Tomasz Bilczewski, Associate Professor, chair of the Department of International Polish Studies, director of the Centre for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, and vice-dean for research and international relations, in the Faculty of Polish Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. His research interests include the fields of comparative literature, translation studies, and medical humanities. He is the author of, in Polish, Comparison and Translation: Comparative Literature between the Anatomist’s Plate and the Digital Laboratory (2016); Comparative Literature and Interpretation: Modern Comparative Research in the Context of Translation Studies (2010); and the anthology Incommensurability: Perspectives of Modern Comparative Studies, 2010. He is co-author of the monograph and anthology A Century of Theory: A Hundred Years of Modern Polish Literary Studies (2020, 3 volumes) and co-edited A World History of Polish Literature. Interpretations (2020); The Routledge World Companion to Polish Literature (2022); Archives of a Discipline. Histories & Theories of Comparative Literature from Herder to the American School (2022); World Literature and Translation. Histories & Theories of Comparative Literature from the American School to Biohumanities (2022). He is also editor-in-chief of “Hermeneia”, the Jagiellonian University Press series. He has thought and conducted research projects at universities in the United States and Europe.
EDUCATION
2017 appointed as associate professor (with habilitation); book project: Comparison and Translation: Comparative Literature between the Anatomist’s Plate and the Digital Laboratory, Kraków: Jagiellonian University Press 2017 (Porównanie i przekład. Komparatystyka między tablicą anatoma a laboratorium cyfrowym, Kraków: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego 2017); reviewers: professor Małgorzata Czermińska (University of Gdańsk), professor Tadeusz Sławek (University of Silesia), professor Andrzej Hejmej (Jagiellonian University).
2008 PhD in Literary Studies, specialty: Comparative Literature, Faculty of Polish Studies, Jagiellonian University; doctoral studies 2002–2007; dissertation: Comparative Literature As an Art of Interpretation in the Context of Translation Studies, supervisor: professor Stanisław Balbus, Jagiellonian University; reviewers: professor Ewa Kraskowska (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan), professor Michał Paweł Markowski (Jagiellonian University); dissertation published as Comparative Literature and Interpretation: Modern Comparative Literature and Translation Studies, Universitas Publishing House, Horizons of Modernity Series, Jagiellonian University Rector’s Award (First Degree); Prime Minister’s Award for Best Doctoral Dissertations in Poland.
2002 MA in Polish Studies (with honours), Institute of Polish Philology, Faculty of Philology, Jagiellonian University; individual track of studies, 2007–2012; MA thesis: The Existential and Epistemological Dimension of the Motif of Journey in the Poetry of A. Mickiewicz and J. Keats: A Comparative Study, supervisor: professor Stanisław Balbus (Jagiellonian University); reviewer: professor Jolanta Dudek (Jagiellonian University, Oxon.)
EMPLOYMENT
2020-Present – Vice-Dean for Research and International Relations, Faculty of Polish Studies, Jagiellonian University
2019-Present – Chair, Department of International Polish Studies, Jagiellonian University
2019-Present, Associate (University) Professor (with habilitation), Jagiellonian University
2017-Present – Head, Comparative Heritage Studies, MA Programme, Faculty of Polish Studies, Jagiellonian University
2012-2017 – Head, The Interdisciplinary MA Programme in Polish Studies, Jewish Studies, and History, Faculty of Polish Studies, Jagiellonian University
2010-Present – Director, Centre for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Faculty of Polish Studies, Jagiellonian University;
2010-Present – Head, The PhD Programme in Comparative Literature (in English), Faculty of Polish Studies, Jagiellonian University;
2008-2010 – Associate Director, Centre for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Faculty of Polish Studies, Jagiellonian University;
2008 – Assistant Professor, Department of International Polish Studies, Centre for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Faculty of Polish Studies, Jagiellonian University;
2005-2007 – Lecturer, tenure track, Department of International Polish Studies, Faculty of Polish Studies, Jagiellonian University;
2002-2005 – Secretary to the Rector of the Jagiellonian University;
2005-2006 – Visiting Professor, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA
GRANTS
My academic activity includes participation in the following grant projects:
NATIONAL:
*2013–2022, Head, “Comparative Literature and National Literature: Interpretations, Representations, Translations”), in collaboration with the University of Illinois at Chicago and with the support of the National Programme for the Development of the Humanities (11 books published so far).
