Polish Studies at University of Kansas

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

Polish Studies Courses

Hist 554 Poland from Kings to Communists to Solidarity and After @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: A survey of Polish history, political systems, literature, art, music, theatre, Polish contributions to world civilization, and Poles in America. Films will be shown.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Cienciala, A. M.

SLAV 504 Introduction to East-Central European Culture and Society: Poland @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: An interdisciplinary course introducing the student to the principal features of Polish cultural and societal development in the modern era.

SLAV 506 Polish Literature and Civilization @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: A survey of Polish literature from its beginnings to the present, with emphasis upon Renaissance, Romanticism, and Positivism as well as such writers as Kochanowski, Mickiewicz, Sienkiewicz, and Reymont. A broad cultural background provides additional aspects of Polish civilization through the centuries. No knowledge of Polish required.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Karcz, A.

SLAV 538 The Modern Polish Short Story @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: A study of the development of the Polish short story from Positivism to the present. Readings of major Polish writers including Prus, Sienkiewicz, Schulz, Borowski, Andrzejewski, and others. Emphasis on trends in Polish short story within the context of West European literatures. No prerequisites. Readings in English. Students with knowledge of Polish will read some works in Polish.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Karcz, A.

SLAV 679 Topics in 20th-Century Polish Literature @@

COURSE DESCRIPTION: The most important 20th-century Polish writers and their works representing all literary genres. The course covers only selected Polish writers and their works, but the selection is very representative of the whole 20th-century Polish literature and addresses special problems (artistic and ideological) expressed in those works. The course consists of discussions of the works.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Karcz, A.

Language Instruction

PLSH 104-108 Elementary Polish I, II @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Course provides a solid foundation of the basics of Polish grammar, practice in reading and writing, and an introduction to spoken Polish on an elementary level. It consists of spoken sessions/discussions in each class, readings and translations of dialogs, short lectures aiming to show the uses of Polish vocabulary and to deliver clear explanations of the intricacies of Polish grammar.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Karcz, A.

PLSH 204-208 Intermediate Polish I, II @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Through reading, composition, and conversation, the course provides students with a greater command of colloquial Polish and introduces other varieties of the language, in particular its contemporary literary form. It provides detailed information on the nuances of Polish grammar and the uses of diverse vocabulary. It consists of Polish spoken sessions/discussions, readings, translations, and explanations of dialogues, passages in prose, and poetry. Short lectures explain the most difficult parts of Polish grammar.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Karcz, A.

PLSH 504-508 Advanced Polish I, II @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: A practical Polish language course involving advanced study of the grammar, reading of texts on a variety of subjects, conversation, and composition. It provides detailed information on the nuances of Polish grammar, the uses of diverse vocabulary, styles, and forms of Polish. The course consists mainly of discussions in Polish of assigned texts as well as short lectures explaining the most difficult parts of Polish grammar.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Karcz, A.

PLSH 675 Readings in Polish Language and Literature @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Directed individual readings on various topics concerning Polish literature and/or language. Prerequisite: Two years or four semesters of Polish.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Karcz, A.

Poland-Related Courses

HIST 342 The Rise and Fall of Communist Nations since 1917 @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Marx and the Marxists; West European Marxism to 1914; Russian History and Russian Marxism to 1914; the Russian Revolutions of 1917; the Civil War; Finnish, German and Hungarian Revolutions; the Soviet-Polish War; Russia under Lenin and Stalin, 1921-1939; Soviet Russia and the Western World, 1921-1941; World War II in USSR and Eastern Europe; Soviet Aims and Gains, and the Soviet Takeover of Most of Eastern Europe; the Cold War; Stalinism in Eastern Europe; Khruschev's USSR; Revolts in Poland and Hungary, 1956; Politics, Economics, Foreign Policy , and Dissent in the USSR and Eastern Europe, 1957-1970-1980; the Decline and Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe and USSR - 1980-1991; the Chinese Revolution and Chinese Communism to Mao's Victory, 1949; Mao's China, 1949-1976; China under Deng Xiao Ping; Korea and the Korean War; Indochina, French War and the U.S. Vietnam War; Central America and the Caribbean: Cuba and Nicaragua; Africa, Middle East, Afghanistan; Postcommunist Russia and former Soviet Republics.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Cienciala, A.

HIST 557 Nationalism and Communism in East Central Europe: The Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, and Hungarians from 1772 to the Present @@

COURSE DESCRIPTION: East Central and South-Eastern Europe to 1772; Decline and the Partitions of Poland; Development of European Nationalism; Poland: The Struggle for Independence: 1795-1864; Poland: 1864-1914; Magyars & Hungary 1790-1914; Czechs & Slovaks 1790-1914; National Renascence of the Balkan Peoples in 19th Century; Austria-Hungary, the South-Slav Problem and Coming of WWI: Rebirth of Poland: Birth of Czechoslovakia; Hungary: Reform & Revolution 1918-20; Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia 1919-39; Interwar Balkan States; Appeasement 1938; Coming of the War and Eastern Europe in WWII; Eastern Europe 1945-56 & Czechoslovakia 1968; Poland 1956-81; Czech, Hung, Balkans,1968-80; Toward the Collapse of Communism, 1982-1989, and the Collapse, 1989; Post-Communist Eastern Europe.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Cienciala, A. M.

