Polish Studies at The University of Texas at Austin

• The Institution
• Polish Studies Courses
• Language Instruction
• Poland-Related Courses
• Faculty
• Poland-related Resources

The Institution

Founded in 1883 as a small campus on 40 acres near the state capitol in the heart of the scenic Central Texas Hill Country, The University of Texas at Austin has come far from its beginning, when it had only one building, eight teachers, two departments and 221 students. The main campus now covers more than 350 acres. There is no Polish Studies program at the University of Texas, in the sense of an administrative unit. There are Polish Studies in the sense of course offerings and faculty/student interests and expertise. There is little coordination, beyond that of personal contact. Polish language has been offered as a regular, organized course since 1984.

Polish Study Courses

Polish 324: Poland Now Poland Now @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: After briefly summarizing the history of Poland from its origins to the beginning of this century, this course picks up the story in World War I, which ends with the establishment of a Polish state after 123 years of partition by Russia, Prussia, and Austro-Hungary. We then proceed through the twentieth century from two perspectives. The first considers the political history of the Polish people, including the evolution of its form of government, structure of its society, and regional/global politics. This complex and rapidly-evolving story includes not only two periods of independence, but also the anarchy and confusion following World War I, the massive destruction of World War II, and the repression of the Communist period. This century also provides a contrast among three periods of nation-building in the same country: post-World War I, post-World War II, and post-Communist. The second perspective of the course samples and discusses the cultural figures, developments, and contributions throughout this stormy period, including modernism, realism, post-modernism, and commercialism (!). Discussion encompasses Polish accomplishments in the fields of literature, art, theater, film, and music. The course ends with a snapshot of a country which has realized much of its centuries-old dream for political and economic independence and freedom. While its people remain in many ways frustrated by the failure of that dream to deliver what was expected, this dynamic country of 40 million people in the center of Europe offers much to be optimistic about.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Rappaport, G.

POL 379 Conference Course

COURSE DESCRIPTION: With the help of a professor a conference course is a detailed schedule of work on a student by student basis in which the student decides the focus and topic studied.

Language Instruction

POL 506 First Year Polish I @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: First-year Polish offers an introduction to the language of a vibrant nation at the geographical center of Europe. This course will emphasize proficiency in contemporary Polish: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

SLAV 380 Studies in Slavic culture @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Using learned knowledge of the Polish language we will discuss 20th century as the "century of exiles".In this course we will read primarily the works of Russian and Central European writers who left their homeland in search of literary and political freedom.

Poland-Related Courses

SLAV 356 The novel and national identity in Eastern Europe @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: The course will explore the literature and society of Eastern Europe in the second half of the twentieth century: the problem of memory and national identity in novels from Poland (Pawel Huelle, Moving House, Piotr Szewc, Annihilation, and Olga Tokarczuk, House of Day, House of Night) and Hungary (Pďter Núdas, The Book of Memories).
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Prof. Edward Manouelian

Faculty

Manouelian, Edward Assitant Professor@

Ph.D. Harvard (1994)
Phone: (512) 471-3607 / Fax: (512) 471-3607 / E-Mail: manouelian@mail.uttexas.edu
MAJOR INTERESTS: Slavic Literature
POLAND RELATED SCHOLARSHIP:
RECENT PUBLICATIONS

• "Invented Traditions: Primitivist Narritive and Design in Polish Fin de Siecle", Slavic Review (Summer 2000)
• "The Labor of Identity: Form and Ideology in Stanislaw Brzozowski's Legend of Young Poland", A Journal of Literature, History, and the Philosophy of History Fall 2003: Volume 33, Number 1

Rappaport, GilbertProfessor@

Ph.D. Harvard (1994)
Phone: (512) 232-9124 / Fax: (512) 471-3607 / E-Mail: grapp@mail.uttexas.edu
MAJOR INTERESTS: Linguistic Theory, Polish culture, Language and public discourse
POLAND RELATED SCHOLARSHIP:
PRESENTATIONS

• The geometry of the Polish Noun Phrase: Progress and Prospects , presented at tconference on Generative Linguistics in Poland 2, Warsaw, 2000

