Summer School in Polish Literature & Culture 2026

Lecturers and Timetable:

Dr. Yanina Ryier

Lecture: Kraków in the Middle Ages

Date: 18th May 2026, at 9:45 a.m., Room 501 (6th floor) – Main Building

Yanina Ryier, PhD, Assistant Professor at Ignatianum University in Cracow.

In 2018, she successfully defended her PhD thesis in History, focusing on the main mechanisms of legitimization and sacralization of power in the early Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Her research interests include the process of state formation in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the portrayal of pagan Lithuanians in Christian narrative sources, and the ideology of the Baltic Crusades.

Her recent publications include chapters examining the nature of pagan rulers’ authority in emerging Lithuania and the evolution of its ruling elites, published by Routledge in 2025 and 2026, as well as a chapter on debatable issues concerning the conversion of Lithuania in 1387, published by Peter Lang in 2025.

Selected publications:

Chapters in books:

Continuity or significant shift? The evolution of ruling elites in the early Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Emergence of the Nobility in East Central Europe between the Eighth and Thirteenth Centuries, eds. Robert Antonín and Jiří Macháček. New York: Routledge, 2026, pp. 294–316.

The Conversion of Pagan Rulers of Lithuania. Saints in the Slavic Christian World. Assessing Power, Religion and Language in Religious Literature, eds. Emil Hilton Saggau, Wawrzyniec Kowalski, and Mihai Dragnea. New York: Peter Lang, 2025, pp. 47-68.

From a Chief to Grand Duke: Evolution of a Ruler`s Role and Functions in the Forming of Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the mid-13th to the mid-14th Century. Continuity and Change in Medieval East Central Europe: Social, Ruling and Religious Transformations, ed. Dušan Zupka. New York: Routledge, 2025, pp. 117–132.

Lithuanian troops in the military campaigns of Władysław Łokietek in the 20s – 30s of the 14th century. Mercenaries and Crusaders (1202-1480), ed. Atilla Barani. Debrecen, 2024, pp. 157-172.

Articles:

Faith and (or) Politics: A Look Through the Prism of the 1330 Polish–Lithuanian–Hungarian Campaign into the Dobrzyń and Chełmno Land. Rocznik Filozoficzny Ignatianum, 31(4), 2025, pp. 53-72.

Miracles and divine intervention during the struggle between the Teutonic order and Lithuania in Christian narratives from the 14th century, [in:] Acta Historica Universitatis Klaipedensis, 2023, pp. 147-168.

Prof. Krystyna Zabawa

Lecture: Bohemian Kraków: Polish & Modernist

Date: 20th May 2026, at 9:45 a.m., Room 501 (6th floor) – Main Building

Krystyna Zabawa is Associate Professor and Head of the Literary Studies Department of the Institute of  Modern Languages at the Ignatianum University in Cracow. She graduated from the Jagiellonian University. Her fields of interest include Young Poland and interwar literature, especially poetry, female writers, and children’s and YA literature. In 2013, she published the monograph entitled Rozpoczęta opowieść. Polska literatura dziecięca po 1989 roku [A Tale Begun. Polish Children’s Literature after 1989 with regard to Contemporary Culture] and in 2017 – Literatura dziecięca w kontekstach edukacyjnych [Children’s Literature in Education]. She is a member of the IBBY Polish Section and the IRSCL. She regularly publishes book reviews. 

Selected works:

Monographs:

Zabawa, Krystyna. Kalejdoskop myśli, wrażeń i obrazów" – młodopolskie odmiany krótkiego poematu prozą, Universitas, 1999.

Zabawa, Krystyna. Rozpoczęta opowieść. Polska literatura dziecięca po 1989 roku wobec kultury współczesnej, Akademia Ignatianum – Wydawnictwo WAM, 2013.

Articles:

Zabawa, Krystyna. “Who Are You?” “A Little Pole.” The Vision of the Nation and Nationality in the Polish Literary Canon for Children on the Threshold of Independence (around 1918) in: Literary Canon Formation as Nation-Building in Central Europe and the Baltics 19th to Early 20th Century, ed. Aistė Kučinskienė, Viktorija Šeina, and Brigita Speičytė, Brill, 2021.

Other:

Zabawa, Krystyna, Kilroy Gerard,. Read-Aloud Anthology of English Poetry, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JI7R5G5J_8&list=PL2RdbxAZiEAm-XJE0UvT7eena4LdRlWwn&ab_channel=UniwersytetIgnatianumwKrakowie

Dr Filip Mazurczak

Lecture: Polish and Jewish History

Date: 25th May 2026, at 9:45, Room 501 (6th floor) – Main Building

Dr. Filip Mazurczak is a historian, journalist, and translator. He holds a PhD in History from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków as well as an MA in Oral History from Columbia University and an MA in International Affairs from the George Washington University.

