Personhood in Places: Aging, Memory, and Relatedness in Postsocialist Poland
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Personhood in Places: Aging, Memory, and Relatedness in Postsocialist Poland by Jessica Choate Robbins A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Anthropology) in the University of Michigan 2013 Doctoral Committee: Professor Gillian Feeley-Harnik, Chair Professor Lawrence Cohen, University of California Berkeley Assistant Professor Krisztina Fehérváry Associate Professor Alaina Lemon Lecturer Holly Peters-Golden Professor Brian Porter-Szücs Figure 1: Map of Poland after World War II. (Map made by and used with permission of Brian Porter-Szücs. To appear in: Poland in the Modern World: More than Martyrdom, Wiley/Blackwell, 2014) © Jessica Choate Robbins ______________________________________________________ 2013 In memory of my grandparents, Rovelle Coffman Choate, Pauline Davis Choate, and Alvin Dolliver Robbins, and for my grandmother, Jean West Robbins. ii Acknowledgements This dissertation is the product of the accumulated wisdom, kindness, and generosity of the many extraordinary people in whose company I have been lucky to find myself over many years. Above all, I must thank my research participants in Wrocław and Poznań, without whom this research would have been impossible. Although I cannot list most of them by name, I am indebted to the many staff, patients, residents, and słuchacze for allowing me into their worlds over a long span of time. I am grateful for the unfailing warmth, hospitality, humor, and openness with which I was welcomed into institutions and homes. Some I can list by name: in addition to thanking all for their generosity with their time and knowledge, I would like to especially thank Aleksander Kobylarek at the University of the Third Age in Wrocław for his intellectual curiosity and collaborative spirit; Lidia Wrocińska-Sławska at the University of the Third Age in Poznań for teaching me about professionalism and friendship in a Polish context; Andrzej Rossa at the Greater Poland Alzheimer’s Association for his story-telling and activism; and Marek Ferenc and Grzegorz Tymoszyk at Sektor 3 in Wrocław for their energy, creativity, and passion. All have taught me about the work that they do and have opened door after door for me. I am also grateful to my transcription assistants, Magdalena Michalak, Anna Wiatr, Julia Beger, and Bartłomiej Zgolus, who sensitively and patiently listened to hours of conversations, decoding recordings often made in less-than-ideal conditions. Some of the people whose stories appear on these pages have passed away. I hope that this work might serve as a testament for those who so deeply wished to share their lives with others. iii My academic colleagues in Poland have been equally open, warm, and hospitable. I am grateful to the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at Adam Mickiewicz University for providing me with an academic home during my time in Poznań, and especially to Michał Buchowski for enthusiastically welcoming me into the Polish anthropology community from my first trip to Poland in 2006. I thank the University of Lower Silesia in Wrocław for inviting me to participate in conferences and seminars, and especially Hana Červinková, for being an energetic advocate for my work. In Wrocław, Anna Wiatr and Edyta Zierkiewicz broadened my understanding of Polish society through their own research and activism. Their passion serves as a continuing inspiration to me. Jan Lorenz has been both a tour guide and anthropological interlocutor since the beginning. Marek Pawlak helped me to understand the anthropological world in Poland. Małgorzata Nikodem, Joanna Golonka, and Monika Urbańska helped me to see connections between anthropology and education, and helped me to feel at home in Wrocław. In Poznań, Natalia Bloch, Katarzyna Chlewińska, Mariusz Filip, Elżbieta Goździak, and Izabela Kołbon helped me to feel at home as an anthropologist in Poland. Joanna Zalewska has been an interlocutor from the beginning of this project and I am grateful for her insights. Without the friendship and generosity of Jerzy Rozenblit and Alicja Kusiak-Brownstein, I would not have met the wonderful people whom I spent time during my fieldwork. Each shared with me a lifetime of friendships and connections in Wrocław and Poznań, introducing me to people who were absolutely instrumental to the work that I was able to accomplish. From the beginning, conversations with Elizabeth Dunn helped me to find my place as an anthropologist in Poland and provided invaluable academic connections in Poland. Thomas Chivens has been a long-time enthusiastic and supportive colleague and friend. This project has been shaped from the start by their interest and support. iv A core group of friends made my time in Poland a true pleasure. In Wrocław, Elżbieta Trypka and Leszek and Elżbieta Janik were friends from the very start. At a crucial time, Henrietta Lorenz provided a “home” for me in Wrocław, and many repeated kindnesses. Rachel Cooke opened her home to me more times