*2016–2022, in collaboration with more than twenty Polish and international researchers, I have worked as the main investigator of the project “A World History of Polish Literature,” supported by the National Programme for the Development of the Humanities and directed by professor Magdalena Popiel. Books: Światowa historia literatury polskiej. Interpretacje, red. M. Popiel, T. Bilczewski, S. Bill (Kraków: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońśkiego 2020); The Routledge World Companion to Polish Literature, eds. T. Bilczewski, S. Bill, M. Popiel (New York and London: Routledge, 2022); www.shlp.pl
*2016–2020 a grant from the National Science Centre: “The Age of Theory: 100 Years of Polish Theoretical Literary Studies”), directed by professor Danuta Ulicka (University of Warsaw), in collaboration with scholars from the University of Warsaw: Adela Kobelska, Joanna Jeziorska-Haładyj, Magdalena Szczypiorska-Chrzanowska, Artur Hellich, Michał Mrugalski, Przemysław Pietrzak. Its aim was the reconstruction of the development of theoretical Polish literary studies, which allows for the indication of their particular and original nature from the time when they were born (1914) to the present day within the perspective of the local, regional, and international currents in intellectual history (see publications).
INTERNATIONAL:
*2014–2017, I have directed the Polish section of the research project SPeCTReSS: Social Practise, Cultural Trauma, and Reestablishing Solid Sovereignties, Seventh Framework Programme, Marie Curie Action, European Commission, PIRSES-GA-2013-612654 realised through the collaboration of eight institutions: Trinity College, Dublin; Ruhr-Universität Bochum; University of Zagreb; University of Tartu; Jawaharlal Nehru University; University of São Paulo; Yale University; University of Tokyo; and the Jagiellonian University. This project wa devoted to cultural trauma and postmemory; based on the collaboration between literary and cultural scholars on the one hand and sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists, and the representatives of other disciplines inspired by works of sociologists from Yale (professor J. Alexander and R. Eyerman, who participate in the programme) on the other, the programme was also influenced by the work of professor Piotr Sztompka.
*2009–2016, I have directed the Polish section of an international research and doctoral programme devoted to borderland studies, Cultural Studies in Literary Interzones (Ref. 159881-1-2009-1-IT-ERA-MUNDUS-EMJD), realised by a consortium of sixteen universities: University of Bergamo, Jawaharlal Nehru University, University of Perpignan, Fluminese Federal University, University of Tübingen, University of Aix-Marseille 1, University of Barcelona, Brown University, Entre Rios National University, Ibero-American University, Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris 3, Paris Ouest University, Nanterre, European University of Petersburg, University of Sydney, University of Zurich, and the Jagiellonian University. It was financed by the European Commission. Thanks to this programme, more than forty doctoral students had the possibility to study on two continents, and nearly all of them have already defended their dissertations.
Furthermore, I have participated in the following projects:
- A grant from the National Science Centre: Od kroniki do filmu posttraumatycznego: filmy dokumentalne i artystyczne o Zagładzie (“From Chronicle to Post-Traumatic Film: Documentary and Artistic Films About the Holocaust”), 2013–2015, head: prof. Tomasz Łysak, Institute of Specialised and Intercultural Communication, University of Warsaw, DEC-2012/07/B/HS2/01612, author of translations;
- A grant from the National Science Centre: Literatura polska po 1989 roku w świetle teorii Pierre’a Bourdieu (“Polish Literature After 1989 in Light of Pierre Bourdieu’s Theory”), head: prof. Piotr Marecki, Institute of Culture, Jagiellonian University, UMO-2011/01/D/HS2/05129, author of translations;
- A grant financed by the National Programme for the Development of the Humanities, W stronę nowej humanistyki: polska pamięć kulturowa (“Towards the New Humanities: Polish Cultural Memory”), 2012–2017, head: professor Ryszard Nycz, Department of Anthropology of Literature and Cultural Studies, Faculty of Polish Studies, 11H 11026680, author of translations and seminars;
- A subsidy from the Foundation for Polish Science (MASTER, professor Michał Paweł Markowski), 2007–2009. As part of this project, the book Incommensurability: Perspectives on Modern Comparative Literature, Krakow: WUJ, 2010, was written;
- The grant Sensualność w kulturze polskiej. Przedstawienia zmysłów w literaturze, języku i sztuce od średniowiecza do współczesności (“Sensuality in Polish Culture: Representations of the Senses in Literature, Language, and Art from the Middle Ages to Contemporary Times”), head: professor Włodzimierz Bolecki, The Institute of Literary Research, Polish Academy of Sciences, multimedia encyclopaedia, ISBN 978-83-61552-46-8, investigator (the author of the entry on the body and corporeality in the theory of literary translation), NCBiR NR17 0005 06/2009.
