Publications
BOOK: The Caring Leviathan? Hiacynt Pink Files, Biopolitics, and the Queer Weak Resistance. Brill Publishers planned publication 2026.
Short description: This book results of a three-years (2022-2025) long research project investigating the archives of the Hiacynt operations (1985-1987), of ten years of investigating the documentation of these operations (since 2015), of twenty-five years of research in critical theory and some forty+ years of my own political involvement. The personal narrative is sometimes intertwined with theory and political analysis here, and the archive research entangles with philosophy and cultural theory of the state, biopolitics, resistance and care. This transversally critical analysis of policing in times of liquid surveillance takes under consideration a variety of accounts - predominantly police documents, but also voices of the past and present state functionaries, the persons targeted by the Hiacynt operations - gay men, and the LGBTQIA+ persons more broadly, the queer archivists, activists, artists and scholars, as well as theories of the archive, state, police, biopolitics, body and gender.
This book's main question, returning in various ways in every chapter, is that about the relations between the queer theory and the LGBTQIA+ persons rights and interests. Critical theory established not just an understanding of causality between knowledge and society, but also a responsibility of scholars, who should not only diagnose the social bias and stereotypes, but also challenge them. While the large part of queer theory claims its critical roots, only some of its authors openly declare the need to challenge the social inequalities. Some theorists mute this responsibility, due to postcritical or other corrections, some proceed tacitly, and some openly reject not just the responsibility of queer theory for the LGBTQIA+ persons and needs, but also contests the very ontological grounds of such representation. My take is surprisingly Marxist - the notion of ‘interest’ borrowed from Althusser's analysis of ideology proves vital for establishing a critical position aiming not only at analysis, but also reclaiming social change.
This book is composed of five chapters. Chapter one discusses the general aspects of critical theory method applied here - it presents its eclectic and multifaceted nature, focusing on its transversality. Chapter two proposes to decolonize the studies of Eastern Europe, postcolonial strategies and reconstructs main elements of the Hiacynt operations and other police actions discovered in the course of my research between 2015-2025. Chapter three engages with the notion and practice of the archive, expanding the Derridean, deconstructive method onto queer and state archives. It also discusses the notion of trauma and methods of examining an archive which is not neutral versus the researcher. Chapter four offers a discussion of the notion of biopolitics in a feminist-queer theory of the gendered reproduction of the state apparatus(es) and the queer resistance as weak one. Chapter five expands the critical queer theory of the state, addresses the "state-phobia", as depicted by Michel Foucault and later by Nikita Dhawan, the queer justice and counterpublics.
BOOK: Czułe oczy Lewiatana. Archiwa akcji „Hiacynt”, biopolityka i queerowy słaby opór. Instytut Wydawniczy Książka i Prasa, Warsaw, planned publication 2026.
Short description: This book summarizes my research work in the Public Against their Will? project, taking on the critical theory's approach to society and responsibility. The question whether the queer theory owes anything to the LGBTQIA+ persons and communities, and if yes, than how should it be proceeded? Theory of the state is proposed, connecting two unexpected allies: Hegel and queer theory, drawing on Nikita Dhawan's critiques of the "state-phobia". The correspondence between the project's PI and the regional police headquarters is reconstructed, serving as a map for possible future claims of LGBTQIA+ persons as to the next steps in closing the Hiacynt operations.
Articles and book chapters
“Perverted Care in the State of Exception. A Feminist Analysis.” Signs. Journal of Women in Society and Culture, planned publication: 2026
Abstract: This article offers a critical feminist analysis of the perversions of care that appear in moments when care is instrumentalized by neoliberal and fascist states to cover for financial cuts and repressive or controlling actions of security. It follows Michel Foucault’s analysis of biopolitical power in the context of the state of exception and the contemporary return to fascism, as well as the works of Giorgio Agamben. It offers a detailed analysis of the feminist theories of care expounded by Nancy Fraser and Joan Tronto, highlighting the need to strengthen our critique of the appropriations and abuses of care in its neoliberal, imperial, and fundamentalist perversions. While discussing social reproduction theory and other feminist revindications of care, the article argues in favor of combining the critique of exploitation with a critique of power, as suggested by Angela McRobbie, Sarai Aharoni, and Johanna Oksala. The Hiacynt police operations conducted in 1980s Poland to surveil and control gay men, as well as more contemporary examples of conservative perversions of care, are discussed to showcase the need for their feminist critique. This article’s main claim is that a feminist critique of perverted care is a necessary companion to any critique of today’s neoliberal state of exception, as the fascist doctrine re-emergences in different countries by means of right-wing fundamentalism.
