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dr hab. Robert Kusek, prof. UJ

Robert Kusek is a Jagiellonian University Professor in the Department of Comparative Studies in Literature and Culture at the Institute of English Studies, Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. He graduated with honours from the Institute of English Studies (2005) and the Institute of Journalism and Social Communication (2006) at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. In 2011, he was awarded a PhD degree and in 2018 a D.Litt degree (both by the Faculty of Philology at the Jagiellonian University).

He is the recipient of many awards and fellowships, including the annual prizes of the Rector and Dean of the Jagiellonian University, the Corbridge Trust Fellowship and SUISS Fellowship. He was a student and conducted research at the University of East Anglia, University of Exeter, University of Edinburgh, University of Texas at Austin, University of Trieste and University of Cambridge.

As a journalist, he worked for the Polish National Radio. Between 2007 and 2019, he worked at the Institute of European Heritage of the International Cultural Centre in Krakow where he held the position of the Polish Co-ordinator of the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for the Dialogue Between Cultures.

His research interests include life writing genres, contemporary novel in English, as well as comparative literature (in particular the links between Central Europe and South Africa), poetics of memory and loss, heritage studies, visual arts and queer. He has attended a number of international conferences, managed several academic and educational projects, and has widely published academic papers, reports, analyses and interviews.

He has published, co-edited and written two monographs and 14 volumes of articles (co-editor), over 60 academic papers published in books and academic journals and close to 50 articles, reviews, interviews, reports and analyses published in various Polish and international publications.

His current research focuses on 21st-century autofiction, new nature writing, and queer heritage. At present he is working on a monograph about Alan Hollinghurst’s fiction.


 

Selected publications from 2015-2018:

Robert Kusek, Curing Oneself of One’s (Father)Land: Nosto/Patriography in The Return: Fathers, Sons, and the Land in Between by Hisham Matar, [in:] “Journal of Global Postcolonial Studies”, New Series Vol. 8/2/2020, pp. 210–228.

Robert Kusek, Biographical Fantasia on Screen: Derek Jarman’s Wittgenstein, Karol Radziszewski’s MS 101, and the Strategy of Détournement, [in:] A Companion to the Biopic, Deborah Cartmell, Hila Shachar (eds.), Wiley Blackwell, Chichister 2020, pp. 283–296.

Robert Kusek, Przypadkowy turysta? John Maxwell Coetzee w Europe Środkowej, [in:] “Śląskie Studia Polonistyczne”, Vol. 1(15)/2020, pp. 1–16.

Robert Kusek, Wojciech Szymański, Olga Tokarczuk, I Believe in the Novel. Olga Tokarczuk Interviewed by Robert Kusek and Wojciech Szymański, [in:] Conversations with Biographical Novelists: Truthful Fictions across the Globe, Michael Lackey (ed.), Bloomsbury, New York – London 2019, pp. 235–246.

Robert Kusek, Jacek Purchla (eds.), Heritage and Society, Międzynarodowe Centrum Kultury, Krakow 2019.

Robert Kusek, Beata Piątek, Wojciech Szymański (eds.), Aftermath: The Fall and the Rise after the Event, Jagiellonian University Press, Krakow 2019.

Robert Kusek, Po. Kontury Rachel Cusk i koniec autobiografii, [in:] Powieść brytyjska w XXI wieku. Szkice, Ewa Kowal, Bożena Kucała, Robert Kusek (eds.), Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, Krakow 2018, pp. 177–190.

Robert Kusek, Wojciech Szymański, Jądro dziwności. Queer Britannia w The Sparsholt Affair Alana Hollinghursta, [in:] Powieść brytyjska w XXI wieku. Szkice, Ewa Kowal, Bożena Kucała, Robert Kusek (eds.), Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, Krakow 2018, pp. 221–239.

Robert Kusek, Wojciech Szymański, „Neither Here Nor There”: Ali Smith and the Nachleben of Aby Warburg, [in:] “Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies”, Vol. XXIII(2)/2017, pp. 263–284.

Robert Kusek, Blue Is (Not) the Warmest Colour: Contradictions of Grieving in Joan Didion’s Blue Nights, [in:] “Brno Studies in English”, Vol. 43(1)/2017, pp. 171–183.

Robert Kusek, Through the Looking Glass: Writers’ Memoirs at the Turn of the 21st Century, Jagiellonian University Press, Krakow 2017.