Polina Gundarina, M.A.

Polina Gundarina studied History, Ethnography, and Journalism in Russia, Norway, and Germany.

Since July 2021, she has been a doctoral researcher at the GWZO and a part of the Junior Research Group »Contrasting Eastern Europe«. From 2021 to 2024, Polina was part of the collaborative research project »Stadt.Kultur.Bauen« (»CitiesBuildingCulture«), funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). She is working on her PhD project titled »Leisure and Fun in Soviet Houses of Culture Before and After 1991«, in which she traces history of Soviet cultural infrastructure and its changing spatial, societal and cultural significance.

• Architecture as »difficult heritage« in memory culture, architectural history and critical Heritage Studies debates

• Material cultures of everyday life under Communism (1917-1991)