Izolda Wolski-Moskoff teaches Polish at University of Illinois at Chicago, where she also coordinates the Polish language program. She holds a PhD in Slavic linguistics with a specialization in Second Language Acquisition. Dr. Wolski-Moskoff’s research is focused on the Polish heritage language in the United States. Part of her research was published in the book Dwujęzyczni i dwukulturowi. Bilingual and Bicultural. Speaking Polish in North America (2017), aimed at serving the Polish community by promoting bilingualism among parents of heritage speakers.

Ewa M. Pasek graduated from Warsaw University (Poland) with a dual Master’s degree in Philosophy and Polish Philology. She is a lecturer in Polish and Czech Studies in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Michigan, and a certified ACTFL OPI tester for Polish. Her research interests include Polish language acquisition, lexicography and cultural linguistics. She is a co-editor of the first five fascicles of The Dictionary of the 17&18th Century Polish Language (Polish Academy of Sciences) and a co-translator of The Romance of Teresa Hennert by Zofia Nałkowska.

Kinga Kosmala holds a PhD in Polish Studies from the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Chicago. She works as the Senior Lecturer in Polish at Northwestern University teaching courses in Polish language, film, and culture. She is a Mellon Collaborative Partner in the Less Commonly Taught Languages Partnership Project, based at the University of Chicago and aimed at advancing proficiency through collaboration. Her interests include reverse design, standardization, assessment, and curricular design in Polish language education based on OPI and ACTFL standards, curriculum development for heritage speakers, and the incorporation of technology in the foreign language classroom.

University of Florida

http://www.szkolaksignacego.com/

President of the Polish Teachers Association (Zrzeszenie Nauczycieli Polskich w Ameryce, Chicago)

Aleksandra Majkowska - Smith graduated from Warsaw University (Poland) with a Master degree in Polish Philology (Specializations in Teaching; Teaching Polish as a foreign language; Philology for the purposes of the Mass Media). She is a lecturer in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at the Loyola University Chicago. She teaches Polish language and culture at all levels, courses for medical proffesionals and Polish language in busines. She is a native speaker, lived in Poland until 2014, worked as a lecturer of Polish language and culture in: Polonicum Centre of Polish Language for Foreigners, University of Warsaw, The Centre for East European Studies at the University of Warsaw, Warsaw School of Economics (SGH) and Lazarski University (Warsaw, Poland). Her current intrests include Polish language acquistion, foreign language pedagogy and psychology in teaching foreign language.

Jolanta Wrobel Best holds double degrees in Polish Language and Literature as well as Philosophy from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland, where she worked as an assistant professor. During her studies, she was awarded an opportunity to study Polish Language and Literature (specialty in Theatrical Sciences) individually with the distinguished professors/tutors (Jan Błoński and Maria Podraza-Kwiatkowska) and take up parallel (full-time) studies in Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy at the Jagiellonian University. Her Ph.D. dissertation examined Polish modernism (Tadeusz Miciński) and Henri Bergson’s philosophy. It probed the idea of time and stressed Bergson’s impact on Polish Symbolist drama. The dissertation was given a publishing award and printed as a book (Kraków: Universitas, 1999; 2012). Dr. Wrobel Best’s research interests include a comprehensive approach to Polish studies, teaching Polish as a second language in America, women’s studies, and translation. She also presents at ASEEES and PIASA conferences in the USA. Currently, she has a faculty appointment in Philosophy at the University of Houston-Downtown in Houston, Texas.

University of Michigan

Svetlana Vassileva-Karagyozova is an Associate Professor at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Kansas, where she teaches upper-level courses in Polish and Czech as well as in West Slavic literatures, cultures and film. She is the author of the book "Coming of Age under Martial Law: The Initiation Novels of Poland's Last Communist Generation." Her research interests include 20th and 21st century Polish and Czech literature and film, trauma theory, gender and post-humanist studies.

