Dr. Jolanta Drzewiecka

Biography

Jolanta Drzewiecka researches discursive constructions of cultural, racial, and national differences in identities to advance a critical intercultural communication framework. Her focus areas include immigrant identity and public memories, examining how migrant identities are formed and the processes of integration through immigrant discourses. Drzewiecka explores how relations of inequality shape social relations and affective practices, with implications for understanding 'integration'. She is particularly interested in memories of ethnic violence, especially those that are discursively disabled or blocked and render victims unrecognizable in protecting national self-fictions. Combining discourse and rhetorical analyses with psychoanalytic theories, she has published her research in journals such as Communication Theory, Ethnic and Racial Studies, and the Journal of International and Intercultural Communication. Drzewiecka has been the Principal Investigator for the SNSF project 'Relational Integration in Place: Affect and Power in Everyday Practices', which provides insights into migrant integration and the social relations that influence this process. Her recent studies illustrate how exclusions at national and local levels often lead migrants to seek belonging in online spaces, while also revealing the emotional complexities that long-term residents feel regarding place. Drzewiecka's multidisciplinary approach employs qualitative ethnographic and affective methods, focusing on smaller cities and neighborhoods in Ticino, Switzerland, to better understand intercultural contact and its varying outcomes.

Research Interests