history - kronika

English studies in Poznań: 1919-2006

A historical sketch

English language and literature were taught at the University of Poznań soon after its foundation in 1919. The first English lecturers were O. Callier and Ralph Lowell. The Department of English, however, was established at the University of Poznań in 1921, and a British scholar, W.A. Massey (1884-1960) was appointed professor. Professor Massey's main interest was language, but he was also known for his literary interests and for his translations of Polish literature (Sienkiewicz, Kuncewiczowa) and works by Polish scholars, especially concerning Polish-German relations and Polish history. Professor Massey worked in Poznań until 1939 and returned to his position in 1946. One of Professor Massey's promising young collaborators was Dr Z.M. Arend, who worked in the area of English pronunciation and the history of English. Arend was working on his habilitation (post-doctoral) dissertation on suprasegementals in the Ormulum when World War II broke out. Unfortunately, he was killed by the Nazis in 1944. The pre-war Department of English in Poznań was small; no more than five students a year graduated before 1939. In 1939 Poznań awarded its only Ph.D. in English to Irena Dobrzycka, who later became a professor at the University of Warsaw.

The Department of English in Poznań reopened in 1945 after World War II. Professor Massey returned in 1946 and stayed until 1950. The number of junior staff members was rather small, but in 1948/49 the number of students reached a peak of 300, i.e., ten times more than before the war.

Like all other departments of English in Poland (except Warsaw and the Catholic University in Lublin), the Poznań Department was closed for students in 1952. Henryk Zbierski (later professor of literature in the reopened department) remained as the only staff member until 1966.

