I am Professor of Anthropology and Sociology of Migrations at Paris Cité University (Institut Humanités, Sciences et Sociétés) and researcher at URMIS (Unité de Recherche Migrations et Société – IRD / CNRS / Université Paris Cité / Université Côte d'Azur). I am an elected member of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences (PAU – Committee on the History of Science). In May 2023, the President of the Republic of Poland awarded me the title of State Professor in the Humanities (Belvedere Professorship).

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Academic Trajectory

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My academic trajectory developed across music, sociology, and the history of science:

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•            1987: Master of Arts in Music Pedagogy at the Music Academy in Poznań, completed summa cum laude.

•            1988–2002: Music educator at the Conservatoire de Nanterre, France, which provided the original observational ground for studying the early training of classical musicians.

•            1997: Diplôme d'Études Approfondies (DEA/MA2) in Institutions, Work, and Education (EHESS, ENS, Université Paris 8).

•            2006: PhD in Sociology at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS, Paris) with highest honors, supervised by Jean-Michel Chapoulie.

•            2003–2016: Longitudinal multi-sited ethnographies inside life-science laboratories across France (Saclay CEA), Poland (IIMCB Warsaw), and the United States

•            2008–2019: Associate Professor at the University of Warsaw (Institute of Sociology), including service as Deputy Director for Didactics (2012–2014).

•            2010–2011 & 2016: Double Fellow of the Kościuszko Foundation (Harvard University Department of the History of Science, then The New School for Social Research in New York).

•            2012: Habilitation (HDR) in Sociology at the University of Warsaw.

•            2017–2020: Fieldwork on border regimes, reception centers, and refugee camps across southern and central Europe.

•            2019–2023: Professor of Sociology -- Collegium Civitas in Warsaw.

•            2019–2026: Fellow at Institut Convergences Migrations (ICM), Paris.

•            2021: Fernand Braudel Senior Fellow at the European University Institute (EUI, Florence).

•            2023: State Professor in the Humanities (Polish "Belvedere Professorship").

•            2023–Present: Professor of Sociology and Athnropology of Migration at Paris Cité University

 

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Research and Books

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While I regularly publish peer-reviewed articles across international sociological journals, my primary intellectual focus centers on long-form books and collective biographies. My major book trajectories include:

1.        Socialization and Careers of Classical Music Virtuosi: Producing Excellence: Making of a Virtuoso (Rutgers University Press, 2015; translated into Chinese and Russian), tracing early talent construction, career coupling, and elite musical worlds.

2.        Mobility and Elite Scientific Careers: Becoming Transnational Professional (Scholar, 2011), drawing on extensive laboratory ethnographies to analyze how researchers construct international scientific careers - process of transmobility

3.        Intellectual Biography in Context: Zygmunt Bauman: A Biography (Polity Press, 2020), examining the life course of the sociologist through exile, displacement, and intellectual production, published and translated into several languages including French, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Korean, Turkish, and soon Chinese and Arabic.

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My current book project examines the life and humanitarian work of Co-creator of Doctors of the World organization - Dr. Alina Margolis-Edelman (Pediatra Świata, forthcoming with Znak).

Alongside these biographical works, my ongoing research examines autocensura (self-censorship) as a core mechanism in the sociology of knowledge and hidden elements of knowledge construction (Wagner, 2022).