Adrianna Zabrzewska | Edinburgh Napier University (original) (raw)
Books by Adrianna Zabrzewska
IFiS PAN Publishers, 2021
In autumn 2020, as the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic began, the Constitutional Tribunal is... more In autumn 2020, as the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic began, the Constitutional Tribunal issued a ruling that severely restricted access to abortion. Massive street protests, led by Strajk Kobiet (Women’s Strike), quickly followed.
This sourcebook presents the voices of activists, politicians, and academics on the 2020 protests in Poland after the Constitutional Tribunal’s ruling. Sources include press conferences, interviews, public speeches, and parliamentary committees and debates, translated into English and commented on by Polish feminist scholars.
We designed this book to generate insights into the relationship between inequality, street protest, institutions, and violence, for use in research, teaching, journalism, and activism.
This book was funded by the National Science Centre, Poland (project no. 2016/23/B/HS6/03916).
Gender Quotas in the Post-Communist World: Voice of the Parliamentarians, 2020
Representation is a core component of political voice, and gender quota policy greatly amplifies ... more Representation is a core component of political voice, and gender quota policy greatly amplifies women’s voices in the parliaments of Europe.
This is a source book of new and updated information on gender quotas in the post-Communist world. We feature – in their own words and deeds – the powerful voice of the parliamentarians whose elite position in the political structure makes them prime movers in the battle for gender equality.
We intend for this book to be accessible to everyone interested in gender, political voice inequality, and representation.
This book was funded by the National Science Centre, Poland (project Number 2016/23/B/HS6/03916. PI: Joshua K. Dubrow).
Papers by Adrianna Zabrzewska
International Research in Children’s Literature, 2023
Previous research, mainly from the US, indicates that children's literature is a powerful transmi... more Previous research, mainly from the US, indicates that children's literature is a powerful transmitter of gender roles. To better understand how ideas about gender found in children's books cross national borders, travel within frontiers, and crash against obstacles that block the road to gender equality, this article compares the US and Poland in terms of children's book publishing and scholarship. Whereas the US children's book market is obviously larger, Poland's internal market is large and growing enough to rely on its own, and thus acts as a barricade to repel 'foreign' gender norms. In the US, feminism has a strong tradition in children's literature research; in Poland, by contrast and since 1989, feminism and the study of gender in children's books have no strong tradition, and for the last eight years the government has openly discouraged progressive norms of gender equality. This article concludes with a call for cross-national comparative research on children's books to provide insights into the facilitators and barriers to intercultural exchange of gender ideologies and national efforts to promote gender progressive ideals among young readers.
University Press of Mississippi , May 18, 2023
Inspired by the works of philosopher Karen Barad, chapter 5 by Adrianna Zabrzewska applies the ca... more Inspired by the works of philosopher Karen Barad, chapter 5 by Adrianna Zabrzewska applies the categories of materiality and realness to investigate the Velveteen Rabbit’s onto-epistemological status and the relationship with his human companion. The first part of Williams’s book shows us that to be a distinct, embodied self – and to be loved as that self by someone else – is an active, gradual, and potentially hurtful process of becoming that invites interdependence and vulnerability. It is a material-discursive process rooted in the experience of being a flawed, finite, and fragile body. The Velveteen Rabbit’s understanding of himself arises in a perpetually moving, changing knot of human and nonhuman matter and meaning, as he goes on to acquire the privilege of becoming Real in the eyes of the Boy. However, when the Rabbit leaves the limited existence of a toy and embraces the elevated ideal of a real flesh rabbit, his relationship with the Boy is rendered meaningless. In the second part of the book, the Velveteen Rabbit transcends from a beloved toy into a redeemed soul. Once the story reveals itself to be a fable of redemption and eternal life, love and materiality have no more place in it. As such, The Velveteen Rabbit illustrates both the principles of Barad’s philosophy and the order that this philosophy seeks to battle.
