Dr hab. Kamila Baraniecka-Olszewska

Centre for Ethnology and Modern Anthropology

kbaraniecka@iaepan.edu.pl

 

https://pan-pl.academia.edu/KamilaBaranieckaOlszewska

Research interests:

My research interests concern three fields: anthropology of religion, so called performance studies and representation of the past in modern culture. Using interdisciplinary tools of ethnology, theatre studies, religious studies and history I concentrate in my studies on the analysis of phenomena generally defined as cultural performances. My first research project which resulted from this adopted interpretative perspective was related to Mexico and its danzas accompanying the religious feasts, also with the 16th c. evangelizing theatre in New Spain. In the following project I concentrated the research on Passion Plays in Poland – primarily on the relations of performativity and religious experience. In the interpretation of those issues I combined the category of the anthropology of experience with the performance concept, which allowed me to demonstrate the importance of practice and of sensual contact with sacrosanctity in a religious experience. Continuing the theoretical input into the development of those two branches of Humanities I began research on historical reconstruction in Poland. I situated it in the stream of reflection lead by historians on representation of history, which allowed me to examine not only the process of experiencing the past, but also the subject of this experience, meaning the construction of the vision of the past by its reproducers. My studies on reconstruction are not limited exclusively to the analyses of cultural performances, but deal also with issues of identity, nationalism, ideology and the practice of authenticity.

Selected bibliography:

Books:

Baraniecka-Olszewska K. (2018). Reko-rekonesans: praktyka autentyczności. Antropologiczne studium odtwórstwa drugiej wojny światowej w Polsce. Kęty: Wydawnictwo Marek Derewiecki.

Baraniecka-Olszewska K. (2017). The Crucified. Contemporary Passion Plays in Poland. Berlin–Boston: De Gruyter.

Baraniecka-Olszewska K. (2013). Ukrzyżowani. Współczesne misteria męki Pańskiej w Polsce, Seria Monografie FNP. Toruń: Wydawnictwo UMK.

Articles:

Baraniecka-Olszewska K. (2019). The Sarrasani Circus in Opole. On Entertainment in the City in the First Decades of the 20th Century. Acta Ethnographica Hungarica, 64(1), 93-110.

Baraniecka-Olszewska K. (2019). On the Performative Power of Stereotypes: WWII Historical Reenactment and National Identities. Revue des Études Sud-Est Européenes, 57(1-4), 51-61.

Baraniecka-Olszewska K. (2018). Rola ciała w transmisji wiedzy o przeszłości. Źródła pozadyskursywne w badaniach antropologicznych nad rekonstrukcją historyczną. Etnografia Polska, 62, 221-231.

Baraniecka-Olszewska K. (2018). Natura Sanat: On Ecological Aspects of Healing Miracles in Kalwaria Pacławska, Poland. Journal of Global Catholicism, 2(2), 26-55.

Baraniecka-Olszewska K. (2018). Stereotypes in the Service of Anthropological Inquiry: Pilgrims from Ukraine in the Kalwaria Pacławska Sanctuary. Ethnologia Polona, 38, 89-106.

Baraniecka-Olszewska K. (2016). O Wielkim Odpuście w Kalwarii Pacławskiej ponownie. Refleksja nad antropologią pielgrzymek. Etnografia Polska, 60(1-2), 27-42.

Baraniecka-Olszewska K. (2016). Religious Event as a Time Machine. On Creative Power of Performance in Transforming City Space. Journal of Urban Ethnology, 14, 221-234.

Baraniecka-Olszewska K. (2016). Управлениечувственнымиформами: оптимизация, максимизацияиэффективность. ТоржествовКальварииПацлавской. ГОСУДАРСТВО, РЕЛИГИЯ, ЦЕРКОВЬвРоссииизарубежом, 34, 148-171.

Baraniecka-Olszewska K. (2016). Re-enacting Historical Slavic Rites in Contemporary Poland: the Rękawka Fair in Cracow. Anthropological Journal of European Cultures, 25(1-2), 118-135.

