Mikolaj Czerwiński

Mikołaj “Mik” Czerwiński received a PhD in Art History from the University of Illinois at Chicago. His research and teaching focuses on similarities in design practice between those countries of the Eastern Bloc, especially including Poland, the West and postcolonial states during the Cold War. In reviewing the entangled histories of design practice in these areas, he focuses on the way designers conceived of modernity together with peers across the capitalist, socialist, and non-aligned worlds during the Cold War. His dissertation titled, “‘An Intelligent, Complex, and Human Design Project’: Design as Social and Political Practice in Poland 1956-1976” examines the establishment of industrial design in Poland during the long sixties in relation to connections between designers working in the country and a larger European design culture. The research for this dissertation project was made possible by a Fulbright Research Award (2015-2017). Theoretically, his explores the histories of globalization, modernity, and use. He depends on the work of the following scholars: Bruno Latour, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Homi Bhaba, Pierre Bourdiou, Maria Janion, Ronald Barthes.