Wiktor Marzec, PhD

Project leader
Robert B. Zojonc Institute for Social Studies, University of Warsaw, Poland

Visiting Fellowship 2025/26 (August 30, 2026 – September 30, 2026)

Wiktor Marzec is an assistant professor at the Robert Zajonc Institute for Social Studies, University of Warsaw. Wiktor holds a PhD in sociology and social anthropology from CEU, Budapest, and a habilitation in sociology from the University of Warsaw. His work deals with labour history, revolutionary politics, parliamentarism, and post-imperial transformation in Central-Eastern Europe. He is the author of Rising Subjects. The 1905 Revolution and the Origins of Modern Polish Politics (Pittsburgh University Press, 2020) and numerous articles focusing on Poland within the Russian Empire and the post-imperial statehood in a comparative context.

Statement of interest

I am a historical sociologist working at the intersection of historical sociology, new imperial history, parliamentary studies, and conceptual history. My research centers on the post-imperial transformation of East-Central Europe, with particular focus on empires, revolutions, nationalism, labor, parliamentarism, and state formation. My ongoing project investigates how regional and imperial political traditions shaped power dynamics in the newly established states of Poland, Romania, and ‘Yugoslavia’ after World War I. These post-imperial “patchwork states” sought to integrate heterogeneous territories and elites, often using parliamentary institutions as instruments of state-building. Leading a research team of four, I explore how post-imperial configurations of power can be analyzed through a blend of prosopographical methods, analysis of parliamentary debates, and a field-theory approach inspired by Bourdieuan sociology. Our focus is on mapping the interaction between individual careers, regional affiliations, and emerging state frameworks, as well as the expression of the emerging field of power in the composition and debates of these patchwork parliaments.

Selected publications

‘Landed Nation. Land Reform and Ethnic Diversity in the Interwar Polish Parliament’, Nationalities Papers, Vol. 51, No. 4, pp. 929-949, JCR IF 0.746
‘“One of the Oldest States in Europe Has Never Suppressed Any Nation.” The Minority Treaty, Nationalist Indignation and the Foundations of Interwar Ethnic Democracy in Poland,’ Nations and Nationalism 2021, No. 27, pp. 1080–1096, JCR IF 1.433
‘Forging Polity in Times of International Class War: The Parliamentary Rhetoric on Labor in the First Polish Diet, 1919–1922’, International Review of Social History 2021, Vol. 66, No. 3, pp. 443 – 467, JCR IF 0.86
‘Parliament and Revolution: Poland, Finland and the End of Empire in early 20th century, 1905–1918’, Comparative Studies in Society and History 2024, Vol.66, No. 1, pp. 155-184, JCR 0,7 (with Risto Turunen)
‘Who May Represent a Nation in Upheaval? The Concept of Representation During the Polish November Uprising, 1830-1831’, Journal of Modern European History 2023, Vol. 21, No. 1, JCR 0,5, pp. 34-51 (with Piotr Kuligowski)