Apolinary Rzońca - Instytut Historii im. Tadeusza Manteuffla PAN

Date and institution of PhD awarded:

November 7, 2023, Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw (within a joint grant “Digital Humanities: Doctoral Studies” with the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology)

Specialisation:

I am currently engaged in research on the environmental history of the Portuguese-speaking world (in particular the environmental consequences in the Portuguese colonies within the NCN Opus project: “Imperial commoners of Brazil and West Africa (1640–1822): global history from a correspondence network perspective”), as well as the water environmental history of modernity (especially the period of the German occupation of East-Central Europe, 1939–1945). My other research interests include: prompt engineering and analytics within the paradigm of digital humanities, the development and application of AI tools in research, new audiovisual narratives, the cultural history of modernity, surveillance studies (studies of power), history of literature & performance studies, historical sociology, economic history, wine history, the history of ideas, and the microhistory of totalitarianisms from the 19th to the 21st century.

Department/Section:

Department of Historical Atlas / Spatial History Lab

ORCID:

0000-0002-6674-8981

Participation in scholarly communities and networks:

Google Scholar
Academia

Contact:

arzonca@ihpan.edu.pl

Diplomas and certificates:

certificate – (2025) Skills of Tomorrow: AI, Google, Warsaw School of Economics (SGH);
diploma – (2024) Postgraduate Management Studies: Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Partnership, Warsaw School of Economics (SGH);
diploma – (2018) Academy of Historical Film, Pilecki Institute;
diploma – (2017) Polish Diplomatic Service, European Academy of Diplomacy;
master of arts – (2017) Theatre Studies, The Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art.

Participation in grants and individual research projects:

Adjunct (post-doc) in the project “Imperial commoners of Brazil and West Africa (1640–1822): global history from a correspondence network perspective”, funded by NCN, OPUS, no. 2022/45/B/HS3/00473, Scientific project manager: Dr. Agata Błoch.
Research associate in the project “Monstrous Rivers: Investigating the Environmental History of Modern European Floods through Literary Sources”, Scientific project manager: Associate professor Anna Barcz, funded by the National Science Centre (NCN), project no. 2023/49/B/HS3/04329, 2024–2028.
Scientific project manager: “Human and Environmental Consequences of Forced Land Reclamation Works in the General Government (1940–1944)”, 2023–2024, funded by the Jan Karski Institute of War Losses.
Scientific project manager: “Polish Modernity and Rivers at the Turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries”, 2022–2023, under the Joseph Conrad Fellowship, Institute De Republica.
Scientific project manager: “The Anthropocene in the Works of Joseph Conrad”, 2021–2022, under the Joseph Conrad Fellowship, Institute De Republica.
Doctoral Researcher in the project “Digital Humanities: Doctoral Studies at IBL PAN and the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology”, 2018–2023), scientific project manager: Associate professor Marek Troszyński (funded by NCBiR, POWER Programme, European Funds).

In media:

Filmpolski.pl: https://filmpolski.pl/fp/index.php?osoba=11171332
Wyborcza.pl: https://wyborcza.pl/0,128956.html?autor=Apolinary+Rzo%C5%84ca
KulturaLiberalna.pl: https://kulturaliberalna.pl/tag/apolinary-rzonca/

Research dataset (Digital Humanities): MAPE Dataset – Portuguese Colonial Correspondence (1640–1822): Bilingual Archival Corpus, 2026. Zenodo, DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19683653.
“W jaki sposób kryzys wodny przyczynił się do katastrofy społecznej w Gręboszowie pod koniec XIX wieku?” [“How Did the Water Crisis Contribute to the Social Catastrophe in Gręboszów at the End of the 19th Century?”], in: Formy modernizacji. Polska XIX i XX wieku [Forms of Modernization. Poland in the 19th and 20th Centuries], ed. J. Pyda, August hr. Cieszkowski Foundation, Warsaw, 2025, pp. 279–304.
“Zniewolenie naturalnej przestrzeni i nowoczesna hydropolityka, czyli jak praca przymusowa w Generalnym Gubernatorstwie kształtowała przestrzeń akwatyczną” [“Enslavement of Natural Space and Modern Hydropolitics, or How Forced Labour in the General Governorate Shaped Aquatic Space”], Kultura Współczesna. Teoria. Interpretacje. Praktyka, vol. 128, no. 3 (2024), pp. 174–189, https://doi.org/10.26112/KW.2024.128.13.
“Płynne obrazy antropocenu na przykładzie adaptacji teatralnej Jądra ciemności Josepha Conrada w Teatrze Powszechnym im. Z. Hübnera” [“Fluid Images of the Anthropocene on the Example of the Theatrical Adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness at the Z. Hübner Powszechny Theatre”], in: Polska a kompleks nowoczesności [Poland and the Complex of Modernity], eds. J. Pyda, P. Szcześniak, Institute De Republica, 2023, pp. 60–88.
“On the Digital Ring of Deep Surveillance. Affective Computing and Deep Learning in the Service of Behavioural Analytics”, in: Social, Ethical and Cultural Aspects of the Use of Artificial Intelligence. The Future of New Technologies, Polish Institute of Economics, 2022, pp. 20–26.
“Wykadrować (nie)bezpieczeństwo wspólnoty. Fotografia w służbie udoskonalanych praktyk kultury nadzoru na wybranych przykładach z wieków: XIX i XX” [“Zooming in on Community (In)Security. Photography in Service to Surveillance Culture on Examples from the 19th and 20th Centuries”], Kultura Współczesna. Teoria. Interpretacje. Praktyka, vol. 118, no. 2, 2022, pp. 126–139, https://doi.org/10.26112/kw.2022.118.09.
[together with Karolina Zamorowska] “River Restoration in the Urban Landscape as a Turning Point in Culture and Hydropolitics: Narrations and Case Studies for the Challenges of the 21st Century”, Studia z Polityki Publicznej, vol. 10, no. 3 (39), 2023, pp. 61–76, https://doi.org/10.33119/KSzPP/2023.3.4.
“Czy możliwa jest mutacja „banoptykonu” w „careoptykon”? O szansach na przeciwdziałanie prekaryzacji i wykluczeniu migrantów oraz uchodźców” [“Is a Mutation of ‘Banopticon’ into ‘Careopticon’ Possible? On the Potential Opportunities to Counteract Precarisation and Exclusion of Migrants and Refugees”], Zagadnienia Rodzajów Literackich, vol. 65, no. 1 (2022), pp. 87–102.
“Elementy Hermeneutyki podmiotu Michela Foucaulta w powojennej korespondencji Jarosława Iwaszkiewicza z Jerzym Lisowskim” [“Elements of Michel Foucault’s Hermeneutics of the Subject in the Post-War Correspondence of Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz and Jerzy Lisowski”], Zagadnienia Rodzajów Literackich, vol. 64, no. 3 (2021), pp. 43–53, https://doi.org/10.26485/ZRL/2021/64.3/3.
“Obrazy kobiet i prowokatywne narracje symboliczne w twórczości malarskiej Edwarda Dwurnika” [“Images of Women and Provocative Symbolic Narratives in the Painting of Edward Dwurnik”], Komunizm: System – Ludzie – Dokumentacja, vol. 10 (2021), pp. 123–136.