GEOG 595 Geography of Eastern Europe @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: A study of nations and regions of Eastern Europe, excluding Russia
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Dienes, L.

SLAV 149 Introduction to Slavic Folklore @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: An introduction to the various forms of folklore among the Slavic people, with particular emphasis on the folk literature, customs, and artifacts of Russia, Poland, and the South Slavic countries.

Humanities and Western Civilization 500 Studies In: Totalitarianism and Literature in Central Europe @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course focuses on a few remarkable works by some contemporary Central European ( mainly Czech and Polish) writers who embarked upon one of the biggest challenges in literary creation-depicting the most difficult and tragic human experience of the twentieth century- the experience of suffering and death brought by a totalitarian state. Dealing with the mechanisms of both fascist and communist societies, these authors attempted not only to reveal the crimes of totalitarianism, but also to show the moral challenges for the victims of totalitarianism. It is the aim of this course to point out and discuss literary representations of totalitarianism and the human experience of it.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Clowes, E. and Karcz, E.

Study abroad in Poland

Faculty

Cienciala, Anna Professor Emerita of History and Russian and East European Studies, Kansas University @ @

Ph.D., University of Indiana, 1962
Phone: (785) 864-3569 / Fax: ...... / E-Mail: hanka@ku.edu
MAJOR INTERESTS: European Diplomatic History with emphasis on Poland, 1914-45; Modern Poland.
POLAND RELATED SCHOLARSHIP:
BOOKS

• Poland and the Western Powers, 1938-1939. A Study in the Interdependence of Eastern and Western Europe, with Titus Komarnicki, London, Toronto, 1968
• From Versailles to Locarno. Keys to Polish Foreign Policy, 1919-1925, ed. with Headlam-Morley J. W., Lawrence, KS., 1984;
• A Memoir of the Paris Peace Conference, 1919, London, 1972

PUBLICATIONS

• "The Munich Crisis of 1938: Plans and Strategy in Warsaw in the Context of the Western Appeasement of Germany," in Lukas and Goldstein, eds., The Munich Crisis, 1938. Prelude to World War II (Frank Cass: London, 1999)

Dienes, Leslie Professor of Geography, Unversity of Kansas @

Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1968
Phone: (785) 864-5537 / Fax: . . . / E-Mail: dienes@ku.edu
MAJOR INTERESTS: Energy, economic, Eastern Europe, Russia
POLAND RELATED SCHOLARSHIP:
COURSES

• Geography of Eastern Europe

Karcz, Andrzej Assistant Professor of Polish Language and Literature, University of Kansas @ @

M.A. Catholic University of Lublin
Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1999
Phone: (785) 864-2351 / Fax: ...... / E-Mail: akarcz@ku.edu
MAJOR INTERESTS: 19th- and 20th-century Polish and Russian literatures, formalism, literary theory, and Polish prose fiction.
POLAND RELATED SCHOLARSHIP:
BOOKS

• The Polish Formalist School and Russian Formalism, University of Rochester Press, 2002

ARTICLES

• Polonistyka na uniwersytecie amerykanskim: casus University of Kansas, (Polish Studies at an American University: the Case of the University of Kansas) in Postscriptum 1-2, 2001

COURSES

• Elementary, Intermediate, and Advanced Polish
• Polish Literature and Civilization
• Topics in 20th-Century Polish Literature

Lesnikowski, Wojciech Hatch Professor of Architecture and Urban Design, University of Kansas @

M.Arch., Technical University of Krakow, 1961
Phone: (785) 864-3192 / Fax: (785) 864-5185 / E-Mail: acdesign@ku.edu
MAJOR INTERESTS: Architecture of Central Europe
POLAND RELATED SCHOLARSHIP:
BOOKS

• East European Modernism: Architecture in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland between the Wars, 1919-1939. ed., New York: Rizzoli, 1996.

