Kate Korycki

Kate Korycki is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies at Western University's Faculty of Social Science. Originally from Poland, she immigrated to Canada at age 18 and previously worked in the Canadian public service, including on the Common Experience Payment initiative for Indigenous victims of Residential Schools in Northern Ontario.

Her research focuses on collective memory, identity politics, and the structural intersections of gender, race, and class. Korycki examines how narratives of the past are creatively manipulated to constitute collective imaginaries that justify stratified subject positions in the present. Her work bridges critical race theory, critical whiteness studies, and political sociology to analyze how national identities are imagined and reimagined through memory politics.

Korycki's recent scholarship reveals trends across multiple national contexts, with particular attention to Poland's memory politics around communism and Jewish history, as well as Canada's evolving national imaginary through political speeches and school textbooks. Her research consistently connects collective memory to contemporary struggles for racial justice, reconciliation, and decolonization.

• Weaponizing the Past: Collective Memory, and Jews, Poles & Communists in the 21st Century Poland (2023)
• De-commemoration as healing and conflict: Canada and its colonial past and present (2023)
• Political Parties, in Rutledge Handbook of Memory Activism (2023)

Korycki actively engages with public discourse through media appearances and scholarly commentary, including The Conversation and various podcasts. Her teaching portfolio includes courses on equity and human rights, intersections of race/class/gender, queer theory, and women's experiences under different political systems.