WIŚNIEWSKA Lidia

Born on 13 September 1954 in Bydgoszcz; daughter of Stefan Wiśniewski, who fought in the Greater Poland uprising of 1918/19 and was a civil servant before 1939, and Janina, née Frydrychowicz. She attended primary school in Bydgoszcz and Gostyczyn, before joining the Grammar School in Tuchola. She was a finalist at the Olympiad in Polish Literature and Language, as well as the Olympiad in Russian Language. She completed advanced secondary education in 1973 and then studied Polish philology at the Nicolaus Copernicus University (UMK) in Torun. During her studies, she was involved in the activities of the university Student Journalists' Club. After graduating with a master's degree in 1977, she spent two years working as a teacher at the Comprehensive School for Agriculture and Technical School for Working Adults in Kamienica. In 1979, she started a doctoral degree at the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IBL PAN) in Warsaw. She completed the programme in 1982 and took up a post at the Department of Philosophy at the Technical-Agricultural Academy (ATR) in Bydgoszcz (now: UTP University of Sciences and Technology), where she initially taught in cultural studies and later philosophy. In parallel in 1983/84, she took the Postgraduate Programme in Pedagogical Development for Academic Teaching Staff at the Higher School of Education (WSP) in Bydgoszcz. Her research focused on the history of twentieth-century Polish and world literature, comparative studies, and the philosophy of culture. She made her debut in 1986 with the article Człowiek między zwierzęciem, a maszyną (Humankind Between Animal and Machine), which appeared in the ATR journal "Zeszyty Naukowe ATR" (no. 149). In 1989, she defended her doctoral thesis, Ku uniwersalności. Rzecz o nowej powieści lat 1957–1981 (Towards Universality: A study of the new wave of novels, 1957-1981), at IBL PAN and was awarded a doctoral degree in humanities 1990. She was supervised by Prof. Alina Brodzka. In 1990, she took up a post as a lecturer at the Higher School of Education (WSP) in Bydgoszcz (which became the Bydgoszcz Academy in 2000 and then the Kazimierz Wielki University [UKW] in 2005). She was initially employed at the Department of Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century Literature before moving to the newly-created Department of Young Poland Literature that was part of the Institute of Polish Philology (later the Institute of Polish Philology and Cultural Studies). She was in Paris from May to July 1992 on a fellowship awarded by the Foundation for Supporting Independent Polish Literature and Scholarship. In 1993/94, she was a researcher at IBL PAN. She joined the T. Parnicki Literary Society in 1999. She was awarded a habilitation degree from IBL PAN in 2000 for her study Między biegunami i na pograniczu. O „Białym małżeństwie” Tadeusza Różewicza i poezji Zbigniewa Herberta (Between Poles and at the Limits: On Tadeusz Różewicz's "White Marriage" and the poetry of Zbigniew Herbert). She was appointed associate professor at Bydgoszcz Academy in 2001. That year, she became head of the Department of World Literature and Comparative Studies, which she had set up herself. In 2012, the Department became the Chair in World Literature and Comparative Studies at the Kazimierz Wielki University (UKW). In 2001/02, she served as deputy director of the Institute of Polish Philology at the Bydgoszcz Academy. From 2003 to 2008, she was a member of the Commission for Comparative Research of Slavic Literatures at the International Committee of Slavists. In 2003, she was appointed chair of the Bydgoszcz Branch of the Adam Mickiewicz Literary Society, joining the Society's Board in 2004 and becoming its deputy chair in 2012. She revived the Society's Comparative Commission in 2004, subsequently serving as its chair. Between 2005 and 2008, she also worked as an associate professor at the Chair of Cultural Studies at the University of Economy (WSG) in Bydgoszcz, initially serving as head and then in 2007/08 as a member of the Department of the Theory of Culture. In 2008, she joined the editorial college of the Adam Mickiewicz Literary Society's journal "Wiek XIX. Rocznik Towarzystwa Literackiego im. Adama Mickiewicza", initially as editor of the comparative studies section. In 2011, she was made state-appointed professor in the humanities and full professor at UKW. She organized several conference series, including international events such as the Inter-University Student and Faculty Sessions as part of the cycle Świat jeden, ale nie jednolity (A United World, but not a Uniform World; 1998–2002), as well as the conference series Mity, mitologie, mityzacje – nie tylko w literaturze (Myths, Mythologies, Mythologization: Not only in literature; 2003–08) and Mityczne postacie kultury (Mythical Figures in Culture; 2008–12). She also participated in numerous conferences and congresses, including international events. From 2012 to 2015, she organized four of the Adam Mickiewicz Literary Society's Small Educational Forums (Małe Fora Edukacyjne). She joined the UKW's Association for the Ethics of the Word (Stowarzyszenie Etyki Słowa) in 2008, the Polish Cultural Studies Association in 2009, the International Polish Studies Association in 2012, the Polish Comparative Literature Association in 2013 – serving as a member of the Association's Academic Board during the 2013-16 term, and the Scientific Council of the Second Congress of Teaching Polish Studies in 2015. She is the recipient of numerous rector's prizes in recognition of her research and teaching, including the Rector's Prize of ATR in 1990, the WSP in Bydgoszcz in 1997/98, Bydgoszcz Academy in 1999/2000 and 2002/03, and UKW, where she received a group prize in 2006/07 and an individual prize in 2011. She was awarded the Prize of the President of the City of Bydgoszcz in 2011, as well as the Silver (2001) and Gold Cross of Merit (2011). She lives in Bydgoszcz.