Dr. Tadek Wojtych
- Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of History / Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies
PhD, University of Cambridge (UK), 2023
Telephone: 519-661-2111 ext 83645
Email: twojtych@uwo.ca
Office: Lawson Hall R2237
Research Interests
Tadek Wojtych is a historian of education and museums in Europe and North America. At Western, he analyses how history textbooks foster (and hinder) reconciliation in Canada, Germany, and Poland. Prior to joining Western, he was a Postdoctoral Associate at Newcastle University (UK), where he worked on museums and democracy as part of an international British-German project. In 2023, he obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge, with a thesis on online museums of migration.
While he holds a research-only appointment, he is always happy to talk to students about their work, especially on topics related to public history, decolonisation, and modern European and Canadian history.
Publications
Monograph
Wojtych, T., Beyond the Online-Offline Binary: Virtual Museums of Migration in Central and Eastern Europe [under review by De Gruyter – ‘Museums and Narratives’ series].
Edited Volume
Mattingly, D., and Wojtych, T. (eds), Poland, Ukraine, and Operation Vistula: Forced Migrations in Research, Culture, and Politics [volume in preparation, planned publication in 2025].
Peer-reviewed articles and book chapters
Wojtych, T., and Eckersley, S., ‘Between advocacy and activism: Political engagement by the UK Museum Association and German Museumsbund since the 1990s’, 15 pp. [under review by Museum History Journal].
Wojtych, T., ‘Teaching forced migrations: Polish-Ukrainian migrations of the 1940s in twentieth-century Polish history textbooks’ in M. Syrný and M. Šmigel̕ (eds), The Soviet Union and Central Europe in 1930s – 1940s (Banská Bystrica: Matej Bel University Press, 2024), pp. 140-149.
Wojtych, T., ‘New trends in museum and memory studies: A way forward for Central and Eastern Europe?’, Slavonic and East European Review 100, 4 (2022), pp. 728-744.
Wojtych, T., ‘New museums, new challenges: Reflections on the study of online museums in Central and Eastern Europe’ in O. Jones and J. McGlynn (eds), Researching Memory and Identity in Russia and Eastern Europe – Interdisciplinary Methodologies (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), pp. 75-89.
Wojtych, T., ‘Politics, community, and leisure: The reception of Soviet guitar poetry in Poland’, Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 69, 2 (2021), pp. 183-208.
Winner of the 2022 Postgraduate Article Prize of the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies.
Wojtych, T., ‘Internet, museums and politics: Project outline and literature review’ in E. Gantner and O. Dovbysh (eds), Digitization of Memory and Politics in Eastern Europe – Europe Now 29 (2019, online)
Wojtych, T., ‘The influence of the Women's Royal Naval Service on the position of women in British society’ [in Polish], Progress: Journal of Young Researchers 3 (2018), pp. 69-80.
Policy paper
Wojtych, T., Recommendations on proposed changes to the history curriculum, submitted to the Polish Ministry of Education and Science (January 2022).
Book review
Wojtych T., Review of: Anne Applebaum, Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944 – 1956, London: Allen Lane, 2012, in: St Andrews Historical Journal (February 2014, online).
Conference papers (last 5 years)
Reconciliation in history textbooks: A stimulus for change or a smokescreen for continued injustice?, ICCEES World Congress, UCL, London, July 2025.
Myth- and memory-making in history textbooks and curricula: (Post-)colonial and (post-)war contexts (roundtable contribution), Memory Studies Association Conference, Prague, July 2025.
Teaching forced migrations: Entangled Polish-Ukrainian histories in post-2000 Polish history textbooks, European Forum for Reconciliation, University of Wrocław, Poland, November 2024.
History teaching and reconciliation: A comparative study of Central Europe and Canada, BASEES Annual Conference, University of Cambridge, April 2024.
Sex education and religion in East Germany, Poland, and Czechoslovakia (1945-1991), Annual Conference of the German History Society, University of Birmingham, September 2023.
Beyond the online-offline binary: Virtual museums of migration in Central and Eastern Europe, Memory Studies Association Conference, Newcastle University, July 2023.
Negotiating a shared past: How historical commissions affect textbooks in Central Europe and North America (1972-present), BASEES Annual Conference, University of Glasgow, March-April 2023.
History textbook commissions and the portrayal of contested events in Germany, Poland and Russia, Addressing the Past – Shaping the Future: Memory Politics in Europe and Canada, University of Victoria, Canada, October 2022.
Winner of the Conference Award from the Centre for Global Studies, University of Victoria.
New trends in museum and memory studies: A way forward for Poland?, Northern Workshop of the BASEES Polish Studies Group, University of Manchester, June 2022.
Beyond the exhibition: The ‘additional’ activities of museums, BASEES Annual Conference, University of Cambridge, April 2022.
Space and narrative in Central and East European online and offline museums, ICCEES World Congress, Montreal, Concordia University, August 2021.
