Beth Holmgren | Scholars@Duke

Beth Holmgren
Professor of Polish and Russian Studies

Beth Holmgren, Professor of Polish Studies and Russian Studies, has published widely on Polish literature, theater, popular culture, and film; Russian literature, film, and women's studies; and Russian and Polish artists and performers in the North American diaspora. Her scholarship and work in the field have won multiple national awards. Recent scholarship focuses on Polish Jewish cultural history of the interwar period, Polish film from the 1930s until the current day, and 21st-century Polish reportage (often translated as literary journalism). Her most recent book, Warsaw is My Country (2018), is a cultural biography of Krystyna Bierzynska, an acculturated Jewish Varsovian who survived the Holocaust and served as a 16-year-old orderly in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising; Warsaw is My Country is designed to be used as a course text for any teacher covering Holocaust studies and World War II in Europe. Holmgren is currently working with Professor Helena Goscilo (Ohio State University) on a book about the reflorescence and ever more diverse themes of Polish film in this century. Slated to be published sometime in 2021, Polish Cinema Today: A Bold New Era in Film has been written for film scholars and students in general as well as cinephiles.

In addition to her continuing work on sundry editorial boards of book series and journals, Holmgren served as President of the Association of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies in 2008 (the largest organization in the Slavic field outside the region itself), during which period she helped oversee the Association's move to a new, financially less exorbitant location and the hiring of several new staff members. Holmgren served as President of the Association for Women in Slavic Studies for the 2003-2005 term; AWSS has been a major resource for female scholar/teachers' career development, access to publication venues, and celebrating women's achievement. At Duke, Holmgren is proud to hold secondary appointments in Theater Studies and Gender/Sexuality/Feminist Studies, and to serve as a core faculty member for Jewish Studies. For her updated curriculum vitae. see her site at academia.edu. She will try to keep this site updated as well.

Current Research Interests

Literary journalism and history in Eastern Europe, film history and analysis, theater history and performer biography, Polish Jewish studies, Holocaust studies

Current Appointments & Affiliations

Professor of Polish and Russian Studies, Slavic and Eurasian Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2007

Contact Information

316 Languages Building, Durham, NC 27708
Box 90259, Durham, NC 27708-0259
beth.holmgren@duke.edu (919) 660-3140
Academia listing of complete cv and a number of publications
Announcement about Wacław Jędrzejewicz History Award,
Interview (in Polish) in connection with Waclaw Jedrzejewicz Award
Presentation to PSFCU scholarship recipients in NY/NJ, June 2017

Background
Education, Training, & Certifications
- Ph.D., Harvard University 1987
- B.A., Grinnell College 1975
Duke Appointment History
- Chair in the Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies, Slavic and Eurasian Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2016 - 2019
- Chair, Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies, Slavic and Eurasian Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2012 - 2015
- Professor of Theater Studies, Theater Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2009 - 2014
- Chair, Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies, Slavic and Eurasian Studies, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences 2009 - 2012
Leadership & Clinical Positions at Duke
- Chair, Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies, 2010-2015, 2016-2019
Academic Positions Outside Duke
- Professor and Chair, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 1999 - 2007
- Associate Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 1994 - 1999
- Associate Professor, University of California-San Diego. 1993 - 1994
- Assistant Professor, University of California-San Diego. 1987 - 1993
Recognition
In the News
- AUG 8, 2016
  
  Sumathi Ramaswamy, Beth Holmgren on 'Humanities After Humanism'
- MAY 27, 2016 Patheos
  
  Beth Holmgren: Poland’s battle between theocracy and secular democracy
- MAY 27, 2016 the Irish Times
  
  Poland’s Battle Between Church and State
- JAN 26, 2016 BBC
  
  Beth Holmgren: Syrena songs
- OCT 13, 2015 News & Observer
  
  Commentary: Nobel winner a courageous maker of verbal documentaries
- OCT 12, 2015 Raleigh News & Observer
  
