Sylwia Kuźma-Markowska
Biographic Data
| ID | 1467494 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sylwia Kuźma-Markowska |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sylwia |
| FAMILY NAME | Kuźma-Markowska |
| SIGNATURE | KUŹMA-MARKOWSKA S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Warsaw |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2548-0771 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 14 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Anti-abortion activism in Catholic Europe (1970s–present)
By examining the histories of anti-abortion activism in Belgium, Ireland, Poland, and Spain, the special issue ‘Anti-abortion activism in Catholic Europe (1970s–present)’ reorients away from the principal focus of most research on ‘pro-life’ activism: in historical scholarship, the United States undoubtedly stands as the geographic and symbolic center of the global ‘pro-life’ movement. The contributions to this special issue explore contemporary …
‘To the masses both foreign born and native’: The Birth-Control Politics and Activism of Ernest Lilien and Herman Rubinraut
This chapter examines the politics and activism of two male Polish Jewish birth-control pioneers, Herman Rubinraut, who was involved in the ‘conscious motherhood’ campaign in Poland, and Ernest Lilien, a social activist and journalist, who worked with Polish immigrant women in the United States. I argue that, although their initiatives were directed at different ethnic groups, they both aimed at alleviating the situation of lower-class women over…
The anti-abortion movement, Catholic Church, and communist state: Poland in the 1970s and 1980s
Brokering Right-to-Life: Poland and the Transnational Entanglements of Catholic Pro-Life Activism, from Santiago to Washington to Gdańsk, 1970s-1990s
This article examines multi-vector pro-life exchanges between Poland and two American countries: the United States and Chile. We make the case that the 1970s through 1990s represent a significant historical moment that yielded both transplantable templates and direct longitudinal consequences for transnational social activism in the twenty-first century. We argue that during this time Poland acted as an incubation site for pro-life transnationali…
Americanization Through Innovation: Polish American Women, Domestic Appliances, and the Household Revolution Debate, 1900-40
For Polish-American women, household appliances-promoted in Polish-language magazines in the United States in 1930s-were not merely labor-saving tools, but symbols of Americanization and social mobility. Revisiting Ruth Schwartz Cowan's argument that the domestic technological revolution primarily benefited middle-class women, this article examines the experiences of immigrant and second-generation Polish-American women in early twentieth-century…
Informing the ‘Broad Masses’: Early‐Twentieth‐Century Birth Control Debates and Activism in the Polish‐American Community
During 1925–26 and 1928, debates about birth control took place in the readers' column of North Star ( Gwiazda Polarna ), a US Polish language weekly. These discussions provide a rare insight into how ideas spread by the US birth control movement were received by an immigrant and ethnic working‐class Catholic community. The readers’ letters showed the prevalence of socialist rationales for birth control, expectation from men to play an active rol…
Explaining the Calendar: The Catholic Church and Family Planning in Poland, 1930–1957
This article explores continuities and discontinuities in Polish Catholic discourses on family planning across a time span that tends to be divided in the historiography on Poland and political history in general. The period we analyse begins in 1930, with the pivotal encyclical Casti connubii defining church doctrine on contraception, and ends with the legalization of abortion in 1956, and a state-sponsored family planning campaign the following…
Laboratory of Deficiency: Sterilization and Confinement in California, 1900-1950s by Natalie Lira
Reviewed by: Laboratory of Deficiency: Sterilization and Confinement in California, 1900–1950s by Natalie Lira Sylwia KuŹma-Markowska (bio) Laboratory of Deficiency: Sterilization and Confinement in California, 1900–1950s By Natalie Lira. Oakland: University of California Press, 2022. Pp. 284. In the last three decades, historians of eugenic sterilization have produced a number of important studies that have underpinned the political foundations …
Anti‐abortion Activism in Poland and the Republic of Ireland c .1970s–1990s
This comparative article explores anti‐abortion activism in Poland and Ireland from the period of the 1970s to the early 1990s. Drawing on a range of archival and printed sources, it sheds light on the Polish and Irish anti‐abortion movements as a part of transnational anti‐abortion efforts and underscores the importance of studying such phenomena transnationally, in a comparative perspective. We argue that despite political, social, and legislat…
Achieving Their Goals and Adopting New Norms: Polish Immigrant Women and American Institutions in Early Twentieth-Century and Interwar Chicago
This paper examines paradoxes and ambiguities in the interactions of Polish immigrant women with American institutions in early twentieth-century and interwar Chicago. I argue that these interactions were far more multi-faceted than described by William Thomas and Florian Znaniecki in The Polish Peasant in Europe and America. Although American institutions did intervene within the Polish immigrant family, proposing "American" solutions to issues …
