On the margins of the centenary of Polish Studies in Brussels

1. BEGINNINGS: RECOGNITIONS AND DELIGHTS

It is the summer of 1998 when I undergo an interview before a distinguished panel of professors: Alain van Crugten, Marek Tomaszewski, and Jan Rubeš. By autumn, I begin my work at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). A year prior, I defended my doctoral thesis under the supervision of Professor Edward Balcerzan, and I am thrilled to return to teaching—an adventure I first began in Poland at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. I owe a great deal to my Poznań professors, my friends from student and doctoral days, and the students of my very first groups.
In Brussels, I start by teaching Polish as a foreign language, but from the very first classes, I "smuggle in" literature and my unextinguished love for poetry. I am fond of my Belgian students; they are the first Belgians I meet regularly (outside of my new Belgian family), seeing them every week in class. A significant bond of understanding forms between us, allowing me to recognize—through observation and pedagogical practice—what students need most and what is systemically different from the only academic reality I knew then: the Polish one.
In 1998, and until the Bologna Reform that would mark the 21st century, studies at ULB lasted 4 years (2+2), whereas in Poland they took 5 years. There were no entrance exams for the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, and exam sessions were the ultimate verification. In contrast, in Poznań and other Polish university centers at the end of the 20th century, exams were difficult competitive hurdles consisting of a written component and a series of oral exams. At that time, studies at ULB required tuition fees, and there was an additional fee for taking a resit session. Consequently, Belgian students tried very hard to pass their exams in the first session. Students in Brussels had less than half the teaching hours, yet their curriculum at the time was much more diverse.
My new campus feels beautiful to me, if slightly archaic. I am astonished to discover that we have no access to a laboratory for phonetics practice. With Prof. van Crugten’s approval, I buy the first portable cassette recorder. Once I feel more settled, I organize the purchase of video equipment and VHS tapes, recording materials at home for my Polish classes so that students can not only write but also speak and, above all, understand. Some of my classes are held at the highest point of the campus: the ULB clock tower. What a view unfolds from there!

The patio with a blooming magnolia at the Faculty of Letters, Translation, and Communication (formerly Philosophy and Letters); the university clock tower, recognizable from afar, is visible alongside parts of the Solbosch campus and the Simone Weil Library.

I admire Prof. Alain van Crugten for his passionate, unvarnished view of Polish history, culture, and literature. I learn much from him, including the importance of translation and the role of humor in the teaching process. In the autumn of 2003, I invite Prof. Edward Balcerzan—my MA and PhD supervisor—for a guest lecture. I manage to organize a meeting between Prof. van Crugten and Prof. Balcerzan at a shared table. I am happy: my two academic and literary authorities are laughing and trading bon mots.
On another occasion, at a dinner hosted by Professor van Crugten, I meet Professor Marian Pankowski, whom I had previously met in Poznań during an international theater conference organized by Prof. Dobrochna Ratajczak. Anyone who knew the author from Sanok and Brussels knows what a powerful personality he was. We would talk many times, and in 2005, I would organize an author's evening for him in the grand auditorium.
Slowly, my ties with Brussels tighten. The first friendships and professional bonds are formed. I work with a wonderful Polish Studies faculty, including Prof. Marek Tomaszewski, who also hires me for Polish Studies in Lille, knowing how difficult it is to piece together fragmented and scarce positions in our "industry," especially when working abroad. Another important person to me is Małgosia Stanek, a lecturer from the Pedagogical Academy and an excellent Romanist and glottodidactician; like me, she began her Brussels university adventure in 1998 as a Polish language lecturer.
I am delighted (and this delight continues) by the freedom of choice that the University of Brussels allows in terms of teaching and research, but also, for example, by the significantly reduced hierarchical distance between positions and the generally great kindness and collegiality in interactions—though also by a greater sense of privacy and, at times, a poignantly felt "solitude."
The world at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries is a world without the internet, where time seems to flow differently than it does today, leaving room for paper letters—and room for the anticipation of them. It was then that I established the Chronicles of Polish Studies to leave a trace of our various activities, to which I regularly invite Slavic colleagues and our Polish Studies guests from Poland and around the world to contribute.

