
In Michaelmas Term (beginning inOctober) 2020, Professor PawełStępieńof the University of Warsaw will join Ƶ Polish Studies as a visiting scholar. He will give a series of lectures on Polish literature and culture across the term. Hewill also be a visiting scholar at Sidney Sussex College.
Professor Stępień's appointment is part of an ongoing partnership between Ƶ and the University of Warsaw, inaugurated in July 2017. This partnership saw the of the Polish Studies Programme at Ƶ. Scholars from the University of Warsaw will regularly visit Ƶ, and there will also be future opportunities for joint conferences and research projects. At the same time, the University of Warsaw will sponsor two Ƶ students each summer to attend an intensivecourse in Polish language and culture in Warsaw.
Paweł StępieńisProfessor of Literary Studies at the Faculty of "Artes Liberales” of the University of Warsaw.From 2007 to 2016, he wasRector’s Plenipotentiary for the Quality of Education at the University of Warsaw. Since 2015, he hasbeen responsible for a double degree master’s programme “Cultural and Intellectual History Between East and West” at the Faculty of "Artes Liberales" in cooperation with University of Cologne and Research University Higher School of Economics in Moscow.
In hisscholarly work, Professor Stępieńhas focused on Polish medieval religious literature and its ties with theology, spirituality and the theory of beauty.Hehasalso examined the manifestations of libertinism in Polish Baroque poetry, showing how the most distinguished Polish baroque poet, Jan Andrzej Morsztyn, wove together blasphemous criticism of Christianity and courtly eroticism.
Another significant area of Professor Stępień's research is Polish poetry of the 20th century. Interpreting poems of Bolesław Leśmian, Józef Czechowicz, Czesław Miłosz, Zbigniew Herbert, hehasshown how their poetry relates to the older cultural traditions of Poland and Europe. His latest bookTask:"Chaskiel” by Tadeusz Różewicz (2017), examineshow one of the most famous 20th-century Polish poets, deeply rooted in avant-garde traditions, describes the destruction of Poland’s Jewish communityby referencing religious poetry of the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
Professor Paweł Stępień, University of Warsaw.