Dr. Ala Pihalskaya

Research interests:

Visual culture history and the everyday of Belarus

Printing history of Belarus

Visual culture and identity construction

Academic Emploment

• January-June 2024: research fellowship in Bremen University, Centre for Eastern European Studies
• October-December 2023: research fellowship in Warsaw University, department Artes Liberales
• February 2022-February 2023: research fellowship in the Institute of Slavic Studies in the Polish Academy of Science, Warsaw, Poland
• 2005-2019 European Humanitarian University, Lecturer and Director of BA Program in Visual Design. Vilnius, Lithuania

Employment

• 2020 – up to now - quarterly publications in the magazine Sztuka
• 2019 - 2021 Mastatstva/Arts  journal - monthly publications. Minsk, Belarus

Education

2013 PhD from Vilnius Academy of Arts in the field of Art Criticism. Topic of the dissertation: “Forms of Everyday Representation in Belarusian Posters of 1966-1980”
2012-2013 PhD externship in Vilnius Academy of Arts (Vilnius, Lithuania)
2001- 2004 European Humanities University (Minsk, Belarus)
Postgraduate Study in the field of Theory and History of Culture
1994-1999 European Humanitarian University (Minsk, Belarus)

Publications (peer-reviewed)

• The Concept of Localness (Tuteishaść/) in Visual Communication in Public Space in Belarus as a Source of Exclusion. In Sprawy Narodowościowe: Seria nowa, 2022(54), pp. 1-19.
• Гісторыя друкарні Юзафа Завадскага, рэканструяваная праз сетку кантактаў і зносінаў (The history of Yuzof Zavadsky's printing house, reconstructed through a network of contact and communication). In Homo historicus, 2023, p. 147-162. ISSN 2424-521З6
• Hand-Making Modernist Forms: The Visual Environment In Visaginas From the 1970s to the 2010s //In Visaginas From the 1970s to the 2010s. In Re-Tooling Knowledge Infrastructures in a 'Post-Nuclear' Town. Vilnius, 2021  (In English)
• Benjamin Cope, Oksana Denisenko, Alla Pigalskaya. TYPO VISAGA - a Collaborative Design Project. In Visaginas From the 1970s to the 2010s In Re-Tooling Knowledge Infrastructures in a 'Post-Nuclear' Town. Vilnius, 2021  (In English)
• The Materiality of Visual Hierarchies and the Presumptuous Charm of Russian
• 1990sPost-Soviet Magazine Design. In "In Defense of the Mainstream", edited by L. Alyabyeva, A. Gorbachev and L. Danilkin, Russian / English, Moscow time, V-A-C press, 2021.
• Гендерные исследования и дизайн: историчность визуального и политическая история (Gender studies and design: historicity of the visual and political history)//Актуальные проблемы дизайна и дизайн-образования : материалы III Междунар. науч.-практ. конф., Минск, 18–19 апр. 2019 г. / Белорус. гос. ун-т ; редкол.: О. А. Воробьёва (отв. ред.) [и др.]. – Минск : БГУ, 2019. – С. 322-327.
• Модерн плюс авангард: режимы конструирования советского и постсоветского дизайн-образования в БССР и Беларуси (Modern plus avant-garde: modes of construction of Soviet and post-Soviet design education in the BSSR and Belarus)// Перекрёстки, № 1–2/2016, ЕГУ, Вильнюс. С. 66-84.
• Research by design and collaboration in the perspective of post-soviet ‘nuclear’ town Visaginas, in ServDes2018. Service Design Proof of Concept, Proceedings of the ServDes.2018 Conference, 18-20 June, Milano, Italy. Ed. By Anna Meroni, Anna María, Ospina Medina, Italy, Beatrice Villari. Linköping University Electronic Press, Linköpings universitet, 2018. http://www.servdes.org/conference-2018-milano-2/
• Modern and avant-garde: modes of designing Soviet and post-Soviet design education in the BSSR and Belarus. Crossroads (online) 1, 2016.
• Graphic design practices, technologies of reproduction and communication strategies in Belarus after the collapse of the Soviet Union, in: Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis 83, 2017. Pp. 113-124.
• Public space typography in Visaginas. В: Mapping Visaginas. Sources of Urbanity in a Former Mono-functional Town. Vilnius Academy of Arts Press.Vilnius, 2016, pp. 55-61.
• Visual Traces Of Individualization Practices In 1960-70s Posters of the BSSR in: Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis 73,2015. -  p. 123-139.
• Forms of Representation of Everyday Life in the Belarusian Poster in 1966–1980. Doctoral dissertation. Humanities, Art Criticism (03 H), Vilnius, 2013. ISBN 978-609-447-076-9
• vb.vda.lt/object/elaba:1928794/
• История дизайна и политика повседневности: конструирование истории графического дизайна Беларуси (History of Design and politics of everyday life: the construction of the history of graphic design in Belarus), in: Перекрёстки, 2012,  №1-2. С. 225-252.
• History of Design and Politics of Everyday Practices: Reconstructing History of Graphic Design of Belarus, in: Crossroads Digest, 2012, № 7, с. 140-166.
• Пигальская А. Подходы к конструированию истории дизайна и его практики (Construction of the Design History and Its Practices), in: Культурологический журнал, 2012, 2 (8).– URL: http://cr-journal.ru/rus/journals/131.html&j_id=10  
• “Беларускі графічны дызан” (Belarusian graphic design), in: Культура Беларусі: энцыклапедыя  Т. 3  -  Мінск: Беларуская Энцыклапедыя імя Петруся Броўкі, 2012, с. 543-545.

Other articles, interviews and videos

Historie nierównoległe. Różnice i podobieństwa w projektowaniu graficznym w Polsce, Ukrainie, Białorusi i Litwie in Kultura Liberalna Nr.740, 11/2023 (14.03.2023). In Polish

Маляваныя шрыфты ў шрыфтавым архіве Беларусі / Art.Context, December 2023, In Belarusian

Video: Шрыфтавы архіў і гісторыя мастацкіх практык Беларусі │Art.Context. Ала Пігальская, December 2023, In Belarusian

Magazine SZTUKA (in Belarusian language)

Тыпаграфія Завадскага. Практыкі друкарскага супраціву (Zavadsky Typography. Practices of typographical resistance.). In SZTUKA.Мастацтва вельмі польскае ІІІ/2023, ст. 62-67.

Крыж, верацяно і кніга. Ядвіга Замойская і жаночая адукацыя ў ХІХст. (Cross, spindle and book. Yadviga Zamoyskaya and women's education in the 19th century).  In SZTUKA. Мастацтва вельмі польскае. IІ/2023, ст. 20-29.

“Калі вам абавязкова патрэбная ахвяра, вазьміце мяне”. Жанчыны ў паўстанні 1863 года ("If you absolutely need a victim, take me." Women in the Rebellion of 1863). In SZTUKA. Мастацтва вельмі польскае. I/2023, ст. 56-63.

Русалка, этнографка, поэтка. Крысціна Крахельская - гераіня палескага краю (Mermaid, ethnographer, poet. Kristina Krahelskaya is the heroine of the Palesko region).  In SZTUKA. Мастацтва вельмі польскае. VI/2022, cт. 34-41.

InDesign – monthly rubric for the Mastactva (Arts) magazine, 2019-2021(more then 40 articles). In 2021, I wrote articles that considered various Belarusian design artefacts and exhibitions in the context of Polish, Ukrainian and Lithuanian design. Unfortunately, access to the electronic versions of the journal is currently terminated.