  Nobel Winner a Courageous Maker of Documentaries
- OCT 21, 2013
  
  Slavic Studies Professor Wins Book Award
Awards & Honors
Expertise
Subject Headings
- Theater--Production and direction--Case studies
Global Scholarship
- Expertise
  - Poland (Country)
  - Russian Federation (Country)
- Research
  - Poland (Country)
  - Russian Federation (Country)
- Teaching
Research
Selected Grants
- "Twenty Years Forward: The Contents and Discontents of Modern Russian Feminism," A Documentary awarded by Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation 2008 - 2009
Publications & Artistic Works
Selected Publications
- Books
  - Holmgren, Beth. Warsaw Is My Country The Story of Krystyna Bierzynska, 1928-1945. Jews of Poland, 2018.
  - Hashamova, Y., B. Holmgren, and M. Lipovetsky. Transgressive women in modern Russian and east European cultures: From the bad to the blasphemous, 2016. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315666259.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Chatterjee, C., and B. Holmgren. Americans experience Russia: Encountering the enigma, 1917 to the present, 2013. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203082102.
    Full Text
  - Chatterjee, C., and B. Holmgren. Americans experience Russia: Encountering the enigma, 1917 to the present, 2013. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203082102.
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  - Holmgren, Beth. Starring Madame Modjeska: On Tour in Poland and America. Indiana University Press, 2011.
  - Goscilo, H., and B. Holmgren. Poles apart: Women in modern Polish culture, 2006.
  - Goscilo, H., and B. Holmgren. Poles apart: Women in modern Polish culture, 2006.
  - Holmgren, Beth, Beth, ed. The Russian Memoir. Northwestern University Press, 2003.
  - Вербицкая, А. н. а. с. т. а. с. і. я., and Beth Holmgren. Keys to Happiness A Novel. Indiana University Press, 1999.
  - Holmgren, Beth. Rewriting Capitalism. University of Pittsburgh Pre, 1998.
  - Goscilo, Helena, and Beth Holmgren. Russia--women--culture. Indiana University Press, 1996.
  - Holmgren, Beth. Women's Works in Stalin's Time. Indiana University Press, 1993.
- Academic Articles
  - Holmgren, B. “Holocaust history and jewish heritage preservation: Scholars and stewards working in pis-ruled Poland.” Shofar 37, no. 1 (January 1, 2019): 96–107. https://doi.org/10.1353/sho.2019.0004.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Holmgren, B. “"Cabaret Identity: How Best to Play a Jew or Pass as a Gentile in Wartime Poland".” Journal of Jewish Identities July 2014, no. Issue 7, number 2 (July 2014): 15–33.
    Open Access Copy
  - Holmgren, Beth. “Cabaret Identity: How Best to Play a Jew or Pass as a Gentile in Wartime Poland.” Journal of Jewish Identities 7, no. 2 (2014): 15–33. https://doi.org/10.1353/jji.2014.0014.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Holmgren, Sara L. “Collecting the Show on the Road: Spotlight on Anna Mieszkowska and the Polish Cabaret Archive.” The Polish Review 59, no. 4 (2014): 3–3. https://doi.org/10.5406/polishreview.59.4.0003.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Holmgren, B. “The Lives of Secret Others.” East European Film Bulletin, August 2013.
  - Blobaum, R., B. Holmgren, and E. Wampuszyc. “Warsaw 2013.” East European Politics and Societies 27, no. 2 (May 1, 2013): 185–86. https://doi.org/10.1177/0888325413479715.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Holmgren, B. “Acting Out: Qui pro Quo in the Context of Interwar Warsaw.” East European Politics and Societies 27, no. 2 (May 1, 2013): 205–23. https://doi.org/10.1177/0888325412467053.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Holmgren, Beth. “Toward an Understanding of Gendered Agency in Contemporary Russia.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 38, no. 3 (March 2013): 535–42. https://doi.org/10.1086/668517.
