Agnieszka Kubal (Poland/UK)

Research Description

This research examines the conceptualization of human rights by dissidents in 1970s and 1980s Poland, focusing particularly on how they translated everyday abuses into human rights terms. This contribution to the vernacularization of human rights discourse and the creation of early transnational and professional networks ultimately led to the professionalization of human rights in Poland beyond 1989. The study is part of a broader project titled Who Are the Humans Behind Human Rights in Eastern Europe and Russia?. Over the course of five years, this project aims to break new ground by studying the unprecedented human rights mobilization in five countries of Eastern Europe; Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, and Russia. Notably, citizens of these countries have recently accounted for more than fifty percent of all claims brought to the European Court of Human Rights.

Bio

Dr. Agnieszka Kubal is Associate Professor at SSEES, UCL. She is an interdisciplinary socio-legal scholar with area studies interest in Central Eastern Europe and Russia. Prior to coming to SSEES, she held lectureships in Russian and Eastern European Studies (Oxford), and the Department of Social Science (UCL). Agnieszka is the author of two monographs, Socio-legal Integration. Polish post-2004 EU Enlargement Migrants in the UK (2012, Ashgate/ Routledge) and Immigration and Refugee Law in Russia. Socio-Legal Perspectives (2019, Cambridge University Press). Together with Marina Kurkchiyan, Dr. Kubal co-edited a volume on A Sociology of Justice in Russia (2018, Cambridge University Press) acclaimed by the critics as “the most analytically sophisticated and empirically rich volume ever produced on the everyday operation of the Russian legal system.” Dr. Kubal is currently a Principal Investigator on an UKRI/ERC Starter Grant (2022–2027), Who are the Humans Behind Human Rights in Eastern Europe and Russia?

Final report

Available here.