KOZIOŁEK Ryszard

[P] Born on 23 March 1966 in Bielsko-Biała. He was raised in the village of Jasienica in the Cieszyn region of Silesia. After completing his advanced secondary education in 1986, he studied Polish philology at the University of Silesia (UŚ) in Katowice. As a student, he had a part-time job as a night watchman at a transport depot in Sosnowiec-Niwka. He graduated with a master's degree in 1991 and then took up a post at the Department of Post-Romantic Literary History that was part of the Institute of the Study of Polish Literature – INoLP (which from 2005 was named after Ireneusz Opacki and in 2009 became the Institute of Literary Studies) at UŚ. He made his debut in 1994 with the article Co to jest „Z”? Postać literacka w przestrzeni intertekstualnej Parnickiego „I u możnych dziwny” (What is 'Z'? Literary protagonists in the intertextual space of Parnicki's "I u możnych dziwny" [Odd Among the Mighty]), which appeared in the journal "Pamiętnik Literacki" (vol. 1). He was awarded a doctorate from UŚ in 1997 for his dissertation Mimesis w „Twarzy Księżyca” Teodora Parnickiego (Mimesis in Teodor Parnicki's "Twarz Księżyca" [The Face of the Moon]). He was supervised by Prof. Krzysztof Kłosiński. He subsequently took up a position as a lecturer. His research focused on themes including the history of Positivist literature, particularly the works of Henryk Sienkiewicz, and Modernist literature; the history and theory of the novel, including the work of Teodor Parnicki; the anthropology of narration; connections between literature and film; and the social function of literary studies. His articles, essays and reviews continued to appear in "Pamiętnik Literacki" (1996, 2006, 2009, and 2012) as well as in other periodicals, including "FA-art" (intermittently 1995-2010), "Tygodnik Powszechny" (since 2003), and "Świat i Słowo" (2005, 2007, and 2010; he served on its Editorial Committee before being appointed to its Scientific Council in 2023). He expanded his popularizing activities, giving talks on the subject of the connections between film and literature as part of youth film academies (1992-2017) as well as public lectures for schoolchildren from Silesia and the Coal Basin (since 1997). He joined the T. Parnicki Literary Society, serving as its vice president from 2006. He was a member of the University Accreditation Commission (UKA; until 2017) and the Historical Commission of the Polish Academy of Sciences' Katowice Branch. He conceived and implemented a programme of interdisciplinary individual studies at UŚ. He served as a mentor to the Academic Circle of Students of the Interfaculty Indivudual Humanities Programme (MISH) between 2007 and 2010. In 2011, he served as director of MISH and then from 2014 as director of the College of Interdisciplinary Individual Studies (ISM). He was a tutor for MISH students and then later at the ISM College. He also conceived and implemented the module Praca w zespołach ds. opracowywania rozwiązań problemów niejednorodnych (Working in teams finding solutions to heterogeneous problems). He was involved in the research project Stanisław Brzozowski – (Ko)repetycje. Z genealogii nowoczesnej literatury i kultury w Polsce (Stanisław Brzozowski: (Re)Teaching. On the genealogy of modern literature and culture in Poland; 2009-12). He was awarded a habilitation degree in 2010 for his academic achievements and the study Ciała Sienkiewicza. Studia o płci i przemocy (Sienkiewicz's Bodies: Studies on gender and violence), for which he received the Gdynia Literary Prize. He was subsequently appointed associate professor at UŚ. Between 2012 and 2020, he was vice-rector for education and students at UŚ. He was a member of the editorial board of the Polish studies journal "Śląskie Studia Polonistyczne" and served on the programme council of the legal college quarterly "Kwartalnik Krajowej Szkoły Sądownictwa i Prokuratury" from 2014. His articles, essays and reviews continued to appear in periodicals including "Tygodnik Powszechny" and its supplements such as "Książki w Tygodniku" (2011-14). In 2021, alongside Katarzyna Kubisiowska he co-authored the podcast Punkt zwrotny (Turning Point), which was part of the periodical's podcast discussion series Podkast Powszechny. He also collaborated with the current affairs weekly "Polityka" (from 2012; becoming a regular correspondent in 2022), the daily "Gazeta Wyborcza" (from 2013) and the book magazine "Książki" (from 2014). He was co-creator and co-organizer of a series of interdisciplinary conferences and seminars run in collaboration with the Katowice Music Academy. He travelled to Italy (2011, Universita degli Studi di Bari) and the Germany (2013, the Slavonic Studies section at the Faculty of Languages and Literature at the University of Freiburg) as a visiting lecturer. In 2012, he was a visiting professor at the University of Warsaw (UW) where he developed a support programme for doctoral researchers and university teachers titled Nowoczesny Uniwersytet – kompleksowy (Complex, modern University). He was a juror on the Kacze Pióro (Duck Feather) National Review of Children and Youth Literature organized at the Youth Palace in Katowice, on the Wiosna Literacka (Literary Spring) National Literary Competition in Sławków in 2011, the Strefy Kontaktu (Contact Zones) Playwriting Festival organized by the City of Wroclaw and the city's Współczesny (Contemporary) Theatre from 2017. He was a guest and co-presenter at the Conrad Festival in Krakow between 2012 and 2015. At the 2019 edition of the literary festival, he gave the Annual Joseph Conrad Lecture. His talk was titled Rzeczywistość szuka literatury (Reality as the art of literature). He was appointed to the chapter responsible for awarding grants in the field of culture issued by the Marshall of the Voivodeship of Silesia. Between 2012 and 2015, he served on the jury of the Nike Literary Prize, chairing it in 2015. In 2016, he was appointed Director General of the Silesian Science Festival in Katowice. He was awarded the title of professor of the humanities in 2016. He won the Kazimierz Wyka Prize in 2017 for outstanding achievements in essay-writing and literary and artistic criticism. With the passing of a new statute of the University of Silesia in 2019 and subsequent organizational changes, he continued to work in the Faculty of Humanities, now at the Institute of Literary Studies. In 2020, he was elected rector of UŚ for the 2020-24 term and also deputy chair of the Conference of Rectors of Polish Universities (KRUP) for the 2020-24 term. In March 2020, he started co-hosting the podcast Poczet Pisarzy Polskich (Retinue of Polish Writers) alongside Ewa Niewiadomska for Radio Katowice. In 2023, he was appointed chair of the chapter of the Ranking of Grammar Schools and Technical Schools organized by the Perspektywy portal. He is married to the UŚ literary studies scholars Krystyna. They have two sons.