Urszula Chowaniec's events, initiatives, projects (academic profile)

  • October 2019 - September 2020:​ Ula Chowaniec starts a news project the Art of Remembering/ the Politics of Memory, focusing on  Irena Klepfisz's Poetry and the Contemporary Idea of Secular Identity,  aiming at preliminary research in contemporary Jewish identity and collecting fort interviews.
  • Supported by AFM Kraków Academy 2020-2021 research project 
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Irena Klepfisz, May 2019 during her visit in Stockholm
PictureConference is about to begin: François Guesnet, co-organiser of the conference, Hebrew and Jewish Studies, University College London, December 2019
PictureCredits: Małgorzata Dawidek, 2019
  • 24-25 October, 2019
  • Arachne and Teaching with Epiphanies and Aporias: the quest for the reparative academia
  • Conference in Brussels and Performance with Małgorzata Dawidek!
  • Ula Chowaniec's manifesto created for this performance HERE 
  • Have a look: Sofia Gender Studies Conference 
  • August, 2019 -March, 2020: Paidea: the European Institute for Jewish Studies. I am at the one-year course on Modern Jewish Studies

As an Amos Oz Fellow and I am working on the long term project devoted to the Jewish women's writing and art in the 1920s and 1930s and its memory in today's culture 
  • 23 May, 2019: Stockholm: a poetry meeting with Irena Klepfisz, a New York-based poet, discussion about her life journey as seen in her poetry, coming out as a lesbian, writing about it, juxtaposing English and Yiddish languages in literary texts. HERSTORY. Come and join us in the discussion. 6.30 pm. 
         About the event see HERE 
​         JIDISKA FÖRSAMLINGEN I STOCKHOLM 
  • ​September 21-22, 2018: Kraków Women's Utopias Conference (paper) Link: http://www.utopiekobiet.socjologia.uj.edu.pl/ 
  • We Can’t Have it/ Niechciane historie feminizmu lesbijski separatyzm, gorzkie rewindykacje oraz złość smutnych dziewczyn: ABSTRACT: Referat o Niechcianych historiach feminizmu ma na celu analizę wybranych historycznych i kulturowo-politycznych zjawisk, które mają odpowiedzieć, dlaczego kobiecy separatyzm, rewindykacyjny stosunek do kultury łączy się zawsze z etykietką utopijnych, nierealistycznych, a także niesprawiedliwych, a nawet szalonych projektów, które ostatecznie uchodzą za szkodliwy dla ruchu feministycznego. Na początku lat 70-tych, kiedy lesbijski odłam National Organisation of Women domagał się swojego głosu, Betty Friedan, sprzeciwiła się temu wypowiadając słynne: „we can’t have it” (interview,  film She is beautiful When She is Angry, 2014).  Przywołując tę historię oraz odnosząc się do wybranych trzech kulturowych fenomenów, referat odpowie na pytania, dlaczego niektóre historie kobiet są nie do przyjęcia dla ruchu feministycznego, traktowane za zbyt radykalne, zbyt utopijne, czasem szkodliwe? Czy problemem jest ich utopijny charakter, czy też historia ruchu feministycznego jest  historią negocjacji z kulturą heteronormatywną (patriarchalną) i te negocjacje mają charakter stopniowalny w różnych okresach i w zależności od różnych kontekstów politycznych i kulturowych? Referat ten będzie chciał odpowiedzieć na te pytania zarysowując trzy zjawiska: fenomen pierwszego lesbijskiego kolektywu w USA i czasopisma wydawanego przez nich (1) the Furies Collective (1970/1971), w odniesieniu do pierwszego lesbijskiego czasopisma, Furia jako kobiecego separatystycznego głosu. Po drugie, tekst odniesie się do historii głośnej powieściowej rewindykacji kobiecej pozycji w nowoczesnym społeczeństwie w powieściach (2) Rachel Cusk i  odbioru jej twórczości jako głosu utopijnego lub głosu „rozłoszczonej pisarki”. Ostatnim zjawiskiem, jaki zarysowany zostanie w referacie, to fenomen nowoczesnego feminizmu rozłoszczonych młodych dziewcząt i jego odbicia w powieści (3) Naomi Anderman, Siła (2017). 
Urszula (Ula) Chowaniec
CV
Publications
Grants
Interviews
​Teaching Experience

