Inauguration of Academic Year 2019/2020

Professor Radosław Markowski, SWPS University in Warsaw – sociologist and political scientist. He specializes in comparative political science and political sociology. He researchers voters’ choices and behaviors as well as political party systems. Head of the Center for the Study of Democracy at SWPS University. Recurring Visiting Professor at the Central European University in Budapest. Former Visiting Professor at the following universities in the United States: Duke University in North Carolina, Wisconsin University of Madison-Wisconsin, and Rutgers University in New Jersey. Member of editorial boards of numerous political science journals, including: European Journal of Political Research, Political Studies, European Union Politics, Populism Journal of Elections, and Public Opinion and Parties. His book, Post-Communist Party Systems, published by Cambridge University Press is his main publication.

Professor Bogdan Wojciszke, SWPS Uniwersity in Sopot – eminent psychologist, specializing in psychology of love and power. His research interests include psychology of moral assessments and judgements, dynamics of close relationships, psychology of power, attitudes of Poles towards privatisation, and productivity and dignity as ethical values of the contemporary Polish society. Former Visiting Professor at University of Michigan, USA; Visiting Professor at University of Halle, Gernany. Recipient of numerous awards, including the Polish Academy of Sciences Award for the publication entitled Social and Moral Values and the Ministry of National Education Award for Excellence in Research.

Associate Professor Michał Bilewicz, University of Warsaw – Social psychologist. Head of the Center for Research on Prejudice and lecturer at the faculty of psychology at the University of Warsaw. Vice-Chair of the Psychology Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences and a board member of the International Society of Political Psychology. His research interests include conspiracy theories, prejudice, intergroup conflict, and threats to the positive social identity and dehumanization mainly exemplified by xenophobia, anti-Semitism and ethnic conflicts. He researchers mechanisms of reconciliation in the aftermath of genocides in Poland, Germany, Armenia, Israel, Bosnia and Hercegovina. He is interested in the ways that cognitive mechanisms and the language of the public sphere impact the exclusion of minorities. Recipient of the 2005-2006 Fulbright scholarship at the New School for Social Research in New York and a National Science Centre award in the category humanities, arts and social sciences (2015). Vice President of the Forum for Dialogue foundation, an organization dedicated to inspiring new connections between contemporary Poland and the Jewish people.

Professor Aleksander Nawarecki, Uniwersity of Silesia – professor of literature at the University of Silesia, at the Faculty of Languages and Literatures in the Ireneusz Opacki Institute of Polish Literature, Head of the Department of Literary Theory at the University of Silesia. He specialized in history and theory of literature. A pioneer of “micrological” research of literature, a method based on very close, micro scale, analysis of literary pieces. Researcher of curiosities, editor and commentator of Józef Baka’s poetry (an 18th century Baroque poet, Jesuit and missionary) - Czarny karnawał (Black Carnival) (1991). Author of monographs about plants and animals in literature, Pokrzywa (Nettle) (1996), and objects, Parafernalia (Paraphernalia) (2014), essays on Adam Mickiewicz (a 19th century major Polish romantic poet) - Mały Mickiewicz (Little Mickiewicz) (2003), and essays on the Silesia district of Poland, Lajerman (2011). Co-author of Polish language handbook for high school students, Przeszłość to dziś (The Past is Today) (2003), and an editor of a Historical Dictionary of Literary Terms (coming soon).

Associate Professor Agata Błachino, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin – Psychologist and certified speech therapist. Deputy Director for Education and International Relations at the Institute of Psychology, Head of the Department of Psychology of Emotions and Motivation. Head of LAB A&A, a research lab focused on social psychology. Her research interests include psychology of the new media (i.e. the Internet and social media), mobile phone addiction, academic plagiarism, psychology of emotions (e.g. road rage), and speech impairments (attitudes towards persons with a stutter). Member of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP) and the Polish Society of Social Psychology (PSPS). Member of the Board of the Polish Society of Social Psychology (PSPS). Associate Editor in Social Psychological Bulletin and member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Applied Psychology.