This talk sets out the foundational ideas about race and colonialism in Poland and relates them to the global manifestations that influenced them.
Paper long abstract:
Focusing on race and colonialism, the talk indicates a shift in global racial discourse – an understanding of the specificity of Polish racism that can transform and add to our understanding of race in the West. In doing so, the talk offers a brief theoretical and historical context of race-making in the so-called ‘peripheral sphere’, whilst outlining the ways in which race and colonialism have been explicitly framed in early modern Poland and its empire in the Atlantic world. To do this effectively, I draw on archival resources - manuscripts, documents, and records - from Poland and other parts of Europe to theorize what I identify as the three key manifestations of race and colonialism in Poland, namely Colonial global economy; Colonization; and Eugenics. These key manifestations allow me to recall discussions on race and colonialism from the margin to the centre in order to redirect them beyond the prevailing accounts of race and colonialism in the West. The talk excavates the veiled racialized and colonial structures within the Polish histories to remap the politics of race-making in Europe.