His academic writing has appeared in Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry and the Wrocław Yearbook of Oral History, among others, while he has published numerous popular articles and interviews in publications such as First Things, the Catholic World Report, Notes from Poland, and many others. He is the author of Żona Pianisty ("The Pianist's Wife"), a book-length interview with Halina Szpilman, the widow of Władysław Szpilman (Kraków: Mando, 2020).

Selected publications:

Book:

Żona pianisty (Kraków: Wydawnictwo Mando 2020).

Articles:

“The Polish and Jewish Identities of Leopold Tyrmand.” Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry, Volume 39 (2027): Poles and Jews Through the Prism of Culture (forthcoming).

“‘Providential Smart Power: How John Paul II’s Nyean Soft Power Helped Defeat Communism.” Horyzonty Polityki Tom 16, Nr 56 (2025): pp. 173-189.

„To jest możliwe tylko w waszej cholernej Warszawie!” O sposobie prezentacji Polski i Polaków w Miłej 18 Leona Urisa. „Dydaktyka Polonistyczna”, Tom 18, Nr 9 (2023): s. 185-198.

“Why We Stayed: Polish Jews’ Reasons for Remaining in Poland During Two Waves of Postwar Emigration.” Wrocławski Rocznik Historii Mówionej, Vol. 13 (2023): pp. 108-134.

„Władysław Szpilman’s Post-War Career in Poland.” Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry, Volume 32 (2020): pp. 219-234.

“The Reception of Olga Tokarczuk’s Flights in the English Language Press.” Konteksty Kultury, 2018/5 (z. 4), pp. 551-557.

Translated Works:

Reymont, Władysław. The Vampire (London: Glagoslav Publications). Forthcoming. Translation possible thanks to a grant from Poland's Book Institute (Instytut Książki).

Salij, Jacek. Our Faith (Rome: Fundacja św. Mikołaja, Angelicum University Press, 2023). Translation possible thanks to a grant from Poland's Book Institute (Instytut Książki).

Wyszyński, Stefan Cardinal. Love and Social Justice: Reflections on Society (Waterloo, ON: Arouca Press, 2021). Translation possible thanks to a grant from Poland's Book Institute (Instytut Książki).

Reymont, Władysław. A Pilgrimage to Jasna Góra (Waterloo, ON: Arouca Press, 2021).

Prof. Anna Bugajska

Lecture: Poland from Solidarity to the War in Ukraine

Date: 27th May 2026, at 9:45 a.m., Room 501 (6th floor) – Main Building

Anna Bugajska, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at the Ignatianum University in Krakow, the Head of the Institute of Modern Languages and Language and Culture Studies Department; collaborates with the Department of General and Applied Ethics at the same university. She holds diplomas in English Philology and Spanish law. She is a member of various international groups and associations (e.g., the Utopian Studies Society – Europe, the City and Philosophy International Research Network, and Higher Education for Social Transformation). She gave lectures and presented papers at the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, Dartmouth College, Universidad de Navarra and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. She has co-organized several international conferences (e.g., Literature, Cultural Studies and Translation, 2021; Culture, Economy and Education: Theoretical and Practical Aspects, 2018; City and Philosophy Congress: Movements and Identities). She participated in several projects, such as Loyola-Ukrainian Catholic University International Bioethics Research Training Program (2023, LUC), Uniwersytet Jutra II (University of the Future, 2021-22, UAM), Political Economy Project (2023, Dartmouth College), as well as in expert panels and meetings (e.g., 3rd Expert Meeting Hope in a Hopeless World: Sketches for a New Society, 2022; Ética Digital, 2022; EIT Health I-Days, 2022). Her main field of interest is the interdisciplinary study of contemporary utopian trends.

Selected publications:

Monographs:

Bugajska, Anna, Świercz, Piotr, eds. Social Dictionaries: Contemporary Ethics. Ignatianum University Press, 2024.

Bugajska, Anna. Engineering Youth: the Evantropian Project in Young Adult Dystopias. Ignatianum University Press, 2019.

Articles/chapters:

Bugajska, Anna. Utopia, Human Self-Understanding, and the Anthropocene, in: Images of the Human Being, Zichy, M., ed. (a volume in Encyclopedia of the Anthropocene - Pluriversal Perspectives (ed. Nathanaël Wallenhorst and Christoph Wulf), Springer Major Reference Work series), 2026.

Bugajska, Anna. Becoming Porcupine: Migratory Identities in Digital Utopia. Er(r)go. Teoria – Literatura – Kultura: Refleksja/dystans/ironia, 2025, 109-123.