    Full Text Open Access Copy
  - Holmgren, B. “The art of playing patriot: The polish stardom of Helena Modjeska.” Theatre Journal 62, no. 3 (October 1, 2010): 349–71.
    Open Access Copy
  - Holmgren, B. “War, Women, and Song: The Case of Hanka Ordonowna.” Aspasia: The International Yearbook of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern European Women’S and Gender History 2 (2010): 139–54.
  - Holmgren, B. “Taking Stock, Screening History: Twenty Years of Women’s Studies at AAASS.” Newsnet of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies 49 (January 2009): 1–4.
  - Holmgren, B. “"Od Booth-a do Modrzejewskiej: Wyrafinowany Szekspir na scenie amerykanskiej" ("From Booth to Modjeska: Refining Shakespeare for the American Stage").” Pamietnik Teatralny (Theatre Journal) LVIII (2009): 27–57.
  - Holmgren, B. “Review of Knut Andreas Grimstad & Ursula Phillips, ed. GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN ETHICAL CONTEXT: TEN ESSAYS ON POLISH PROSE.” Slavic Review 66 (2007): 323–24.
  - Holmgren, B. “The Blue Angel and blackface: Redeeming entertainment in Aleksandrov's Circus.” Russian Review 66, no. 1 (January 1, 2007): 5–22. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9434.2006.00427.x.
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  - Holmgren, B. “Cossack cowboys, mad Russians: The émigré actor in studio-era Hollywood.” Russian Review 64, no. 2 (January 1, 2005): 236–58. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9434.2005.00359.x.
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  - Gheith, J., and B. Holmgren. “Art and prostokvasha: Avdot'ia panaeva's work,” December 1, 2003, 128–44.
  - Holmgren, B. “Introduction.” Russian Memoir: History and Literature, December 1, 2003.
  - Holmgren, B. “Nadezhda Mandel'shtam and her american interlocutors.” Russian Review 61, no. 4 (January 1, 2002): 531–34. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9434.00248.
    Full Text
  - Holmgren, B. “Virility and Gentility: How Sienkiewicz and Modjeska Redeemed America.” Polish Review XLVI, no. 3 (2001): 283–96.
  - Holmgren, B. “Those Unsettling Slavs, Or There's No Place Like Home.” Literary Studies East and West 11 (1996): 98–110.
  - Holmgren, B. “Patronized saints: The cult of the artist in Poland's illustrated weekly.” East European Politics and Societies 10, no. 3 (January 1, 1996): 416–37. https://doi.org/10.1177/0888325496010003003.
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  - Holmgren, B. “Bug Inspectors and Beauty Queens: The Problems of Translating Feminism into Russian.” Genders 22 (1995): 15–31.
  - Holmgren, B. “The Heart of the Matter? Nationalizing the Russian and Polish Romance.” Teksty Drugie (Texts 2) 3/4 (1995): 68–86.
  - Holmgren, Beth. “Why Russian Girls Loved Charskaia.” Russian Review 54, no. 1 (January 1995): 91–91. https://doi.org/10.2307/130776.
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  - Holmgren, Beth. “The Transfiguring of Context in the Work of Abram Terts.” Slavic Review 50, no. 4 (1991): 965–77. https://doi.org/10.2307/2500476.
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  - Holmgren, B. “Rozmowy z Gombrowiczem.(Gombrowicz’s A Kind of Testament).” Pamiętnik Literacki (The Literary Journal) 1 (1990): 75–106.
  - Holmgren, Beth. “Witold Gombrowicz within the Wieszcz Tradition.” The Slavic and East European Journal 33, no. 4 (1989): 556–556. https://doi.org/10.2307/308286.
