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Dr Paulina Niechciał

Dr Paulina Niechciał

e-mail: paulina.niechcial@uj.edu.pl
www: https://jagiellonian.academia.edu/PaulinaNiechcial

After I passed my high school diploma, I took up ethnological studies because I wanted to travel and meet people of different cultures in different parts of the world. I have never regretted that decision, as today I do indeed travel, experience, explore, translate, explain, and write. In time, I supplemented anthropology with Iranian studies, developing an interest in the Middle East and Central Asia, and a knowledge of the Persian language, and with sociology: above all, the sociology of religion.

Academic interests

  • sociology of religion;
  • contemporary culture of Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan;
  • Zoroastrianism;
  • religious minorities in the Middle East and Central Asia;
  • issues of identity.

Selected publications

Research projects

  • ‘Lived Religion’ in the Context of Migration: The Case of Zoroastrian Women in the USA – granted by the Kosciuszko Foundation and supported by the  Department of Central Eurasian Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington, USA;
  • Identity Formation among Established and Recent Polish Communities around Utica, NY – a joint research project of Jagiellonian University and the Department of Sociology/Anthropology of Utica College, NY, USA, supported by Joseph P. Furgal Fund; carried out since 2016;
  • Tajik Civil War as a Cultural Phenomenon – granted by the Faculty of Philosophy of the Jagiellonian University as a result of the contest for young researchers and doctoral students; conducted in the academic year 2015/2016;
  • The Cultural Strategies of War and Reconciliation: Analysis on the Example of the Civil War in the Republic of Tajikistan (1992-1997) – granted by the Polish National Science Centre; conducted in the years 2014-2016;
  • Research on the collective identity of a Zoroastrian religious minority in contemporary Tehran – granted by the Polish Ministry of Education and Science; internship in the Islamic Republic of Iran in 2008.

Other achievements

  • 2022, a visit to the University of Agder in Norway – a teaching trip for academics, funded by the Education Programme;
  • 2015, scholarship of the Minister of Science and Higher Education for outstanding young scholars; 
  • 2014, Utica College, New York, USA – visiting scholar;
  • 2012, Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tajikistan, Dushanbe – visiting scholar (field research on identity issues);
  • 2004/2005, and 2008, International Centre for Persian Studies, Tehran University, Iran;
  • 2005/2006, The Polish Minister of Science and Higher Education Scholarship for outstanding results in education and the Sapere Auso Lesser Poland Foundation Scholarship for outstanding results in education.