Sylwia Kuźma-Markowska is a historian and Associate Professor at the American Studies Center, University of Warsaw, Poland. She specializes in transnational history and the cultural and social history of modern Poland and the United States. Her areas of research include women’s and gender history, migration history, and the history of reproduction. She has authored two scholarly monographs and several articles that appeared in such journals as Comparative Studies in Society and History, Technology and Culture, Gender and History, The Historical Journal, and Medical History. She has been awarded numerous grants and scholarships, including the Fulbright Senior Award (2024-25), National Science Center OPUS Research Grants (2020-2024 and 2025-2029), and the Kosciuszko Foundation Fellowship (2020). She has been a visiting fellow at the University of Maryland (2024-25), University of Illinois at Chicago (2020), and the University of Notre Dame (2012).
In her presentation, she uses the concept of labor to discuss narratives about and experiences of predominantly working-class and Catholic women who, at the turn of the 20th century, migrated from the Polish lands to the US. Her primary focus is on reproductive labor performed by Polish women to reproduce the American labor force. High fertility was one of the factors that triggered migration from the Polish lands, as land shortages and poor economic conditions made it impossible to support large families and necessitated seeking work abroad. In the early 20th century, findings regarding the “fecundity” of Polish women in the US sparked a vivid debate among the American public as the high birth rate of the Polish immigrants disturbed American nativists and eugenicists. Examining these discussions, she also probes how the Polish-American community debated women’s reproductive practices and how Polish immigrants and ethnics attempted to control their fertility by practicing abortion and contraception.
The American Studies Center (ASC) of the University of Warsaw is celebrating 50 years of studying and teaching about the history, literature, culture, society, and politics of the United States. Throughout 2026, the center will host a series of lectures, conferences, and film screenings to illustrate the diverse ways in which the United States can be studied. The ASC appreciates that this Forum lecture can be included as part of our celebration.
