Biography

Anna Dobrowolska is a historian of modern Poland and her research focuses on the history of sexuality under state socialism. She is currently completing her D.Phil. in History at the University of Oxford. In the thesis she explores the history of the Polish 'sexual revolution’ in the two last decades of state socialism through visual sources and archival documents. Before coming to Oxford Anna studied history and sociology at the University of Warsaw, Poland.

In 2020 Anna published her 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. In May 2021 the book was nominated for the Polityka awards for the best historical monographs (Nagrody Historyczne Polityki). Anna's research has been financed by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education (Diamentowy Grant, 2017-2021) and by the British Arts and Humanities Research Council.

During her time at the EUI Anna will be rewriting her doctoral thesis as a book, tentatively titled 'Sex, Communism and Videotapes. Polish Sexual (R)evolutions, 1956-1989'. She also plans to start developing a postdoctoral research project on the history of eroticisation of visual culture in East-Central Europe in the 1980s and 1990s.

Expertise for Teaching and Mentoring of Ph.D. Researchers
Anna has experience in teaching undergraduate courses on gender, modern European history, Cold War culture and the history of East-Central Europe.