CONFERENCES/PANELS/LECTURES
I have participated in over forty national and international conferences (Trinity College Dublin, La Sorbonne, University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Zurich, University of Bergamo, La Spaienza Roma, University of Chicago, University of Amsterdam, University of Toronto, University of Wrocław, University of Warsaw, University of Łódź, Polish Academy of Sciences, University of Opole, University of Silesia in Katowice, Pedagogical University in Kraków, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, University of Gdańsk). Invited lectures include: University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Harvard University, University of Cambridge, Indiana University, University of Illinois at Chicago. Internships: visiting fellow, Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge (2017), Center for Cultural Sociology, Yale University (2017); Indiana University, Bloomington (2012); CETRA Summer Research Seminar, Centre for Translation, Communication and Culture, KU Leuven; University of Oxford, Université Paris IV Sorbonne (Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship, 2007/2008; 2004/2005).
I have gained didactic experience both in Poland and abroad. I have taught courses in Polish (poetics, literary theory, rhetorical analysis of speeches, language in use for lawyers, intermediality: an introduction to comparative studies, doctoral seminar: the methods and techniques of teaching classes in an international environment) and original English language courses (Between Intimacy and Politics I: New Comparative Readings in Modern Polish Literature and Culture, graduate level; Between Intimacy and Politics II: Comparative Literature, Translation Theory, and Modern Polish Literature, graduate level; Trauma in Central and Eastern European Literature and Culture, undergraduate and graduate levels; Borderlands, Migrations, Translations: Key Concepts in Comparative Literature, graduate level; In(Visible) Wound: Body, Media, Society, graduate level, Polish for Foreigners, A1-C2). In 2005–2006, I was a visiting professor in Polish language and culture (Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures) at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, where in the fall semester of 2012–2013 I also taught a class devoted to cultural trauma for the most talented students as part of the Collins Living and Learning Center. In 2011, I taught a seminar Comparative Literature as an Interzonal Space at the Scuola di Dottorato in Culture Umanistiche e Visive, l’Università degli studi di Bergamo, and during the spring semester of the 2014–2015 academic year I offered lectures in twentieth century Polish literature at the University of Cambridge. On many occasions, I have taught introductory courses on Polish language and culture during summer schools as well as lectures commissioned by foreign universities or the Fulbright Commission.
Along with professor Michał Paweł Markowski, since 2004 I have co-organised five summer schools (Northwestern University, Brown University, Princeton University, Georgia Southern University, and the Fulbright Commission), and since 2010 I have directed, partly in co-operation with professor Keely Stauter-Halsted, six such initiatives (Princeton University, University of Illinois at Chicago, Georgia Southern University). Each of these had a different thematic profile: Eastern Europe through Film and Touch; The Global Ghetto; The Holocaust in Berlin and in Krakow; Film, Theatre, Culture and Politics of Poland; Polish Modernity; Central European Modernity: History, Literature, Performance; Post-Imperial Topographies: Rediscovering Galicia; Modern Poland. I have taught tutorials as part of the Collegium Invisible in Warsaw and the Interfaculty Individual Studies in the Humanities Programme at the Jagiellonian University, as well as lectures offered by the Collegium Artes Liberales.
