University of Gothenburg
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Wojtek Jezierski

Researcher

Department of Historical
Studies
Mail
wojtek.jezierski@gu.se
Visiting address
Renströmsgatan 6
41255 Göteborg
Postal address
Box 200
40530 Göteborg

About Wojtek Jezierski

Wojtek Jezierski works as a postdoc in medieval history at the Department of Historical Studies, Gothenburg University. He holds an MA in history from Warsaw University (2003) where he also studied social anthropology. In 2010 he defended his PhD in history at Stockholm University. He also had longer research visits at Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster (2006) and Deutsches Historisches Institut Warschau (2011/2012).

Current research

Wojtek's current research has two foci. Firstly, he investigates rituals and patterns of emotions of pagan and Christian communities on the southern shores of the Baltic Sea in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Notions such as 'hostipitality' in encounters between the heathens and missionaries or 'emotional communities' come under scrutiny. Together with Lars Hermanson (Göteborg), Hans Jacob Orning (Oslo), and Thomas Småberg (Malmö) he is preparing an anthology on politics of ritual in medieval Scandinavia.

Wojtek is also pursuing a postdoc project financed by Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) investigating the phenomenology of royal sight, blindness & visibility as instruments of power in Central and Western Europe during the High Middle Ages.

Research interests

Wojtek's research concentrates on a number of issues. In his MA he focused on Anglo-Saxon and German historiographical connections and political uses of history during the tenth century. His PhD investigated the way medieval monasteries, particularly the monastery of St Gall but also others, developed and managed relations of power within their communities during the tenth and eleventh centuries. More precisely he investigated how monastic subjectivities - both individual and collective - were constructed, surveyed, persecuted, and disciplined to suit the monastic demands. Along these issues he examined early medieval and monastic senses of 'public sphere', 'institution', 'the self', 'conduct', and 'power'. Characteristic of his research are borrowings from contemporary sociological and philosophical theories which are worked into and 'tested' on medieval sources. His research has been published in Early Medieval Europe, Frühmittelalterliche Studien, Scandia, and The Medieval Chronicle.

Please visit his site for details and publications: http://gu-se.academia.edu/WojtekJezierski