim of the conference is to sound out the historical dimensions of these problems across a broad field where human biology, reproductive medicine, family policy, and government social programmes intersect with fundamental conceptions of desired or feared social developments which are projected onto religious and cultural ideals. Using the example of the changing political, social, cultural and scientific relations between Germans and Poles and the corresponding interconnections in Central Europe, a historical understanding of the role of medicine in the conceptions of family and gender, as well as of the role of relevant socio-cultural institutions and medical development professionals will be examined. The history of reproduction opens the floor for addressing fundamental questions about historical anthropology.
Book Reviews by Marcin Wilk
Acta Poloniae Historica, 2023
This review article refers to the publication of six volumes of personal notes by Agnieszka Osiec... more This review article refers to the publication of six volumes of personal notes by Agnieszka Osiecka (1936-1997), one of the most popular Polish poets, a songwriter, director, and journalist of the second half of the twentieth century. The collection under review covers mainly the 1950s and provides a space for the search for one's own identity. While referring to the recent edition and highlighting selected themes, this review article puts forward a perspective on the entire body of documents published between 2013 and 2021. A particular emphasis is placed on the importance of analysis of such egodocuments in girlhood studies.
Talks by Marcin Wilk
2023-2024 | East European History Graduate Workshop | University of Cambridge, 2024
The main goal of the presentation is to identify the transformation of the public and private sph... more The main goal of the presentation is to identify the transformation of the public and private sphere of girls and young women in the interwar Polish medium-sized city.
1918, together with the restoration of statehood, marked a new stage of
emancipatory and modernising transformations for girls and young women living in Poland. An important aspect of these metamorphoses was the recognition of voting rights for women. The process of moral transformation proceeded more slowly and was conditioned by the context in which the Polish lands functioned in the 19th century, a time of political, cultural and social dependence. A special situation could
be observed in the territory of Galicia (after 1918 - the southern Polish territory), where relatively the greatest autonomy prevailed. At the same time, here, as in other areas of Poland, there was a division into a public (political) male sphere, and a private (domestic) female sphere.
In this presentation, I would like to look not only at how the division into private and public spheres in relation to girls and young women shaped and transformed during the interwar period, but also to analyse the differences according to ethnic, cultural, religious or class criteria. Did the girls of the generation entering adulthood in the first years after 1918 functioning differently in the private and public spheres than those
who grew up in the late 1930s? How did the public of a medium-sized city react to those transformations? What conditioned the persistence of the division between public and private spheres in relation to young women? I attempt to answer these questions by using the example of Tarnów, a bi-ethnic, Polish-Jewish, medium-sized city located between Krakow and Lviv. The sources used in the research included the press, high school protocols, and egodocuments.
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Papers by Marcin Wilk
The principal source used in the paper are selected periodicals published in the city in the years 1918-1939. Their selection refl ects the social and ethnic structure of Tarnów in the discussed period. The analysis of their contents has helped reconstruct the nature of the expectations towards the youth and how they were expressed in the press.
Conference Presentations by Marcin Wilk
Book Reviews by Marcin Wilk
Talks by Marcin Wilk
1918, together with the restoration of statehood, marked a new stage of
emancipatory and modernising transformations for girls and young women living in Poland. An important aspect of these metamorphoses was the recognition of voting rights for women. The process of moral transformation proceeded more slowly and was conditioned by the context in which the Polish lands functioned in the 19th century, a time of political, cultural and social dependence. A special situation could
be observed in the territory of Galicia (after 1918 - the southern Polish territory), where relatively the greatest autonomy prevailed. At the same time, here, as in other areas of Poland, there was a division into a public (political) male sphere, and a private (domestic) female sphere.
In this presentation, I would like to look not only at how the division into private and public spheres in relation to girls and young women shaped and transformed during the interwar period, but also to analyse the differences according to ethnic, cultural, religious or class criteria. Did the girls of the generation entering adulthood in the first years after 1918 functioning differently in the private and public spheres than those
who grew up in the late 1930s? How did the public of a medium-sized city react to those transformations? What conditioned the persistence of the division between public and private spheres in relation to young women? I attempt to answer these questions by using the example of Tarnów, a bi-ethnic, Polish-Jewish, medium-sized city located between Krakow and Lviv. The sources used in the research included the press, high school protocols, and egodocuments.
The principal source used in the paper are selected periodicals published in the city in the years 1918-1939. Their selection refl ects the social and ethnic structure of Tarnów in the discussed period. The analysis of their contents has helped reconstruct the nature of the expectations towards the youth and how they were expressed in the press.
1918, together with the restoration of statehood, marked a new stage of
emancipatory and modernising transformations for girls and young women living in Poland. An important aspect of these metamorphoses was the recognition of voting rights for women. The process of moral transformation proceeded more slowly and was conditioned by the context in which the Polish lands functioned in the 19th century, a time of political, cultural and social dependence. A special situation could
be observed in the territory of Galicia (after 1918 - the southern Polish territory), where relatively the greatest autonomy prevailed. At the same time, here, as in other areas of Poland, there was a division into a public (political) male sphere, and a private (domestic) female sphere.
In this presentation, I would like to look not only at how the division into private and public spheres in relation to girls and young women shaped and transformed during the interwar period, but also to analyse the differences according to ethnic, cultural, religious or class criteria. Did the girls of the generation entering adulthood in the first years after 1918 functioning differently in the private and public spheres than those
who grew up in the late 1930s? How did the public of a medium-sized city react to those transformations? What conditioned the persistence of the division between public and private spheres in relation to young women? I attempt to answer these questions by using the example of Tarnów, a bi-ethnic, Polish-Jewish, medium-sized city located between Krakow and Lviv. The sources used in the research included the press, high school protocols, and egodocuments.