JAGIELLONIAN SEMINARS
Since 2008, I have co-organised a series of Jagiellonian Lectures and Seminars (Centre for Advanced Studies in the Humanities). Our guest list includes: Catherine Gallagher, University of California at Berkeley; Martin Jay, University of California at Berkeley; Hal Foster, Princeton University; Georges Didi-Huberman, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales; W. J. T. Mitchell, University of Chicago; André Rouillé, Université Paris 8; Ernst van Alphen, Leiden University; Moshe Idel, Hebrew University in Jerusalem; Rodolph Gasché, State University of New York; Walter Benn Michaels, University of Illinois at Chicago; Derek Attridge, York University; Samuel Weber, Northwestern University; Hermann Lang, Würzburg University; Geza Vermes, University of Oxford; Nathalie Heinich, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CNRS; and Geoffrey G. Harpham, National Humanities Center.
My academic activity is also tied to expert advisory work undertaken on behalf of institutions at various levels (from universities to the ministry): since 2020 I have been a member of the Committee on Literary Studies at the Polish Academy of Sciences; in 2014–2016, I worked as a member of a team of advisors on scholarly publications (books and periodicals, DUN, Ministry of Science and Higher Education). Previously, in 2012–2014, I was a member of the Council of Young Academics to the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. Since 2012, I have been the reviewer of grants to the Italian Ministry of Science (Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca, Agenzia Nazionale di Valutazione del Sistema Universitario e della Ricerca) in the field of Slavic and comparative literary studies. I was a member of the Academic Council to the World Congress of Polish Studies (2010, 2016), and Polish Studies Conference (Zjazd Polonistów, twice). Between 2009 and 2015 I was a member of the Academic Council of the International Doctoral Programme Cultural Studies in Literary Interzones. Since 2012, I have been a member of the editorial board of Wielogłos and Ruch Literacki, refereed academic journals of the Faculty of Polish Studies at the Jagiellonian University.
EDITORIAL WORK
My academic interests are also reflected in my work on the Hermeneia editorial series, published by the Centre for Advanced Studies in the Humanities as well as the Jagiellonian University Press, which I have for several years co-edited with professor Michał Paweł Markowski. So far, 21 books have appeared as part of this series (our list of authors include M. Cá Cavalcante Schuback, Ernst Bloch, Walter Benjamin, Friedrich Schlegel, Michał Paweł Markowski, Samuel Weber, David Damrosch, Franco Moretti; John A. McClure, Alphonso Lingis, Pascale Casanova, Ernst van Alphen, Rozalia Słodczyk, Grzegorz jankowicz, Jakub Momro, Paweł Mościcki).
2021 – Adam Mickiewicz University Rector’s Award for outstanding academic books; distinction granted by the Polish Academic Publishers Association (A World History of Polish Literature.Interpretation, together with Magdalena Popiel and Stanley Bill)
2021 – Jagiellonian University Rector’s Award for Academic Achievements;
2020 – bronze medal of the National Education Commission;
2017 – Jagiellonian University Rector’s Award for Academic Achievements;
2012-2014 – Ministry of Science Scholarship for Outstanding Young Scholars;
2011 – Jagiellonian University Rector’s Award for Academic Achievements (first degree);
2010 – Laureate, the 10th edition of the Polish scholarship programme „Zostańcie z nami!” („Stay with Us!”), awarded to outstanding young scholars, Foundation of the Newsmagazine Polityka;
2009 – Prime Minister’s Award for Best Doctoral Dissertation in Poland;
2005/2006, 2006/2007 – The Kosciuszko Foundation Scholarship, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA;
2004-2006 – The Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship for research programmes at the University of Oxford, Université Paris IV Sorbonne, Centre for Translation, Communication and Culture, Universiteit Leuven);
2005 – The de Brzezie Lanckoroński Foundation Scholarship, London (internship, British Library) – awarded by the Polish Academy of Skills;
2005, 2004, 2003 – Jagiellonian University Rector’s (Individual and Team) Award for professional achievements;
2004 – Stanisław Estreicher Fund Scholarship for doctoral students