LEADERSHIP RESEARCH GROUP has the pleasure of inviting you to a conversation with two distinguished scholars who will shed light on the vicissitudes of relations between USA and its junior European partners who look at USA differently than Poland.

America versus the Czech Republic and Slovakia – Who Sees Who in the International Puzzle

Monday, May 20, 2024
09:45 AM

Prof. Michal Vašečka, from the Bratislava International School of Liberal Arts
Prof. AMW dr hab. Iwona Jakimowicz-Pisarska from the Naval Military Academy in
Gdynia.

You can get 3 OZN points for participating in this event.

Where?

Dobra 55, room: 1.271
(the building features some mobility accommodations: ramp and lift)

Who?

Michal Vašečka, an Associate Professor at the Bratislava International School of Liberal Arts (BISLA) since 2015, has a background in sociology and focuses his research on various topics such as ethnicity, race, migration studies, populism, extremism, social movements, and civil society. He has an extensive academic career, having worked at the Faculty of Social Studies of Masaryk University in Brno from 2002 to 2017 and at the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences of Comenius University in Bratislava from 2006 to 2009. In 2006, Michal Vašečka founded the Center for the Research of Ethnicity and Culture (CVEK) and served as its director until 2012. Throughout his career, Michal Vašečka has also held visiting scholar positions at such esteemed institutions as: the New School University in New York, the University of London, Georgetown University in Washington DC, the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and Oxford University.

Iwona Jakimowicz-Pisarska an Associate Professor at Naval Military Academy (AMW) in Gdynia is a well written expert in Czech, Greek and the Balkan. Prof. Iwona Jakimowicz-Pisarska graduated from the University of Gdańsk, majoring in political science. She obtained her PhD at the Faculty of History of the University of Gdańsk and associate professorship at Institute of Political Studies at PAN in Warsaw. She is a member of PTNP Polish Society of Political Science; Greek Politics Specialist Group PSA (Political Studies Association), and Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism. Her academic interests include: European policy – with particular interest in the countries of Central and Southern Europe; Politics of modern Greece; European migrations, and National and ethnic minorities. In private, Prof. Jakimowicz-Pisarska loves to travel to appreciate European culture and art and in the evenings watch contemporary European cinema.

Year 2024/2025

10 Grudnia: Odmieńczość: Obywatelstwo Seksualne i Archiwum – Premiera Książki

November 25, 2024

Zapraszamy na dyskusję z udziałem prof. Tomasza Basiuka, prof. Agnieszki Kościańskiej i dra Jędrzeja Burszty, redaktorów książki “Odmieńczość: obywatelstwo seksualne i archiwum”, która ukaże się nakładem Wydawnictw Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego. Rozmowę poprowadzi dr Ludmiła Janion.

American Studies Colloquium Series

December 5: Reinventing the Past to Change the Future: Alt-History and Reactionary Futurity

November 25, 2024

This presentation examines “alt-history” as a mode of reactionary worldbuilding, with a focus on how far-right influencers use alternate histories to reshape public understandings of the past and galvanize political action. Through examples like Tucker Carlson’s Patriot Purge and Dinesh D’Souza’s Death of a Nation, the talk explores how reactionary narratives blend science fictional techniques with conspiracy fantasies to legitimize authoritarian politics. The discussion includes a genealogy of the right-wing myth of “liberal fascism,” tracing its evolution and role in contemporary ideological landscapes shaped by historical revisionism and speculative worldbuilding.

American Studies Colloquium Series

November 28: Soviet-Born Jewish Literature between North America and Germany

November 22, 2024

In this conversation, Stuart Taberner (University of Leeds) and Karolina Krasuska (University of Warsaw) will explore some of the parallels and contrasts between the experiences of Soviet Jews who migrated to Germany and the United States in successive waves since the 1960s. Specifically, they will examine the literary production of these cohorts of Soviet Jewish migrants, relating to arrival in the destination country, the reconfiguration of Jewish identity, gender, and Holocaust memory. Following a brief introduction to the historical, sociological, and literary context in Germany and the USA, Stuart and Karolina will engage in a discussion of key points of comparisons and difference.

Year 2024/2025

November 21: “House of Horrors: Familial Intimacies in Contemporary American Horror Fiction” Author’s Meeting

November 19, 2024

Join us on November 21, 2024 for an author’s meeting with Dr. Agnieszka Kotwasińska about her book “House of Horrors: Familial Intimacies in Contemporary American Horror Fiction” published last year by the University of Wales Press. Dr. Kotwasińska will be joined by Dr. Sorcha Ní Fhlainn, and the event will be moderated by Dr. Jędrzej Burszta.

Year 2024/2025

November 20: ‘A Plane out of Phase’ – The Dark Continuance of the Gothic 1980s

November 19, 2024

Weird Fictions Research Group invites you to join for a fantastic (no pun intended) lecture by our guest, Dr. Sorcha Ní Fhlainn from Manchester Metropolitan University! This lecture asks you to consider the dark return of the Gothic 1980s in contemporary culture. Drawing upon ideas and examples of sequelisation, IP branding, apparatus theory, YouTube video curation, nostalgic programming, weird TV, and music, and the confluence of such forms in streaming series including Stranger Things and the current media adoption of Dark MAGA, this lecture invites you to examine the toxicity of the rhetoric of restorative projections and to query its undervalued reflective nostalgia as imagined onscreen to reclaim the future from the precarious dark present.