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UID:20231003T0521Z-1696310465.8565-EO-21421-25@10.19.146.15
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DTSTAMP:20260518T053821Z
CREATED:20230927T183111Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20231224T231347Z
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SUMMARY: Sawchen Lecture: Kamil Karczewski\, “Lesbian Utopias and Polish Na
tionalism\, 1840–1940.”
DESCRIPTION: Join us on November 22 at 11 am for an online Sawchen Lecture
with Kamil Karczewski.
X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html: [caption id="attachment_21474" align="alig
nnone" width="1920"]
Zofia Sadowska
alongside two other women in 1927\; they were among the first female car ra
cers in Poland (source: Auto magazine\, September 1927\, vol. 6\, no. 9\, p
. 1).[/caption]
Join us on November 22 at 11 am for an online Sawche
n Lecture with
Dr. Kamil Karczewski. This lecture will be co-hosted with UBC’s Centre for European Studies.
Titl
e: Lesbian Utopias and Polish Nationalism\, 1840–1940
Abstract: In the 1840s\, Narcyza Żmichowska\, an unmarried femal
e teacher from Warsaw\, gathered a group of young\, devoted women around he
r\, whom she called ‘the Enthusiasts’. Żmichowska encouraged them to strive
for economic independence and education. She also assured them that they d
id not need to rely on men. The Enthusiasts were somewhat peculiar\, if not
queer—they smoked cigars\, engaged in nationalist activism\, and believed
in a unique form of intimacy between women that Żmichowska dubbed ‘in-siste
ring’. Several decades later\, Zofia Sadowska\, a female physician from War
saw\, took things a step further. Not only did she wear men’s clothing\, be
come a rally driver\, and invest in oil drilling\, but she also was not afr
aid to publicly declare that there was nothing humiliating about being a le
sbian. This raised some eyebrows among Warsaw socialites\, but it did not s
top Sadowska from creating a home with another woman. Meanwhile\, Maria Rod
ziewiczówna\, a nationalist writer\, was less vocal about her lesbian love\
, but she\, too\, pursued a lesbian dream. She envisioned it as a small cot
tage in the middle of a forest\, where she moved in with her partner. There
\, they spent their summer months in seclusion\, surrounded by Eastern Euro
pean nature\, wildlife\, and an abundance of wild berries. This paper explo
res the ways in which these three non-normative women carved out pockets of
respectability for themselves in a male-dominated world without compromisi
ng on love\, building various and creative homosocial spaces that I\, with
just a touch of exaggeration\, call utopias.
Bio: Dr. Kamil Karczewski is a Past & Present Fellow at the Ins
titute of Historical Research\, University of London. His research ex
plores the intersections of queerness\, nationalism\, and class in the hist
ory of interwar Central and Eastern Europe. Karczewski earned his PhD from
the European University Institute in Florence. Previously\, he was a fellow
at the German Historical Institute in Washington\, the Herder Institute fo
r Historical Research on East Central Europe in Marburg\, and the Leibniz I
nstitute of European History in Mainz.
Watch Kamil Karczewski's Lect
ure Online:
Missed Kamil Karczewski's lecture on November 22nd? You
can access the video and audio recording on UBC’s cIRcle database.
CATEGORIES:Featured Events,Featured Homepage,Featured Polish,Featured Slavic Studies
URL;VALUE=URI:https://cenes.ubc.ca/events/event/sawchen-lecture-kamil-karcz
ewski-lesbian-utopias-and-polish-nationalism-1840-1940/
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://cene.cms.arts.ubc.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/25/2023/09/4.jpg
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