The Kosciuszko Chair of Polish Studies at The Institute of World Politics is pleased to welcome two new research fellows: Nathalie Vogel and Tomasz Sommer.
“We are delighted to have Nathalie and Tomas join the Kosciuszko Chair of Polish Studies,” says Marek Chodakiewicz, Professor of History and current holder of the Kosciuszko Chair at IWP. “They are bringing to the table much needed expertise about sorely neglected minorities, the Cossacks and the Poles of the erstwhile USSR and the successor post-Soviet zone. Since they represent The Other which is not fashionable, they have so far fared rather poorly in Western academia. IWP is ready to remedy this shortcoming. And the Kosciuszko Chair is proud to be able to bring yet another aspect of the Intermarium back to the world of the living.”
During her fellowship, Nathalie Vogel will conduct a project on Cossack military history. A German political scientist, Nathalie has dedicated her career to the defense and the promotion of democracy and democratic movements around the world.
Ms. Vogel is a graduate of the Institute of Political Sciences of the University of Innsbruck. Until 2005, she taught international relations at the University of Bonn, Germany. She has served as a project officer and consultant for youth and civil society at the NATO Office in Moscow. Nathalie Vogel is a political consultant for youth branches of political parties and student movements in the Balkans, Eastern Europe and Latin America, and serves as an advisor to several think tanks in Central Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caucasus.
Her main fields of expertise are intercultural communication and grassroots movements in challenging environments. She also specialized in the studies of far Left and far Right extremism in Germany and Austria. She serves as a reserve officer in the German Air Force and works at the George Shultz National Affairs Training Center (FSI).
Tomasz Sommer will serve as a non-resident fellow with the Kosciuszko Chair. Dr. Sommer, who has lectured at the Institute in the past, is a Polish writer, journalist and publisher. He serves as Editor-in-chief of weekly magazine Najwyższy CZAS. Dr. Sommer graduated from the University of Warsaw Department of Journalism and Political Science, and received his Ph.D.in Sociology at the School of Social Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences Institute of Philosophy and Sociology.
Tomasz Sommer began his career writing for Warsaw daily Express Wieczorny. Later, he worked as journalist for Academic Weekly “Auditorium” and newspapers Nowy Świat, and Życie. In 1995 he became a contributing writer to weekly magazines Najwyższy CZAS, and Lux. In the following year, Sommer became the Editor-in-chief of Lux and subsequently, a deputy chief of Najwyższy CZAS (1996-1999 and 2004-2007); and its Editor-in-chief (in 1999-2003 and, from 2007 until now).[3] He also writes for the Foreign Department of Super Express. In 2002 Sommer co-founded 2S Media group which owns the monthly GIGA Sport, published also in German since 2004 as the GIGA Sport – Deutschland. In 2007, along with business partners, Sommer took over the weekly magazine Najwyższy CZAS.[3]
He is the author of book entitled Rozstrzelać Polaków. Ludobójstwo Polaków w Związku Sowieckim w latach 1937-1938. Dokumenty z Centrali (Execute the Poles: The Genocide of Poles in the Soviet Union (1937-1938). Documents from Headquarters”), devoted to a little-known chapter of Soviet-Polish history with official documents made available only after the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc communist states.