Baraniecka-Olszewska K. (2015). Naprzód do przeszłości! Rekonstrukcje historyczne między historią a teraźniejszością. Etnografia Polska, 59, 87-95.

Baraniecka-Olszewska K. (2014). The Role of the Religious Crowd in the Mass Catholic Events: the Passion Play and Nativity Play in Warsaw. Anthropological Notebooks, 20(2), 27-43.

Baraniecka-Olszewska K. (2014). Golgotha on City Peripheries. The Passion Play in Bydgoszcz Fordon. Folklore: Electronic Journal of Folklore, 56, 76-96.

Chapters in edited volumes:

Baraniecka-Olszewska K. (2018). Praktyki pamięci. Inscenizacje rzezi wołyńskiej jako przedmiot sporu o pamięć. W: Z. Bogumił, A. Szpociński (red.), Stare i nowe tendencje w obszarze pamięci społecznej (179-195). Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar.

Baraniecka-Olszewska K. (2018). Sanctified Past. The Pilgrimages of Polish Re-enactors to World War II Battlefields. W: J. Eade, M. Katić (eds.), Military Pilgrimage and Battlefield Tourism. Commemorating the Dead (125-146). London-New York: Routledge.

Baraniecka-Olszewska K. (2017). Skazani na wieczne zapomnienie czy upamiętnieni? O reprezentowaniu wroga w rekonstrukcji historycznej drugiej wojny światowej. W: Justyna Budzińska, Edyta Głowacka-Sobiech, Bernadette Jonda (red.), Niepamięć wojny. Europa Środkowo-Wschodnia w XX/XXI wieku (193-206). Poznań: Instytut Historii.

Baraniecka-Olszewska K. (2017). Historical Reenactment in Photography: Familiarizing with the Otherness of the Past?. W: D. Demski, A. Kassabova, I. Sz. Kristóf, L. Laineste, K. Baraniecka-Olszewska (eds.), The Multi-Mediatized Other. The Construction of Reality in East-Central Europe, 1945–1980 (590-614). Budapest: L’Harmattan.

Baraniecka-Olszewska K. (2016). “I Wanted to Play Judas.” Performativity as an Element of Personal Religiosity. W: C. Saraiva, P. J. Margry, L. Obadia, K. Povedák, J. Mapril (eds.), Experiencing Religion. New Approaches to Personal Religiosity (13-29). Zürich: Lit Verlag.

Baraniecka-Olszewska K. (2015). Shifting Symbolic Boundaries: Re-enacting Nazi Troops in Contemporary Poland. W: P. Hristov, A. Kassabova, E. Troeva, D. Demski (eds.), Contextualizing Changes: Migrations, Shifting Borders and New Identities in Eastern Europe (62-71). Sofia: Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum BAS, Institute of Archeology and Ethnology PAS.

Baraniecka-Olszewska K. (2014). The Third Twin: a Post-Mortem Image of Polish President Lech Kaczyński. On the Performative power of Mourning. W: I. Povedák (ed.), Heroes and Celebrities in Central and Eastern Europe (137-152). Szeged: Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology.

Edited volumes:

Baraniecka-Olszewska K., Kabzińska I., Tangad O. (red.). (2018). Lokalne i globalne perspektywy azjanistyczne. Warszawa: IAE PAN, Fundacja Przyjaciół PAN.

Demski D., Kassabova A., Sz. Kristóf I., Laineste L., Baraniecka-OlszewskaK. (eds.). (2017). The Multi-Mediatized Other. The Construction of Reality in East-Central Europe, 1945–1980. Budapest: L’Harmattan.

Demski D., Laineste L., Baraniecka-OlszewskaK. (eds.). (2015). War Matters. Constructing Images of the Other (1930’s to 1950s). Budapest: L’Harmattan.

Demski D., Sz. Kristof I., Baraniecka-Olszewska K. (eds.). (2013). Competing Eye. Visual Encounters with Alterity. Budapest: L’Harmattan.

Demski D., Baraniecka-Olszewska K. (eds.). (2010). Images of the Other in Ethnic Caricatures of Central and Eastern Europe. Warszawa: IAE PAN.