The Project supports research and knowledge exchange in gender, queer, and women's studies
through

SEMINARS TALKS
FESTIVALS
​INITIATIVES

key words: women's writing, identity and memory, gender, queer, language, LGBTQ, contemporary women's fiction, the notion of foreigner, Jewish contemporary identity, Poland and Eastern Europe, melancholy, the body, identity, migration, travelling, displacement,
languages of exclusions and discrimination
SSEES University College London: Impacts of Gender Seminar Series
website HERE 

​BLOG entries HERE 
See also previous project on Women's Online Writing and follow the valuable materials:
WOW
http://www.womenonlinewriting.org/issues.html​ 
Ula's courses and teaching materials:
Researcher and organiser: prof. nadzw. dr hab. Urszula (Ula) Chowaniec
u.chowaniec@gmail.com
u.chowaniec@ucl.ac.uk
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  • 100 years and So What? 
  • Curating of the exhibition at the Gallery Centrala, Birmingham (May-July 2018)
2018 marks the centenary of women gaining voting rights in Poland,also in the UK and many other countries. Centrala in the exhibition 100 Years, SO What? present what this centenary means for women in contemporary society. Juxtaposing the political and social debate on emancipation at the beginning of the 20th century with contemporary artistic practices (suchasselfie-feminism), the exhibition aims to create a cultural and social space for discussion of the position of women in contemporary society.
Today's world needs transgression from the growing level of inequality and injustice to significantly new space.
We have invited artists and activists for to discuss the centenary of women's emancipation is a centenary which mirrors the peoples' struggle to get rid of many injustices arising from gender inequality.
#100yearssowhat #fminism #emancipation #feministart #womensart
SEE also info about related events organised by Ula Chowaniec: ​https://impactsofgender.weebly.com/july-events-role-of-the-past-and-role-of-anger.html 
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11-12 June, 2018: Impacts of Gender Discourses in Poland, an international two-days conference devoted to the gender, LGBTQ, body politics in Europe with Polish Focus (funded by Noble Oxford Foundation). Contact: Ula Chowaniec u.chowaniec@ucl.ac.uk ​
  • All the details about the event HERE ​​https://impactsofgender.weebly.com
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  • 7 March, 2018: Seminar discussion commemorating 100th anniversary of Polish women gaining their political rights/ celebrating 8th of March. Venue: Ground Floor Common Room, IAS UCL (Institute of Advanced Studies UCL, SSEES). 
  • PROGRAMME 
  • Straight to REGISTRATION
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  • 24th of October, 2017: Beyond Borders: Sexuality and Cold War. Evenbrite here. Author of the book, Łukasz Szulc in discussion with Urszula Chowaniec and Richard Mole. University College London School of Slavonic and East European Studies. When: 6-8pm. Reception afterwards.
  • February 2, 2017: Escaping from this small place.... (Wioletta Greg with her Swallowing Mercury, 2017 and discussion on women's writing, Poland, Brexit and translation). More about the event HERE and about Wioletta Greg and her writing HERE ​
  • October 28, 2016: Abortion Talk / Body Politics and LGBTQ in Poland (focusing on the social movement against further radicalisation of the anti-abortion law). 

Projects supported by:
Here: you can also follow the information about the monograph on Polish contemporary women's writing (Melancholic Migrating Bodies in Polish Contemporary Women's Writing, 2015) as well as the event withing the project of electronic era, literature, culture, gender and migration eMigrating Landscapes as well as have a look at the online journal Women Online Writing ​

events are free and open

all are welcome