About me
My favourite genre to work in is social reportage, but I also write analytical pieces, investigative stories, interviews and reviews. My trademark is a visually rich feature, where text and image exist in a lively dialogue.
I favour stories that subvert stereotypes. Illicit phenomena, grassroots movements and unexpected examples of human agency on the global peripheries have always been some of my main interests. I feel most alive in border regions and grey zones, but you can also find me reporting from the middle of the city.
The breadth of my natural curiosity is reflected in the range of topics I write on: politics, gender, poverty, exclusion, migration, sport, economy, the environment, natural resources…
I published my first journal – perhaps more of an underground zine – with a friend when we were just 18. For a couple of rebellious middle-school students it was all rather professionally laid out, and we took great care over the contents and editorial process.
Later on, I dedicated myself to scholarly work, and followed my journalistic passions alongside more scientific writing. Over time, I was to discover that well-grounded storytelling that makes a tangible difference is more closely aligned to my values and uses my natural skills and traits best. This is where I am now: ranging widely as a freelance journalist.
Old habits die hard. As a trained ethnologist, I prefer writing close to the people. Achieving a good rapport with my protagonists is always a key concern. The safety of my team is as vital to me as that of my sources. This is especially important, as I am often working in politically contested environments.
Solid fact-checking is another good habit that I have held on to from my university career. Being a stickler for accuracy means that I sometimes work too slowly for my liking, but it guarantees high-quality data and reliable information.
As someone born and socialized in Eastern Europe but who has spent most of her career in the West, I have perfect positionality to bridge the inevitable communication gaps that arise between different cultures and divergent worldviews.
I have lived in Poland, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. I have also worked in Belarus, China and Kyrgyzstan. Today I divide my time between Zürich, Warsaw and Bishkek, always ready to embark on a new trip.
I write in English, Polish and German. I’m fluent in Russian, used to be fluent in Mongolian and once spoke ‘brog-skad, a nomadic dialect of Tibet. I have a basic command of Ukrainian.
Publications
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Trading Caterpillar Fungus in Tibet: When Economic Boom Hits Rural Area
Book at Amsterdam University Press2019
Tibet Book
Trading Caterpillar Fungus in Tibet: When Economic Boom Hits Rural Area is based on my study of the economic boom that arose around the trade in caterpillar fungus, an expensive medicinal commodity in China, often called Himalayan Viagra. This research took me to one of the most sparsely populated parts of the Tibetan plateau, where for almost a year I lived and worked with Tibetan nomads at 4,000m altitude. All this I did in a difficult political climate and under a situation of growing surveillance in China following the Summer Olympics in Beijing.
This book remains one of the very few first-hand accounts of pastoral life in present-day Tibet. It answers the question of what it means to be a nomad in modern China and how one can benefit from the booming medicinal industry as a supplier of raw materials growing in the most extreme of mountain environments. After the Covid-19 pandemic, which further accelerated the development of the Asian medicine industry, this question has only gained importance.
Based on my PhD, for which I got the highest grade, summa cum laude, the book was published by Amsterdam University Press. It was entered for the ICAS (International Convention of Asia Scholars) book prize 2019 and got enthusiastic reviews. For book reviews and orders, visit Amsterdam University Press.
Academic work
I have two MAs, in Social Anthropology as well as Mongolian and Tibetan Studies, both from the University of Warsaw, as well as a PhD in Central Asian Studies from the Humboldt University in Berlin.
Throughout my academic career I ran my own research initiatives – both in Asia and in Europe – and also worked as part of large international projects. With ROADWORK I studied the “New Silk Road” and the flipside of connectivity brought by the Chinese infrastructure projects of the Belt and Road Initiative. Illegal wildlife trade, landscape fragmentation and transport-related exclusion were some of the many angles I considered as part of this analysis.
In addition to authoring numerous scholarly articles – about pastoral economy, animals and infrastructure, forced sedentarization of nomads in China, boarding schools, pop music and underground literature – I have also edited books and special issues, e.g. Roadsides and Nomadic Peoples, where I am an associate editor. Being keenly interested in innovative formats of knowledge transfer, I also co-authored a multimedia story called FIELDWORK.
I was a Humboldt Excellence postdoc in Berlin and a fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies in Leiden, the Netherlands. I have secured and managed grants from, among others, Trace Foundation, China and Inner Asia Council, Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation (Taiwan), National Swiss Science Foundation, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and National University of Mongolia.
I have offered courses on a wide range of topics, from feminist anthropology to illicit economies, resistance movements, political conflicts and proxy-wars, state repression of pastoralists, banditry, the anthropology of money, critical approaches to development, statelessness, and the Asian medicinal industry.
I have taught in Berlin, Zürich, Bern, Fribourg and Luzern, both in English and in German.
Today I mostly offer writing workshops for PhD students, and teach pitching and storytelling.