than I could have reasonably expected and helped me to see Poland through her eyes. Justyna Marciniak was a constant source of lightness and inquisitiveness. Emilia Staniek was a confidante and friend in a time during which I did not expect to find one. In Poznań, Wojciech Olejniczak and Agnieszka Juraszczyk were a source of creative ideas, provocative conversations, and fantastic meals. Anna Topolska was an instant friend with whom I now share two worlds. I am grateful to fellow travelers Alexandra Gerber, Julie Jacoby, Laura Hilburn, and Jennifer Solheim; even though they were living in Warsaw, Prague, and Paris while I was in Wrocław and Poznań, they felt closer than the distance implies. The time I have spent with all these friends has enriched my fieldwork by deepening my attachment to the places where I worked and teaching me what I did not know I needed to ask. I am grateful for the financial support that has made this dissertation possible. Long-term fieldwork in Poland was primarily supported by a Dissertation Fieldwork Grant (#7736) from the Wenner-Gren Foundation and a Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant (#0819259) from the National Science Foundation. Other key support during fieldwork and writing came from a Jean Monnet Fellowship (jointly funded by the European Union Center of Excellence [EUCE-MI], a grant from the European Commission, and from the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies), the Elderhostel K. Patricia Cross Doctoral Research Grant, and a Community of Scholars Fellowship from the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at the University of Michigan. Institutional support from the Department of Anthropology at the University of California Santa Barbara made the beginning of writing easier and more pleasurable than it v otherwise would have been. I am grateful for one summer-long and three yearlong Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships (U.S. Department of Education Title VI). Throughout graduate school, the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies (CREES), the Copernicus Endowment, the Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies, and the Department of Anthropology at the University of Michigan have provided crucial support for study, research, and writing. I am also grateful for the decades of effort by members of the Graduate Employees’ Organization (GEO) to create a positive working environment for graduate students. I am indebted to my doctoral committee for seeing this project through from start to finish with generosity of time, intellect, and spirit. From all, I have learned how to be an ethnographer, anthropologist, teacher, and colleague. Gillian Feeley-Harnik has taught me how to ask questions that are both more detailed and expansive than I had thought possible, and has given me the confidence to answer them by seeking connections across places and times. Gillian’s scholarship, collegiality, and curiosity are a tremendous and abiding source of inspiration. Her care for and interest in my work—evident in incisive, detailed, and gracious commentary, hours of conversations, and an ever-growing list of references—have been the most supportive, challenging, and caring form of mentorship I could imagine. Holly Peters-Golden has been a mentor since my first day of graduate school, supporting, encouraging, and challenging me—not to mention making me laugh—from the very beginning. Her ethnographic insights push my understanding of what I thought I knew, encouraging me to see medical anthropology as fundamental to both anthropology and society. In teaching with Holly I learned the importance of making my research accessible to students and the public. Alaina Lemon has taught me how to develop my own voice through rigorous attention to ethnographic detail. Her provocative vi questions helped me to comb through my data for the moments that mattered and to expand my questions to Polish society at large. Krisztina Fehérváry has encouraged me to transform tentative claims into more powerful arguments, while her sharp and down-to-earth observations about life in central and eastern Europe serve to remind me of the complexity of social life more generally. Working with Kriszti as a teacher has both broadened my understanding of the region and helped me to be a more holistic teacher. Brian Porter-Szücs supported this project from the very beginning, giving me confidence by seeing broader implications when I was caught in too many details, and guiding me through the interdisciplinary world of scholarship on Poland. His generosity and efficiency serve as a model of scholarly productivity and mentorship. Lawrence Cohen’s research and writing motivated this project at its earliest stages. Our conversations about aging, generations, and Poland have been a regular source of inspiration over the lifetime of this project, while his personal generosity has deepened my commitment to this work. As a group, my committee has at times held my hand and at times pushed me out on my own, all without making me feel as if they were doing either.