Dr. Agnieszka Jeżyk has just arrived in Seattle for her new position as the Maria Kott Endowed Assistant Professor of Polish Studies at the UW Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures. In January 2024 she started teaching her first course “Modern Polish Literature in English” focusing on intellectual and cultural history in literary works during Cold War which already attracted great student interest. She will be teaching Polish language, literature, and culture classes and will take on a leadership position in promoting Polish Studies at the University of Washington. Widely published, Professor Jeżyk specializes in the Polish avant-garde poetry of the interwar period and Slavic horror studies. Her public lecture at the UW in February 2023 discussed poetry and paintings of Tytus Czyżewski. Dr. Jeżyk earned her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois Chicago and has taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the University of California Los Angeles, and most recently at the University of Toronto, Canada.

The University of Washington Polish Studies Endowment Committee in Seattle established the Maria Kott Endowed Professorship of Polish Studies at the Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures in 2022. The long-term goal was achieved thanks to many private donors, and a generous gift from Ryszard Kott in honor of his late wife Maria, who loved Polish art, music, theater, history, and literature, and supported Polish Studies with great passion.

The Professorship will assure that Polish language and culture will be taught at the University of Washington in perpetuity! The Endowed Professorship of Polish Studies at the University of Washington is the first of its kind on the West Coast of the United States.

Welcome and good luck, Professor Jeżyk!

More: Dr. Jeżyk bio

by KU & RK