NYCZ Ryszard

Born on 9 December 1951 in Krakow; son of Mieczysław Nycz and Józef, née Chroma. He attended the A. Witkowski Grammar School No. V in Krakow from 1965 to 1969. He graduated with a degree in Polish philology from the Jagiellonian University (UJ) in Krakow in 1974. From 1975 he was employed as an assistant (from 1978 as senior assistant) at the Department of Historical Poetics of the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IBL PAN). He made his debut with the article Dwa pejzaże Reymonta (Reymont's Two Landscapes), which appeared in "Pamiętnik Literacki" in 1974 (no. 3). He continued the publish articles in this literary quarterly in subsequent years. From 1976 to 1978, he was secretary of the editorial committee of the IBL PAN publication series Rozprawy Literackie (Literary Essays). He subsequently served as secretary of the editorial board of IBL's bimonthly "Teksty" until the publication was suspended in 1981. That year he was appointed to the Scientific Council of IBL. From the outset of his research career, he combined explorations in the fields of literary history and literary theory with interpretative practice as part of his studies of twentieth-century Polish literature (from modernism onwards) in the context of Polish and European culture. He was awarded a doctoral degree in 1983 for his dissertation Sylwy współczesne. Problem konstrukcji tekstu (Contemporary Silvae: Problems of textual construction), which was supervised by Prof. Janusz Sławiński. The following year he was appointed lecturer at IBL PAN. From 1985 to 1990, he served on the editorial college of "Pamiętnik Literacki". From 1988 he also worked in parallel at the Institute of Polish Philology at UJ. In 1990, he became editor-in-chief of the revived IBL bimonthly, now published as "Teksty Drugie" (Second Texts), contributing introductory editorials to particular issues as well as longer essays. He also published in periodicals including "Pamiętnik Literacki" and "Ruch Literacki". In 1991, he was a research fellow at Yale (New Haven, USA) and at the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) in Vienna in 1992. He was awarded a habilitation degree from IBL PAN in 1992 for his study Tekstowy świat. Poststrukturalizm a wiedza o literaturze (Textual World: Poststructuralism and literary studies). In 1994, he was appointed senior lecturer at IBL. From 1995 to 2008 he was a member of the editorial board of the literary and artistic journal "Studium. Pisma literacko-artystyczne". In 1995 he was also appointed to the board of the Center for International Polish Studies. He collaborated with the Krakow-based publishing house Universitas, serving as head of the editorial committee of the series Horyzonty nowoczesności: teoria – literatura – kultura (Horizons of Modernity: theory, literature, culture) from 1997 and then as co-editor, alongside Włodzimierz Bolecki, of the series Modernizm w Polsce (Modernism in Poland) from 2004. He was a research fellow at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz in 1997. After being made state-appointed professor that year, he worked as associate professor at IBL and UJ from 1998 before being made full professor in 2002. In 2000, he was appointed to the Chair of Literary Anthropology and Cultural Studies at the Faculty of Polish Studies at UJ. He also served as associate dean of the faculty until 2005. During this period he led the research project Polska nowoczesność: poetyka i kultura (Polish modernity: Poetics and culture), whose aim was to further develop the idea of a cultural literary theory. The project was funded by a professorial grant as part of the Mistrz (Master) programme of the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP). From 2000 to 2011 he served on the Central Commission for Academic Degrees and Titles in Humanities and Social Sciences Section I. He also joined the State Committee for Scientific Research in 2000, serving on the Section for Literary and Library Studies, before the organ was reorganized in 2004 to become the Scientific Council of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. Nycz was a member of various sections, including the Research Commission for the Development of Science and the Interdisciplinary Group for Research Ethics (2005-2010). He was appointed to the jury of the Kazimierz Wyka Prize in 2001 and the Jan Długosz Prize in 2003. He was a member of the Editorial Council of the periodical "Er(r)go. Teoria – Literatura – Kultura" in 2000, the Advisory Committee of "Principia. Pismo koncepcyjne z filozofii i socjologii teoretycznej" (from 2001) and the Programme Council of "Przegląd Kulturoznawczy" from 2006. Between 2002 and 2006 he led the commissioned interdisciplinary research project Polskie dziedzictwo kulturowe w nowej Europie (Polish cultural heritage in the New Europe), which was conducted in collaboration with the Institute of Literature of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and Uppsala University. From 2003 he was involved in the activities of the Committee on Literary Studies of the Polish Academy of Science (KNoL). In 2004, he was made a corresponding member of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences (PAU). In 2008, he received an honorary doctoral from the Senate of the University of Opole. In 2009, he was appointed head of the Doctoral Studies Programme at the Faculty of Polish Studies at UJ, while in 2010 he was chair of the Conference of Directors of Doctoral Programmes in Philology. He organized the Transdisciplinary Summer School that was established by the Conference, while in 2012 he became editor of the publication series Nowa Humanistyka (New Humanities), which emerged from the summer school and was published by the IBL Publishing House. In 2010, he was elected corresponding member of PAN and made a member of the Council of Curators of Section I of the Polish Academy of Sciences. That year he joined the programme council of the online journal "Kultura i Historia". He was a tutor at the Artes Liberales Academy and at Collegium Invisible. From 2010 to 2012 he was a member of the Board of the National Science Centre (NCN), chairing its Commission for the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. In 2014, he became co-editor with Teresa Walas of the series Cross-Roads. Polish Studies in Culture, Literary Theory, and History, which is published by the Peter Lang Publishing House. He has also served on the scientific committee of the series Testi, Studi e Strumenti published by the La Sapienza University publishing house, the series Polish Studies published by Academic Studies Press at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, on the Scientific Council of the Ossolineum – Ossoliński National Institute, the Editorial Committee of the Polish National Library's Biblioteka Narodowa series, and on the Scientific Councils of the Archive of PAU and PAN. From 2014 to 2016 – when the Ministry of Science and Higher Education terminated the Board's term prematurely – he was chair of the Board of the National Programme for the Development of the Humanities (NPRH). In 2015, he was appointed deputy chair of the Krakow Branch of PAN. He was awarded the Prize of the Prime Minister of Poland in 2003 in recognition of his outstanding academic achievements. In 2003 and 2013 he received the UJ Rector's prize, while in 2015 he received the Jagiellonian Laurel from the Rector. He received the Gold Cross of Merit in 1998, the Medal of the Commission of National Education in 2002 and the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta in 2005. He married Małgorzata Bahr in 1979. She is currently editor-in-chief of the publishing house Wydawnictwo Literackie. He has a son, Grzegorz, who is a political scientist. He lives in Krakow.