Academic interests

 

My academic interests include the works of great Polish romantics as well as writers from the last century. I have written about the works of Adam Mickiewicz, Zygmunt Krasiński and especially of Cyprian Norwid. As far as the 20th century writers are concerned I have studied the outputs of Roman Branstaetter, Aleksander Wat and Józef Wittlin amongst others. I am interested in religious plots in literature, the boundaries between literature and religion in the aspects of history and the theory of literature as well as in works on this theme published in both English and German- speaking countries.

 

Another focus that interests me is the relationship between literature and culture, – especially in the recent past. The so called literarily invalid present: the output that was unjustly marginalized in the literary life from the times of the Polish People's Republic because of the emigrative context of its origin, religious expression or political attitudes from the authors. By doing research in this area I would like to make my own contribution to the restoration of the important but unjustly marginalized writers and their works to Polish culture. In order to lead the research I was awarded a scholarship for 2 years (1997-1999), at the Catholic University of Eichstätt (where I also led the classes in Polish language and culture), as well as at American universities in Yale (2005) and Harvard (2011). In 2003 I received a scholarship from the Polonia Aid Foundation Trust in London, in 2014 - of Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst in Dresden, and in 2015 I completed an internship at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.

 

Apart from doing specialist academic research I am also occupied in translating books dealing with literature, philosophy, theology, psychology and pedagogy, from German, English, French and Italian into Polish. In my translational activities I focus on scientific and popularized scientific work, which is from a Christians view point of the world. The work may be a didactic or formative essay which requires the translator's full concentration. In 2015 I received for an activity in this area the Phoenix Prize allowed by the Society of Catholic Editors in Poland.

 

Popularizing and publishing activities in the form of press articles and lectures for the circles from outside the university is also not unfamiliar to me.

 

I invite the cooperation of scholars and graduate students from all over the world. I would like to work with other people in the area of Polish culture, Polish literature and in the area of religion (including aspects of culture and literature). I welcome PhD candidates who are looking for a supervisor for their doctoral thesis!