Anna Dobrowolska
Research Topic:
Sex, communism and videotapes: Polish sexual (r)evolutions, 1956-1989
My research focuses on the history of sexuality in state socialist Poland. In my project I investigate whether the category of “sexual revolution” can be applied to the history of the communist bloc. I am particularly interested in transnational flows of knowledge, practices and ideas about sexuality during the state socialist period. In my DPhil thesis I will study how nudity in its various forms (such as naturism or pornography) was defined, debated and (sometimes) prosecuted between 1956 and 1989.
My studies are funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The DPhil is a part of my bigger project on sexual (r)evolutions in state socialist Poland which has been financed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland.
I studied History and Sociology at the University of Warsaw and graduated with an MA in History in 2018. My master’s thesis explored the history of prostitution and sex work in post-World War II Poland.
In 2020 I published my first monograph "Zawodowe dziewczyny. Prostytucja i praca seksualna w PRL" [Professional Girls. Prostitution and Sex Work in State-Socialist Poland] (Wydawnictwo Krytyki Politycznej, Warszawa 2020) which is the first full-account of the history of commercial sex in post-war Poland.
Supervisor: Dr Katherine Lebow
