PRÓCHNIAK Paweł

Born on 22 November 1966 in Krakow. He completed his advanced secondary education at the Grammar School in Lesko. From 1987, he studied Polish philology at the Catholic University of Lublin (KUL). In 1991, he marked the launch of his pamphlet titled Wiersze (Poems) with a happening. He defended his master's thesis, titled Zło jako element konstrukcyjny w twórczości Tadeusza Micińskiego (zarys) (Evil as a building block in the works of Tadeusz Miciński [An outline]), in 1993. He was supervised by Dr Hanna Filipkowska ↑. He received the Prof. S. Chojnacki grant for the 1993/94 academic year. Between 1994 and 2001, he was a research assistant at the Chair of Polish Positivist and Young Poland Literature at KUL. He made his debut as a researcher in 1993, with an excerpt of his master's thesis published as Zło w poetyckim świecie Tadeusza Micińskiego. O kilku motywach w tomie „W mroku gwiazd” (Evil in the poetic world of Tadeusz Miciński. On several motifs in the volume "W mroku gwiazd" [In the twilight of the stars]), which appeared in the journal "Zeszyty Naukowe Katolickiego Uniwersytetu Lubelskiego" (nos 3-4). His research interests focused on Polish modernism, twentieth-century poetry, contemporary literature, and the art of interpretation. In 1994, he was a lecturer at the Lajos Kossuth University in Debrecen, Hungary. From 1997 to 2000, he served as secretary of the editorial board of the "Roczniki Humanistyczne", a yearbook published by the KUL Scientific Society. He then served on the journal's Editorial Committee from 2000 until 2018. From 1999, he collaborated with the Lublin-based NGO Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre Centre, where in 2018 he became head of the Laboratory of the Anthropology of Words that he founded there. He was awarded a doctoral degree from KUL in 2000 for his thesis O twórczości Ludwika Stanisława Licińskiego (On the works of Ludwik Stanisław Liciński). He was supervised by Prof. Stanisław Fita ↑. He was subsequently appointed lecturer. He was involved in the activities of the Lublin Regional Committee of the Olympiad in Polish Literature and Language between 2001 and 2005. In 2003, he was made a collaborating member of the Historical-Philosophical Section of the KUL Scientific Society before being appointed a corresponding member in 2008. He ended his membership in 2018. He was awarded a habilitation degree in 2007 for his book Pęknięty płomień. O pisarstwie Tadeusza Micińskiego (Cracked Flame: On the works of Tadeusz Miciński). In 2008, he was made professor at KUL. In 2008/09, he was appointed to the Chair of Modernist Literature at KUL, an initiative that he established. During this period, he was director of the Institute of Polish Philology at KUL. He was behind the establishment in 2008 of the national Miasto Poezji (City of Poetry) literary festival, which from 2010 was co-organized with the Chair of Contemporary Literature and Literary Criticism at the University of the National Education Commission (UP) in Krakow. From 2008 to 2010, he was a member of the chapter of the Kamień (Stone) poetry prize, which was part of the artistic and social activities linked to the Miasto Poezji festival. In 2009, he was made full professor at the Institute of Polish Philology at UP. The same year, he was a visiting researcher at Indiana University, Bloomington, USA, and was also appointed to the Organizing Committee of the Tenth Congress of Polish Philologists. In 2009, he initiated a discussion on the pages of the liberal Catholic weekly "Tygodnik Powszechny" (nos 22 and 42) on the threats and opportunities facing Polish studies. These debates resulted in the nationwide programme "Lekcja czytania z..." (A reading lesson with...), an initiative coordinated by the Tygodnik Powszechny Foundation. In 2009/10, he presented the programme Czytelnia (Reading Room) on the TVP Kultura station. In 2010, he conceived and organized a series of open seminars and masterclasses at UP. He also co-founded the national Conference of Heads of Doctoral Programmes in Philology, participating in the organization until 2013. He also became editor of the publication series Granice Wyobraźni (Boundaries of the Imagination), which appeared with the Pasaże Publishing House. From 2010 to 2019, he held the Chair in Contemporary Literature and Literary Criticism, which he conceived, before becoming an employee there (it is currently titled the Chair of Modern Literature and Literary Criticism). From 2011 to 2015, he was a member of the expert committee of the Promocja Literatury i Czytelnictwa (Promoting Literature and Reading) initiative, which was organized by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (MKiDN). On several occasions (2011/12, 2014/15, and 2018/19) he was a visiting professor at the Ca' Foscari University of Venice. He was awarded the title of professor in the humanities in 2012. The same year, he joined the Committee on Literary Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences (KNoL PAN) before subsequently being made its chair. In 2020, he was appointed to the Praesidium of KNoL, serving as the committee's scientific secretary during the 2020-2023 term. From 2012, he was editor-in-chief of the publication series Rozprawy Literackie (Literary Essays< sub-series Z piórem [With a pen]). In 2012/13, he conceived a B.A. programme titled Teksty kultury i animacja sieci (Cultural texts and online animation), which ran from 2013 to 2016 at the Institute of Polish Philology at KUL. In 2012, he served on the honorary committee of the celebrations of 30 years of the journal "Zeszyty Literackie" and then on 2016 on a similar initiative marking the 70th anniversary of the quarterly "Konteksty. Polska Sztuka Ludowa", which focuses on folk art and is published by the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences. From 2013, he served on the scientific council of the publication series Tropiki (Tropics) of the Wydawnictwo Czarne publishing house. He also served on the editorial committee of the periodical "Teka Lubelska" and on the competition jury of the H. Łopaciński Research Grant. He was involved in the organizing committee of the international conference Herbert 2014 and the national celebrations of Zbigniew Herbert's 90th birthday in 2013/14. He was the programme office of the board of the Z. Herbert Foundation between 2014 and 2020, while also serving on the Foundation Council from 2018. In 2014, he was appointed to the Council of the "Biuletyn Polonistyczny" (Polish Studies Bulletin) published by the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IBL PAN) and was also made editor-in-chief of the portal Strony Poezji. Polska poezja współczesna: kompendia, antologie, rozmowy (Poetry Pages. Polish contemporary poetry: Compendia, anthologies, conversations), an initiative that he also conceived. He was editor of an online publication series dedicated to significant Polish poets, Monografia w toku. Kompendium multimedialne (Book in Progress: A multimedia compendium). He joined the Polish PEN Club in 2016, becoming a member of its Council in 2022, serving as Treasurer before joining its Council Praesidium. In 2017, he received a special award for achievements in literary criticism and in the realm of social activities linked to poetry as part of the Kamień Prize. He joined the editorial board of the quarterly "Konteksty. Polska Sztuka Ludowa" in 2018. From 2018 to 2020, he served on the jury of the Nike Literary Prize, chairing it in 2020. He chaired the Council of the Discipline of Literary Studies at UP from 2019. The same year, he was appointed to the scientific council of the philology and linguistics series of the "Research Journal of Drohobych Ivan Franko State Pedagogical University" . He initiated and co-organized the nationwide Podaruj wiersz (Gift a poem; 2019–20) programme as well as the Wroclaw-based initiative Słowa z popiołu (Words from ashes; 2019, 2022). He collaborated in research and administrative roles with various research institutions including IBL PAN, the Chair of Twentieth-Century Literary History at the Jagiellonian University (UJ) in Krakow, the Chair of the History of Positivist and Young Poland Literature at UJ, the Department of Poetics and Literary Criticism at the Adam Mickiewicz University (UAM) in Poznan, and the Department of the Theory and Anthropology of Culture at UJ. In 2020, he was appointed the Scientific and Programme Council of the conference series Przed i Po (Before and After), organized by the City of Zabrze and the Silesian University in Katowice. In 2021, he was appointed to the three-person council assessing the activities of the PAN Institute of Literary Research for the period 2017-2020. He chaired the mid-term assessment committee in the field of literary studies (Polish literature) at the Doctoral School of Humanities at the University of Warsaw for the 2021/22 period. In 2022, he was appointed the Literary History Commission of the Krakow branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The same year, he joined the Board of the Section for Authors of Scientific Works at the Polish Society of Authors and Composers (ZAiKS). In 2022, he became a member of the jury of the Silesius Wroclaw Poetry Prize. He was appointed to the Scientific Council of the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences for the 2023-26 term. He published articles and scholarly reviews in periodicals including "Teksty Drugie" (1998), "Ruch Literacki" (2002), "Pamiętnik Literacki" (2004), "Kresy" (2007 and 2009), and "Konteksty" (2011, 2016–17, 2019, and 2021–22). He collaborated as a literary critic with periodicals including "Tygodnik Powszechny" (its magazine supplement "Książki w Tygodniku", 2005–10 and 2012), "Bliza" (2010, 2012, and 2016), "dwutygodnik.com" (2010), and "Gazeta Wyborcza" (2010–11, 2013, 2015, and 2021–22). He was awarded the Lublin 700th Anniversary Medal in 2017. He lives in Lublin and Krakow.