    Full Text
- Book Sections
  - Holmgren, Beth. “Cabaret Nation: The Jewish Foundations of Kabaret Literacki, 1920-1929.” In Poland and Hungary Jewish Realities Compared, edited by Francois Guesnet, Howard Lupovitch, and Antony Polonsky, 273–88. Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry, 2019.
  - Holmgren, Beth. “The Cabaret Song: Its Multi-Ethnic Pedigree and Transnational Adventures, 1919-1968.” In Being Poland A New History of Polish Literature and Culture since 1918, edited by Tamara Trojanowska, Joanna Nizynska, and Przemyslaw Czaplinski. University of Toronto Press, 2018.
  - Holmgren, Beth. “Tending Andersland: The Calling of Feliks Konarski and Nina Olenska.” In Diaspora Polska w Ameryce Polnocnej, edited by Rafal Raczynski and Katarzyna Morawska, 513–28. Gdynia, Poland: Muzeum Emigracji w Gdyni, 2018.
  - Holmgren, B. “From the legs up: The rise and retreat of the chorus girl in interwar Poland.” In Transgressive Women in Modern Russian and East European Cultures: From the Bad to the Blasphemous, 13–29, 2016. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315666259.
    Full Text
  - Holmgren, B. “Russia on their mind: How hollywood pictured the Soviet front.” In Americans Experience Russia: Encountering the Enigma, 1917 to the Present, 105–23, 2013. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203082102.
    Full Text
  - Holmgren, B. “The Polish Actress Unbound: Tales of Modrzejewska/Modjeska.” In The Other in Polish Theater and Drama, edited by Bill Johnston and Kathleen Cioffi, 57–77. Slavica Publishers, 2010.
  - Holmgren, B. “Ne-natural’naia shkola:Semeistvo Tal'nikovykh Panaevoi.” In Trava: Punkty, edited by Sergei Ushakin and Elena Trofimova, 45–72. Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie, 2009.
  - Holmgren, B. “Jean de Reszke.” In POLISH-AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE: AN ENCYCLOPEDIA, edited by James Pula, 2009.
  - Holmgren, B. “Edouard de Reszke.” In POLISH-AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE: AN ENCYCLOPEDIA, edited by James Pula, 2009.
  - Holmgren, B. “Aristocrats and Working Girls: Towards a History of Russian Emigre Women in the United States".” In MAPPING THE FEMININE: RUSSIAN WOMEN AND CULTURAL DIFFERENCE, edited by Hilde Hoogenboom, Catharine Nepomnyashchy, and Irina Reyfman, 231-47., 2008.
  - Holmgren, B. “Settlling for the Real Hollywood: Russians in Studio-Era American Film.” In American Artists From the Russian Empire, edited by Yevgenia Petrova, 97–115. The State Russian Museum & The Foundation for International Arts and Education, 2008.
  - Holmgren, B. “Evgeniia Ginzburg.” In Yivo Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe, edited by Gershon D. Hundert. Yale UP, 2008.
  - Holmgren, B. “Nadezhda Mandel’shtam.” In Dictionary of Literary Biography: Russian Prose Writers After World War II, edited by Christine Rydel, 302:164–71. Thomson Gale, 2008.
  - Holmgren, B. “Fiction and the Acting Life: The Memoir of Helena Modjeska.” In Real Stories, Imagined Realities: Fictionality and Non-Fictionality in Literary Constructs and Historical Contexts, edited by Markku Lehtimaki, Simo Leisti, and Marja Rytkonen, 343-57. Tampere University Press, 2007.
  - Holmgren, B. “Five short articles – "Nadezhda Mandelstam," "Liudmila Petrushevskaia," "GUM," "Lidiia Ruslanova," "Red Army Chorus".” In THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CONTEMPORARY RUSSIAN CULTURE, edited by Karen Evans-Romaine, Helena Goscilo, and Tatiana Smorodinskaya. Routledge UP, 2006.
  - Holmgren, B. “Public women, parochial stage: The actress in late nineteenth-century Poland.” In Poles Apart: Women in Modern Polish Culture, 11–35, 2006.
