Miriam Friz Trzeciak

Miriam Friz Trzeciak is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Interculturality/UNESCO Chair in Heritage Studies at Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg. She holds a doctorate from the University of Kassel and is currently conducting habilitation research on postcolonial and postsocialist power structures, focusing on narratives of utopia in punk subcultures of the GDR. Her research interests span critical migration studies, gender and queer theory, postcolonial and postsocialist studies, and participatory research methods.

Education: She studied Sociology, Political Sciences, and Romance Philology at universities in Aachen, Barcelona, and Münster, earning a Dr. phil. from the University of Kassel. From 2011–2016, she was a junior researcher at the Chair of Diversity Sociology in Kassel.

Research focuses include transregional migration dynamics in Southern Mexico, decolonial methodologies, and the intersection of gender with migration and urban spaces. She co-edits the MIKOWA working paper series and contributed to volumes such as Episodes From a Colonial Present (2024) and DDR Postkolonial (2022). Recent articles explore queer utopianism, post-socialist memory, and citizenship theory.

She collaborates with the DFG Research Group 5183 MIKOWA (Migration, Conflict, and Social Change) and engages in interdisciplinary projects linking activism and academic research. Her work often addresses intersections of colonial and socialist legacies in urban and cultural contexts.