Joanna Sabina Tokarska-Bakir (born 1958) is a Polish cultural

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...

, literary scholar, and religious studies scholar. She is a full professor and chair of the ethnic and national relations study at the

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 ...

's Institute of Slavic Studies. She specializes in

blood libel Blood libel or ritual murder libel (also blood accusation) is an antisemitic canardTurvey, Brent E. ''Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis'', Academic Press, 2008, p. 3. "Blood libel: An accusation of ritual mur ...

, historical anthropology and in particular violence, and

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

ethnography.

Career

In 1983, Tokarska-Bakir received her MA in Ethnology from the

University of Warsaw 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 ...

in 1983, and her doctorate in 1993 also from

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

. She completed her habilitation at Warsaw in 2001. In 2010 she was appointed full professor.Curriculum vitae
http://pan-pl.academia.edu

Research and writing

In ''Żydzi u Kolberga'', Tokarska-Bakir rejects the view that pre-modern folk antisemitism was benign, asserting that these notions assigned to Jews a "dangerous place" which could lead to destruction at any moment. Tokarska-Bakir argued that this "common sense" persists to the modern-day with explosions of hatred being latent phenomena. In her essay ''Poland as the sick man of Europe?'', she describes the public debate in Poland following the publication of

Jan T. Gross Jan Tomasz Gross (born 1947) is a Polish-American sociologist and historian. He is the Norman B. Tomlinson '16 and '48 Professor of War and Society, emeritus, and Professor of History, emeritus, at Princeton University. Gross is the author o ...

's '' Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland'' on the

Jedwabne pogrom The Jedwabne pogrom was a massacre of History of the Jews in Poland, Polish Jews in the town of Jedwabne, Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), German-occupied Poland, on 10 July 1941, during World War II and the early stages of the Holocaust. At ...

as the revelation of what had been in effect a "public secret" in Poland since the massacre took place. Tokarska-Bakir's describes the debate as "an explosion of post-traumatic psychosis" in which some historians attempted to maintain Poland's identity as a victim and not as a perpetrator by discrediting the research. Tokarska-Bakir asserts that empathy is the needed cure to "dispel the stupor" and "impart some critical awareness" in regards to the Jedwabne debate. Her 2008 study ''Legends about blood: The anthropology of prejudice'' is about folk legends in southeastern Poland that justified antisemitism as well as their form in modern society.

Awards

* In 2014, she received a

Cross of Merit (Poland) The Cross of Merit () is a Polish civil state decoration established on 23 June 1923, to recognize services to the state. History At the time of its establishment in 1923, the Cross of Merit was the highest civilian award in Poland. It was awa ...

.Prof. dr hab. Joanna Tokarska-Bakir
ispan.waw.pl * In 2007, she was awarded the

Jan Karski Jan Karski (24 June 1914 – 13 July 2000) was a Polish soldier, resistance-fighter, and diplomat during World War II. He is known for having acted as a courier in 1940–1943 to the Polish government-in-exile and to Poland's Western Allies abo ...

& Pola Nirenska prize from the

YIVO YIVO (Yiddish: , ) is an organization that preserves, studies, and teaches the cultural history of Jewish life throughout Eastern Europe, Germany, and Russia as well as orthography, lexicography, and other studies related to Yiddish. (The word '' ...

institute.2007 Jan Karski & Pola Nirenska Prize at YIVO Awarded to Joanna Tokarska-Bakir
YIVO News, number 204, Winter 2008

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tokarska-Bakir, Joanna 1958 births Living people Scholars of antisemitism Polish anthropologists Polish women anthropologists 20th-century anthropologists 21st-century anthropologists University of Warsaw alumni