The idea for our Polish Studies Working Group emerged out of a shared interest in the intersections of Polish Studies and Comparative Literature, and how their theoretical corpora can productively be put into dialogue. It was established at a time when, following Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, it became particularly crucial to advocate strongly for equal study of all languages and cultures in the region. We also intended for the group’s activities to promote the study of Polish culture in the United Kingdom, with Polish being the second most widely spoken language in the country.
We began our activities with fortnightly in-persons sessions. Our opening session was titled “Who is Polish Literature for?”, a question which we attempted to answer throughout the year. In the following weeks, we tackled topics such as the Polish literary canon, the afterlives of Polish Romanticism, multilingualism in Polish literature, émigré and migrant writing, autoexoticism, as well as postcolonial theory in the Polish and Eastern European contexts. In our sessions, we were joined by scholars interested in Polish culture, working in the fields of Modern Languages, Sociology, History, English, Diplomacy, and even Biomedical Sciences.
We then organised three online sessions which attracted an audience of some 150 participants in total. We were joined by scholars from all over the world for events such as the launch of Dorota Kołodziejczyk’s most recent book on postcolonial theory in East-Central Europe, a conversation with Alex Braslavsky, the first translator of Zuzanna Ginczanka’s poetry into English, as well as with Ania Ready, who discussed her research into the little-known Polish-French artist Sophie Gaudier-Brzeska. The success of our online events has shown us the need for a platform for researchers working within the broadly conceived field of Polish Studies to present and discuss their ideas across national, institutional, and disciplinary boundaries.
The events which the Polish Studies Working Group facilitated in the past year have allowed us better to identify the issues that scholars of Polish literature and culture face, and to seek remedies. TORCH’s invaluable help in advertising our activities, on the other hand, helped us reach a large and diverse audience. As a result, we were able to expand our planned activities, and continue our work beyond what was originally planned. In Michaelmas Term 2023, we are organising a book launch of Kate Webster’s English translation of Urszula Honek’s Białe noce [White Nights] together with the Oxford Comparative Criticism and Translation (OCCT) Research Centre. Moreover, throughout the upcoming academic year, we will be running a monthly postgraduate workshop aimed at creating an international and interdisciplinary network of postgraduate and early-career scholars in order to combat the sense of disciplinary and institutional isolation many Polish Studies scholars experience.
All of this would not have been possible without the support offered by TORCH through the Critical-Thinking Communities Fund. From providing a stable online platform to offering guidance on advertising and outreach, the TORCH Team contributed significantly to the growth of our Polish Studies Working Group. We encourage all interested students to make use of their expertise and apply for the scheme.
The Polish Studies Working Group (PSWG) is part of the TORCH Critical-Thinking Communities