“The political ontology of fascism and FeministQueer anti-fascism. From the margin to the centre,” with Dominik Puchała. In: Nigel Copsey, David Featherstone and Ali Jones (eds) Resisting Fascism: Fifty Years of Anti-fascism ‘from below’ 1974-2024. Routlege, planned publication 2026.
Abstract: Politics is inherently ideological. Fascism does not operate merely in words; it subsumes embodiment, cultural norms, forms of legal transitions and violence, financial strategies, and religious practices, encompassing its own affective politics. Far from being extinct, fascism only takes on new forms, presenting a political ontology that is heterogeneous and contradictory. Following Korolczuk and Graff’s analysis of anti-gender movements, we observe that demonization of the LGBTQIA+ individuals in Europe, or women and refugees in the USA, Brazil, and Russia positions them as “enemy”, in the Schmittian sense, constituting today’s politics as one of a state of exception. For Deleuze and Guattari, fascism was a form of expression of desire, and we see it as an ideology enacted by performative reproduction. Following Berlant’s idea, we describe this formation’s “cruel optimism” – it promises hope but yields despair. Our central question, drawing on Guattari’s work, is whether contemporary anti-fascism can be non-transversal. Working from the semi-peripheral context of post-1989 Poland and Central and Eastern Europe, we argue that any adequate anti-fascist project must be feministqueer and materialist, combining precise naming of fascism with forms of “weak resistance” enacted by non-heroic counterpublics in everyday spaces. Drawing on psychological research, we show how fascism capitalizes on needs for security, recognition and belonging, and how euphemism, reclamation of hate speech and heroic politics can inadvertently stabilize authoritarian formations. We thus propose an anti-fascism that starts from ordinary vulnerabilities and focuses on transforming institutions of care, labour, education and media rather than reproducing heroic postures.
“Multilayered necropolitics: deadly othering in the European East-West power relations,” with T. Hendl and M. Górska. In: Nina Lykke (et al, eds), Handbook of Queer Death Studies. London and New York: Routlege, 2025.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003398486
Abstract: Focusing on East–West power relations in Europe, this chapter proposes that we think about necropolitics as a dynamic metamorphic relationality. We identify four processes through which necropolitics metamorphises in the context of our case studies: the negotiation of European East–West borders through deadly labour politics during the Covid-19 pandemic, the politics of death in localised global corporatisation, anti-LGBTQ+ politics, and the negotiation of EU borders through the anti-refugee politics deployed on the eastern border of Poland. In our analysis, necropolitics emerges as a metamorphic process of co-constitution, differentiality, and layering, wherein the subjugation of one group to necropolitical power does not preclude the perpetuation of necropolitics against other groups deemed to be ‘internal’ or ‘external’ Others.
“But I am your mother!? Queer-feminist resistance to censorship in fascist times.” European Journal of Women's Studies, 32 (1) 2025: 90-98.
https://doi.org/10.1177/13505068241312972
Abstract: This article is a feminist-queer discussion of contemporary forms of censorship and resistance to those abuses. Drawing on recent examples from Poland, the emphasis is given to systemic, neoliberal forms of censoring, which make the ‘caring hands of the fascist Leviathan’ even more ready to restrict freedom.
“‚Anty-gender’ a faszyzm. Feministyczna analityka współczesnego stanu wyjątkowego,” in: D. Puchała and P. Witkowski (eds), Ideologia, której nie było. Warszawa: IWKiP, 2025.