Family Planning Advice in State-Socialist Poland, 1950s–80s: Local and Transnational Exchanges
This paper scrutinises the relations between different models of family planning advice and their evolution in Poland between the mid-1950s and the late 1980s, focusing on their similarities and dissimilarities, conflicts and concordances. From 1956 onwards, the delivery of family planning advice became a priority for both the Polish Catholic Church and the party-state, especially its health authorities, which supported the foundation of the Soci…
Marx or Malthus? Population debates and the reproductive politics of state-socialist Poland in the 1950s and 1960s
The article presents state-socialist and Catholic reproductive and population politics of Cold War Poland, focusing on competing discourses of population growth that were present in public debates since the 1950s up to the 1970s. Situating the local Polish case in a wider international framework, I examine references to Malthusian and Marxists theories of population in the statements of party-state and Catholic journalists during the only period …
Railroad Workers, Civilization and Communism: The Young Men’s Christian Association on the Interwar Polish Frontier
This article seeks to present and analyze one of the aspects of the work of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA or Y) in interwar Poland: the initiatives for railroad workers from eastern frontier towns and cities. Focusing on the efforts that the organization undertook on the territory commonly referred to as the Polish borderlands (Kresy), I show that for the leaders of the Y the work among the railway employees was of utmost political …
An Unexpected Continuity: Voluntary and Compulsory Sterilization in the Rhetoric of the Pre- and Post-World War II Polish Birth Control Movement
Anti‐abortion Activism in Poland and the Republic of Ireland c .1970s–1990s
This comparative article explores anti‐abortion activism in Poland and Ireland from the period of the 1970s to the early 1990s. Drawing on a range of archival and printed sources, it sheds light on the Polish and Irish anti‐abortion movements as a part of transnational anti‐abortion efforts and underscores the importance of studying such phenomena transnationally, in a comparative perspective. We argue that despite political, social, and legislat…
Marx or Malthus? Population debates and the reproductive politics of state-socialist Poland in the 1950s and 1960s
The article presents state-socialist and Catholic reproductive and population politics of Cold War Poland, focusing on competing discourses of population growth that were present in public debates since the 1950s up to the 1970s. Situating the local Polish case in a wider international framework, I examine references to Malthusian and Marxists theories of population in the statements of party-state and Catholic journalists during the only period …
Explaining the Calendar: The Catholic Church and Family Planning in Poland, 1930–1957
This article explores continuities and discontinuities in Polish Catholic discourses on family planning across a time span that tends to be divided in the historiography on Poland and political history in general. The period we analyse begins in 1930, with the pivotal encyclical Casti connubii defining church doctrine on contraception, and ends with the legalization of abortion in 1956, and a state-sponsored family planning campaign the following…
An Unexpected Continuity: Voluntary and Compulsory Sterilization in the Rhetoric of the Pre- and Post-World War II Polish Birth Control Movement
An Unexpected Continuity: Voluntary and Compulsory Sterilization in the Rhetoric of the Pre- and Post-World War II Polish Birth Control Movement
Railroad Workers, Civilization and Communism: The Young Men’s Christian Association on the Interwar Polish Frontier
This article seeks to present and analyze one of the aspects of the work of the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA or Y) in interwar Poland: the initiatives for railroad workers from eastern frontier towns and cities. Focusing on the efforts that the organization undertook on the territory commonly referred to as the Polish borderlands (Kresy), I show that for the leaders of the Y the work among the railway employees was of utmost political …
Marx or Malthus? Population debates and the reproductive politics of state-socialist Poland in the 1950s and 1960s
The article presents state-socialist and Catholic reproductive and population politics of Cold War Poland, focusing on competing discourses of population growth that were present in public debates since the 1950s up to the 1970s. Situating the local Polish case in a wider international framework, I examine references to Malthusian and Marxists theories of population in the statements of party-state and Catholic journalists during the only period …
Family Planning Advice in State-Socialist Poland, 1950s–80s: Local and Transnational Exchanges
This paper scrutinises the relations between different models of family planning advice and their evolution in Poland between the mid-1950s and the late 1980s, focusing on their similarities and dissimilarities, conflicts and concordances. From 1956 onwards, the delivery of family planning advice became a priority for both the Polish Catholic Church and the party-state, especially its health authorities, which supported the foundation of the Soci…
