KLOCH Zbigniew

Born on 6 August 1951 in Warsaw; son of the qualified workers Józef Kloch and Jadwiga, née Dębska. He was a pupil at the Basic Vocational School (Zasadnicza Szkoła Zawodowa No. 2) followed by the Technical School of Mechanics in Warsaw, completing his secondary education there in 1972. Between 1974 and 1978, he studied Polish philology at the University of Warsaw (UW). From 1979 to 1982 he was on the doctoral programme at the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IBL PAN). He made his debut in 1980 with a review of I. Opacki's study Poetyckie dialogi z kontekstem (Poetic Dialogues Set in Context), which was published in "Pamiętnik Literacki" (no. 3). From 1983 he was employed as an assistant at the Department of Theoretical Poetics and Literary Language (currently the Department of Theoretical Poetics) at IBL PAN. In 1985, he defended his doctoral thesis, Konwencje literackie w poezji polskiej okresu pierwszej wojny światowej (Literary Conventions in Polish First World War-era Poetry) at IBL PAN, where he was supervised by Prof. Michał Głowiński. He was subsequently appointed lecturer. His research focused initially on poetics and then literary theory, the theory of signs, literary communication, sociolinguistic cultural theory, and popular culture, while in later years he was also interested in shifts in Polish cultural identity in the wake of the collapse of communism. His articles and essays appeared in journals including "Pamiętnik Literacki" (1980, 1998, 2000, 2013) and "Teksty Drugie" (2003, 2006, 2009). In 1992/93 he collaborated with the daily newspaper "Gazeta Wyborcza" as a literary critic. In 1993/94 he was a scriptwriter and filmmaker, working on social, cultural and literary themes for Polish Television's (TVP) Educational Television branch. The programmes he worked on included the documentary series Książki, które wstrząsnęły światem (Books that Shook the World). Between 1993 and 1998, he was director of the Postgraduate Programme in Polish Studies at IBL PAN. In 1995, he was awarded a habilitation degree from IBL PAN for his book Spory o język (Language Controversies), before being appointed senior lecturer the following year. From 1995 he was involved in the creation of a two-year interdisciplinary postgraduate degree programme, the Humanities School (Szkoła Nauk Humanistycznych) at IBL, running it until 1998. He received a fellowship from the M. and B. Suchodolski Research Foundation (Fundacja Popierania Działalności Naukowej im. M. i B. Suchodolskich) in 1995, while he was also a research fellow in Paris at École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in 1997. On several occasions he was a visiting fellow at the Charles University in Prague and at Université de Franche-Comté in Besançon. Between 1995 and 2011, he was deputy director of the Board of the Foundation of the Center for International Polish Studies (Fundacja Centrum Międzynarodowych Badań Polonistycznych). In 1999, he successfully applied for the post of associate professor at UW to work at the Centre for Studies on the Classical Tradition in Poland and East-Central Europe (OBTA; which in 2008 became the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies “Artes Liberales” at UW and in 2012 the Faculty of "Artes Liberales" at UW). He gave seminars and lectures on literary theory, sociolinguistics and social communication. Between 1997 and 2009, he was acting deputy director of the College of Inter-area Individual Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences (MISH UW). In 1999/2000 he was involved in the Moduł MISH 2000 educational project. He contributed entries to Słownik pojęć i tekstów kultury (The Dictionary of Cultural Concepts and Texts, published in 2002). From 2005 to 2009, he was co-director of the introductory course for applications to the Interdisciplinary Doctoral Programme at OBTA UW, while he also contributed to the development of the study programme at the Institute of "Artes Liberales". He received the UW Rector's Prize in 2003 and 2015. He was a member of the Scientific Boards of IBL (from 1995), the MISH UW College (from 1999), the "Artes Liberales" Academy (from 2000), the Programmatic Council of UW's Interdisciplinary Doctoral Programme (2004 to 2008) and the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies “Artes Liberales” at UW (from 2008). In 2010, he was appointed associate professor at IBL, while in 2012 he was made state-appointed professor and full professor at UW. Between 2012 and 2015, he managed the grant-funded project Znakowe wartości kultury: aspekt historyczny, tożsamość i zmiana (Sign-based Cultural Values: Historical aspects, identity and changes) and on the Laboratorium Semiotyczne (Semiotic Laboratory) research project at the Faculty of "Artes Liberales" at UW. In 2015, he moved from the Department of Theoretical Poetics to the Center for Philological Studies and Scholarly Editing at IBL PAN. In 1978, he married the psychologist Izabella. He has two daughters, Agnieszka and Adelina. She lives in Warsaw.