The year 1956 ushered in a new political atmosphere, and the Ministry of Higher Education decided to reopen departments of English gradually, and wherever qualified staff members were available. In 1965 the Poznań department was reopened. Dr Jacek Fisiak, a former student of Professor Schlauch and Professor Grzebieniowski, completed his habilitation dissertation (his Ph.D. was written under the supervision of Prof. Grzebieniowski) on the morphemic structure of Chaucer's English that year. On 1 December 1965 he was appointed to the position of docent in Poznań, and became the head of the Department in Poznań. In October 1966 the first group of 48 students enrolled in the Department. In the same year Dr Henryk Zbierski, a former student of Prof. Massey, completed his habilitation dissertation on Shakespeare and became the second docent in the department. In 1968 Docent Kazimierz Polański, who specialized in general and Slavic linguistics, also joined the Department. In 1968 the department was converted into the School of English (=Institute) with four departments (English Language – headed by Docent Fisiak; English-Polish Contrastive Linguistics - headed by Docent Polański; Teaching English as a Foreign Language, later renamed English Language Didactics – headed by senior lecturer Dr Waldemar Marton, a former student of Prof. Schlauch (Ph.D. written under the supervision of Docent Fisiak); and English and American Literature – headed by Docent Zbierski). From 1966 to 1968 Docent Wiktor Jassem, head of the Department of Phonetics, taught in the English department. The same year Docent Fisiak was appointed head (=director) of the School and ran it for forty years until 2005. In 1971 he was appointed professor extraordinarius. In 1972 the first habilitation in American literature in Poland was completed in Poznań by Dr Andrzej Kopcewicz, a former student of Professor Helsztyński (Ph.D. supervision – Prof. Fisiak); Dr Kopcewicz became a docent in 1973. In the same year Dr Marta Sienicka, a former student of Prof. Grzebieniowski (Ph.D. supervision – Docent Zbierski) completed her habilitation on American poetry, and Dr Waldemar Marton completed his habilitation on English language teaching; they both became docents in 1974. In 1974 a separate department of American literature was established with Docent Kopcewicz as its head. In 1973 Docent Polański became professor extraordinarius and left Poznań to organize the School of Modern Languages at the University of Silesia (Katowice). In 1975 Dr Wiesław Awedyk, a former student of Prof. Fisiak, completed his habilitation on umlaut and breaking in Germanic, and subsequently became a docent in the School of English in Poznań. In January 1977 Prof. Fisiak became full professor (ordinarius). In the same year Dr Wojciech Lipoński, who joined the School in 1973, completed his habilitation on English-Polish relations in the early 19th century and became a docent in 1978. That year a new department of Polish-Anglo-Saxon Cultural Relations was established with Docent Lipoński as its head. In 1979 Docent Zbierski became professor extraordinarius and in 1985 professor ordinarius. In 1981 Dr Tadeusz Zabrocki a former student of Prof. Fisiak, did his habilitation on generative syntax, and Dr Karol Janicki (Ph.D. supervision – Prof. Marton) completed his habilitation on sociolinguistics. Both were appointed docents in 1982. Docent Zabrocki filled the vacant position of the head of the Department of Contrastive Linguistics and Docent Janicki became head of the newly established (1982) Department of Sociolinguistics in the School. Also in 1982 Docent Marton became the first professor extraordinarius of didactics of modern languages in the history of English studies in Poland. In 1982 Prof. Fisiak received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Jyväskylä, Finland and in 2005 from the University of Opole. In 1990 he was elected to the Academy of Finland and Academia Europea , in 1996 to the Norwegian Academy and in 2004 to the Polish Academy of Sciences. In 1996 he became a member of the New York Academy of Sciences, in 2001 a member of the Medieval Academy of America and in 2004 member of the Agder Academy of Sciences (Norway). In 2002 Professor Fisiak became a life member of the Linguistic Society of America. In 1985 Docent Kopcewicz became the first professor extraordinarius of American literature in Poland and in 1996 professor ordinarius.. In 1982 Docent Sienicka left the School of English. In the following years a number of staff members completed their habilitation programmes: Dr Barbara Kryk (1987), Dr Stanisław Puppel (1987), Dr Alicja Pisarska (1990), Dr Włodzimierz Sobkowiak (1991), Dr Adam Jaworski (1991), Dr Roman Kopytko (1993), Dr Katarzyna Dziubalska-Kołaczyk (1995), Dr Teresa Siek-Piskozub (1995), Dr Arleta Adamska-Sałaciak (1996), Dr Liliana Sikorska (1996), Dr Marcin Krygier (1997), Dr Krystyna Droździał-Szelest (1997), Dr Jacek Witkoś (1998), Dr Marek Wilczyński (1998), Dr Piotr Gąsiorowski (1998) and Dr Przemysław Tajsner (1998), Dr Agnieszka Kiełkiewicz-Janowiak (2003), Dr Anna Cieślicka (2004), Dr Robert Lew (2005) and Dr Jacek Fabiszak (2006). Docent Awedyk, Docent Kryk, Docent Lipoński, Docent Puppel and Docent Zabrocki were appointed university professors in 1991. Dr hab. W. Sobkowiak and Dr hab. A. Pisarska became university professors in 1993, Dr hab. Roman Kopytko in 1995, Dr hab. Katarzyna Dziubalska-Kołaczyk and Dr hab. Teresa Siek-Piskozub in 1996, Dr hab. Arleta Adamska-Sałaciak and Dr hab. Liliana Sikorska in 1997, Dr hab. Marcin Krygier and Dr hab. Krystyna Droździał-Szelest in 1998, Dr hab. Agnieszka Kiełkiewicz-Janowiak in 2003 and Dr hab. Anna Cieślicka in 2006. Professor Marton became professor ordinarius in 1990. Prof. Puppel became profesor extraordinarius in 1993 and ordinarius in 1997. Professor Lipoński – professor extraordinarius in 1991 and ordinarius in1995, Professor Włodzimierz Sobkowiak – professor extraordinarius in 2000 and ordinarius in 2003, Professor Liliana Sikorska – professor extraordinaria in 2002 and ordinaria in 2003, Professor Teresa Siek-Piskozub – professor extraordinaria in 2003 and ordinaria in 2004, Professor Katarzyna Dziubalska-Kołaczyk – professor extraordinaria in 2003 and ordinaria in 2004, Professor Barbara Kryk-Kastovsky – professor extraordinaria in 2003 and ordinaria in 2004, Professor Roman Kopytko – professor extraordinarius in 2003, and Professor Jacek Witkoś – professor extraordinarius in 2006. In 1996 Professor ordinarius Zdzisław Wąsik left the University of Wrocław and joined the School and in 2005 Professor ordinarius Aleksander Szwedek left Bydgoszcz and came to Poznań. In 1992 Prof. Pisarska became head of the newly established Department of Translation Studies. Since 1988 additional units have been formed in the School, including the Computer Centre (1988), the Audio-Visual Centre (1989), the Language Acquisition Centre (1991, as part of the Department of the English Language) and the Lexicographic Centre (1992). The Language Acquisition Centre soon became a separate department with Prof. S. Puppel as its head. Between 1996 and 1998 a number of major changes took place in the School. The Department of English Literature was renamed as the Department of English Literature and Literary Linguistics after Prof. H. Zbierski's retirement and sad death in 1995. Prof. L. Sikorska was appointed its head in 1997. The Lexicographic Centre became the Department of Lexicography and Lexicology (head: Prof. A. Adamska), the Department of the English Language split into the Department of the History of English (head: Prof. J. Fisiak) and the Department of Contemporary English (head: Prof. K. Dziubalska-Kołaczyk). The Department of Sociolinguistics became the Department of Pragmatics and Sociolinguistics after Prof. Janicki's emigration to Norway. Prof. B. Kryk-Kastovsky became its head in 1997. In 2003 it split into two departments: the Department of Sociolinguistics (head: Prof. A. Kiełkiewicz-Janowiak) and the Department of Pragmatics (head: Prof. B. Kryk-Kastovsky). Prof. Krystyna Droździał-Szelest became head of the Department of English Language Teaching in 1997. Two new departments were created in 1997, namely, the Department of Computer Linguistics (head: Prof. W. Sobkowiak) and the Department of Applied English Linguistics (head: Prof. T. Siek-Piskozub). A few years later, several more new departments were formed. In 2004 the Department of Old Germanic Languages (head: Prof. P. Gąsiorowski), in 2002 the Department of Linguistic Semiotics (head: Prof. Z. Wąsik), in 2005 the Department of Cognitive Linguistics (head: Prof. A. Szwedek), in 2004 the Department of Celtic Studies (head: Prof. Sabine Heinz), and in 2003 the Department of Dutch and Afrikaans (head: Prof. J. Koch). The new Centre for Teaching English as a Foreign Language was formed in 1995 (head: Dr A. Cieślicka until 2000 and Dr Hanna Wysocka since then). Since 2004 the Department of English Language Acquisition has been headed by Prof. A. Cieslicka.

