Nicolaus Copernicus University

Faculty Member, Faculty of Languages

Assistant Professor

About

I am an assistant professor and deputy director of the Institute of Slavonic Philology (Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland).

EDUCATIONS: I received a BA and MA in Slavonic Philology and a PhD in Literary Studies at the Nicolaus Copernicus University. I was on the Faculty of Oriental Studies in Intercultural Relations at the University of Warsaw, as well as the Institute of Cultures at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. I have also held positions at the Baltic University and Uppsala University in Sweden, as well as in the Department of Philosophy at Charles University in Prague.

SCHOLARSHIPS: I am the recipient of numerous scholarships including a postdoctoral scholarship in the United States of America from the Foundation for Polish Science. In America I worked as a Visiting Scholar at the Harriman Institute of Columbia University doing archive research in the Bakhmeteff Archive of Russian and East European History and Culture (Butler Library). I also did research in the Houghton Library of the Harvard College Library and in the Roman Jakobson Archive at MIT and in the Czech Republic (Prague, České Budějovice – postdoctoral fellowship), as well as others in Slovenia and Croatia. I was awarded a START stipend for young researchers from the Foundation for Polish Science in 2009 and 2010. In 2011 I was inaugural sesion participant of the Institute for World Literature (Beijing, PRC), organized by Harvard University and Peking University.

PUBLICATIONS: In 2011 I published the book “Europe in Polish, Czech and Croatian Discourse: Critical Reconfiguration” (PL with ENG summary), and in 2004 “Czech and Russian Slavophilism in Comparison” (PL). Together with co-editor Andrzej Szahaj I published “Philosophy and Ethics of Interpretation” in 2007 (PL). In 2005 I co-edited the catalogue “Real and Unreal Java: a Culture Mosaic of Indonesia (Commentary on the Exhibition)” with Urszula Makowska (PL with ENG summary). I am the author of more than 50 papers in the Polish, Czech, Russian and English languages, and do translations from Czech into Polish.

EDITORIAL BOARDS: I am a member of editorial board of the journals “Archiwum Emigracji” and “Uncommon Culture”.

ACADEMIC INTERESTS focus on comparative literature [esp. application of world(-)system theories to literary studies] and comparative intellectual history of East and Central Europe [including migrants works], Slavic political and social thought, contemporary philosophy of culture [esp. the ethics of interpretation]. One of the priority theme is knowledge transfer and influence of East and Central European émigrés on the development of humanities in the United States in the context of creolization of theory and postwar world literature. The second topic is non-classical history of the theory of literature [and humanities as a whole disciplinary area], which is based not only on published text, but on archival materials, interviews with witnesses, etc. The purpose is to present a real mechanism of functioning of literary studies and academic knowledge.

OTHER INTERESTS: I have also participated in expeditions to numerous destinations such as China and Mongolia in 2002 (next trips to China in 2004, 2008, 2011). My interests include (South-)East Asia, travelling, cooking, and sailing.

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