PROFIL PRACOWNIKA: Anna Zalewska

I graduated in Archaeology (MA) and and also in History (MA) from the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin (PL). In 1998-2002 I pursued my doctoral studies at that University, which I finalised with the defence of my doctoral thesis entitled. "Theory of historical and archaeological source in contemporary methodological reflection" and obtaining the title of Doctor of Humanities in 2002.

I obtained my postdoctoral degree at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (PL). "Archaeology - Past - Society: conceptualisations of cognitive problems (in) the present" in 2015.

I have completed numerous scholarships a.o. at the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme in Paris as part of a Mellon Scholarship and also at Stanford University, as part of a Kosciuszko Scholarship. Also, I have completed many trainings and workshops mainly on methodology, memory studies, landscape studies and peace studies, inter alia, to enhance my knowledge on processes accompanying and fostering deepening as well as outreach, visualisation and digitalisation of knowledge a.o. via uses of remote sensing methods (e.g. Training School: LiDAR - innovative technology for archaeology 2" (LITA2) implemented by ArchaeoLandscapes Europe (ArcLAND) and UAM and training on the use of LiDAR products implemented by a consortium of companies: ProGea Consutling). I have also held internships, fellowships and study tours, e.g. at the Central European University in Budapest; German and Belgian Archives etc.).

In 2017-2018, I did postgraduate studies in "Armament Surveying" at the Faculty of Philosophy and History of the University of Lodz.

Since October 2022, I have been working at the Institute of Archaeology at the University of Lodz as a research and teaching staff member in the position of Professor of the University.

In October 2023, I started postgraduate studies "Roots of Totalitarianisms" at SWPS.

I am interested in methodology; memory and landscape studies; non-invasive research methods; peace and conflict studies; communication; pro-social archaeology and public history; museology and tourism, as well as critical heritage studies, exploratory pedagogy and peace education and the management of difficult and painful dissonant archaeological heritage.

I pursue a number of activities aimed at advancing knowledge of material-discursive practices that foster social justice and cohesion, and at making archaeology and history socially and cognitively useful (and useful). Her research focuses on the causes, effects and manifestations of historical events and processes that have been repressed or forgotten, including the historical use of weapons of mass destruction, war crimes, mass war persecution and genocides. I am actively involved in activities motivated by a concern for the value and significance of material traces and testimonies in themselves and for making culturally significant places and things present in scientific and social spaces (e.g. as material cautions), as well as for the dignified commemoration of victims of war and conflict, including their resting places. So far, my research and pro-social activities have been mainly contained in the domains: archaeology of the recent past, methodology, relational ontology, studies on materiality and authenticity, archaeology of war and destructions, Memory Studies, Landscape Studies, Heritage Studies, pro-social archaeology, critical heritage studies, peace-studies, including education for peace, museology, cultural tourism, public history, polemology, multimodality, palimpsests, etc.