January 15, 2009 Dr. Przemysław Chojnowski: Introduction In the introduction to the keynote address by Ms. Stanlee Stahl, Prof. Przemyslaw Chojnowski provided a brief history of the Jews in Poland, from early medieval times to the outbreak of WWII in September 1939. Przemyslaw Chojnowski, PhD, is the 2008/09 Polish Studies Fulbright Lecturer at the University…
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POLISH HEROES: THOSE WHO RESCUED JEWS
January 12 – February 13, 2009
Suzzallo Library
University of Washington in Seattle This moving exhibition by photographer Chris Schwartz tells the story of 21 Poles who rescued Jews during the World War II German occupation of Poland. Each of these heroic individuals still resides in the Krakow…
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October 21, 2008 Our Lady of Czestochowa: religious or national symbol of Poland? Dr. Anna Niedźwiedź is from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland, where she teaches cultural anthropology. Her lecture focused on the symbolic meanings connected with the image of the Black Madonna in Polish culture and popular religiosity. Enhanced by ethnographical examples that…
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September 18, 2008 General Mirosław Hermaszewski, who in 1978 flew aboard Soyuz 30, gave a very interesting lecture about the history of space travel and his own experience as the first and only Polish astronaut. The hour spent with the cosmonaut provided everybody with rare impressions of the circumstances of space travel, the first successes…
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May 2nd, 2008 Revolution’s Aftermath: Twenty Years of Polish Democracy Mr. Michnik, former dissident, historian, essayist and one of Europe’s leading journalists, has been Editor-in-Chief of Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland’s first independent daily newspaper, since its inception in 1989. A life-long activist for human rights, he spent a total of six years in prison between 1965…
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By Arista Cirtautas Visiting Lecturer at the UW Jackson School of International Studies Adam Michnik began his talk on “Revolution’s Aftermath: Twenty Years of Polish Democracy,” (April 30, Kane Hall, University of Washington) with the simple but striking pronouncement that “Poland is a success; finally a success.” The seemingly hopeless aspirations of the past, that…
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November 1st, 2007 Post-Communist Transformation in Central Europe Professor Leszek Balcerowicz is a former Deputy Prime Minister <img src=”/static/images/balcerowicz.gif” alt=” [balcerowicz photo] ” class=”figure” /> , Minister of Finance, and President of the Polish National Bank. Currently Prof. Balcerowicz is Head of the International Comparative Studies Department, Warsaw School of Economics. He is the author…
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by Kat Dziwirek It is truly amazing to behold creation, to see something arise out of nothing thanks to the good will and generosity of a community. It is hard to believe that five years ago the UW Polish Studies Endowment Committee (UW PSEC) did not exist and it is amazing to contemplate how much…
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May 2007 Joseph Conrad: Supra-National Novelist Richard Dunn is a Professor and former Chair of the University of Washington English Department, where he has taught fiction and Victorian Literature courses since 1967. He is author or editor of 11 books and numerous articles and reviews, principally on the nineteenth-century English Novel. Professor Dunn will lecture…
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April 2007 The Polish Perspective on the Future of Europe and the Trans-Atlantic Relationship Janusz Reiter became ambassador of Poland to the United States on Oct. 3, 2005. A graduate of the University of Warsaw, Ambassador Reiter in 1977 became editor of the daily newspaper Zycie Warszawy, but was later dismissed during martial law. In…
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December 2006 How the Means Become the End in Scientific Discovery: the Impact of Unintended Consequences Jacek Furdyna currently holds the Marquez Endowed Chair in Information Theory and Computer Technology at the University of Notre Dame. He obtained his Ph.D. in experimental solid state physics at Northwestern University in 1960. After a period of postdoctoral…
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October 2006 Poles in the American Labor Movement class=”figure” />Dr. Thaddeus Radzilowski is the President and co-founder of the Piast Institute: An Institute for Polish and Polish American Affairs and visiting Research Professor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. He is President Emeritus of Saint Mary’s College of Ave Maria University in Orchard Lake, Michigan. He…