Joanna Lustanski holds a PhD in Polish Linguistics from the University of Warsaw where she taught historical grammar to students of the Polish Language and Literature Program. From 2005 to 2009, she taught linguistics and Polish courses at McMaster University, Hamilton, ON. She got back to academia in 2017 and currently teaches beginner’s and intermediate Polish at McMaster University. She is president of the Canadian Polish Research Institute – an organization that collects archives of the Polish ethnic group in Canada and conducts research on the group and publishes findings. She is the author of Język polonijny w Kanadzie and co-editor of An ordinary Move. Memoirs of Polish immigrants to Canada 1988-2012. Her research interests include language attitude and language awareness, ethnic and language identity, sociolinguistics, foreign-language and heritage-language acquisition.

Małgorzata Mróz teaches Polish to elementary school-age children and serves as Curriculum Specialist in the Polish Language Center of Ann Arbor. During the week, she is Adjunct Professor of ESL/TESOL in the Department of World Languages at Eastern Michigan University, where she trains ESL and foreign language teacher candidates. She also works as a part-time lecturer at the English Language Institute at the University of Michigan. Małgorzata Mróz has over twelve years of foreign language teaching experience in the United States, England, and Poland.

Dr. Piotr Kajak, assistant professor at the POLONICUM Centre of Polish Language and Culture for Foreigners, Faculty of Polish Studies, University of Warsaw. Teaches Polish as a Foreign/Second/Heritage Language. Obtained his degrees from cultural studies, Slavic studies, foreign language acquisition and political sciences. 2011-2014 visiting professor at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Toronto. Lectured at universities: Comenius in Bratislava, Leipzig, ELTE in Budapest, in Potsdam, in Barcelona, in Vilnius, Eberhard Karl in Tubingen, in Glasgow, in Ostrava, in New Delhi, in Calcutta, in Manipal, Kyungpook National University in Daegu, Sichuan in Chengdu, SISU in Shanghai, GDUFS in Guangzhou, Charles in Prague, and Sorbonne in Paris. Expert of the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange. Since 2006 member of examining boards of the State Commission for the Certification of Proficiency in Polish as a Foreign Language, Ministry of Science and Higher Education. His research interests include: Second/foreign language acquisition; culture pedagogy in SLA/FLA; teaching Polish as a foreign/second/heritage language; popular culture in SLA/FLA; Polish popular culture; hip-hop culture; aca-fan approach.

Katarzyna Dziwirek received her Ph.D. in linguistics from UC San Diego in 1991. She is professor and chair of the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Washington, where she teaches Polish and linguistics. Her research interests focus on syntax, morphology and semantics, especially cross-linguistic variation in expression of emotion. She is the author of Polish Subjects (1994 Garland Publishing), co-editor of Studies in Cognitive Corpus Linguistics(2009 Peter Lang Publishing Group), and co-author of Complex Emotions and Grammatical Mismatches: A Contrastive Corpus-Based Study(2010 Mouton de Gruyter), as well as numerous articles and chapters.

Teacher of Polish language and culture, through Polish film, for over 25 years.

Community Consolidated School District 59, Chicago, Illinois

Loyola University

Assistant Professor at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Virginia

Anna Rabczuk is an Assistant Professor at the Polonicum Centre of Polish Language and Culture for Foreigners at the University of Warsaw, she was a head of postgraduate studies in Teaching Polish as Foreign Language. She was a visiting professor and Polish Language Coordinator at the Slavic Languages and Literatures Department at the University of Toronto (2016-2018). She holds two Master's degrees in Cultural Studies and in Polish Philology and she completed her PhD in the Humanities (Linguistics and Language). Anna Rabczuk is the author of a number of articles about teaching Polish to foreigners and of a Polish course books for children, teenagers, and for adults. She has cooperated with numbers of universities, among others: in Germany (Potsdam and Mainz), Ukraine (Lvov), Scotland (Glasgow), France (Paris), Spain (Extremadura), Austria (Vienna), Iceland (Reykjavik) and Canada (Toronto). She has been teaching Polish for foreigners on her YouTube channel as well, it's called "Polish with Ania".