Gender, Voice, and Violence in Poland: Women’s Protests during the Pandemic, ed. Adrianna Zabrzewska and Joshua K. Dubrow, 2021
In the chapter, Zabrzewska analyzes Polish politicians’ responses to the 2020 protests against th... more In the chapter, Zabrzewska analyzes Polish politicians’ responses to the 2020 protests against the abortion ban through the lens of feminist philosophy. Using selected sources (e.g. the transcript of the Committee on Administration and the Interior) provided in the Gender, Voice, and Violence in Poland: Women’s Protests during the Pandemic sourcebook (Zabrzewska and Dubrow 2021), the author provides insights into how contemporary right-wing rhetoric relies on the body politic metaphor and on the gender bias inherent to mainstream notions of embodiment. She exposes how the facilitators of the anti-abortion law conceptualize the protesters and their demands as a disease or even a virus that threatens the state, as defined by the Catholic right wing. At the same time, the article shows how pro-abortion protests – as an example of what Judith Butler (2015) called “plural embodied action” – place the actual human body at the forefront of politics, heralding a possibility of arriving at a more livable future.
Teksty Drugie, 2019
W artykule Zabrzewska omawia filozofię głosu według Adriany Cavarero oraz trzy kategorie kluczowe... more W artykule Zabrzewska omawia filozofię głosu według Adriany Cavarero oraz trzy kategorie kluczowe dla tego projektu: relacyjność, przyjemność i niepowtarzalność. Zastępując fonocentryzm dewokalizacją logosu Cavarero poszukuje alternatywy dla niemego głosu, który słucha samego siebie. Owa alternatywa przybiera postać głosu ucieleśnionego, relacyjnego i jedynego, który rozbrzmiewa na scenie matczynej i otwiera przestrzeń politycznego działania. W końcowej części artykułu Zabrzewska nakreśla problematyczne obszary projektu Cavarero i wskazuje na potencjalny kierunek rozwoju feministycznej teorii głosu, w której niepowtarzalność szłaby w parze z nieoczywistością.
Gender Quotas in the Post-Communist World: Voice of the Parliamentarians, 2020
Professor Małgorzata Fuszara is a sociologist of law, a researcher of women’s presence on the pol... more Professor Małgorzata Fuszara is a sociologist of law, a researcher of women’s presence on the political scene, and a long-time observer of public life in Poland. The interview presents Professor Fuszara’s experience as a person who not only witnessed, but also significantly contributed to the events that led to the passing of gender quota law in Poland. In this chapter, the readers will find: (a) memories dating back to 2009 when the Congress of Women began working on the citizens’ proposal of the legal act; (b) observations from the parliamentarian debate of 2010 during which Professor Fuszara spoke as the representative of the citizens’ legislative committee; (c) reflections on the law’s immediate aftermath in 2011, and finally, (d) remarks on the state of equality politics in Poland 2019, just a few months before the parliamentary elections.
The chapter is part of the book "Gender Quotas in the Post-Communist World: Voice of the Parliamentarians," edited by Joshua K. Dubrow and Adrianna Zabrzewska (IFiS PAN Publishers 2020). This book was funded by the National Science Centre, Poland (project Number 2016/23/B/HS6/03916).
Gender Quotas in the Post-Communist World: Voice of the Parliamentarians, 2020
The chapter is devoted to a qualitative analysis of Polish deputies’ opinions on gender quotas as... more The chapter is devoted to a qualitative analysis of Polish deputies’ opinions on gender quotas as collected during an elite survey of Polish Parliamentarians in 2011. Using the answers collected during the survey, Zabrzewska discusses the arguments made by proponents and detractors of the gender quota law. The analysis explores the most frequently recurring concepts and themes as provided by the respondents themselves. Even though social scientists studying other nations have developed typologies of arguments for and against gender quotas, this chapter proposes a new outlook by adopting a philosophical and feminist perspective not only on Polish gender quota debates, but also on the concept of political voice as such.
The chapter is part of the book "Gender Quotas in the Post-Communist World: Voice of the Parliamentarians," edited by Joshua K. Dubrow and Adrianna Zabrzewska (IFiS PAN Publishers 2020). This book was funded by the National Science Centre, Poland (project Number 2016/23/B/HS6/03916).
