2024 LDE-GMD Conference - Opening Keynote with Anna Mazurkiewicz

The 2024 LDE GMD Conference - Past, Present and Future of Governance of Migration and Diversity - will take place in Leiden, the GMD city where we study Migration and Diversity predominantly through the history lens. This year's conference upholds GMD's interdisciplinary approach while accentuating the historical perspective. We are thrilled to introduce our keynote speaker, Anna Mazurkiewicz, who will deliver the opening keynote titled Flawed Homogeneity - Deconstructing Racism in Poland in the Context of Migratory Experience. 

Register for the 2024 GMD Conference Here

Flawed Homogeneity

Flawed Homogeneity. Deconstructing racism in Poland in the context of migratory experience

In contemporary studies on racism in international migration, a link is made between colonialism and racism. In the former Eastern Bloc countries, a strong message was sent during the Cold War to the newly decolonized countries: choosing capitalism is choosing racism. Inspired by "mediated coloniality" (Bobako), and "post-communist ethnonationalism as one rooted in the communist experience" (Stola), this talk examines the complex origins of racism in the context of the Polish migratory experience.


Keynote Speaker Bio

Anna Mazurkiewicz, historian (PhD habil.), Deputy Dean at the Faculty of History, University of Gdańsk in Poland, and first Chair of the International Border Studies Center at the UG. Author of four monographs on East Central Europe in American Cold War politics. Recipient of the Willi Paul Adams Award for the best book on American history published in a language other than English (Organization of American Historians, 2019). Editor of five volumes on migrations resulting from international cooperation. Recipient of numerous research grants and awards by European and American institutions, including Kościuszko Foundation Scholarships and Fulbright Senior Award at the Center for Russian East European and Eurasian Studies, Stanford University, USA. She teaches contemporary history, American history, migration, and diaspora courses.