  - Holmgren, B. “W domu u Sienkiewicza.” In Polonistyka Po Amerykansku: Badania Nad Literature Polska W Ameryce Polnocnej (1990-2005), edited by Halina Filipowicz, Andrzej Karcz, and Tamara Trojanowska, 301–15. Wydawnictwo, Warsaw, Poland: Instytut Badan Literackich PAN, 2005.
  - Holmgren, B. “Imitation of Life: A Russian Guest in the Polish Regimental Family.” In Polish Encounters/Russian Identity, edited by David Ransel and Bozena Shallcross, 37–49. Indiana University Press, 2005.
  - Holmgren, B. “America, America: Scouting the Routes of Translation.” In Living in Translation: Polish Writers in America, edited by Halina Stephan, 29–43. Rodopi Press, 2003.
  - Holmgren, B. “Emigre-zation: American Picture Books and Russian Artists.” In KAZAAM! SPLAT! PLOOF! The American Impact on European Culture Since 1945, edited by Sabrina Ramet and Gordana Crnkovic, 219–33. Rowman and Littlefield, 2003.
  - Holmgren, B. “Writing the Female Body Politic (1945-1985).” In The Cambridge History of Russian Women’s Literature, edited by Adele Barker and Jehanne Gheith, 225–42. Cambridge University Press, 2002.
  - Holmgren, B. “The Importance of Being Unhappy, or Why She Died.” In Imitations of Life: Two Centuries of Melodrama in Russia, edited by Louise McReynolds and Joan Neuberger, 79–98. Duke University Press, 2002.
  - Holmgren, B. “Ameryka, Ameryka, czyli jak zyc w przekladzie.” In Zycie W Przekladzie, edited by Halina Stephan, 17–33. Wydawnictwo Literackie, Krakow, Poland, 2002.
  - Holmgren, B. “At Home with Sienkiewicz.” In Framing the Polish Home: Postwar Cultural Constructions of Hearth, Nation, and Self, edited by Bozena Shallcross, 219–36. Ohio University Press, 2002.
  - Holmgren, B. “Helena Modjeska on the American Stage.” edited by Anna Litak and Bianka Kurylczyk, 2–3. The Helena Modrzejewska Theatre in Krakow, Poland, n.d.
  - Holmgren, B. “"Nadezhda Mandelstam".” In YIVO ENCYCLOPEDIA OF JEWS IN EASTERN EUROPE, edited by Gershon D. Hundert. Yale UP, n.d.
- Other Articles
  - Holmgren, Beth. “Jerzy Jurandot.” Edited by Cristina Sandru and Roman Koropeckyj. Literary Encyclopedia, 2017.
    Link to Item
- Book Reviews
  - Holmgren, Beth. “A Whole World of Mythology.” Edited by Jennifer Baumgartner. Women’S Review of Books. Old City Publishing, February 2019.
  - Holmgren, Beth. “Their Own Wars: A Review of Svetlana Alexievich's THE UNWOMANLY FACE OF WAR: AN ORAL HISTORY OF WOMEN IN WORLD WAR II.” Women’S Review of Booksbbbbbb. Old City Publishing, December 2017.
  - Holmgren, B. “The Cult of Forbidden Thoughts: The Big Green Tent by Liudmila Ulitskaya, translated by Polly Gannon.” Women’S Review of Books. Philadelphia, PA: Old City Publishing, July 1, 2016.
Artistic Works & Non-Print Media
- Audio Recordings
  - Cabaret Warsaw: Yiddish and Polish Hits of the 1920s and 1930s. Curator. 2012
- Video Recordings
  - Twenty Years Forward: Modern Russian Feminism. Producer, Writer. 2009
Teaching & Mentoring
Recent Courses
Scholarly, Clinical, & Service Activities
Presentations & Appearances
Service to the Profession

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Education, Training, & Certifications

Duke Appointment History

Leadership & Clinical Positions at Duke

Academic Positions Outside Duke

In the News

Awards & Honors

Subject Headings

Global Scholarship

Expertise

Research

Teaching

Selected Grants

Selected Publications

Books

Academic Articles

Book Sections

Other Articles

Book Reviews

Artistic Works & Non-Print Media

Audio Recordings

Video Recordings

Recent Courses

Presentations & Appearances

Service to the Profession