Avant, 2020
Celem artykułu jest: (a) zainicjowanie dyskusji, która wypełniłaby lukę w badaniach nad literatur... more Celem artykułu jest: (a) zainicjowanie dyskusji, która wypełniłaby lukę w badaniach nad literaturą dziecięcą i młodzieżową w Polsce, jaką jest brak pogłębionego namysłu nad płcią społeczno-kulturową przez pryzmat myśli feministycznej; (b) zaprezentowanie autorskiej metodologii badań, w której trzy tytułowe kategorie - ciało, głos i opowieść - zostają wykorzystane jako narzędzia analityczne służące czytaniu reprezentacji płci w książkach dla dzieci i młodzieży; (c) przedstawienie wstępnych wyników badań nad subwersywnymi i tradycyjnymi sposobami reprezentacji płci we współczesnej amerykańskiej i polskiej literaturze dla czytelników i czytelniczek dziecięcych w wieku 8-12 lat.
Dzieciństwo. Literatura i Kultura, 2019
W artykule recenzyjnym omówiono monografię Twenty-First-Century Feminisms in Children’s and Adole... more W artykule recenzyjnym omówiono monografię Twenty-First-Century Feminisms in Children’s and Adolescent Literature (2018) autorstwa Roberty Seelinger Trites. Jego celem jest nakreślenie znaczenia tzw. zwrotu materialnego w teorii feministycznej dla badań nad płcią społeczno-kulturową w literaturze dla młodych odbiorców. Artykuł rozpoczyna się od przybliżenia sylwetki Trites i jej poprzednich prac. W kolejnej części przedstawione zostają różne sposoby teoretycznego ujmowania ciała w myśli feministycznej. Przywołanie stanowisk zajmowanych przez Susan Bordo, Judith Butler czy Elizabeth Grosz pomaga stworzyć odpowiednie tło dla podstawowych założeń feminizmu materialnego i teorii Karen Barad. Sproblematyzowanie kwestii ucieleśnionej podmiotowości kobiecej pozwala zarazem wykazać, w jaki sposób zastosowanie przez Trites feminizmu materialnego do badań nad literaturą dziecięcą i młodzieżową wyznacza nowe kierunki analizy i interpretacji. W dalszej części artykułu zostają omówione poszczególne rozdziały książki, w których Trites włącza do dyskusji perspektywy kluczowe dla współczesnych feminizmów, w tym m.in. teorię krytyczną rasy, ekokrytykę, teorię queer oraz studia nad niepełnosprawnością.
Drafts by Adrianna Zabrzewska
International Research in Children's Literature, 2023
Author's Original (preprint) version. Version of Record is scheduled for publication in Internati... more Author's Original (preprint) version. Version of Record is scheduled for publication in International Research in Children's Literature 16(1) 2023
Previous research, mainly from the US, has found that children's literature is a powerful transmitter of gender roles. To better understand how ideas about gender found in children's books can cross national borders, travel within frontiers, and crash against obstacles that block the road to gender equality, this article compares the US and Poland in terms of children's book publishing and scholarship. Whereas the US children's book market is obviously larger, Poland's internal market is large and growing enough to rely mainly on its own, and thus acts as a barricade to repel 'foreign' gender norms. In the US, feminism has a strong tradition in children's literature research; in Poland, by contrast and since 1989, feminism and the study of gender in children's books have no strong tradition and for the last five years the government has openly discouraged progressive norms of gender equality. This article concludes with a call for more cross-national comparative research on children's books to provide insights into the facilitators and barriers to intercultural exchange of gender norms and national efforts to promote gender progressive ideals among young readers.
Talks by Adrianna Zabrzewska
Ośrodek Myśli Psychoanalitycznej, 2024
Slides from Zabrzewska's invited talk for the "Sexuality and Psychoanalysis" conference organized... more Slides from Zabrzewska's invited talk for the "Sexuality and Psychoanalysis" conference organized by the Center for Psychoanalytical Thought IFiS PAN on April 27, 2024 - accompanied by a short summary of the talk's main argument.