Her research interests are foreign language acquisition, instruction in Polish culture for foreigners, teaching Polish and Polish culture to foreigners, sociolinguistics, language politeness, pragmatics, methodology for instructors teaching foreigners Polish language and culture, intercultural competence, emotions in languages, Polish language correctness, modern Polish and Polish youth slang.

Ewa Bachmińska is a senior lecturer of Polish at Cornell University where she teaches all levels of Polish, and two film courses: East European Film, and Animals in Global Cinema. She holds a BA & MA in applied linguistics from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland; an MA in music (jazz studies) from Webster University in St. Louis; and an MA in Spanish from Saint Louis University. At Cornell, she is also a PhD student in animal science. Her research is about the most threatened mammalian species in Poland: their conservation, welfare, and place in education, culture, and literature.

Agnieszka Jeżyk is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Toronto, Canada.

Her research interests include European Avant-Gardes (with the emphasis on Polish and Jewish movements); technology, gender, and biopolitics in the interwar period Poland; everyday life in the Cold War Central Europe (especially fashion and music); love and erotic discourse in the Polish poetry of the 20th and 21st century; visual and textual studies.

Łukasz Siciński is a lecturer in the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and

Cultures at Indiana University Bloomington. He received his PhD from the University of

Toronto, where he studied Polish and Czech literatures. His current research interests include

20th century Polish literature, philosophy of language, postwar Polish cinema, and contemporary

Czech cinema. He teaches Polish language, literature, and film.

Aleksandra Święcka, lecturer at Polonicum Centre of Polish Language and Culture for Foreigners at the University of Warsaw, is vice editor-in-chef of „Kwartalnik Polonicum”. She graduated in Polish Philology (M.A.) and Postgraduate Speech Therapy Course and completed her PhD in the Humanities (Linguistics and Language). Aleksandra Święcka is the author of a number of articles about teaching Polish to foreigners and of a Polish coursebook for teenagers. She cooperated with numbers of universities, among others: in Germany (Tubingen and Mainz), Scotland (Glasgow) and Austria (Vienna). She is a Visiting Professor at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Toronto (2018-2019). Her research interests are foreign language acquisition, teaching Polish to foreigners, methodology of teaching foreign languages, phonetics and orthography of Polish language, language correctness, visual-spatial communication, Polish Sign Language, Polish Sign Linguistics.

Łukasz Wodzyński is an Assistant Professor of Polish at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Toronto. He taught Polish and Russian languages, literatures, and cultures at the University of Toronto, University of British Columbia, and McMaster University. Former Acting Director of Polish Language and Literature Program at the University of Toronto. His research interests revolve around modernist and contemporary Polish and Russian literatures, postcommunism, the romance mode, and representations of adventure experiences in modern fiction.

Erik Houle is a lecturer of Russian and Polish. He earned his PhD in Slavic Linguistics from the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Chicago in 2013. He is currently involved in an Internet based cultural enrichment project with his colleague, Kinga Kosmala, for students of Elementary and Intermediate Polish. His current interests include foreign language pedagogy, the development of task-based curriculum, second-language acquisition, the development of a standards-based approach to Polish language education, and the incorporation of culture in the foreign language classroom

Wayles Browne is a linguist, working on syntax, morphology and phonology of Slavic languages. He taught Polish at Cornell University from approx. 1976 to 2012; since 2012 Cornell has had a full-time Polish language lecturer, Ewa Bachmińska. Wayles Browne teaches Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian and other Slavic courses.

Loyola University

Iwona Wajda is a Polish Dual Language teacher at Clearmont school in Elk Grove Village.