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Adam Makowicz May 19, 2006 Recital As a youngster learning classical piano in mid-fifties Poland, when jazz was barely tolerated by the regime, Adam Makowicz discovered jazz on Willis Conover’s Voice of America broadcasts. It did not take long for jazz to discover Adam Makowicz: by 1977 he could be heard on 26 albums, had…
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February 4th, 2006 Music without Borders Jan Andrzej Pawel Kaczmarek (usually called Jan A.P. Kaczmarek) is a Polish composer with a tremendous international reputation that continues to grow. Although initially trained as a lawyer, he became involved in composing music for the avant-garde and political theatre in Poland and music has been his driving passion…
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December 2nd, 2005 Solidarity’s Secret: the Women who Defeated Communism in Poland Shana Penn, a Visiting Scholar at Mills College in Oakland, CA, is the author of several books including Solidarity’s Secret: The Women Who Defeated Communism in Poland (University of Michigan Press, Spring 2005), The Women’s Guide to the Wired World (Feminist Press, 1997)…
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October 30th, 2005 John Paul II and the World’s Debt to Poland George Weigel, former President and now Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, is a Roman Catholic theologian and one of the world’s leading commentators on religion and public life. He has been writing about the Pope since the first days…
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October 14th, 2005 American and Polish Theatre: Similarities, Differences, and Mutual Influences Kazimierz Braun presently professor of Theatre at SUNY University at Buffalo, is author of nearly 20 scholarly books, including the indispensable A History of Polish Theater, 1939-1989: Spheres of Captivity and Freedom (Greenwood Press, 1996), A Concise History of Polish Theater from the…
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May 1st, 2005 Czesław Miłosz and the Future of Poetry During the lecture, the two outstanding poets captured their audience by reciting their own and Miłosz’s poetry, talking about their artistic journeys, and displaying irresistible charisma. Adam Zagajewski, a professor of creative writing at the University of Houston, is a leading Polish poet of his…
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April 1st, 2005 Question of Honor-The Kosciuszko Squadron: Forgotten Heroes of World War II Lynne Olson and Stanley Cloud presented their fascinating book about the legendary Polish fighter squadron: Question of Honor – The Kosciuszko Squadron: Forgotten Heroes of World War II . The lecture had a touching moment when Mr. Aleksander Herbst, a real…
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February 4th, 2005 Negotiating the Gaze: Olga Boznańska as A Portraitist Professor Bożena Shallcross gave a fascinating lecture about the work of the Polish 19th century postimpressionist painter Olga Boznańska. “Negotiating the Gaze: Olga Boznańska as a Portraitist” was well received and brought about many questions. Bożena Shallcross is an associate Professor in the Department…
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December 5th, 2003 Curiosity and Cinema Agnieszka Holland (b.1948 in Warsaw) ranks as one of Poland’s most prominent filmmakers and contributors to the Polish New Wave cinema. Following her graduation from the Prague Film School in 1971, Holland served as Krzysztof Zanussi’s assistant director during his filming of Iluminacja. She also worked with Andrzej Wajda…
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October 18th, 2003 The Polish Cultural Institute and Pacific Film Archive of the University of California Berkeley Art Museum developed a collection entitled “Polish Avant-Garde Film before 1945.” The program presented eight rare Polish short films that had never before been seen in the United States.
October 3, 2003 The Warsaw Uprising 1944: Perception and Reality The lecture by Professor Marek Chodakiewicz was devoted to the Warsaw Uprising against the Nazis during World War II. Prof. Chodakiewicz was a historical consultant for the CNN documentary on the Warsaw Uprising that aired in June 2004. In Seattle, he gave the audience…
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May 16th, 2003 Total Art Rafał Olbiński (b.1946 in Kielce, Poland) is an illustrator, painter, graphic and stage designer. Educated in Poland, Mr. Olbinski has for the last 15 years been associated with the famous School of Visual Art in New York. His surrealist illustrations have graced the pages of Time, Newsweek, The New Yorker,…
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March 7th, 2003 In the Search for the Second Earth Aleksander Wolszczan (b.1945) graduated from Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland (1969), and then earned a Ph.D. in physics there in 1975. In the early 1980s he began his collaboration with the astronomical research centers at Princeton and Cornell. Since 1992 he has been a…
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