Appendix 7

 

Country report - Poland

 

 (February – October 2002)

 

I. CANADIAN STUDIES COURSES/NEWS FROM UNIVERSITIES

 

Toruñ: N. Copernicus University

 

Canadian Resources Centre:

  • the Centre has launched a project “The Image of Canada in Poland,” which is to result in a book of scholarly articles on the topic, all written by Polish scholars and in Polish. The project is sponsored a Toruñ university grant and supported by PACS.
  • In March 2003 the Centre is organizing a five day seminar for the French and English Depts. students taught by the Acadian poet Serge Patrice Thibodeau
  • The Centre has invited prof. Dennis Danielson (University of British Columbia; in October) and the poet and translator Adam Czerniawski (translators’ workshop and a seminar on Polish poets in Canada).

 

English Dept.: dr Mira Buchholtz offers this academic year a new monographic lecture series on Canadian children’s literature (history and genres); dr Anna Branach-Kallas offers an overview course on Canadian literature and a proseminar on postcolonial literature (25% Canadian content)

 

French Dept.: This semester dr Piotr Sadkowski gives lectures on Litterature canadienne d'expression francaise; next semester he will give lectures on Ecritures migrantes francophone en Europe et au Canada

 

Poznañ: Adam Mickiewicz University

 

Ms Ewa Rybicka has successfully defended a Ph.D. dissertation on the interaction of high and low forms in novels by Canadian women writers.

 

Dr Agnieszka Rzepa teaches two M.A. seminars on postmodernism and postcolonialism in Canadian literature to IVth and  Vth year students of extramural studies at the English Dept (19 students altogether), and a complementary seminar on “Postmodern Issues in Canadian Short Story” to IV year extramural students (14 students)

 

Warsaw: the University of Warsaw

 

Le Centre de recherche en civilisation canadienne-francaise et en litterature quebecoise headed by Prof. Józef Kwaterko celebrated twenty years of activity.

 

Prof.. Kwaterko is teaching two M.A. seminars with Quebecois content:  „Littératures francophones: questions d’interculturalité et de métissage” and  „Littérature francophone des Amériques.” Two of his students are completing their M.A. theses on Quebecois writers Jacques Ferron and Dany Laferrière. A proseminar on Littérature et société candiennes-françaises is planned for the summer semester.

 

English Dept.: Prof. Nancy Burke continues to teach several courses on Canadian literature (Contemporary Canadian Fiction; North American Literature seminar - 2 students writing MA theses on Canadian writers; Highlights of Canadian Fiction and Non-Fiction). She offers also a new course on Post Colonial literature with some Canadian content.

 

Katowice: University of Silesia

 

Canadian Resources Centre:

  • organized in April 2002 in Ustroñ a succesful conference “Minority Discourses in a Cross-/Transcultural Perspective: Eastern/Central Europe and Canada”

 

  • Centre’s library was considerably enriched (purchase of 40 books for courses to be taught by Dr Ruth Dyck Fehderau; grant offered by Civic Education Project; 700 books donated by McClelland& Stewart, Brick, Canadian Playwrights, University of Alberta Press, Prairie Fire, and Turnstone Press; DFAIT – agreed to send the books to Poland via diplomatic mail). Additionally the Center received a grant from DFAIT to purchase Canadian films for the Canadian Cinema course taught by Dr Ruth Fehderau.

 

Starting  October 1, 2002 Dr Ruth Dyck Fehderau,  University of Alberta,  has joined the English Institute for 3 months to teach courses in Canadian Studies (Canadian cinema,  Prairie Writing,  Survey course in Canadian Literature); the visit is possible due to the ICCS Academic Internship grant.

 

An Agreement of Co-operation and a Student Exchange Agreement between the University of Silesia and Wilfrid Laurier University were signed on July 26, 2002, for a period of three years.

 

Dr Tomasz Sikora is teaching a new course on “Canadian Culture through Literary Texts” to 24 students of the Psychology and Pedagogy Dept.

 

Bielsko Bia³a: Technical Academy

 

The library of the new Institute of Cultures and Literatures of English-speaking Countries was enriched with a number of Canadian books thanks to a Civic Education grant.

 

Bydgoszcz Academy

 

Dr. Ewa We³nic has introduced 40% of Canadian content into her one year American literature lectures

 

University of £ódŸ

 

Prof. Krzysztof Andrzejczak teaches M.A. seminars on English-Canadian prose for the 4th (9) and 5th year students (9)

 

II. CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION and GUEST LECTURES

 

  • Prof. Józef Kwaterko gave a lecture on „Les romanciers haïtiens du Québec” at Université Paris 13-Nord on 16 March 2002.