Using original diagrams, Zabrzewska explains which elements of Freud's early theory of sexuality can be considered subversive from the standpoint of today's feminist philosophy, gender studies, and queer theory, and which should be consigned to obsolescence. Presentation available in both Polish and English.
IFiS PAN Publishers, 2021
In autumn 2020, as the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic began, the Constitutional Tribunal is... more In autumn 2020, as the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic began, the Constitutional Tribunal issued a ruling that severely restricted access to abortion. Massive street protests, led by Strajk Kobiet (Women’s Strike), quickly followed.
This sourcebook presents the voices of activists, politicians, and academics on the 2020 protests in Poland after the Constitutional Tribunal’s ruling. Sources include press conferences, interviews, public speeches, and parliamentary committees and debates, translated into English and commented on by Polish feminist scholars.
We designed this book to generate insights into the relationship between inequality, street protest, institutions, and violence, for use in research, teaching, journalism, and activism.
This book was funded by the National Science Centre, Poland (project no. 2016/23/B/HS6/03916).
Gender Quotas in the Post-Communist World: Voice of the Parliamentarians, 2020
Representation is a core component of political voice, and gender quota policy greatly amplifies ... more Representation is a core component of political voice, and gender quota policy greatly amplifies women’s voices in the parliaments of Europe.
This is a source book of new and updated information on gender quotas in the post-Communist world. We feature – in their own words and deeds – the powerful voice of the parliamentarians whose elite position in the political structure makes them prime movers in the battle for gender equality.
We intend for this book to be accessible to everyone interested in gender, political voice inequality, and representation.
This book was funded by the National Science Centre, Poland (project Number 2016/23/B/HS6/03916. PI: Joshua K. Dubrow).
International Research in Children’s Literature, 2023
Previous research, mainly from the US, indicates that children's literature is a powerful transmi... more Previous research, mainly from the US, indicates that children's literature is a powerful transmitter of gender roles. To better understand how ideas about gender found in children's books cross national borders, travel within frontiers, and crash against obstacles that block the road to gender equality, this article compares the US and Poland in terms of children's book publishing and scholarship. Whereas the US children's book market is obviously larger, Poland's internal market is large and growing enough to rely on its own, and thus acts as a barricade to repel 'foreign' gender norms. In the US, feminism has a strong tradition in children's literature research; in Poland, by contrast and since 1989, feminism and the study of gender in children's books have no strong tradition, and for the last eight years the government has openly discouraged progressive norms of gender equality. This article concludes with a call for cross-national comparative research on children's books to provide insights into the facilitators and barriers to intercultural exchange of gender ideologies and national efforts to promote gender progressive ideals among young readers.
University Press of Mississippi , May 18, 2023
Inspired by the works of philosopher Karen Barad, chapter 5 by Adrianna Zabrzewska applies the ca... more Inspired by the works of philosopher Karen Barad, chapter 5 by Adrianna Zabrzewska applies the categories of materiality and realness to investigate the Velveteen Rabbit’s onto-epistemological status and the relationship with his human companion. The first part of Williams’s book shows us that to be a distinct, embodied self – and to be loved as that self by someone else – is an active, gradual, and potentially hurtful process of becoming that invites interdependence and vulnerability. It is a material-discursive process rooted in the experience of being a flawed, finite, and fragile body. The Velveteen Rabbit’s understanding of himself arises in a perpetually moving, changing knot of human and nonhuman matter and meaning, as he goes on to acquire the privilege of becoming Real in the eyes of the Boy. However, when the Rabbit leaves the limited existence of a toy and embraces the elevated ideal of a real flesh rabbit, his relationship with the Boy is rendered meaningless. In the second part of the book, the Velveteen Rabbit transcends from a beloved toy into a redeemed soul. Once the story reveals itself to be a fable of redemption and eternal life, love and materiality have no more place in it. As such, The Velveteen Rabbit illustrates both the principles of Barad’s philosophy and the order that this philosophy seeks to battle.
