About: 

Cäcilia Wosnitzka is a research assistant at the Institute for Contemporary History at the University of Vienna in the Department of Cultural, Knowledge, and Gender History.

Previously, Wosnitzka completed the German-Polish dual master’s program in European Studies at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder) and the Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza in Poznań (2018–2021). Her master’s thesis in queer history, which examined transnational gay rights activism during the Cold War, was honored in the 2022/2023 competition for the Polish Ambassador’s Academic Award under the patronage of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

The doctoral project focuses on the biographies, social networks, and migrant organizations of people who migrated from Poland to (West) Germany between 1968 and 1993. The research centers on examining migrant self-organization and the question of how belonging and participation were negotiated between the state and migrants in the Federal Republic of Germany’s immigrant society.

As part of the research project, Wosnitzka received a doctoral grant from the Heinrich Böll Foundation (April 2023–March 2024) as well as a research fellowship from the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO) in Leipzig (2022).

Research Focus: Contemporary migration studies, the history of interconnections in East Central Europe, queer history, gender history, and the history of democracy.

Recent Publications:

• [together with Klaas Anders, Bennet Groen, Faruk Güler, Emilia Henkel, Bastian Högg und Daniel Jerke] Eine Bestandsaufnahme aktueller Herausforderungen für die zeithistorische Migrationsforschung (Peer Reviewed), FluchtforschungsBlog, 22. Juli 2026.
• Rezension zu: Magda Wlostowska: Bewegende Bewegungen. Transnationaler Aktivismus und queere Selbstverortung in Polen seit den 1980er Jahren, transcript 2025. In: L‘HOMME. Europäische Zeitschrift für Feministische Geschichtswissenschaft (2/2026).
• Report of the Eastern Europe Information Pool 1983, July 1983, Wien. In: Lücke, Martin; Rottmann, Andrea; Gammerl, Benno (Hrsg.) Handbuch Queere Zeitgeschichten Band III. Bewegungen. Wiesbaden, Transcript Rezension zu: Katharina, Kinga Kowalski: Feminismus als Denkstil. Zur Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung im Polen der Transformationszeit, Harrassowitz 2024. In: H-Soz-Kult.
• Ein schwules ‚Informationsbüro für den Ostblock‘? Transnationaler Aktivismus im Zeichen queerer Wissensbildung während des Kalten Kriegs. In: Copernico. Geschichte und kulturelles Erbe im östlichen Europa. [Beitrag für den Schwerpunkt Osteuropa (Post)Kolonial, eds. Frysztacka, Clara M.; Petersen, Hans-Christian; Tauber, Joachim]