§         Nine Polish graduate students presented papers at the 11th European Seminar for Graduate Students in Canadian Studies 2002, TU Berlin; some were supported by the Canadian Embassy in Poland and PACS: (Male, Agnieszka (Krakow, Poland): “Contemporary Return Migration from Canada to Poland”; Majer, Krzysztof (Lodz, Poland): “Against Despair: Timothy Findley’s Angelic Rebels”; Krywult, Malgorzata (Krakow, Poland): “Canadian Policy Towards Women-Refugees”; Wrzos, Marcin (Warsaw, Poland): “Electoral System in Canada. Characteristic Features and New Challenges”; Laskowska, Malgorzata (Lodz, Poland): “The Untold in Susanna Moodie’s Story – as Seen by Margaret Atwood”; Rozycka, Dominika (Lodz, Poland): “Man and Woman Relationships in the Works of Jane Urquhart”;Mouneimne, Tina (Warszawa, Poland): “Les manifestations de la mémoire et de l’identité à travers le discours d’Abla Farhoud dans Le Bonheur a la queue glissante” ; Studzinska, Joanna (Lodz, Poland): “Women’s Spirituality in Jane Urquhart’s Away”; Berger, Hanna (Katowice, Poland): “Re-creation of the Indigenous Self through Language”)

  • dr Eugenia Sojka:
    1. ”Embracing the Other. Canadian literary and artistic projects challenging ethnicization   and racialization of society.” Minority Discourses in a Cross- / Transcultural Perspective: Eastern / Central Europe and Canada.  Ustron, Poland,  26-29 April, 2002.
    2. „Ethnicization and Racialization in Canadian Visual Arts Discourses. „Crossroads in Cultural Studies” Tampere, Finland, 28 June – 3 July 2002.
    3. Visions of Canadianness in Canadian arts. Study of selected works by Joyce Wieland, Shani Mootoo and Kinga Araya. Nordic Association for Canadian Studies Conference. Stockholm.  August 7 -11, 2002.
  • Tina Mouneimne: “Questions interculturelles dans Aaron d'Yves Theriault. Third One-day Canadian Studies Conference, Vilnius, October 2002.
  • dr Anna Branach-Kallas:
    1. "History and Truth in M.Ondaatje's Anil's Ghost"April Conference Nine, Jagiellonian University, April 2002
    2. “Old Environment? New Environment? - Place and Self in J. Urquhart's Changing Heaven Nordic Association for Canadian Studies Conference. Stockholm.  August 7 -11, 2002.
    3. “Multicultural Dilemma: Identity, Otherness, Ethnicity "Roots/Routes of Identity in Ying Chen's Les Lettres chinoises" Minority Discourses in a Cross- / Transcultural Perspective: Eastern / Central Europe and Canada.  Ustron, Poland,  26-29 April, 2002.

§         Prof. Nancy Burke:

    1. guest lectures at the University of St. Petersburg "Immigrant Literature -memory and conflict"; Nicholas Copernicus University, Torun - "The Ex-Centric at the Centre" - Women Writers in Canadian Literature".
    2. "The City as seen in Selected Canadian Novels" World Literature Conference, Moscow, Pedagogical University
    3. "Cityscapes - Urban Canadian Space in Selected Fiction and Non-Fiction" Nordic Canadianist Association Conference – Stockholm "Old Environments  New Environments"
    4. "Urban Landscapes in Canadian Fiction" International Seminar "Place and Location III "TheCity -Topias and Reflections" Tallinn, Estonia September 2002
  • dr Ewa We³nic: . "Female Immigrant Community in Janice Kulyk-Keefer's and Eva Hoffman's Novels" BACS Conference in Belfast, April 2002

§         dr Agnieszka Rzepa:

1.       “Alistair MacLeod’s Magic Configurations of Cape Breton”Inauguration conference of Eotvos Lorand University Canadian Studies Centre “Continentalism and Nationhood”; Budapest,  18-19 February 2002

2.       lecture on “The Vagaries of Postcolonialism in Canada” British and American Studies Seminar „Raising Literary and Cultural Awareness”, Obrzycko (Poland),  18-20 June 2002

§         Sylwia Klusek

1.      ‘From Cooperative Federalism to Interstate Federalism – A Diachronic Transformation of Canadian Federalism (1945-2000)’ Meeting Global and Domestic Challenges: Canadian Federalism in Perspective (Decentralization: Effectiveness and Legitimacy – Canadian Federalism and International Policy-Making – Federation, Globalization and Regional Identity), Berlin 21-23.06.2002

    1. ‘Different Faces of Cultural Pluralism -Canada and United States’. Canadian Identity and Multiculturalism, Vilnius 4-6.10.2002
    2. two guest lectures on the political system of Canada at the Jagiellonian University

 

III. PUBLICATIONS (selection)

 

§         dr Mira Buchholtz: "Daily Trot and Sudden Insights in Sinclair Ross's 'Cornet at Night' in the French Journal of Short Story in English.