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Renata Elzbieta Martin was born in Krakow where she studied Polish Literature at UJ. After moving to the US, Renata received MA in Liberal Studies from Rutgers University (master thesis: annotated translation of works of Polish women's rights advocate Teofila Samolinska). Currently Renata is an EdD candidate in Applied Linguistics at Columbia. Renata also is a Certified ESL teacher. For last five years she has been teaching Polish at the Polska Szkola in Mahwah, NJ and also tutoring individual students in English. She is interested in applied linguistics, second language acquisition, methodology of teaching languages and bilingual/bicultural education.

Hunter College

Works at the University of Pennsylvania

Anna Zofia Gąsienica Byrcyn holds a Ph.D. degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has taught Polish language, literature, and culture courses at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Indiana University-SWSEEL, Saint Xavier University, University of Pittsburgh-SLI, Oakton College, and Loyola University. Additionally, she has taught French language and culture courses at SXU. Recently, she co- translated Eliza Orzeszkowa’s novel Marta (Ohio University Press/Swallow Press, 2018). Her essay Motyw światła i gliny w twórczości Joanny Pollakówny oraz Jacka Sempolińskiego appeared in Strony Joanny Pollakówny (UKSW, 2017). Her article O poezji Marty Fox pędzlem Miró pisanej was issued in Śląsk (2017). She also wrote Poetic Texts in Polish Heritage Classes for the East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies (2017). She published Pamiętnik, diariusz, dziennik na lekcji języka polskiego jako odziedziczonego in the Kwartalnik Polonicum (2018). In the past she translated Marta Fox’s poetry available in the bilingual edition Everything That Is Impossible (2012). She published articles and translations in The Polish Review, The Sarmatian Review, Modern Poetry in Translation, Lituanus, The Dirty Goat, Art Journal, and Visual Anthropology. Her essays on the poetry, tales, legends, art, music, and dances of the Tatras appeared in the Orzeł Tatrzański, Echo Podhalańskie, and Podhalanin. Moreover, she presented numerous papers at the international conferences in the USA, Poland, England, and Canada.

Part-time Lecturer of Polish at the University of Washington, Seattle

Lecturer at the Department of Slavic, East European and Eurasian Languages and Cultures, UCLA

Ewa Wampuszyc completed her PhD in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Michigan. She has been teaching Polish to university students since 1994. Currently, she is Assistant Professor of Polish at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she teaches Polish language courses at all levels, as well as literature, cinema, and culture courses. Her research focuses on the textual representation of Warsaw in literature, photography, and film.

Christopher West is an author of Poland at Law: Pragmatic Quid-Pro-Quo Nostrification, and the Polish–American Journal “1938-Revisited”. Former lecturer at the University of Białystok, and at the University of Warmia and Mazury; interpreter and language specials for the Polish-American Joined Task Forces White Eagle, Afghanistan.

Oscar E. Swan, whose Ph.D. is from UC Berkeley, is professor of Slavic languages and literatures at the University of Pittsburgh. Over the course of a forty-year-long career in Pittsburgh, Professor Swan has published reference grammars of Russian, Old Church Slavic, and Slovak. His Grammar of Contemporary Polish won the 2004 award by the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages. Among various other awards have been the Amicus Poloniae award by Poland Magazine (1986), the Polonicum Award for outstanding international contributions to the promulgation of Polish language, literature, and culture by Warsaw University (2007), and the Thesaurus Poloniae Award from the Center of International Culture in Kraków (2010). A recent publication is the Kaleidoscope of Poland: A Cultural Encyclopedia (2015, University of Pittsburgh Press). His current project is a translation of the eighteenth-century author Jędrzej Kitowicz’s Description of Polish Customs under the Reign of August III.