Gender, Voice, and Violence in Poland: Women’s Protests during the Pandemic, ed. Adrianna Zabrzewska and Joshua K. Dubrow, 2021
In the chapter, Zabrzewska analyzes Polish politicians’ responses to the 2020 protests against th... more In the chapter, Zabrzewska analyzes Polish politicians’ responses to the 2020 protests against the abortion ban through the lens of feminist philosophy. Using selected sources (e.g. the transcript of the Committee on Administration and the Interior) provided in the Gender, Voice, and Violence in Poland: Women’s Protests during the Pandemic sourcebook (Zabrzewska and Dubrow 2021), the author provides insights into how contemporary right-wing rhetoric relies on the body politic metaphor and on the gender bias inherent to mainstream notions of embodiment. She exposes how the facilitators of the anti-abortion law conceptualize the protesters and their demands as a disease or even a virus that threatens the state, as defined by the Catholic right wing. At the same time, the article shows how pro-abortion protests – as an example of what Judith Butler (2015) called “plural embodied action” – place the actual human body at the forefront of politics, heralding a possibility of arriving at a more livable future.
Teksty Drugie, 2019
W artykule Zabrzewska omawia filozofię głosu według Adriany Cavarero oraz trzy kategorie kluczowe... more W artykule Zabrzewska omawia filozofię głosu według Adriany Cavarero oraz trzy kategorie kluczowe dla tego projektu: relacyjność, przyjemność i niepowtarzalność. Zastępując fonocentryzm dewokalizacją logosu Cavarero poszukuje alternatywy dla niemego głosu, który słucha samego siebie. Owa alternatywa przybiera postać głosu ucieleśnionego, relacyjnego i jedynego, który rozbrzmiewa na scenie matczynej i otwiera przestrzeń politycznego działania. W końcowej części artykułu Zabrzewska nakreśla problematyczne obszary projektu Cavarero i wskazuje na potencjalny kierunek rozwoju feministycznej teorii głosu, w której niepowtarzalność szłaby w parze z nieoczywistością.
Gender Quotas in the Post-Communist World: Voice of the Parliamentarians, 2020
Professor Małgorzata Fuszara is a sociologist of law, a researcher of women’s presence on the pol... more Professor Małgorzata Fuszara is a sociologist of law, a researcher of women’s presence on the political scene, and a long-time observer of public life in Poland. The interview presents Professor Fuszara’s experience as a person who not only witnessed, but also significantly contributed to the events that led to the passing of gender quota law in Poland. In this chapter, the readers will find: (a) memories dating back to 2009 when the Congress of Women began working on the citizens’ proposal of the legal act; (b) observations from the parliamentarian debate of 2010 during which Professor Fuszara spoke as the representative of the citizens’ legislative committee; (c) reflections on the law’s immediate aftermath in 2011, and finally, (d) remarks on the state of equality politics in Poland 2019, just a few months before the parliamentary elections.
The chapter is part of the book "Gender Quotas in the Post-Communist World: Voice of the Parliamentarians," edited by Joshua K. Dubrow and Adrianna Zabrzewska (IFiS PAN Publishers 2020). This book was funded by the National Science Centre, Poland (project Number 2016/23/B/HS6/03916).
Gender Quotas in the Post-Communist World: Voice of the Parliamentarians, 2020
The chapter is devoted to a qualitative analysis of Polish deputies’ opinions on gender quotas as... more The chapter is devoted to a qualitative analysis of Polish deputies’ opinions on gender quotas as collected during an elite survey of Polish Parliamentarians in 2011. Using the answers collected during the survey, Zabrzewska discusses the arguments made by proponents and detractors of the gender quota law. The analysis explores the most frequently recurring concepts and themes as provided by the respondents themselves. Even though social scientists studying other nations have developed typologies of arguments for and against gender quotas, this chapter proposes a new outlook by adopting a philosophical and feminist perspective not only on Polish gender quota debates, but also on the concept of political voice as such.
The chapter is part of the book "Gender Quotas in the Post-Communist World: Voice of the Parliamentarians," edited by Joshua K. Dubrow and Adrianna Zabrzewska (IFiS PAN Publishers 2020). This book was funded by the National Science Centre, Poland (project Number 2016/23/B/HS6/03916).
