Agnieszka Graff-Osser (born 1970 in Warsaw) is a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

writer, translator, commentator, feminist and women's and human rights activist. She studied in

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Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...

(

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

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) and graduated from School of Social Sciences at

Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences ( pl, Polska Akademia Nauk, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of ...

. She completed her PhD in

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

in 1999. In 2001, she published ''World without women'', which was nominated to

Nike Award The Nike Literary Award ( pl, Nagroda Literacka „Nike") is a literary prize awarded each year for the best book of a single living author writing in Polish and published the previous year. It is widely considered the most important award for ...

in 2002. She works at the

Warsaw University The University of Warsaw ( pl, Uniwersytet Warszawski, la, Universitas Varsoviensis) is a public university in Warsaw, Poland. Established in 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country offering 37 different fields of ...

's Institute of the Americas and Europe and gives lectures on

gender studies Gender studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to analysing gender identity and gendered representation. Gender studies originated in the field of women's studies, concerning women, feminism, gender, and politics. The field ...

. Her essays and features have been published in "

Gazeta Wyborcza ''Gazeta Wyborcza'' (; ''The Electoral Gazette'' in English) is a Polish daily newspaper based in Warsaw, Poland. It is the first Polish daily newspaper after the era of "real socialism" and one of Poland's newspapers of record, covering the g ...

" (mass circulation liberal newspaper), "

Literatura na Świecie ''Literatura na Świecie'' (''World Literature'') was, during the times of the Polish People's Republic, one of the most widely read and sought after periodicals in Poland. The magazine was started in 1971. Its headquarters is in Warsaw. In the 197 ...

" ("World Literature") and " Zadra" ("The Thorn", a feminist magazine). She is a co-founder of women's organisation Porozumienie Kobiet 8 Marca (8 March Women's Coalition) with which she organises the annual Manifa Warsaw women's march. From 2007 to 2010, Graff was a member of the Precedent Cases Programme's Programme Board at the

International Helsinki Federation For Human Rights The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) was a self-governing group of non-governmental organizations that acted to protect human rights throughout Europe, North America and Central Asia. A specific primary goal was to monitor ...

. Graff is

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. She was the wife of the photographer and French press correspondent Bernard Osser with whom she has a son, who was born in 2008. In February 2021, she

came out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

, by writing on her social media that she is in a committed relationship with a woman. In the March–April issue of the only Polish LGBTIA magazine, ''Replika'', Graff and her partner, the cultural anthropologist Magdalena Staroszczyk, talked more about their relationship and

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...

identities.

Selected works

* ''Świat bez kobiet. Płeć w polskim życiu publicznym.'' (''World without women: gender in Polish public life''). Warsaw 2001. * ''Rykoszetem. Rzecz o płci, seksualności i narodzie.'' (''Ricochet : on gender, sexuality, and nation''). Warsaw 2008. * ''Magma i inne próby zrozumienia, o co tu chodzi.'' (''Magma: and Other Attempts to Understand, What's Up with It''). Warsaw 2010. * ''Matka Feministka.'' (''Mother Feminist''), Warsaw 2014. * ''Jestem stąd.'' (''I am from here'', an interview with Michał Sutowski), Warsaw 2014. * ''Memy i graffy. Dżender, kasa i seks.'' (''Memes and graffs. Gender, cash and sex'', together with Marta Frej), Warsaw 2015.

References

External links

Faculty Page at the University of Warsaw

Interview with Agnieszka Graff entitled "Women sacrificed on the altar of the Holy Mary
* Interview, Center for Feminist Foreign Policy,
Dangerous Alliances: Agnieszka Graff on the anti-gender movement and its synergy with the populist right in Poland
" {{DEFAULTSORT:Graff, Agnieszka 1970 births Living people Jewish feminists Lesbian Jews Polish feminists 20th-century Polish Jews 21st-century Polish Jews 21st-century Polish women writers Academic staff of the University of Warsaw Polish lesbian writers 21st-century Polish LGBT people