Krzysztof E. Borowski is a Ph.D. candidate in Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Kansas (KU) and he holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in Slavic Languages and Literatures from the University of Wrocław in Poland. A native speaker of Polish, he taught Polish language at KU at all levels (elementary, intermediate, advanced) for 5 years in addition to teaching and lecturing in a number of courses offered through the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Department of Anthropology, and the Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies. He is currently completing his dissertation on online political discourse in Poland, in which he explores the issues of identity, belonging, and nationalism in contemporary Poland from a sociolinguistic perspective. In his research, he is especially interested in the use of linguistic creativity for political purposes in collective discourses. His teaching interests include Polish studies (language, culture, film, society), discourse studies, and issues of language, identity, and nationalism in the Polish, Slavic, and European context.

Jolanta Bara-Gruszka is a former Polish language instructor at John Paul II Polish Language School in Walnut Creek, CA (Polish-American Educational Committee of San Francisco). She currently works as a linguist and Polish Language Specialist at Vaco at Google. Her professional interests involve NLP (Natural Language Procesing), generative grammar, X-bar theory and ontologies.

Alicja Bator-Naguib is a teacher at the Polish Language Center of Ann Arbor at Eastern Michigan University.

Justyna Zych is an Assistant Professor at the Polonicum Centre of Polish Language and Culture for Foreigners at the University of Warsaw. She has been teaching Polish at all levels of proficiency, as well as Polish culture and literature. From 2014 to 2016, she was a Visiting Professor at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Toronto. She also delivered lectures at many universities abroad, i.e. in France, Belgium, Hungary, Italy, Germany, Iceland, Great Britain, Russia, and South Korea.



Dr. Zych completed her Ph.D. in Literature at the University of Warsaw. She holds two Master’s degrees– in Polish Philology and in French Philology. She published a monograph titled L’Influence de la psychanalyse sur la critique littéraire en France (1914-1939) and numerous articles on contemporary Polish and French literature and on teaching language and culture. She is a member of the Group of Examiners, within the State Commission for the Certification of Proficiency in Polish. She is also editor-in-chief of the book series Studia Glottodydaktyczne.



Her research interests include: Polish and French literature of the 20th and 21st centuries, question of cultural alterity, images of Warsaw in Polish culture, Polish language correctness, teaching Polish culture, and foreign language acquisition.

Paulina Duda is a visiting instructor of Polish at Duke University and a lecturer in the New Media Art Department at Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology in Warsaw, where she teaches Music Videos and Introduction to Film Art. She received her PhD degree from the University of Michigan (2017), and her MA from the University College London. Her scholarly work focuses on the intersection of nationalism and filmmaking in Poland, film production and distribution under Communism, the director’s role in society as well as the aesthetics of music videos. She publishes essays, translations and reviews in East European Film Bulletin and Words without Borders, and is an organizer and a jury member of the long standing Ann Arbor Polish Film Festival.

Beata Gallaher received her Ph.D. in Russian and Second Language Acquisition from Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania, an MA in Germanic Linguistics and Polish Studies from Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany, and an MA in Russian Language and Literature from Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia. She has worked in Poland, Germany, Estonia, and the US. She has taught Polish, Russian, and German languages as well as culture, film, and pedagogy courses. She has taught Russian at Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore Colleges, PA, at the US Air Force Academy, CO, in Project GO in Estonia, and at the University of South Carolina. She has taught Polish at the University of Pennsylvania and in SLI at the University of Pittsburgh. Recently, she taught German to refugees in Berlin, Germany, and worked as a German teacher in Concordia Language Villages, MN.

Marzanna Owinski graduated from Warsaw University with Master of Arts in Polish Language and from Wayne State University with Master of Arts in Communication. She was a tutor of English, Polish, math, chemistry, and physics for K-8 for many years. She also specialized in tutoring children with learning disabilities, such dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia. She holds a Michigan Secondary Teacher Certification in Polish language. For the past seven years Marzanna has been teaching Polish language at Polish Language School in Orchard Lake to students of different ages (including adults) and levels of proficiency. She is also a principal of the school. For the last three years she has been a teacher of Polish language at Saint Mary's Preparatory in Orchard Lake. Since summer 2016, she has been working as a Polish Language Coordinator at the Polish Mission in Orchard Lake, MI. She is passionate not only about Polish language, but also its literature, culture, and arts.