Avant, 2020
Celem artykułu jest: (a) zainicjowanie dyskusji, która wypełniłaby lukę w badaniach nad literatur... more Celem artykułu jest: (a) zainicjowanie dyskusji, która wypełniłaby lukę w badaniach nad literaturą dziecięcą i młodzieżową w Polsce, jaką jest brak pogłębionego namysłu nad płcią społeczno-kulturową przez pryzmat myśli feministycznej; (b) zaprezentowanie autorskiej metodologii badań, w której trzy tytułowe kategorie - ciało, głos i opowieść - zostają wykorzystane jako narzędzia analityczne służące czytaniu reprezentacji płci w książkach dla dzieci i młodzieży; (c) przedstawienie wstępnych wyników badań nad subwersywnymi i tradycyjnymi sposobami reprezentacji płci we współczesnej amerykańskiej i polskiej literaturze dla czytelników i czytelniczek dziecięcych w wieku 8-12 lat.
Dzieciństwo. Literatura i Kultura, 2019
W artykule recenzyjnym omówiono monografię Twenty-First-Century Feminisms in Children’s and Adole... more W artykule recenzyjnym omówiono monografię Twenty-First-Century Feminisms in Children’s and Adolescent Literature (2018) autorstwa Roberty Seelinger Trites. Jego celem jest nakreślenie znaczenia tzw. zwrotu materialnego w teorii feministycznej dla badań nad płcią społeczno-kulturową w literaturze dla młodych odbiorców. Artykuł rozpoczyna się od przybliżenia sylwetki Trites i jej poprzednich prac. W kolejnej części przedstawione zostają różne sposoby teoretycznego ujmowania ciała w myśli feministycznej. Przywołanie stanowisk zajmowanych przez Susan Bordo, Judith Butler czy Elizabeth Grosz pomaga stworzyć odpowiednie tło dla podstawowych założeń feminizmu materialnego i teorii Karen Barad. Sproblematyzowanie kwestii ucieleśnionej podmiotowości kobiecej pozwala zarazem wykazać, w jaki sposób zastosowanie przez Trites feminizmu materialnego do badań nad literaturą dziecięcą i młodzieżową wyznacza nowe kierunki analizy i interpretacji. W dalszej części artykułu zostają omówione poszczególne rozdziały książki, w których Trites włącza do dyskusji perspektywy kluczowe dla współczesnych feminizmów, w tym m.in. teorię krytyczną rasy, ekokrytykę, teorię queer oraz studia nad niepełnosprawnością.
International Research in Children's Literature, 2023
Author's Original (preprint) version. Version of Record is scheduled for publication in Internati... more Author's Original (preprint) version. Version of Record is scheduled for publication in International Research in Children's Literature 16(1) 2023
Previous research, mainly from the US, has found that children's literature is a powerful transmitter of gender roles. To better understand how ideas about gender found in children's books can cross national borders, travel within frontiers, and crash against obstacles that block the road to gender equality, this article compares the US and Poland in terms of children's book publishing and scholarship. Whereas the US children's book market is obviously larger, Poland's internal market is large and growing enough to rely mainly on its own, and thus acts as a barricade to repel 'foreign' gender norms. In the US, feminism has a strong tradition in children's literature research; in Poland, by contrast and since 1989, feminism and the study of gender in children's books have no strong tradition and for the last five years the government has openly discouraged progressive norms of gender equality. This article concludes with a call for more cross-national comparative research on children's books to provide insights into the facilitators and barriers to intercultural exchange of gender norms and national efforts to promote gender progressive ideals among young readers.
Ośrodek Myśli Psychoanalitycznej, 2024
Slides from Zabrzewska's invited talk for the "Sexuality and Psychoanalysis" conference organized... more Slides from Zabrzewska's invited talk for the "Sexuality and Psychoanalysis" conference organized by the Center for Psychoanalytical Thought IFiS PAN on April 27, 2024 - accompanied by a short summary of the talk's main argument.
Using original diagrams, Zabrzewska explains which elements of Freud's early theory of sexuality can be considered subversive from the standpoint of today's feminist philosophy, gender studies, and queer theory, and which should be consigned to obsolescence. Presentation available in both Polish and English.