Slavic studies alumna develops innovative Polish culture lectures

Dr. Natalie Misteravich-Carroll, a 2008 Slavic studies major with a concentration in Polish, recently developed and filmed a series of Polish culture lectures for Indiana University's Center for International Business Education and Research (IU CIBER).

Natalie received her Ph.D. in Polish literature and culture from the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures at Indiana University in 2016, and she is currently serving as the Interim Director of the Polish Studies Center at Indiana University.

Her current book project, Forging an Identity for Poland's First Socialist City: Representations of Nowa Huta from 1949 to 2016, is an interdisciplinary study that treats the literary and cultural texts of Nowa Huta as the main discursive weapons used on the battlefield where the power to control identities, narratives, and agency was originally waged in the 1950s and where it continues to be fought today.

Natalie's primary research interests revolve around investigating the interactive relationship between texts and society, intertextuality as a form of identity negotiation, and the cultural hegemony of the communist period and its lingering influence on post-1989 cultural and social formations.

The series is available as an open-access video-learning series for the global community. Natalie's personal favorite is a module on Polish cuisine and hospitality!