In 2005, at the initiative of the School, the Interdisciplinary Centre for Speech and Language Processing was established as an interfaculty unit to become a platform for interdisciplinary research projects at Adam Mickiewicz University in collaboration with foreign research institutions.

All the habilitation dissertations and a number of Ph.D. dissertations of the School's staff members have been published in the form of monographs in Poland and/or abroad. These and other publications of the staff members of the School cover a variety of topics and include numerous monographs, textbooks, anthologies and readers, papers in journals as well as book reviews.

Staff members have received numerous awards for research achievements, teaching and academic administration from the Prime Minister of Poland (Prof. J. Fisiak, Prof. M. Krygier – twice, Prof. K. Dziubalska-Kołaczyk, Dr J.Bugaj and Prof. A. Cieślicka), Minister of Education and Research (Prof. Fisiak – 10, Prof. Waldemar Marton 4, Prof. A. Adamska-Sałaciak – 2, Mr M. Jankowski – 2, Prof. P. Gąsiorowski – 2, Prof. L. Sikorska – 2, Prof. W. Lipoński – 2, Prof. K. Dziubalska-Kołaczyk, Prof. Z. Wąsik, Prof. B. Kryk-Kastovsky, Prof. W. Sobkowiak, Prof. A. Kiełkiewicz-Janowiak, Prof. J. Witkoś – 2, Prof. J. Koch, Prof. M. Wilczyński, Dr J. Kaźmierczak, Dr D. Wolfram-Romanowska, and Dr P. Kaszubski ), and the Rector of the University.

