Mikolaj C
- Research Program Mentor
PhD candidate at University of Illinois at Chicago
Expertise
History of Material Culture in the US and Europe. Architecture and Design History, Art History, History, The History of Race in Europe, The History of Class in the US and Europe, The History of Housing in the US, The History of Housing in Europe, The History of the Cold War, The history of fashion in Europe in the 20th century, the role of furniture in European society in the 20th century, project that focus on theintersection of architecture and class, a history of the built environment in Central and Eastern Europe, a project that analyzes the way exchanges in the fields of architecture, design, and/or engineering established relationships between Eastern Europe and the Global South during the Cold War
Bio
I am a Ph.D. Candidate in the Art History Department at the University of Illinois at Chicago. My area of expertise is the history of architecture and design in Central and Eastern Europe from the middle of the 19th to the late 20th century. Currently, I am working on a dissertation. It examines the impact of transnational and transsystemic connections—those between the capitalist First World and the socialist Second World—on on the formation of Polish industrial design during the long sixties (1956-1976). As an educator, I teach university courses in art, design, and architecture history and prepare students to write research papers art history. Perhaps because I read extensively in my career, I enjoy watching films during my free time. I especially enjoy films made in Central and Eastern Europe and Russia during the Cold War. They let me experience the material culture of the time and inform my thinking about issues in art and architecture.Project ideas
Beauty in the Everyday: The Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Workshop) and the Production of Imperial Identity, 1903-1918
In 1903, the painter Koloman Moser and architect Josef Hoffmann established Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Workshop) with Fritz Waerndorfer in Vienna. The design workshop brought together architects, artists, and artisans to create objects for everyday use. At the time, Vienna was one capital of a duel-monarchy, the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Home to close to a dozen different ethnolinguistic groups, which desired sovereignty in the form of a nation-state, the empire (particularly the Austrian half) struggled to develop a cohesive and coherent imperial identity for its subjects. This project examines the way the Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Workshop) produced a unique aesthetic expression in the applied arts in order to instill an imperial identity among it's patrons during the short period of its existance under Austro-Hungarian rule, 1903-1918.