Wissenschaftlicher Werdegang

Jakub Szumski’s main area of research is the history of politics and law in state socialist Eastern Europe, with a particular focus on East Germany and Poland. Szumski has been a researcher at the Imre Kertész Kolleg since 2021, currently working within the Volkswagen Foundation project ‘Towards Illiberal Constitutionalism in East Central Europe: Historical Analysis in Comparative and Transnational Perspectives’. Prior to which he served as a research assistant for The GDR and European Dictatorships after 1945 Graduate School at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena from 2017 to 2020. He has received research fellowships from the Open Society Archive in Budapest (2019), the Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe in Marburg (2017) and GFPS in Berlin (2017).

Szumski completed his doctoral studies at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena in January 2022. Previously, he studied history and philosophy at the University of Warsaw, the University of Konstanz and Humboldt University in Berlin, and graduated with an M.A. in history from the University of Warsaw in 2014. His M.A. thesis received the Wladyslaw Pobóg Malinowski award for the best historical debut of 2014 in Poland and won an honourable mention of the Mieczysław Rakowski award, granted by the weekly Polityka; it was later published in book form in 2018. His current project deals with conflicting concepts and interpretations of legality in late socialist Eastern Europe.

Aktuelle Forschungsprojekte

From Socialist Legality to Illiberal Democracy? Legal Thinking in East-Central Europe Revisited

Forschungsschwerpunkte

• History of state socialism in Poland
• German-Polish relations
• Legal history

Ausgewählte Publikationen

2020: ‘The State Tribunal and the Paradoxes of Socialist Legality in 1980s Poland’, in: Journal of Modern European History 18, no 3, S. 297–311.

2018: Rozliczenia z ekipą Gierka 1980-1984. Warszawa.

2018: ‘Leonid Brezhnev and Edward Gierek: The Making and Breaking of an Uneven Friendship’, in: The Soviet and Post-Soviet Review 45, no. 3, S. 253–286.

2018: ‘Allein Gegen Die Partei. Zbigniew Iwanów – Der Rebell in Der Polnischen Vereinigten Arbeiterpartei 1980/81‘, in: Jahrbuch Für Historische Kommunismusforschung, S. 127–141.

2018: ‘What Happened in 1980? Memory Forging and the Official Story of Martial Law in the Polish United Workers’ Party’, in: Historical Memory of Central and East European Communism, edited by Agnieszka Mrozik and Stanislav Holubec. New York, S. 165–192.

2016: ‘Międzynarodowy Terroryzm w Polskiej Literaturze i Prasie Lat Siedemdziesiątych XX Wieku (Wybrane Przykłady)’ Polska 1944/45-1989. Studia i Materiały, no. 14, S. 161–187.

2016: ‘Pożar Mostu Łazienkowskiego w 1975 r. - fakty i konteksty’, in: Letnia Szkoła Historii Najnowszej 2015. Referaty, edited by Łukasz Kamiński and Jakub Szumski. Warszawa, S. 34–147.

2016: zus. mit Łukasz Kamiński (eds). Letnia Szkoła Historii Najnowszej 2015: Referaty. Warszawa.

2015: zus. mit Łukasz Kamiński (eds). Letnia Szkoła Historii Najnowszej 2014: Referaty. Warszawa.

2015: ‘Zanim wyrosły „poziomki”. Zbigniew Iwanów do września 1980 r.’, in: Letnia Szkoła Historii Najnowszej 2014. Referaty, edited by Łukasz Kamiński and Jakub Szumski. Warszawa, S. 178–187.

2015: ‘Rozliczenia z ekipą Edwarda Gierka. Przyczynek do zrozumienia zjawiska’, in: Zimowa Szkoła Historii Najnowszej 2014. Referaty, edited by Marek Hańderek, Łukasz Kamiński. Warszawa, S. 51–60.

2015: ‘Na marginesie Człowieka z węgla’, in: Polska 1944-45/1989. Studia i Materiały no. 13, S. 247–259.

2015: ‘Między Stabilizacją a Radykalizmem - Polska Emigracja Górnicza w Belgii’, in: Neerlandica Wratislaviensia, no. 25, S. 19–37.

2013: ‘”Puls” wobec Warszawy. Z geografii opozycji politycznej w PRL 1977-1981’, in: Przeciw, obok, pomimo: kultura niezależna w Łodzi w latach 70. i 80. XX wieku w PRL, edited by Konrad. W. Tatarowski, Agnieszka Barczyk, Renata Nolbrzak. Łódź, S. 74–87.