Emilia Stuchlik
Research Topic:
‘Control you know you need’: Thinness and dieting culture in Poland and England, 1954-1975
Doctoral Research:
My doctoral research explores the social and cultural history of thinness, fatness and dieting in Poland and England between 1954 and 1975. My main research question is: To what extent thinness and dieting defined women’s bodily experience and practice in Poland and Britain between 1954-75. More specifically, my project investigates what similarities and/or differences in discourses about the ideal of thinness we can observe in these two contexts. It asks whether women’s experiences of the pursuit of the thin body differed in Poland and England, how discourses of thinness and their reception changed over time in these two contexts, and finally, what similarities and differences in the promotion and reception of the thin body can tell us about national and transnational conceptions of femininity, gender roles and modern citizenship in this period.
Previous Experience:
I hold a Master’s Degree in History from the University of Birmingham. I completed a Modern British Studies Pathway and wrote a First-Class dissertation on the representation of fatness and eating disorders in the British Feminist magazine Spare Rib throughout its run between 1972 and 1993.
I received a First Class undergraduate degree from the University of Leicester and was awarded the West End Memorial Prize in 2021 for obtaining the highest weighted overall average of 2nd and 3rd year modules amongst history final year students. My First-class undergraduate dissertation focused on the influence of Oxford and Cambridge universities on the 1960s British comedy scene.
I completed my primary and secondary education in Poland.
Supervisor: Katherine Lebow and Christina de Bellaigue