Anti‐abortion Activism in Poland and the Republic of Ireland c .1970s–1990s
This comparative article explores anti‐abortion activism in Poland and Ireland from the period of the 1970s to the early 1990s. Drawing on a range of archival and printed sources, it sheds light on the Polish and Irish anti‐abortion movements as a part of transnational anti‐abortion efforts and underscores the importance of studying such phenomena transnationally, in a comparative perspective. We argue that despite political, social, and legislat…
Achieving Their Goals and Adopting New Norms: Polish Immigrant Women and American Institutions in Early Twentieth-Century and Interwar Chicago
This paper examines paradoxes and ambiguities in the interactions of Polish immigrant women with American institutions in early twentieth-century and interwar Chicago. I argue that these interactions were far more multi-faceted than described by William Thomas and Florian Znaniecki in The Polish Peasant in Europe and America. Although American institutions did intervene within the Polish immigrant family, proposing "American" solutions to issues …
Informing the ‘Broad Masses’: Early‐Twentieth‐Century Birth Control Debates and Activism in the Polish‐American Community
During 1925–26 and 1928, debates about birth control took place in the readers' column of North Star ( Gwiazda Polarna ), a US Polish language weekly. These discussions provide a rare insight into how ideas spread by the US birth control movement were received by an immigrant and ethnic working‐class Catholic community. The readers’ letters showed the prevalence of socialist rationales for birth control, expectation from men to play an active rol…
Explaining the Calendar: The Catholic Church and Family Planning in Poland, 1930–1957
This article explores continuities and discontinuities in Polish Catholic discourses on family planning across a time span that tends to be divided in the historiography on Poland and political history in general. The period we analyse begins in 1930, with the pivotal encyclical Casti connubii defining church doctrine on contraception, and ends with the legalization of abortion in 1956, and a state-sponsored family planning campaign the following…
Laboratory of Deficiency: Sterilization and Confinement in California, 1900-1950s by Natalie Lira
Reviewed by: Laboratory of Deficiency: Sterilization and Confinement in California, 1900–1950s by Natalie Lira Sylwia KuŹma-Markowska (bio) Laboratory of Deficiency: Sterilization and Confinement in California, 1900–1950s By Natalie Lira. Oakland: University of California Press, 2022. Pp. 284. In the last three decades, historians of eugenic sterilization have produced a number of important studies that have underpinned the political foundations …
The anti-abortion movement, Catholic Church, and communist state: Poland in the 1970s and 1980s
Brokering Right-to-Life: Poland and the Transnational Entanglements of Catholic Pro-Life Activism, from Santiago to Washington to Gdańsk, 1970s-1990s
This article examines multi-vector pro-life exchanges between Poland and two American countries: the United States and Chile. We make the case that the 1970s through 1990s represent a significant historical moment that yielded both transplantable templates and direct longitudinal consequences for transnational social activism in the twenty-first century. We argue that during this time Poland acted as an incubation site for pro-life transnationali…
Americanization Through Innovation: Polish American Women, Domestic Appliances, and the Household Revolution Debate, 1900-40
For Polish-American women, household appliances-promoted in Polish-language magazines in the United States in 1930s-were not merely labor-saving tools, but symbols of Americanization and social mobility. Revisiting Ruth Schwartz Cowan's argument that the domestic technological revolution primarily benefited middle-class women, this article examines the experiences of immigrant and second-generation Polish-American women in early twentieth-century…
Anti-abortion activism in Catholic Europe (1970s–present)
By examining the histories of anti-abortion activism in Belgium, Ireland, Poland, and Spain, the special issue ‘Anti-abortion activism in Catholic Europe (1970s–present)’ reorients away from the principal focus of most research on ‘pro-life’ activism: in historical scholarship, the United States undoubtedly stands as the geographic and symbolic center of the global ‘pro-life’ movement. The contributions to this special issue explore contemporary …
‘To the masses both foreign born and native’: The Birth-Control Politics and Activism of Ernest Lilien and Herman Rubinraut
This chapter examines the politics and activism of two male Polish Jewish birth-control pioneers, Herman Rubinraut, who was involved in the ‘conscious motherhood’ campaign in Poland, and Ernest Lilien, a social activist and journalist, who worked with Polish immigrant women in the United States. I argue that, although their initiatives were directed at different ethnic groups, they both aimed at alleviating the situation of lower-class women over…
European history and politics (12 works) · Political science (9 works) · Law (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Gender Studies (7 works) · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes (7 works) · Politics (7 works) · Demography (6 works) · Population (6 works) · French Historical and Cultural Studies (5 works)