Bernadeta Kamińska is a lecturer in the Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She teaches Polish language at all levels, courses in Polish literature and Polish Cinema. She is a native speaker, lived in Poland until 1989, studied in Poland and West Berlin (Germany). Her current interests include foreign language pedagogy, second-language acquisition. She administers Polish placement tests to all students who intend to continue studying Polish at UT or students who want to test out of a language requirement.

Agnieszka Taciak earned her MSEd from Warsaw University in Poland and her MA from SUNY Stony Brook. In the classroom for 14 years, Ms. Taciak teaches Earth Science and AP Environmental Science at the Centereach High School. Lucky to have been inspired by her own educators, Ms. Taciak aspires to make all learners feel confident, motivated, and comfortable to take ownership of their learning process. She is focusing on the scientific literacy and communication skills of her students. Agnieszka is passionate about encouraging her students to pursue careers in geoscience, hydrology, and meteorology by organizing trips and bringing speakers from respective fields to enhance the instruction. In her district, Agnieszka is involved in curriculum writing and Next Generation Science Standards alignment, and is a member of the Building Safety Committee. She serves as a professional development provider for the Polish Supplementary Schools of America, Inc., which provides (Language Other Than English) LOTE instruction to native English speakers. Agnieszka is an avid rock collector with an unquenchable desire to travel with her family to atypical vacation spots like Iceland and Chernobyl. As a NYS Master Teacher, Ms. Taciak is excited to collaborate with her colleagues to learn from their experiences on addressing the ways technology influences new generations of students.

Małgorzata Bacik is a dual Language teacher. She graduated from Gdansk University with BA in Polish Philology and from NLU with MAT in Early Childhood Education. She also has ESL, Bilingual and Polish as a Second Language endorsements. She has worked for a Polish Saturday School, fulfilling her passion and her profession. She works at elementary school in Chicago suburbs, where she shares her knowledge and love for literature and language in Polish and English.

Jakub Kubas is a fourth year undergraduate student of Political Science and History at the University of Michigan, and a Polish language instructor at the Polish Language Center of Ann Arbor.

Teacher, Kazimierz Pulaski Polish School in South Hackensack, NJ. Deputy editor of www.DobraPolskaSzkola.com in NYC.

University of Chicago

Anna Klin is a senior lecturer in Slavic Studies at WSU, Detroit. She teaches Polish language courses as well as Polish culture, literature, and film. Additionally, she leads a two week study abroad trip to Poland every year.

Christopher Caes is Lecturer in Polish at Columbia University. He earned his Ph.D. in Slavic Studies with a Designated Emphasis in Film Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He has taught previously at the University of Florida and Florida State University. His area of research is 20th-century Polish literature, film, and culture, and his teaching has included Polish and Russian Language, Polish Literature, Slavic Studies, Film Studies, East European History, Science Fiction Studies, and Norse Mythology and Culture.

University of Michigan

Joanna Pawlina came to the USA when she was a 10 year old girl. Her first educational experience in this country took place in one of Chicago Public School’s Polish Bilingual Classrooms. Since she was a little girl, she knew she wanted to be a teacher. In 2008, she became a certified teacher with a degree of BA in Early Childhood Education attained from the Northeastern Illinois Education. Being a teacher is her strongest passion, but not her only passion. Besides teaching, she loves theater. She loves being a spectator and an actress; she also is a teacher at a local Chicago theater group. Learning about the Polish language and traveling the world made the same list. She is very interested in Dual Language Education.

Diana Sacilowski is a PhD Candidate in Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Illinois. Urbana-Champaign. Her primary interests include 20th and 21st century Polish literature and culture, particularly in relation to problems concerning memory studies and representations of trauma. She has taught first and second year Polish and Polish culture at UIUC.