75th Anniversary of the Fulbright Program
September 26, 2021 at 11:00AM (PT) on ZOOM https://washington.zoom.us/j/98784786867
In 2021, the Fulbright Program is celebrating its 75th anniversary (in Poland, the Program has been present for 62 years). Congratulations! University of Washington Polish Studies Endowment Committee is joining this celebration by inviting Justyna Budzik, Ph.D. and Jacek Mikołajczyk, Ph.D., Fulbright Slavic Awardees, to talk about their experiences and impact the scholarship had on their careers.
Presentation: The time I spent at the UW as a Fulbright Visiting Lecturer was one of my biggest lifetime adventures and one of the founding experiences in my professional life. In the presentation I’d like to share my experience in cross-cultural encounters, teaching challenges and successes, travels, and other, still cherished, professional and personal memories from my visit. I’ll also talk about the Fulbright Slavic Award’ s impact on my teaching and research perspectives.
Justyna Hanna Budzik, Ph. D. in Humanities, is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Culture Studies, University of Silesia in Katowice. Her research and professional interests are focused on film education and teaching of Polish as a foreign language. She spent 2016/17 as a Polish language instructor at the INALCO in Paris, France, and the following year as Fulbright Lecturer (Fulbright Slavic Award) at the University of Washington in Seattle, US (2017/18). Justyna is an autor of Filmowe cuda i sztuczki magiczne. Szkice z archeologii kina (2015), Dotyk światła. O zmysłowym doznawaniu kina (2012), and a co-author (together with Agnieszka Tambor) of Polska półka filmowa. Krótkometrażowe filmy aktorskie i animowane w nauczaniu języka polskiego jako obcego (2018).
Presentation: Theater was one of the most important aspects of my work and of my entire residency as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Washington in Seattle. Topics related to theater and performances were part of my courses, but over the course of the year, I was also able to get to know the very diverse theater life in Seattle and participate in many theater-related events and programs at the University of Washington, both academic (School of Drama and Drama courses) and firsthand. To this day, I use my experience of blending the academic reflection and theatrical practice while teaching at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw and I use my knowledge of the American theater’s specifics in my work as an artistic director of Syrena Theater in Warsaw.
Jacek Mikołajczyk received his Ph. D. (2006) in Cultural Studies at the University of Silesia and later studied Musical Theater Directing at the Academy of Music in Krakow. He worked as an assistant professor at the Institute of Cultural Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Silesia (2010-2017), as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Washington in Seattle (2012-2013), and at the Artes Liberales Department of the University of Warsaw (2014-2015). Currently, he lectures at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw. Dr. Mikołajczyk has been associated with the Syrena Theater since 2017, first as director, and from 2020, as Deputy Artistic Director. He made his debut on a professional stage in 2015, with his own translation of Andrew Lippy musical The Addams Family at the Gliwice Musical Theater, for which he received the prestigious Golden Mask theater award in the best director category. At the Syrena Theater, he directed The Witches of Eastwick, The Addams Family, Next to Normal, and Rock of Ages, all in his own translation. As a director, he also collaborated with the Musical Theater in Poznań and with the Zagłębie Theater in Sosnowiec. Besides being a translator of musicals, he is an author of numerous articles, and of Musical nad Wisłą, the first and so far only monograph of Polish musical.