CEFRES Team

Anna Dżabagina – Research & CV

Sapphic Modernism in Central and Eastern Europe:
Cultural Transfers and Intersections (1848–1933)

Research Area 2: Norms & Transgressions

Contact: anna.dzabagina(@)uw.edu.pl

Photo: Emilia Oksentowicz

Anna Dżabagina is a literary historian primarily interested in XIXth and early XXth century Central and Eastern European literature, with the core focus on women’s writings, queer literature, and transnational modernist networks. She holds a Ph.D. in literary studies from the University of Warsaw (2019), where she defended a thesis on Polish-German modernist writer Eleonora Kalkowska (1883–1937), investigated through the lenses of transnational modernism studies, exile studies, and locational feminism. Between 2015–2023 she taught courses on the history of Polish literature and Literary Theory in the curricula of bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the Faculty of Polish Studies (University of Warsaw) and a series of author seminars on modernist queer women’s writings (Open University and Postgraduate School of Gender Studies at the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences). Her current research examines sapphic modernism – a new literary language to express nonheteronormative experiences, desires, and identities – in women’s writings from the territories of the Russian Empire (particularly in Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian literature). She is also working on the first queer biography of Narcyza Żmichowska (1819–1878). 

At the CEFRES, she will investigate sapphic modernism from a broader perspective: in works of Central and Eastern European women writers, particularly from Slavic language areas, between the Revolutions of 1848 and 1933. Applying the achievements of global lesbian studies and local queer studies, combined with the perspective of locational feminism and transnational modernist studies, to the unearthed history of queer women’s writings in the region, she will address the gaps of local literary histories and – most importantly – shed light on intersections between the expressibility of female nonheteronormativity and locational specifics of particular writers from different language areas, living and creating within the framework of three empires, each time demanding different strategies to express (or cipher) sapphic affections. 

CV 

 Education 

  •  2019: PhD in Humanities (Literary Studies), University of Warsaw, Thesis: „Eleonore Kalkowska’s (1883-1937) Polish-German Works and its Reception”, supervised by prof. Lena Magnone. 
  •  2015: MA in Polish Studies, University of Warsaw. 
  •  2014: Postgraduate School of Gender Studies, Institute of Literary Research, Polish Academy of Sciences. 

 Professional Experience and Affiliations 

  •  2021-2023: Assistant Professor at the Institute of Polish Literature, University of Warsaw (Division of Poetics, Literary Theory and Methodology). 
  •  Since 2019: member of the Research Centre for LGBT+ History and Identities at the University of Warsaw. 
  •  2019-2020: member of research group and executive coordinatior for European Pluralities Network (4EU+ Program) in Centre for French Culture and Francophone Studies, University of Warsaw. 
  •  2018-2019: academic intern, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. 

 Awards, Fellowships and Individual Research Grants 

  •  2021-2024: Principal Investigator in OPUS research grant „Sapphic Modernism in Women’s Writings in the Areas of the Russiam Empire (Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian literature)”, awarded by the National Science Centre (Poland), conducted at the University of Warsaw. 
  •  2022: finalist of Poznańska Nagroda Literacka – Stypendium im. S. Barańczaka (Poznań’s Literary Award – Stanisław Barańczak’s Scholarship). 
  •  2021: beneficiary of START Scholarship awarded to 100 outstanding young scholars by the Foundation for Polish Science. 
  •  2018-2019: ETIUDA Fellowship for doctoral candidates awarded by the National Science Centre (Poland). 
  •  2016: Marbach Scholarship awarded by Wissenschaftliche Beirat der Deutschen Schillergesellschaft (Germany). 
  •  2014-2018: Principal Investigator in Diamond Grant, individual research grant for outstanding young scholars under MA, awarded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (Poland). Project „Polish-German works and reception of Eleonore Kalkowska (1883-1937)”, conducted under the supervision of prof. Lena Magnone at the University of Warsaw. 
Publications 

Books 

  • Dżabagina, A. Kalkowska. Biogeografia [Kalkowska. Biogeography]. słowo/obraz terytoria, Gdańsk 2020, 440 pp.

Critical Editions

  • Nałkowska, Hanna. Dzienniki czasu żałoby 1942-1945 [Grieftime Diaries, 1942-1945]. Edited by Anna Dżabagina. Wydawnictwo IBL, Warszawa 2024 (in print). 
  • Posmycz, Zofia. Czy to temat? Dramaty [Is this a topic? Dramas]. Edited by Anna Dżabagina, foreword by Anna R. Burzyńska. Wydawnictwo IBL, Warszawa 2019. 
  • Kalkowska, Eleonora. Głód życia [The Hunger of Life]. Edited by Anna Dżabagina. słowo/obraz terytoria, Gdańsk 2016. 
  • Lieberman, Herman. ‘Listy do Heleny Rosenbach-Deutsch’ [Letters to Helena Rosenbach-Deutsch]. Edited by Lena Magnone, Anna Dzhabagina. Przegląd Humanistyczny, no. 1, 2015, pp. 153-227.

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles  

  • Dżabagina, A. ‘Expanding the Map of Sapphic Modernism(s): A Transnational Approach to Queer Women’s Writings in Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian Literature’. Aspasia. The International Yearbook of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern European Women’s and Gender History vol. 17, 2023, pp. 120-140. 
  • Dżabagina, A. ‘The Mourning Diaries. Hanna Nałkowska’s journal (1942-1945). Teksty Drugie no. 1 (special issue: Convention and Revolution), 2020, pp. 257-270. 
  • Dżabagina, A. ‘Life Trajectories and Constellations of Eleonore Kalkowska (1883-1937). Rocznik Komparatystyczny no. 8, 2017, pp. 317-335. 
  • Dżabagina, A. ‘Sprawa Józefa J. Polsko-niemieckie spory o reportaż sceniczny Eleonory Kalkowskiej’ [The Case of Josef J. Polish-German disputes over Eleonore Kalkowska’s theatrical reportage]. Didaskalia no. 155, 2020 (digital issue).  
  • Dzhabagina, A. ‘Młodopolski debiut Eleonory Kalkowskiej w świetle Nietzscheańskiej filozofiiżycia’ [Modernist debut of Eleonore Kalkowska in the light of Nietzschean philosophy of life]. Pamiętnik Literacki vol. 4, 2014, pp. 7-23.

Book Chapters (selection) 

  •   Dżabagina, A. ‘Berlin’s Left Bank? Eleonore Kalkowska in women’s artistic networks of Weimar Berlin’. Polish Avant-Garde in Berlin, edited by M. Stolarska-Fronia, R. Traba, Peter Lang, Berlin, 2020, pp. 151-169. 
  • Dżabagina, A. ‘Modernistyczne spotkanie? Na marginesach „Białej Róży” Narcyzy Żmichowskiej i „Pani Dalloway Virginii Woolf’ [Modernist encounter? On the margins of Narcyza Żmichowska’s ‘White Rose’ and Virginia Woolf’s ‘Mrs. Dalloway’]. Wiktorianie nad Tamizą i nad Wisłą, edited by E. Paczoska, WUW, Warszawa, 2016, pp. 387-397.