In recent years numerous additional honours have been bestowed upon younger staff members. Prof. L. Sikorska became member of the Medieval Academy of America in 2001, Prof. J. Koch was elected to the Academy of the Republic of South Africa in 2005 and Prof. K. Dziubalska-Kołaczyk to the Agder Academy of Sciences (Norway). Five professors have been elected members of the International Association of University Professors of English (Prof. K. Dziubalska-Kołaczyk, Prof. L. Sikorska, Prof. B. Kryk-Kastovsky, Prof. A. Adamska-Sałaciak, Prof. M. Krygier )

The Poznań School of English is currently the largest English school in Poland. Its teaching staff (including 71 PhD students, who also teach) numbers 147 members, of whom 13 are foreign lecturers. More than 1000 students are registered in the undergraduate and postgraduate full-time and part-time programmes .

The School has a full-time and a part-time Ph.D. programme in English linguistics, ELT, and English and American literature with 71 students.

Since 2002 the School has been allowed to award PhD degrees in English language and English and American literature and since 2004 the post-doctoral degree dr habil. in English linguistics.

Since 1966 the School has published a series of monographs on various aspects of English studies and since 1968 several journals. Studia Anglica Posnaniensia: An International Review of English Studies has been published since 1968 (42 volumes to date; editor: Prof. Fisiak). In 1973 the School began to publish, in cooperation with the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington, D.C., the first journal ever devoted to contrastive linguistics, Papers and Studies in Contrastive Linguistics (35 volumes until 1998; editor: Prof. Fisiak). Since 1999 the title of the journal has changed to Poznań Studies in Contemporary Linguistics ( but preserved the acronym PSiCL ; Prof. K. Dziubalska-Kołaczyk has become its editor. In 1987 another journal went into publication, Polish-Anglo-Saxon Studies (10 issues have appeared to date; editor: Prof. Lipoński). In 2005 another serial publication, Medieval English Mirror, edited by Prof. M. Krygier and Prof. L. Sikorska and published by Lang Verlag began to appear ( two volumes have appeared so far). Lang Verlag has also published two series of monographs edited by Prof. Fisiak, i.e., Polish Studies in English Language and Literature (17 volumes published to date) and Studies in Medieval English Language and Literature (15 volumes so far).

The setting up of the English-Polish Contrastive Project in Poznań under the directorship of Prof. Fisiak in 1965, and particularly its more organized form since 1970 with regular seminars and international conferences, encouraged people from all English departments in Poland to participate actively in contrastive research. Since 1997 contrastive conferences have widened their scope including other areas of linguistics and under Prof. Dziubalska-Kołaczyk's directorship they have been flourishing as the Poznań Linguistic Meetings. Their results have been published in Poznań Studies in Contemporary Linguistics as well as numerous special collections.

The School has also organized other international conferences and congresses, including regular conferences on historical linguistics. Each historical conference was devoted to a particular area, e.g., phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, dialectology, etc. One of them, the 6th International Conference on Historical Linguistics, a general conference organized triennially in different countries, was held in 1983, and the 9th International Conference on English Historical Linguistics - in 1996. Additionally, the following major events took place in Poznań: three Annual Meetings of Societas Linguistica Europaea (1974, 1983, 2000), an overseas IATEFL Conference (1979), a triennial conference of the International Association of University Professors of English (Prof. Fisiak was elected President of this organization in Los Angeles in 1977), six international conferences on American literature (1977, 1979, 1991, 1992, 1996, 2000) and the conference organized jointly by the School and the British Council, "Directions Towards 2000" 1992). In 1988 and in 1998 the School organized conferences to celebrate the 50th and 60th anniversaries of the British Council in Poland. In 2003 another annual conference began to be organized, the Medieval English Studies Symposium which immediately caught the attention of scholars of medieval English language and literature in Europe, America and Asia. Numerous distinguished linguists and literary scholars from around the world have visited our school offering lectures, seminars and workshops. Likewise, Poznań staff members have been invited as visiting professors or asked to give guest lectures in other Polish and foreign universities. They have frequently presented papers at international conferences and congresses in Poland and abroad.

