Polish Studies at Yale University

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

Polish Study Courses

PLSH 241 Women in Polish Literature @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Introduction to the literature and literary criticism of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Polish women writers. Particular focus on the themes of emancipation, revolution, alienation, and war. Writers include Orzeszkowa, Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska, Kossak, Kuncewiczowa, and Szymborska. Readings and discussion in English; primary readings also available in Polish.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Agman, N.

PLSH 244 Polish Poetry and National Identity @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: An examination of the thematic development of Polish poetry from the sixteenth through the twentieth centuries against a background of the instability of the Polish nation-state. Special attention to Polish nationalism and other political themes. Poets include Kochanowski, Mickiewicz, Norwid, Tuwim, Milosz, and Szymborska. Readings in English or Polish; discussion in English.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Agman, N.

PLSH 245 Twentieth-century Polish Literature and Culture @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: An examination of twentieth-century Polish artistic, literary, and intellectual movements on the background of European political events from the end of the period of the partitions, through independent statehood, German occupation, and the communist experiment. Special attention paid to the themes of national and linguistic identity within major literary and philosophical works. Authors include Schulz, Witkiewicz, Gombrowicz, Milosz, and Mrozek. Readings and discussions in English.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Agman, N.

Language Instruction

PLSH 115 Elementary Polish @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: A comprehensive introduction to elementary Polish grammar and conversation with emphasis on spontaneous oral expression. Readings of original texts, including poetry. Use of video materials.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Agman, N.

PLSH 130 Intermediate Polish @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: A reading and conversation course conducted in Polish. Systematic review of grammar; practice in speaking and composition; reading of selected texts, including poetry. Use of video materials. After PLSH 115 or equivalent.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Agman, N.

PLSH 138 Advanced Conversation and Composition @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: An advanced language course emphasizing spoken and written Polish. Readings include twentieth-century prose and poetry as well as nonfiction. Intensive grammar review and vocabulary building. For students who have taken PLSH 130 and for native or heritage speakers who want to read Polish literature in the original.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Agman, N.

Poland-Related Courses

History 282b Eastern Europe, 966 to 1989 @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Eastern Europe from Christian conversions to the European Union. Medieval topics include paganism, slavery, and language; early modern attention to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, its Jewish inhabitants, and its Muslim neighbors; modern emphasis on empire, world war, genocide, and communism.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Snyder, T

History 427a Intellectuals and Politics in Eastern Europe @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: A study of coherent intellectual milieux excluded from political power. Topics include Romantic and integral nationalism, patriotic and Marxist socialism, early Zionism, modernist literature, postwar communism, antipolitics, and the revolutions of 1989.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Snyder, T

History 428a Ethnic Cleansing in East European History @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: A search for an explanation of the ethnic homogenization that has accompanied the creation of nation-states from empires. Concentration on Polish, Czech, and Ukrainian cases; consideration of the precedents of World War I, the relationship between Nazi genocide, Soviet terror, and ethnic cleansing, and the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Snyder, T

Faculty

Agman, Nike, V. Lector, Department of Slavic Language & Literature, Yale University @

Ph.D., . . ., . . .
Phone: (203) 436-8083 / Fax: . . . / E-Mail: nike.agman@yale.edu
MAJOR INTERESTS:. . .
POLAND RELATED SCHOLARSHIP:
COURSES

• Elementary Polish
• Intermediate Polish
• Advanced Conversation and Composition
• Women in Polish Literature
• Polish Poetry and National Identity
• Twentieth-century Polish Literature and Culture

Jacobson, Matthew Professor, Department of American Studies and History, Yale University @ @

Ph.D., Brown University, 1992
Phone: (203)432-7070, 432-9064 / Fax: . . . / E-Mail: matthew.jacobson@yale.edu
MAJOR INTERESTS: Race and immigration in American politics and culture.
POLAND RELATED SCHOLARSHIP:
BOOKS

• Special Sorrows: the Diasporic Imagination of Irish, Polish, and Jewish Immigrants in the United States, Cal-Prince Fulfillment Svcs., 1995

Keane, Michael Professor of Economics, Yale University @ @

Ph.D., Brown University, 1990
Phone: (203)432-3548 / Fax: (203) 432-6323 / E-Mail: michael.keane@yale.edu
MAJOR INTERESTS: Labor Economics, Empirical Microeconomics, Applied Econometrics, Consumer Choice Behavior
POLAND RELATED SCHOLARSHIP:
ARTICLES

• Poland: Inequality, Transfers, and Growth in Transition, with Prasad, E., Finance and Development, Vol. 38, 1, 2001
• Changes in the Structure of Earnings During the Polish Transition with Prasad, E., Internationa Monetary Fund, Working Paper No. 02/135, 2002

Snyder, Timothy Assistant Professor, Department of History, Yale University @

Ph. D., Oxford University, 1995
Phone: (203)432-7662 / Fax: . . . / E-Mail: timothy.snyder@yale.edu
MAJOR INTERESTS: Political, intellectual, and social history of Eastern Europe
POLAND RELATED SCHOLARSHIP:
PUBLICATIONS

• The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2003
• Nationalism, Marxism, and Modern Central Europe: A Biography of Kazimierz Kelles-Krauz, 1872-1905, Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, 1997

COURSES

• Eastern Europe, 966 to 1989
• Intellectuals and Politics in Eastern Europe
• Ethnic Cleansing in East European History

Venclova, Tomas Professor, Department of Slavic Languages and Literature, Yale University @ @ @

M.A. University of Vilnius
Phone: (203)432-1304 / Fax: . . ./ E-Mail: tomas.venclova@yale.edu
MAJOR INTERESTS: 19th and 20th-century Russian, Polish and Lithuanian literature
POLAND RELATED SCHOLARSHIP:
BOOKS

• Aleksander Wat: Life and Art of an Iconoclast, Yale University Press, 1996

ARTICLES

• "Native Realm Revisited: Mickiewicz's Lithuania and Mickiewicz in Lithuania". Krasnogruda, 8, 1998

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

Blawzdziewicz, Jerzy Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Yale University @

Ph.D. University of Warsaw, Poland.
Phone: (203)432-7754 / Fax: . . . / E-Mail: jerzy.blawzdziewicz@yale.edu
MAJOR INTERESTS: Theory and numerical simulations for microstructural evolution and macroscopic transport phenomena in complex fluids such as colloidal suspensions, emulsions, foams, and polymeric solutions.

Poland-related Resources