Tomasz Gęsina
MA in Polish philology, PhD student at the Comparative Literature Department, lecturer at the School of Polish Language and Culture at the University of Silesia. He completed post-graduate Qualification Studies in Teaching Polish Culture and Polish as a Foreign Language. He is interested in the Polish prose of the twentieth and twenty-first century, the theory of literature (especially research on the category of space) and Polish language glottodidactics. Author of articles published in magazines and collective monographs. Co-editor of books: Przestrzeń – literatura – doświadczenie. Z inspiracji geopoetyki (together with Zbigniew Kadłubek; Katowice 2016) and Kuchnia w języku i kulturze dawniej i dziś (together with Wioletta Wilczek; Katowice 2018).
Janina Janas
Professor and researcher at the University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Italy. She started her carrier at University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland. Then she has worked for 16 years at the University of Naples (Italy). From 2002 Janina Janas is teaching polish language, literature and culture at University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Italy. At the beginning her researches were focused on polish linguistic. Afterwards her researches and publications concentrate on influences of Italian literature in Polish literature, on translation studies and autobiography. She is the precursor of Kazimiera Alberti’s biography and works. She published several monographs and papers, for example: La letteratura maccheronica in Polonia, Szkice o literaturze i języku polskim, Dwie wersje poematu o Orfeuszu – Marino i Lubomirski. Podobieństwa tekstu a różnice kulturowe, Jan Andrzej Morsztyn sommelier barocco. She is the editor-in-chief of “Fabrica Litterarum Polono-Italica”.
Giulia Kamińska Di Giannantonio
MA in Silesian Study and in Italian Philology. PhD student at Institute of Literary Studies at the University of Silesia. She is interested in the Polish and Italian contemporary literature, especially research on the category of space and on the regional identity.
Anna Krawczyk
MA in Polish philology, librarian. In 2010–2014 she was a PhD student at the Department of Comparative Literature of the University of Silesia. She works in networks (Labib, Superbelfrzy), is a trainer in the Coding Masters project (leading training for children, youth and adults from Scratch to Java) and a member of the Hackerspace Silesia association, also engaged in the activities of an informal group of technology activists Code for Poland. Mother of daughter, enthusiast of sharing knowledge, dispersed communities and design thinking.
Halina Magiera
PhD, a graduate of the from University of Silesia in Katowice; she works at the J. Fałat Elementary School No. 2 with Sports-Focused Classes in Bystra (Bielsko County, Poland). In her PhD thesis she focused on Kazimiera Alberti’s biography and works. She has also written several papers on Alberti, i.e.: Od popularności do literackiego niebytu („Bielsko-Żywieckie Studia Teologiczne”. Vol. 11. Bielsko-Biała 2010), Prasa i dokumenty życia społecznego międzywojnia o sprawach kulturalnych Kazimiery Alberti („Studia Bibliologiczne”. Vol. 19. Katowice 2011), „…w typie swoim jedyny w Polsce” – o Witkacym w listach Kazimiery Alberti do Marii Grabowieckiej („Witkacy!” 2018, no. 2).
Karolina Pospiszil
PhD, an assistant professor at the Chair of Comparative Literature (Department of Philology, University of Silesia in Katowice); her research focuses on literature of Central European borderlands and regions; she is also interested in geocriticism, geopoetics, regionalism (cultural, ethnic and national) minorities literatures and cultural identity issues. She has written i.a. a book Swojskość i utrata. Obrazy Górnego Śląska w polskiej i czeskiej literaturze po 1989 roku (2016) and papers published i.a. in “Bohemistyka”, “Postscriptum Polonistyczne”, “Studia Slavica”, “Przekłady Literatur Słowiańskich /Translations of Slavic Literatures” and in multiauthor monographs; she also edited a number of books, e.g. two volumes of a series Polonistyka na początku XXI wieku. Diagnozy — koncepcje — perspektywy (Katowice 2018), a third volume of a series Adaptacje, i.e. Implementacje, konwergencje, dziedziczenie (Katowice 2018), and a book devoted to Stanislaw Baranczak’s work Barańczak. Postscriptum (Katowice 2016).
Rosalba Satalino
PhD student at Department of Theory and History of Culture (Zakład Teorii i Historii Kultury), Institute of Culture Studies and Interdisciplinary Studies (Instytut Nauk o Kulturze i Studiów Interdyscyplinarnych) at Department of Polish philology of the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland. She attended postgraduate education for the Teaching of Polish Culture and Language as Foreign Language (Podyplomowe Studia Kwalifikacyjne Nauczania Kultury Polskiej i Języka Polskiego jako Obcego) at University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland. She finished her bachelor’s studies in Culture of modern languages and tourism at Università degli Studi di Bari A. Moro, Italy and the master one in Modern Language and Literature at Università degli Studi di Bari A. Moro, Italy. She is interested in the cultural image of province and centre in polish literature, above all about the italian province in the polish literary works. She attends educational conferences. She published two articles: O nauczaniu literatury polskiej – wrażenia Włoszek uczących się jpjo (with Adriana Loiodice). „Kwartalnik Polonicum” 2018, nr 28/29 and Bari jako obraz włoskiej prowincji w wybranych tekstach literackich – z dala od narracji o miejscach centrycznych. In: Etno-grafie, kulturo-grafie. Ed. K. Gęsikowska, K. Kozakowski (Katowice 2018).
Tadeusz Sławek
Professor of comparative literature at the University of Silesia, between 1996 and 2002 the Rector of this University. With the double bass player Bogdan Mizerski performs essays for voice and double bass. Most important publications: Maszyna do pisania. O teorii literatury Jacques’a Derridy (with Tadeusz Rachwał; Warszawa 1992), Literary voice: the calling of Jonah (with Donald Wesling; Albany, N.Y. 1995), U-bywać. Człowiek, świat, przyjaźń w twórczości Williama Blake’a (Katowice 2001), Antygona w świecie korporacji (Katowice 2002), Revelations of Gloucester: Charles Olson, Fitz Hugh Lane and writing of the place (Frankfurt a.M. [et al.] 2003), Ujmować. Henry David Thoreau i wspólnota świata (Katowice 2009), NIC-owanie świata. Zdania z Szekspira (Katowice 2012), U-chodzić (Katowice 2015), Nie bez reszty. O potrzebie niekompletności (Mikołów 2018).
Sara Spina
Studied Polish and Arabic language and literature at Bari University, Italy. She is interested in the popular literature and the linguistic and religious minorities in Eastern Europe and Middle East. She attended a Master in History of Islam at Ankara University. She taught Italian, English, Arabic and Latin at university and language schools in Turkey. Currently she works as Italian lecturer for the Italian Embassy in Sudan. She is working on translation and collection of traditional Sudanese tales.