Bugajska, Anna. In the World of Postselves and Posthumans: the Biopolitical Utopia of Postmortalism. in: Postutopias. Post-Apocalyptic Cultures. New Political Imaginaries After the Collapse of Modernity, León Casero, J., Urabayen, J., eds. Palgrave Macmillan, 2024.

Bugajska, Anna. Hope Beyond Human: A Philosophy of Hope in the Digital Age. Forum Philosophicum: The Philosophy of Language 29 (2), 2024, 351-369.

Bugajska, Anna. Evantropia and the Law: Legal Issues in Biotechnology in Altered Carbon. in: Utopian Possibilities: Models, Theories, Critiques, Benison, L., ed. U.Porto Press, 2023.

Bugajska, Anna. La historia en el banquillo: La dimensión metafórica del proceso de Lord Jim. Istor. Revista de Historia Internacional, 81, 2020. 59-78.

Bugajska, Anna. Family, State, Fiction: “State is Family” Metaphor in Juvenile Fiction. Kultura i Polityka 20: Państwo, 2016. 73-81.

Bugajska, Anna. Dystopian Solutions to Immigration. Kultura i Polityka 19: Migracje w cieniu przemian w krajach MENA, 2016. 52-61.

Bugajska, Anna. The Posthuman: Around the Vanishing Point of Utopia. in: Utopian Thinking in Law, Politics, Architecture and Technology, van Klink, B., Soniewicka, M., van den Broeke, L., eds. Edward Elgar, 2022. 267-284.

Dr Marek Liszka

Lecture:  Góral (Mountain/Highlander) Culture in Poland

Date: 27th May 2026, at 5:00 PM, Room 501 (6th floor) – Main Building

Marek Liszka is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Modern Languages ​​at the Ignatianum University in Krakow. He holds a Ph.D. in culture and religion studies. He studied in the USA (Columbia College Chicago and the State University of New York at Buffalo), Italy, Greece, Sweden, and Poland. He is the author of three monographs and two co-edited books devoted to issues of emigration, cultural heritage, regional studies, microhistory, the Tatra and Beskids autochthons, and their identity, with particular interest in USA connections. He is also Head of the Góral Studies Center at the Institute of Modern Languages, Ignatianum University in Cracow and Vice-President of the Association of Friends of Orava (the oldest Góral Orava Association in Poland).

Selected publications:

Monographs:

Części tej ludności „już prawie [200] lat nikt nigdy nie powiedział, że jest polską”. Monografia jubileuszowa Spisza i Orawy w 100-lecie ich częściowego połączenia z Macierzą (1920-2020), [Some of Those People “for almost [200] years now have never been told they are Polish”: A Jubilee Monograph of Spitz and Orava on the 100th Anniversary of their Part Return to Motherland (1920–2020)] eds. Grażyna Maria Teresa Branny, Marek Liszka, Kraków: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Akademii Ignatianum, 2022 [the 2nd edition – 2023].

Emigracja z Polskiej Orawy do Stanów Zjednoczonych Ameryki na przełomie XIX i XX wieku. [Emigration from Polish Orava to the United States of America at the Turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries], Wydawnictwo Naukowe Akademii Ignatianum, 2021.

„Co mnie tak dzier-zy przi tobie Orawo?” Życie kulturalne Polonii orawskiej w Chicago. [“What makes me stay with you Orava?” The Cultural Life of the Polish Orava Diaspora in Chicago], Kraków: Jagiellonian University Press, 2013 [the second edition – 2014].

Articles:

Bujak, Małgorzata, Liszka Marek (2024). The Heritage and Ancestral Roots of Polish Immigrants to Texas in the Second Wave,  “Perspektywy Kultury/Perspectives on Culture”. 46, pp. 233-254.

Liszka Marek, Józefina Machay-Mikowa – la martire e regina di Orava al confine polacco-slovacco, [w:] Women in Religion: From Spiritual Leadership to Female Empowerment, ed. Umberto Modini. Roma: Edizioni Progetto Cultura, 2024, pp. 273-282.

Bujak, Małgorzata, Liszka, Marek (2023). Parish and Family in the Cultural Heritage of the Polish Emigrants to Texas in the Second Wave (1867). “Perspektywy Kultury/Perspectives on Culture”. 42, pp. 383-394.

Liszka, Marek (2019). Tatra Highlander Folk Culture in Poland and America: Collected Essays from “The Tatra Eagle”. “Polish American Studies”. 76 (1), 99-102.

Liszka, Marek (2017). Mobility of Polish Orava Migrants at the End of the 20th Century [in:] Contemporary Diasporas. Mobilities Between Old and New Boundaries, Palermo: Palermo University Press, pp. 137-152.

