This profile is part of a series of interviews chronicling the experiences of researchers who use The New York Public Library's collections for the development of their work.

Lena Magnone is an Assistant Professor at the University of Warsaw, author of Maria Konopnicka. Lustra i symptomy [Maria Konopnicka. Mirrors and Symptoms, 2011] and Emisariusze Freuda. Transfer kulturowy psychoanalizy do polskich sfer inteligenckich przed drugą wojną światową [Freud’s Emissaries: The Cultural Transfer of Psychoanalysis to the Polish Intelligentsia Before World War II, 2016. An English translation is due to be published in 2022 with Sdvig Press].

What brought you to the Library?

I was awarded a Fulbright Senior Award, a nine months scholarship to conduct research in the United States. I am spending this academic year as a Visiting Scholar at New York University—my project is 'Polish Freudians and the traveling psychoanalysis: The Migration of a Central European modernist thought to the United States (and back to Poland)’. In the beginning, I had trouble establishing a research routine. I had just started to come regularly to work in the New York Public Library's Rose Main Reading Room when a mutual friend referred me to Amanda Seigel, a Librarian in the Library's Dorot Jewish Division. Not only was she extremely helpful with my research, but she also informed me about applying to use the study rooms in the Library's Center for Research in the Humanities. She had a feeling this may be something for me, and she was right, I absolutely love working in the Center's Scholar Room!

 What's your favorite spot in the Library?

The majestic Astor Hall. Although I usually enter the Library through the 42nd Street side entrance, I always try to leave through the main Fifth Avenue entrance, and every time this experience evokes in me the same delight and a deep feeling of gratitude. Also, I rarely miss the opportunity to turn around once I am on the Fifth Avenue steps, just to look at the building's facade and to say to myself: I am in New York! This is really happening!

When did you first get the idea for your research project?

In my last book, I depicted the efforts of some of the first followers of Sigmund Freud, Polish-Jewish doctors living in Vienna at the beginning of the 20th century, in the cultural transfer of psychoanalysis to Polish intelligentsia before World War II. The scope of that study did not permit me to fully explore their life trajectories after their forced emigration to the United States in the 1930s. I knew that one day I would have to follow my subjects and to take a closer look at their American destinies. I was interested in how their background—their provenance from a country that had been erased from the European map, their multicultural, non-national identities and custom to work at the intersection of several national and linguistic fields—facilitated their integration in the United States. In the same time, taking into account that in Europe they had been associated with many Utopian projects (feminism, radical socialism, Zionism, non-authoritarian pedagogy), I wanted to further examine the thesis that their achievements in the seemingly effective implementation of psychoanalysis in their new homeland overshadow the loss of the cultural and sociopolitical potential of Freudian thought in post-war America.

Describe your research routine

The days that I spend in the NYPL are indeed very similar to each other. Typically, I begin with a Pilates class in my neighborhood in the morning and then I take the M train to Manhattan. Once in the reading room, I go methodically through all the books I have already accumulated on my shelf, taking a lot of notes on my laptop. As a rule, I allow myself only one coffee break and I stay in the room till the closing time. I rarely write in the library—I am more comfortable doing this part of my work later at home, so my library time is strictly reserved for reading. It’s amazing to have access to all the books that are simply not available anywhere in Poland! 

When I am not at the NYPL it is usually because I visit another library or archive, sometimes outside New York. I have already been to Boston, when I worked in the archives of the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute, at the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America and at the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at the Boston University. In February I am going to do some additional research in the Library of Congress in Washington.

What is the most interesting thing you learned from a book recently? 

I was astonished to learn from The Accusation by Edward Berenson that blood libel, an anti-Jewish prejudice responsible for much of antisemitic violence in Europe from Middle Ages to recent times, was completely unknown in the U.S. until it made its way to America with a wave of Italian, German and Polish migrants and nearly caused a pogrom in a little town of Massena, NY, in 1928. According to the author, it was the only moment in the whole history of the United States when this abominable slander occurred.

Where is your favorite place to eat in the neighborhood?

In warmer months I enjoyed having my lunch in Bryant Park (I am partial to seasonal salads from Pret-a-Manger), now I’d rather eat a hearty meal before I go out so that I can skip lunch altogether. A home-made shakshuka in the morning keeps me full all day. 

After a day of working, what do you do to unwind?

I try to make the maximum of my stay in New York. I am always looking for a way to get cheaper tickets to Broadway shows (I haven’t won in the Hamilton lottery as of yet, but I keep trying!) and often you can spot me at the family circle at the Metropolitan Opera. Also, as a proud IDNYC cardholder, I became a member of my favorite museums. My new custom is to spend a Saturday evening leisurely exploring less frequented galleries at the Met.