PUBLICATIONS

• National Cathedral in Warsaw in Archivolta, Krakow, Poland, Jan. 2001

ACHIEVEMENTS

• Design, in association with HNTB Corporation of Kansas City, Stefan Kurylowicz of Warsaw, Bouygues Corporation of Paris and ARUP Corporation of London, of the Frederic Chopin International Airport of Warsaw

Maurer, Jadwiga Professor Emerita of Polish Language and Literature, University of Kanasas @ @

Ph.D., University of Munich
Phone: (785) 864-2347 / Fax: ...... / E-Mail:.....
MAJOR INTERESTS: Polish Studies; the relationship of Adam Mickiewicz to the world of the Jews.
PRESS COVERAGE

Interview with Professor Jadwiga Maurer by Michael D. Johnson in Lawrencian Chronicle 12: 1, 2000 POLAND RELATED SCHOLARSHIP:
BOOKS

• Sobowtóry Kielce, Scriptum, 2002.
• "Z matki obcej ...": szkice o powiązaniach Mickiewicza ze światem żydów (Of a Foreign Mother born: Adam Mickiewicz's Ties to the World of the Jews), London, Polska Fundacja Kulturalna, 1990
• Podróż na Wybrzeże Dalmacji. London, Oficyna Poetów i Malarzy, 1982
• Liga ocalałych. London, Polska Fundacja Kulturalna, 1970
  • Winner the Literary Prize for the best book published in Polish by a Polish emigre writer. Awarded by Wiadomości a London based journal.

PUBLICATIONS

• "Preface." in Studies in Language, Literature, and Cultural Mythology in Poland: Investigating "The Other." Grossman, E.M., ed. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 2002.
• "Jak mnie nie stanie, nikt tego nie zrozumie." Lithuania: Kwartalnik Poswięcony Problemom Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej 3-4: 60-73, (1996)
• "The Omission of Jewish Topics in Mickiewicz Scholarship." Polin 5: 184-92, (1990)

Piekalkiewicz, Jarek Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Kansas University @

Ph.D., Indiana University
Phone: (785) 864-9039 / Fax: . . . / E-Mail: jpiek@ku.edu
MAJOR INTERESTS: Politics of East Central Europe, ideocratic political systems
POLAND RELATED SCHOLARSHIP:
PRESENTATIONS

• "Personal Mamories of Nazi Occupied Poland."

BOOKS

• Communist Local Government. A Study of Poland, Athens, Ohio, 1975

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

Grzymala-Busse, Jerzy Professor of of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. @

Ph. D., Technical University of Poznan, 1969
D. Hab., Technical University of Warsaw, 1972
Phone: (785) 864-4488 / Fax: (785) 864-3226 / E-Mail: jerzy@eecs.ku.edu
MAJOR INTERESTS: Data mining, knowledge discovery, machine learning, expert systems, reasoning under uncertainty, rough set theory.

Kuczera, Krzysztof Professor of Chemistry and of Molecular Biosciences. @

Ph.D., Polish Academy of Sciences, 1985
Phone:(785) 864-5060 / Fax: (785) 864-5396 / E-Mail: kkuczera@ku.edu
MAJOR INTERESTS: Physical and theoretical chemistry: molecular dynamics simulations, statistical mechanics, quantum chemistry of biological molecules.

Pasik-Duncan, Bozenna Professor, Mathematics Department, University of Kansas @ @

Ph.D., Warsaw School of Economics, 1978
Phone: (785) 864-5162 / Fax: . . . / E-Mail: bozenna@math.ukans.edu
MAJOR INTERESTS: Stochastic processes, stochastic adaptive control, stochastic theory, mathematical statistics, the relation between statistics and control theory, mathematics of finance, manufacturing systems control in telecommunication, epilepsy and mathematics education.

Poland-realted Resources

• Polish Collections of the University of Kansas Libraries: In addition to the core Polish collection of some 45,000 volumes, KU Libraries also hold several important special collections of 16th century Polonica, Polish World War II materials, and Polish emigre literature. The collections remain a major North American resource for the study of Polish history, literature, language, and culture. The collections are an especially valuable resource for the study of Poland since World War II, a period in which Poland has played a significant role in European affairs. The collections have served scholars well in the past four decades.
  
  

• Polish Resource Center: Website which lists the Polish Studies faculty, courses, degree requirements, etc. at the University where Polish has been taught at all levels for more than thirty years. The Center exists withing the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, one of only a handful in the US that offer a Ph.D. in Polish language and literature. @
  
  

• The Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures: The only university of department in the central United States to offer the doctoral degree, as well as bachelor's and master's degrees, in Slavic Languages and Literatures. The department has a full array of language, literature, and linguistics courses for students interested in the study of Russian, Polish, and Croatian/Serbian. @
  
  

• Russian & East European Studies Program: An interdisciplinary academic program, one of 13 Title VI Comprehensive National Resource Centers for the Russian and East/Central European area supported by the U.S. Department of Education.
  
  

• Center for Russian & East European Studies: The Center seeks to be a resource locally, regionally, and nationally, providing outreach, support services, and information to other KU units, K-16, government, civic, community, and business constituencies. Also, to support Russian & East European Study Program students and faculty in their research and intellectual enhancement.