Liszka, Marek (2015). CrossingBordersthroughCenturies:ACaseofPolishMigrantsfromthe Southern Borderlands [in:] Travelling Europe:InterdisciplinaryPerspectives of Space and Place. Newcastle upon Tyne: CambridgeScholarsPublishing, pp. 106-115.

Framework plan of the summer school

15 May 2026 – Departure from Chicago

16 May 2026 – Arrival in Kraków

16-17 May 2026 – Orientation Weekend

18-21 May 2026 – Classes

19 May 2026 – Lecture on St. Hedwig

21-22 May 2026 – Trip to Warsaw

23 May 2026 – Visit to Auschwitz

25-27 May 2026 – Classes

28 May 2026 – Trip to Zakopane

29 May 2026 – Classes

30 May 2026 – Departure

List of Classes:

1.                  18 May 2026, 9:45 AM, Room 501 – Dr. Yanina Ryier

2.                  19 May 2026, 9:45 AM, Room 501 – Dr. John Merchant

3.                  19 May 2026, 6:00 PM, (Different Location): Jagiellońska 6,

            Polish Tourist and Sightseeing Society (2nd Floor)

4.                  20 May 2026, 9:45 AM, Room 501 – Prof. Krystyna Zabawa

5.                  25 May 2026, 9:45 AM, Room 501 – Dr. Filip Mazurczak

6.                  26 May 2026, 9:45 AM, Room 501 – Dr. John Merchant

7.                  27 May 2026, 9:45 AM, Room 501  – Prof. Anna Bugajska

8.                  27 May 2026, 5:00 PM, Room 501 – Dr. Marek Liszka

9.                  29 May 2026, 1:15 PM, Room 501 – Dr. Marek Liszka/Dr. John Merchant

Classes in a different location:

(Mentioned above) On 19th May 2026 at 6:00 PM – Jagiellońska 6, Polish Tourist and Sightseeing Society (2nd Floor). There will be a lecture devoted to St. Hedwig (to be interpreted one-to-one by Ignatianum University students for the summer school participants), Coordinator: Dr. Anna Dybiec/Dr. Marek Liszka

The lecture will be preceded by a mass at 5 PM at St. Adalbert Church on Kraków’s Main Square (Everyone is welcome to join).

Additional classes for the summer school participants

18th May – 29th May 2026

Room Section:

B – the second campus, Kopernika 15C – just across the street of the main building

* Jagiellońska 6 Street, Polish Tourist and Sightseeing Society (2nd Floor) – mentioned on the previous page (only one lecture at a different location).

Venue:

Ignatianum University in Cracow

Kopernika 26, 31-501 Kraków

Summer School Ignatianum University Coordinator:

Dr. Marek Liszka

marek.liszka@ignatianum.edu.pl

Room 418, Kopernika 26 Street – the 5th floor – Main Campus –no. 1 in the map below

1 – the Main Building

2 – Research-Teaching Center

3 – Rector’s Office

4 – Media Center

5 – Library

The entrance to the lodging is located between 4 and 5 (the Media Center and the Library).

Emergency Contacts:

Call 112

Hospitals and Medical Centers with English Support:

• University Hospital in Kraków (Szpital Uniwersytecki): Large public hospital offering English-speaking staff and a 24/7 adult Emergency Department (SOR) located at Jakubowskiego 2. Contact: +48 12 400 17 50.
• Scanmed Group / St. Raphael Hospital (Szpital Św. Rafała): Private hospital providing comprehensive care in English, located at ul. Adama Bochenka 12. Appointment hotline: +48 12 629 88 00.
• Medicover Center Kraków: Private healthcare provider offering services for English speakers. Emergency medical services Hotline: 500 900 999.
• University Children’s Hospital of Kraków (Szpital Dziecięcy im. św. Ludwika): Specializes in child care, with English registration support at +48 12 619 86 15.
• 5th Military Research Hospital and Polyclinic: Located at ul. Wrocławska 1-3. General information and emergency services, often utilized by foreigners. Tel: +48 12 63 08 324.
• John Paul II Specialist Hospital (Szpital Specjalistyczny im. Jana Pawła II): Located at ul. Prądnicka 80, specializing in Cardiology and other fields. Tel: +48 12 614 2000. 

Important Notes:

• Emergency Number: Call 112 for English-language emergency dispatch.
• SOR: Look for SOR (Szpitalny Oddział Ratunkowy) signs for the emergency entrance.
• Documentation: Bring your passport and, if applicable, European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) or private insurance documents.

Laundry:

1.  Frania Laundry (self-service), Stradomska 19 Street

https://www.pralniasamoobslugowa.pl/uslugi-pralnia-samoobslugowa-krakow

2. Pepe Laundry (self-service), Dietla 51 Street

https://pepepralnia.pl/pralnie-krakow-dietla-51