Michał Pospiszyl is a historian who works at the Institute of Political Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He is also a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at Central European University in Budapest (2025/26). He has twice led NCN grants and was a fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna (2020–21), a fellow of the Minister of Science (2025–28) and, in spring 2025, a visiting fellow at New York University, invited by Prof. Larry Wolff. He is currently writing a book about escape ecologies in Eastern Europe during the Enlightenment. This book explores how landscapes, natural resources, and the illegibility of the environment enabled the mass movement of peasants, deserters, and religious dissidents to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth during a period often characterized as one of political and economic decline in Poland and Lithuania. He lives in the Białowieża Forest.
Research interests
- Environmental history
- Social history
- Modern history
- History of Eastern Europe
Selected Papers
- Pospiszyl, M., On the Edge of Power: Peasants and Escape Ecologies in Eastern Europe, c. 1700–1850, “The Journal of Modern History”, 2026/2 (forthcoming).
- Pospiszyl, M., The Fifth Element: The Enlightenment and the Draining of Eastern Europe, “Environmental History”, 2023/2.
Selected Presentations
- Pospiszyl, M., Can the Lice Speak? Ecology and the Napoleonic Wars in Eastern Europe in: European Society for Environmental History (ESEH), Uppsala, Sweden, April 2025.
- Pospiszyl, M., Decolonising Eastern European Ecologies: Peasants, Environment, and Rulers in the Age of Enlightenment, in: Eastern European Workshop, New York University, April 2025 (as a keynote speaker).
- Pospiszyl, M., Popek, J., Peasant Environmentalism: The Ecological Revolution in Enlightenment Eastern Europe and Grassroots Resource Management, in: European Social Science History Conference (ESSHC), Leiden, Netherlands, March 2025.
- Pospiszyl, M., Corrupted Nature: Environmental and Social Resistance to Canal Building and Swamp Drainage in Eastern Europe, 1760-1830, in: The American Society for Environmental History 2025 Annual Conference, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, April 2025
- Pospiszyl, M., Natural Ally: Eastern Europe and Escape Ecologies, in: Bordering Nature: Reimagining borders against the climate of crisis, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, September 2023 (as a keynote speaker).
Publications
Staff Information
- +48 22 825 52 21
- michal.pospiszyl@protonmail.com