  • Szatanik Zuzanna, "Her Impossible Kisses" w: Queer Mixture-Odmiany Odmieñca, Tomasz Basiuk, Dominika Ferens, Tomasz Sikora (eds). (Katowice: Œl¹sk, 2002)
  • Prof. Anna Reczyñska: „Problemy kraju osiedlenia w polonijnej prasie wydawanej w Kanadzie po II wojnie swiatowej.” Œl¹sk-Polska-Emigracja, I.Paczynska (ed.) Krakow 2002.

thirty entries for Wielka Encyklopedia PWN on the history of Canada and Polish-Canadians

  • Prof. Nancy Burke: "The Native Peoples' Voice - expressing identity in Canadian Literature" Problems of National Identity Within Multi-Cultural Communication, ed. M.K.Popova, Voronezh, Russia: State University of Voronezh, 2002.

§         dr Agnieszka Rzepa “Elephant’s Mug Shot: Americans in Contemporary Canadian Prose. ” In American Portraits and Self-Portraits. Eds. Jerzy Durczak & Pawe³ Frelik. Lublin: Maria Curie-Sk³odowska University Press, 2002.

  • Prof. Józef Kwaterko:
  1. „Miron et Gombrowicz: un entre-dialogue complice” in Gaston Miron ou la marche à l’amour (Cécile Cloutier, Michel Lord et Ben-Z. Shek eds.), Montréal, L’Hexagone, 2002, pp.183-195.
  2. „L’imaginaire diasporique des romanciers haïtiens du Québec”, Revue internationale de littérature comparée, 76 année, no 2, avril-juin 2002.

 

IV. OTHER

 

§         Two of Prof. Kwaterko’s M.A. students will read papers at Ve Colloque des Jeunes Chercheurs Européeens en Littérature Québécoise, Innsbruck University, Oct. 24-27, 2002 (Izabela Decyk, Exotopie et réenracinement dans les romans „haïtiens” de Dany Lafferière; Aldona Bobiatyñska, Passeurs et passages dans les romans de Jacques Ferron). Prof. Kwaterko has been invited to chair one of the sessions of the conference.

  • Le Centre de recherche en civilisation canadienne-francaise et en litterature quebecoise headed by Prof. Józef Kwaterko celebrated twenty years of activity. On this occasion it was offered a grant by Ministère des Relations Internationales du Québec to cover the cost of the participation in Innsbruck conference of the two students.
  • Prof. Kwaterko:

1.       participates in an international project under the auspices of ICCS/CIEC „Tranculturalismes” working on Le métissage culturel dans les Amériques et son impact sur l’identité canadienne to be presented at the Montreal conference in 2003

  1. is editing the „L’humour et le rire dans les littératures francophones des Amériques” issue of the scholarly journal Itinéraires et contacts de cultures, Université Paris 13-Nord.
  2. cooperates as an expert with the organizing committee of the international conference „Francophonie en Amérique. Quatre siècles d’échange Europe-Afrique-Amérique”, Universytet Laval, Québec and L’Année Francophone Internationale, Québec, 26-30 maja 2003
  • Several Polish scholars were awarded Faculty Enrichment Grants for Canadian Studies 2002 (dr. Mira Buchholtz, dr. Eugenia Sojka)

§         Several Polish scholars were awarded DFAIT book grants (Ewa We³nic, Dagmara Drewniak, Ewa Rybicka, Józef Kwaterko)

  • The following Canadian professors gave lectures at Polish Universities:
  1. Prof. Denis Cooley (Sosnowiec, Warsaw)
  2. Prof. Douglas Barbour (Toruñ, Poznañ, Sosnowiec, Konin)
  3. Prof. Anne Nothof (Sosnowiec)
  4. Prof. Fred Wah (Sosnowiec)
  5. Prof. Pauline Butling (Sosnowiec)
  6. Prof. Réal Ouellet (Warsaw)
  • Two Ph.D. students are writing their theses under the supervision of dr Anna Reczyñska (one on women in Canada at the turn of the 19th and 20th c., the other on Canadian-US relations)
  • Prof. Nancy Burke
  1. made a guest appearance with poetry at Arts Event – Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
  2. sponsored an exhibition/display at University of Warsaw on history of Canada put on by students in Political Science Dept. UW.

§         dr Agnieszka Rzepa organized workshops on ethnicity and gender in the US and Canadian  as part of  the“Ethnicity and Gender in American Culture” training workshop for teachers of English (18 –24 August 2002, Przesieka, Poland)

§         Sylwia Klusek was awarded a one month research grant to the JFK Institute Library in Berlin