Katarzyna Wodarska-Ogidel

Professional Background

Ms. Katarzyna Wodarska-Ogidel is a PhD candidate in theatre at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw (Poland). She possesses language skills in Polish, English, German, and Spanish. While in residence at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, Ms. Wodarska-Ogidel conducted research on her project, "From Recitation to Puppet Plays: Different Forms of Theatrical Activities of Prisoners in Death Camps”.

Ms. Wodarska-Ogidel has published a number of works in Polish, including Świat artystyczny i literacki w karykaturze Stanisława Jerzego Kozłowskiego [Artistic and literary world in caricature Stanislaw Jerzy Kozlowski] with Monika Chudzikowska (Warszawa, 2014), Art déco w jenieckich pracowniach rzeźbiarskich. Od małych form po plastykę sakralną [Art déco in P.O.W.'s Sculpting Studios during WW2. From small forms to the religious art] in Polskie Art Deco, Vol. V (Płock, 2015). She was awarded a scholarship for young researchers from Herder Institute in Marburg, Germany, for 2014, as well as working for The Theatre Museum of Warsaw, and is a co-worker of The International Buchenwald-Dora Committee.

Fellowship Research

For her J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Fellowship, Ms. Wodarska-Ogidel researched the various forms of theatrical activity in prisoner death camps and further expounded on the role of performing arts in prisoners’ lives and their impact on international contacts among different prisoner groups. By using archival material and oral histories to explore the presence of performance within the death camp, Ms. Modarska-Ogidel examined plays, songs, and puppet shows as they existed within the camp system.

Residency Period: May 1, 2016 - July 31, 2016