General Information
Dr Urszula Niewiadomska-Flis specializes in American Literature. She graduated from the English Department at KUL in 2001 with MA in the early 20th century American fiction. The same year she was accepted for doctoral studies. In 2006 she defended her PhD dissertation "Ellen Glasgow and Walker Percy Re-Visioning the Blighted Eden," which was supervised by Professor Jadwiga Maszewska (Łódź University).
Her scholarly interests hover around fiction of regional America, especially Southern American Literature, women's writing, and American short story.

Major Research Projects:
February 2005 - European Perspectives in American Studies. Histories - Dialogues - Differences. An International Conference in Cooperation with the Research Group "The Futures of American Studies." JFK Institute for North American Studies. Free University Berlin, Germany.
Winter 2004/2005 - John F. Kennedy-Institute for North American Studies, Free University Berlin, Germany. Research topic: "Southern Female Fiction: Re-visioning the Blighted Eden," academic sponsor: Professor Heinz Ickstadt.
2003 - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Visiting Scholar. John Eugene and Barbara Hilton Cay Research Stipend from the Manuscripts Department at UNC at Chapel Hill. Research topic "Character construction in Walker Percy's Fiction, Notes and Correspondence."
2003 - University of Virginia, Charlottesville and UNC, Chapel Hill. Visiting Scholar. Research topic "Human relations in the South in the novels of Ellen Glasgow and Walker Percy," academic sponsor Professor Joseph Flora.

Publications:
"Rediscovering the Lost Self: Journey from the Aesthetic to the Religious Mode in Walker Percy's The Last Gentleman and The Second Coming." Travelling Subjects: American Journeys in Space and Time. Ed. Dominika Ferens, Justyna Kociatkiewicz and Elżbieta Klimek-Dominiak. Kraków: Rabid, 2004, 277-287.
"Adjustment of Individuals into Society in John Steinbeck's The Pastures of Heaven, Tortilla Flat, Of Mice and Men, and Cannery Row." Revista de Estudios Norteamericanos (Secretariado de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Sevilla) 11: 2006. 23-39.
"The Limits of Southern Female Inadequacy on the basis of Ellen Glasgow's Novels" Message, Sages and Ages. Ed. Evelina Graur and Alexandru Diaconescu. Suceava: Editura Universităţii Suceava, 2006. 289-303.
"Opozycyjna Funkcja Ironii w Dyskursie Literackim na Podstawie Twórczości Ellen Glasgow." ["The Oppositional Function of Irony in literary discourse on the basis of Ellen Glasgow's fiction."] Wyrazić Niewyrażalne: Literaturoznawstwo. Ed. Anna Krupska-Perek and Anna Klepaczko, Łódź: Wydawnictwo WSHE, 2006, volume I, 209-223.
"Pretty Is as Pretty Does? The Issue of Female Beauty in Ellen Glasgow's Fiction." Ellen Glasgow Newsletter. 57 (Fall 2006), 9,11,14.
"Storytelling as Rebellion against White Trash Identity in Dorothy Allison's Trash" Conformity and Resistance in America. Ed. Jacek Gutorow and Tomasz Lebiecki. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007. 347-360.
"An Incestuous Form of Southern Closeness in Peter Taylor's ‘Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time.'" Community and Nearness. Ed. Ilona Dobosiewicz and Jacek Gutorow. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Opolskiego, 2007.

Courses Taught:
Literature of the American South (Year III)
This course is designed to introduce students to Southern culture and literature. Literary texts penned by Peter Taylor, Barry Hannah, Dorothy Allison, Eudora Welty, William Faulkner and others will demonstrate that there is no homogeneous and monolithic South.

The History of American Literature (Lecture, Year III)
This lecture is a chronological survey of selected literary texts from Native American narratives to postmodern texts, which reflect socio-historical and cultural development of American society. The material covered complements and deepens the knowledge students acquire from American Literature classes.

Introduction to Literature (Year I)
This introductory literature course will introduce students to close readings of literature. Discussion and analytical writing about literature will allow students to learn and practice skills of close reading. The first term is devoted to analyzing short story (plot, character, theme, irony, symbol and allegory, etc), the second to poetry (denotation and connotation; imagery; figures of speech; poetry and personal identity).

Membership and Affiliations:
2002 - to date: Walker Percy Society (affiliated with American Literature Association)
2002 - to date: Ellen Glasgow Society (affiliated with American Literature Association and the Modern Language Association)
2001 - to date: Polish Association for American Studies (PAAS)
2001 - to date: European Association for American Studies (EAAS)