TEACHING & SUPERVISION

Teaching & Supervision

From Student to Academic Colleague

One of my former students, Dr hab. Agata Domachowska, NCU Professor, is now an established scholar of the Western Balkans, national and transnational identities, diasporas and the politics of memory.

Her trajectory—from student to independent researcher, university professor and academic collaborator—illustrates what I consider one of the most valuable outcomes of university teaching. Academic supervision should ultimately enable students to become autonomous scholars and, eventually, colleagues.

Agata subsequently succeeded me as Head of POSTCOMER—the Laboratory for Research on Collective Memory in Post-Communist Europe. This institutional continuity is particularly important to me: a research environment that I helped lead is now being developed by a former student as part of her own independent academic work.

Visit the POSTCOMER website

Our later collaboration has included research on memory politics, Central and Southeast Europe, and forms of civic memory created outside dominant state narratives. Alongside Łukasz Gemziak, Agata was also a member of the research team in the project “Millennium: Celebrating the Anniversary of the Baptism of Eastern and Central Europe—Comparative Analysis,” which I led as Principal Investigator.

Visit the Millennium project website

Teaching and Mentoring

Teaching and academic mentoring have been central to my work at Nicolaus Copernicus University since 2002. My courses have covered European and Central European studies, political and intellectual history, memory studies, comparative literature, cultural studies and the methodology of humanities research.

I understand supervision not only as support in completing a thesis or research project, but as part of a longer process of researcher formation. This includes helping students and early-career scholars formulate independent questions, develop methodological confidence, communicate their research and enter wider academic networks.

I have supervised approximately 70 completed Bachelor’s and Master’s theses and reviewed approximately 80 thesesat different levels.

Doctoral Supervision and Mentoring

Jakub Piosik-Beszterda

Jakub Piosik-Beszterda is a doctoral candidate at Academia Copernicana, the interdisciplinary doctoral school of Nicolaus Copernicus University. I am currently supervising his doctoral research and supporting his development within an interdisciplinary environment connecting intellectual history, the history of knowledge and the humanities.

Dr Łukasz Gemziak

I supported Łukasz Gemziak’s academic development at several successive stages, beginning with his undergraduate research. His Bachelor’s thesis, written under my supervision, received first prize in the Faculty of Languages competition for the best Bachelor’s thesis in 2009.

I subsequently served as assistant supervisor during his doctoral research. He is now a scholar and research-support specialist at Nicolaus Copernicus University and a long-term collaborator in projects concerning cultural memory, intellectual history and anniversary celebrations in Central and Eastern Europe.

Our collaboration has included the Millennium project and joint publications, including “Mnemonic Wars and Parallel Polis: The Anti-Politics of Memory in Central and Southeast Europe.”

Postdoctoral Supervision

As Director of the University Centre of Excellence IMSErt, I supervised and mentored postdoctoral researchers working across disciplinary and national boundaries.

Dr hab. Olga V. Solovieva

Her research examines transnational literary, intellectual and artistic circulation, particularly relations among Japanese, Russian, European and global cultures. Her work connects comparative literature, cinema and media studies with the history of knowledge and multidirectional cultural exchange.

In June 2026, she successfully completed her habilitation, based on her Oxford University Press monograph Russian Kurosawa. This achievement marked an important step towards full academic independence. Our subsequent scholarly collaboration also included my chapter “Knowledge–Memory–Freedom: The Relevance of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize,” published in her edited volume Belarus: Faces of Resistance.

Dr Francesco Trupia

His research focuses on minority identities, collective memory, post-socialist democratisation and the political and cultural transformations of Southeast Europe and the South Caucasus.

Our collaboration resulted, among other outcomes, in the co-authored - with Agata Domachowska and Łukasz Gemziak - article “Mnemonic Wars and Parallel Polis: The Anti-Politics of Memory in Central and Southeast Europe.”

Dr Brett Buttliere

His research combines psychology, science studies and quantitative approaches to scholarly communication. At IMSErt, his work addressed the functioning of science, research metadata, knowledge infrastructures and ways of improving academic systems through better use of openly available information.

Our subsequent collaboration included the interdisciplinary article “Scientists’ Contribution to the IDUB Rankings: Polish Researchers on the Google Scholar Platform,” published in Przegląd Biblioteczny in 2024. The study examined how researchers’ use of Google Scholar can contribute to the visibility and performance of Polish research universities.

Bachelor’s and Master’s Supervision

I have supervised approximately 70 completed Bachelor’s and Master’s theses in fields including:

  • European, national and transnational identities;

  • Central and Southeast European political thought and intellectual history;

  • collective memory and the politics of memory;

  • post-socialism, postcolonialism and social transformation;

  • migration, translingualism and cultural transfer;

  • comparative literature, world literature and cultural studies;

  • Czech, Serbian, Croatian and Russian literatures and cultures.

I have also served as a reviewer of approximately 80 Bachelor’s, Master’s and doctoral theses.

Doctoral and Researcher Development

Since 2018, I have taught courses and workshops for doctoral candidates, including: Research Communication and Dissemination in Literary Studies; Grant Application Writing Workshop. These courses connect academic writing with the wider professional development of researchers. They address the formulation of research questions, communication with disciplinary and non-specialist audiences, project design, funding strategies and the responsibilities involved in conducting and disseminating research.

Selected Teaching Experience

My teaching has combined European and regional studies with political thought, cultural history, memory studies, comparative literature and research methodology. Selected courses taught at Nicolaus Copernicus University, Adam Mickiewicz University and the University of Lower Silesia include:

Europe, Politics and Intellectual History

  • Balkan Political and Social Thought

  • Slavic and Balkan Political and Social Thought

  • Political Changes in the Balkans in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century

  • Russian Philosophical Thought

  • Political Philosophy in the Twentieth Century

  • Russia and the Slavic World

  • Slavic Political and Social Thought

  • Bitter Patriotism: Slavic Literatures and Identities at the Crossroads

Culture, Memory and Post-Socialism

  • Post-Socialism: Identities of the Transformation Era

  • Memory Culture in the Balkans

  • History of the Culture of the Balkans

  • Balkan Art from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Century

  • Slavic and Balkan Cultures

  • Intercultural Class

Comparative Literature and World Literature

  • World Literature

  • Comparative Literatures

  • Balkan Literatures in Comparison

  • Slavic Literatures in Comparison

  • Methodology of Comparative Studies

  • Comparative Studies Workshop

  • Introduction to Cultural and Literary Studies

Research Seminars

  • Bachelor’s Seminar

  • Master’s Seminar

  • Research Communication and Dissemination

  • Grant Application Writing