https://instytutnarutowicza.pl/publikacje/ideologia-ktorej-nie-bylo-kto-starszy-w-polsce-gender/
Abstract: W tym rozdziale pokazuję, jak właściwa faszyzmowi binarna i męskocentryczna wizja podmiotowości fetyszyzuje kulturowe ideały tradycyjnej męskości i nadaje im prymarny, normatywny charakter, marginalizując te podmioty, kt.re owych męskich cech nie wykazują. Faszyzm jest przede wszystkim ideologią patriarchalną, w jej ekstremalnej wersji, gdzie rasizm, homofobia, nietolerancja światopoglądowa i religijna to pochodne pogardy dla kobiet i pogardy dla tego, co im kulturowo przypisane. W niniejszym tekście dowodzę, że uprzedzenia płciowe – względem kobiet i tego, co kulturowo uznano za „kobiece”, stanowią podstawę faszyzmu. Faszyzm jest zatem przede wszystkim mizogynią, a ideologia anty-gender jest dziś jego kluczowym elementem. Pokazuję też, dlaczego bez feminizmu niemożliwy jest antyfaszyzm. Moje stanowisko ma konstruktywistyczny, anty-esencjalistyczny charakter, uznaję za oczywiste, że samo używanie słów takich, jak „kobieta” czy „kobiece” nie może być automatycznie uznane za przejaw esencjalizmu, podobnie jak uznanie uprzedzeń względem podmiotów postrzeganych jako „kobiece” za wyróżnik faszyzmu.
“Abortion in the State of Exception: Weak Resistance and Unheroic Reproductive Solidarity in Poland,” in: Critical Times (2024) 7 (1): 14–25. Duke University Press.
Abstract: In the current revival of fundamentalist right-wing politics globally, Poland occupies an important place given the struggles for abortion and reproductive justice that have been ongoing there since 2016. Together with Mexican, Argentinian, South Korean, and Italian women, Polish feminists contributed to creating the International Women's Strike, which later spread throughout the globe, uniting movements in seventy countries. This article discusses the symmetric heroisms imposed by the conservative governments on women, who have to give birth “no matter what,” as well as on men, who are told to “defend their fatherland.” Such acute, gendered demands for heroism also perpetuate the binary heteromatrix, further marginalizing LGBTQIA+ people and groups. Recent Polish struggles have contributed to the shift in feminist proabortion narratives from the liberal one, centered on choice, to others more preoccupied with reproductive justice. This article argues that the recent legal limitations on access to abortion in Poland and other countries are central to the current effort to reestablish the rule of the state of exception. It also analyzes the weak resistance of grassroots feminist movements organizing for reproductive justice. The refusal to participate in heroic politics requires not only work for better access to abortion but also an alternative kind of subject formation, here tentatively defined as “unheroic,” as well as politics of weak resistance.
“Nie tylko prawa zdobywa się w walce. Rodziny LGBTQIA+ – pokrewieństwo w oporze,” in: Agnieszka Gajewska i Jowita Wójcik (red), Queerowa rodzinność. O wspólnotach i relacjach osób LGBT. UAM, Poznań, 2025.
https://polonistyka.amu.edu.pl/nauka/publikacje-ksiazkowe/queerowa-rodzinnosc.-o-wspolnotach-i-relacjach-osob-lgbt
Abstract: This article discusses an activist genealogy of kinship built not of choice, blood ties or demand, but in political struggle. This is a very popular, yet less expected dimension of kinship and closeness of the LGBTQIA+ people. It consists in the making of family bonds in the active solidarity against oppression. The transformation of trauma into strategies of resistance and building alternative lives, is an experience sometimes leading to the making of new families, as an unplanned, and yet – highly appreciated additional result of political involvement. In the infamous “Hiacynt” action, conducted in late 1980s by the Polish police, in times of official homophobia and official hate speech, which today replaced public discourse, not only private and group traumas are created, but also new kinship networks. I will discuss them in relation to the research work of Michael Warner, Judith Butler, Rafał Majka, Piotr Laskowski and other authors.
“Towards a Weak Avant-Garde, Re-Shaping the Canon.” Arts 12.2(70)2023.
https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12020070
Abstract: Feminist discussions in art history usually focus on the exclusion of women artists and the reification of women’s bodies. A growing constellation of queer and feminist theorists today, however, analyse failure and cuteness as aspects of contemporary feminist avant-garde practices, suggesting that alternative currents in art practice and theory are emerging that challenge traditional notions and modes of art production. In my article, I discuss these debates in relation to “weak universalism” and weak messianism in order to reshape our understanding of avant-garde theory and practice from a feminist perspective. I argue that feminist analysis transforms what was previously thematized as conditions of exclusion into an important part of artistic legacy in works made by previously excluded groups. I propose that the concept of a weak avant-garde might help to theorize these shifts.