Bio

Dr. Katarzyna Jarosz is a linguist and archaeologist. She received her M.A. in Romance languages- French and Spanish linguistics, and M.A. in archaeology followed by the PhD in archaeology with the specialization history of archaeology. She has taught and worked as a researcher in various institutions in Poland. Her research interests covers the issue of relationships between science and society, archaeology and politics and mechanisms of cultural heritage protection., the history of science and museum studies, with a focus on cultural heritage protection and cultural tourism. Her fluent knowledge of Romance languages, Russian, Albanian, Romanian and Swedish allows her to conduct research that is both in-depth and at pace. Her research was funded by Gulbenkian Foundation and The Center for the History of Global Development at Shanghai University. She has conducted several field trips to Central Asia: Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.

Project

I am working on a project whose aim is to research narratives regarding the Soviet past, as represented in historical museums in post-Soviet countries. I explore how these museums build narratives, as well as how they visualize such narratives through displays, captions, exhibits and publications. In order to do this, I aim to find the answers to the questions: What do these museums commemorate of the Soviet ‘occupation’? How does this align with my own knowledge, and on my sensibilities and ideas about the period? What strategies and techniques of creating a specific narrative are used in each case?