The School of English in Poznań has participated in several exchange programmes, directed by Prof. Fisiak, with universities in Europe and America: Poznań–Kansas (1970-75), Poznań–Reading (1971-1987), Poznań–Florida (1973-), Poznań–SUNY (1974-1985), Poznań–The American University, Washington, D.C. (1984-1993), Poznań–Vienna (1978-), Poznań–Jyväskylä (1974-) and Poznań–Tromsø (1981-). Since 1990 the School has been involved in the TEMPUS programme and since 1997 in the Socrates programme. Staff members of the Poznań School of English have held numerous positions in Polish and foreign professional organizations and at A. Mickiewicz University. Among his many appointments, Prof. Fisiak has served as President of the International Association of University Professors of English (1974-77), Vice-President (1973-74, 1984) and President (1983) of Societas Linguistica Europaea, Vice-President (1969-73) and President (1973-79) of the Modern Language Association of Poland, Vice-Chairman (1973-77) and Chairman (1977-82) of the Committee on Languages and Literatures, Poznań Chapter, Polish Academy of Sciences, Vice-Chairman (1978-81) and Chairman (1981-93) of the Committee on Modern Languages and Literature, Polish Academy of Sciences, Secretary General of FIPLV (1980-83), Vice-President (1979-81) and President (1981-83) of the International Society for Historical Linguistics, member of the Prime Minister's Committee on Academic Promotions (1976-2006), Rector (Br.: Vice-Chancellor; Am.: President) of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (1985-88), Minister of National Education of Poland (1988-89), member of the State Accreditation Committee (chairman of the Humanities Section) and as a consultant of governmental and educational institutions in Sweden, the USA, Great Britain, Jordan, and Austria.

Prof. Marton's posts have included, among others, member of the Presidium of the Modern Language Association of Poland (1973-76), member of the Committee on Languages and Literature, Polish Academy of Sciences (1978-89), and Chairman of the Committee on Languages and Literature, Poznań Chapter, Polish Academy of Sciences (1983-88). Prof. Zbierski was Chairman of the Committee on Modern Literature, Poznań Learned Society (1977-84). Prof. Karol Janicki was member of the Presidium of the Modern Language Association of Poland (1977-1990). Prof. Marek Wilczyński has been chairman of the Polish Society for American studies since 2002.

Prof. B. Kryk-Kastovsky served as Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Modern Languages and Literature from 1988 to 1990, Prof. Puppel held the position from 1990 to 1996 and was dean from 1996 until 2002 . Prof. Witkoś has been Deputy Dean since 2005.

Apart from editing the two journals mentioned above, Prof. Fisiak also edited Folia Linguistica Historica (1978-2003), a journal of Societas Linguistica Europaea. He has been consulting editor to one, and a member of the editorial board of numerous other scholarly journals in Poland and abroad. Prof. Awedyk was co-editor of Studia Phonetica Posnaniensia (1987-93). Prof. Marton has been a member of the editorial board of six journals in Poland and abroad. Prof. Kopcewicz is an editorial board member of two Polish journals. Prof. Liliana Sikorska has been deputy editor-in-chief of Kwartalnik Neofilologiczny since 2004 and prof. Marek Wilczyński a member of the editorial board of the European Journal for American Studies. Among numerous other activities of the Poznań School of English at least three more deserve a mention here: the organization, in collaboration with the Ministry of Higher Education and Science of Poland, the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw and the British Council, of the Summer School of English held annually for 3rd year students (approx. 300 participants each year) from all the departments of English in Poland (from 1965 to 1992); a Summer School of the Polish Language and Culture for British and American Students, which has been attended by approximately 500 participants since 1970; and the organization of the annual English Language Contest ("Olympiad") for Secondary School Students (since 1977).

The School has a rich library and exchanges books and periodicals with numerous institutions all over the world. It contains over 100,000 volumes related to all areas of English studies.

The Department of English, and since 1968 the School of English at Adam Mickiewicz University has been constantly expanding since its reopening in 1965. For almost 40 years it was run by Prof. J. Fisiak (1965-2005). In 2005 Prof. K. Dziubalska-Kołaczyk was elected the new head of the School and immediately started further expansion both in terms of the structure of the School, research activities, the number of undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD students and staff, the equipment and the number of classrooms and offices. New challenges will certainly crop up in the coming years but with the School's tradition and its current strength they should be handled without too many difficulties.

Jacek Fisiak
Poznań, April 2006.