Monika Borys (nominated by Ewa Majewska) is an independent feminist researcher and cultural studies scholar. Her recent dissertation examined the representations of popular classes in Polish popular culture and was awarded the First Inka Brodzka-Wald Prize, which recognizes the best doctoral dissertations in the humanities.

In her scholarly work, she explores contemporary culture through an intersectional lens of class, gender with a particular focus on aesthetics and social inequalities. Her much acclaimed, popular 2019 book Polish Gimmick: Disco Polo and the 90s, is the first comprehensive Polish study of the popular, yet marginalized genre of ‘disco polo’ music, which she analyzed as an element of post-communist transformation after 1989. This book opened a general debate, in Polish media and academia alike, about exclusions and marginalizations not just of the popular genre of music, ‘disco polo’, but about ‘rural people’ more broadly. Her forthcoming book, “Shameless Images: The Working Class in Polish Popular Culture after 1989,” will be published soon.

Her acute, yet often humorous interventions in that debate, fulfill the best standards of public intellectual’s involvement in the eradication of social inequalities. She is a recipient of the Artistic Scholarship of the Mayor of Białystok. 

In addition to her academic pursuits, Monika Borys is an active cultural critic, contributing articles to esteemed periodicals and journals. Monika Borys is currently a freelance academic and cultural critic. 

Site: https://independent.academia.edu/MonikaBorys