Oliwia Berdak
UCL Anthropology 2008-2011

Oliwia Berdak is a PhD candidate at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London. Her research, under the working title ‘Exception, Normality and Gender in the Croatian Nationalist Struggle’, draws on insights from literary analysis and gender theory to offer a micro perspective on the contemporary history of Croatia. The thesis demonstrates how the 1990s were marked not only by the post-Yugoslav wars but also by the attempts of the Croatian state to project its own vision of national and gendered citizenship, shifting individual parameters of existence and self-definition. By focusing on particular individuals (right-wing politicians, soldiers, conscientious objectors, feminists, intellectuals and peace activists), she explores how people right across the political spectrum were all implicated in constructing the new framework of state and citizenship, with conflicting visions of democratic participation, national belonging and contribution.

Before commencing her doctoral research, Oliwia obtained her BA in European Studies from Maastricht University, the Netherlands, and her MA (with distinction) in Politics, Security and Integration from UCL. Her MA thesis, entitled ‘Gender and Ethnicity in Transnational Contexts: Policing the Boundaries of Polishness in Multicultural London’, explored the creation of gender and ethnic boundaries amongst the Polish migrants in London.

Oliwia has taught on UCL's undergraduate courses Introduction to Politics and Politics and Society of Central and Eastern Europe as well as on a Master’s course called Nations, Identity and Power in Central and Eastern Europe.