PUBLICATIONS

• "Polonistyka w Ameryce Północnej" in Poscriptum 37-38, 2001
• "The Grammatical Role of Animacy in a Formal Model of Slavic Morphology", American Contributions to the 12th International Congress of Slavists (Ljubljana, 2003)
• "Case Syncretism, Features, and the Morphosyntax of Polish Numeral Phrases", Generative Linguistics in Poland 5, ed. by Piotr Banski and Adam Przepiorkowski. Warsaw: Academy of Sciences (2003), 123-37.
• "Relativization and Noun Phrase Structure in Polish". Prof. Vladimir A. Zvegincev, in Memoriam, ed. by Catherine Chvany, Stefana Dimitrova, and Charles Gribble International Journal of Slavic Linguistics and Poetics 39-40, 213-43 (Columbus: Slavica, 1996).
• "On the Adnominal Genitive and the Structure of Noun Phrases in Russian and Polish", Melanges Paul Garde, ed. by Marguerite Guiraud-Weber, 239-262 (Aix-en-Provence: Universite de Provence, 1992).

Woolhiser, Curt, Associate Professor, Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures, University of Texas at Austin @

Ph.D. Slavic Languages and Literatures. Indiana University, Bloomington, 1995.
Phone: (512) 471-3607 / Fax: (512) 471-6710 / E-Mail: cfwoolhiser@mail.utexas.edu
MAJOR INTERESTS:East and West Slavic linguistics, comparative Slavic morphology and syntax, language variation and change, sociolinguistic dialectology, language and dialect contact, code-switching, language ideology and language attitudes, language planning and language policy.
POLAND RELATED SCHOLARSHIP:
PRESENTATIONS:

• "Constructing National Identities in the Polish-Belarusian Borderlands", at 4th Annual Convention of the Association for the Study of Nationalities, Columbia University, New York, April 14, 1999.
• "From Borders to Isoglosses: Dialect Divergence in the Polish-Belarusian Borderlands", at the final conference of the European Science Foundation Network on Dialect Convergence and Divergence in a Changing Europe, University of Reading, UK, September 17, 1998.
• "Code-Switching Strategies in Belarusian-Polish and Belarusian- Russian Bilingualism," at the conference, "Society, Language and Culture in Post-Communist Russia, the Other Former Republics of the Soviet Union, and Eastern Europe," Texas Tech University, Lubbock, April 3, 1998.
• "Linguistic Convergence and Divergence in the Belarusian Dialects of the Polish-Belarusian Borderlands," at the AATSEEL Convention, Toronto (Section: Language Contact), December 1997.
• "Belarusian-Polish and Belarusian-Russian Code-Switching: Linguistic Form and Sociolinguistic Functions," at the AATSEEL Convention, Chicago (Section: Sociolinguistics), December 1995.

Wolitz, Seth L.Professor@

Ph.D. Yale (1965)
Phone: (512) 471-5531/ Fax: (512) 471-8492 / E-Mail: slwolitz@mail.uttexas.edu
MAJOR INTERESTS: French and Slavic Studies
POLAND RELATED SCHOLARSHIP:
RECENT PUBLICATIONS

• The Hidden Isaac Bashevis Singer Ed. and articles, Austin: University of Texas Press: 2001

META-FACULTY - Faculty who have studied and/or taught at Polish institutions of higher education

Lang, Karol , Professor, Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin @

M.S., Warsaw University (Warsaw Poland), 1979;
Ph.D., University of Rochester, 1985
Phone: (512) 471-1153 / Fax: (512) 471-5918 / E-mail: lang@hep.utexas.edu
MAJOR INTERESTS: Experimental high energy physics, rare decays, neutrino interactions, particle detectors.

Panov, Mitko , Assistant Professor, Department of Radio Television-Film, University of Texas at Austin @@

National School for Film, Television and Theater - Lodz, Poland, 1985;
Phone: (512) 471-6659 / Fax: ,,, / E-mail: mitko@mail.utexas.edu
MAJOR INTERESTS:Film making
POLAND RELATED SCHOLARSHIP:
FILMS

• With Raised Hands 1985 - Poland - Narrative. 35mm, B&W. 5 min. @
• Bread and Salt 1987 - Poland -Creative Documentary. 35mm, Color. 23 min. @ Creative Documentary. 35mm, Color. 23 min.
• Szero Rom 1985 - Documentary. 35mm, B&W. 6 min @

AWARDS

• Krakow 1986 Silver Dragon for With Raised Hands
• Cannes 1991 Palm d'Or for With Raised Hands in the category of best short

Poland-related Resources

• The Polish Experience: The Official Home Page of Polish Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. The webpage offers information about opportunities and events related to Polish Studies at the University and links to a variety of sources of information about Poland, Polish literature, customs, etc. @

• Polish Films Collection: A collection of over 130 Polish films @

   

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  Last updated 09/15/05
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