From left: Professor Alain van Crugten; Professor Marek Tomaszewski; Professor Marian Pankowski

2. PEDAGOGY BEYOND BORDERS

Quite quickly, I find myself in the "between" category: constantly between languages, between universities, between methodology and teaching methods, between literary studies and linguistics. Prof. Wojciech Skalmowski from Leuven warned me during a guest tour of his center that it would not be easy: "To the Belgians, you will always be from Poland; to the Poles, you will be from Belgium." When Prof. Edward Balcerzan asked where my home is now, I replied: I am lucky because I now have two homes.
The Solbosch campus and our students—hailing from every continent over the years—are a prime example of how being between cultures, multilingualism, and multiculturalism are enriching. I would strive to maintain this bilingualism in my classes, in my teaching aids, in my first textbooks for Polish language and literature tailored for Belgian students at the turn of the century, and also in my own monographs.
"Pedagogy beyond borders" refers to the bilateral agreements successfully concluded over the years with the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, the Pedagogical University in Krakow, the Jagiellonian University, the University of Warsaw, the University of Silesia, and the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin. And—the icing on the cake—the double degrees. Polish universities—first Warsaw, then Poznań—were the first to serve as models for double degrees, for example, for Brno and Leipzig.
In the first decade of the 21st century, cooperation flourished with the then-existing Polish Studies departments or lectureships in Ghent and Leuven, and later Mons. Crossing borders before 2004 had symbolic significance. We hosted many professors at ULB: literary scholars, linguists, historians, and art historians who conducted workshops and lectures for the Polish Studies students at ULB.
The life of a Polish Studies scholar (both teacher and student) is intense; it also involves moving through interactive classes to cultural centers, galleries, and museums—to the welcoming salons of the Polish Institute and the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Brussels, our constant partners in academic cooperation and the promotion of Polish culture in Belgium; to the BOZAR palace to celebrate the Europalia Polska 2001 festival; or to the European Parliament and the House of European History. For Open Days, we organize a theatrical performance based on lesser-known texts by Zbigniew Herbert.
We also managed to bring Wisława Szymborska’s collages to Katarzyna Napiórkowska’s gallery in Brussels and to host the president of the Wisława Szymborska Foundation, Prof. Michał Rusinek.

From left: At Katarzyna Napiórkowska’s gallery in Brussels; with Jérôme Lambot during lectures at the University of Warsaw with Polish Studies students.

In 2018, thanks to the support of the Polish Institute (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), the LTC Faculty, and the L&L Department, we set off with students to Krakow and Auschwitz (the previous expedition took place 10 years earlier). Pedagogy beyond borders also means being outside of time and above time—moments when teacher friendships and encounters are built, and when birth years and the passage of time are, if only for a moment, annihilated.

As part of the study visit to Krakow in 2018, supported by the Polish Institute in Brussels.

III.  SCIENTIFIC AND RESEARCH PROJECTS

Brussels' Polish Studies is present at the World Congresses of Polish Studies, held every four years in Gdańsk, Poznań, Krakow, and Katowice, as well as at meetings of separate scholarly associations for Polonists, comparatists, Slavists, glottodidacticians, and literary scholars. Polonists from Brussels participate in national annual conventions and organize meetings for Belgian Slavists at our own faculty.

With students at the European Parliament as part of seminar classes.

In the last quarter-century, significant scientific conferences have also taken place. Professor Alain van Crugten organized the Mythologies polonaises conference at ULB, and later, together with the Joachim Lelewel Association, we organized the Demokrata Polski conference, which featured eminent historians and literary historians from Poland. Subsequent conferences, seminar cycles for doctoral students, study days, or parts of major interdisciplinary meetings are organized within the framework of Polish Studies, often in dialogue with Slavists, comparatists, translators, poets, artists, historians, and art historians, in cooperation with many cultural institutions, embassies, research centers, and other academic hubs. For the sake of order, I will list the most significant ones with their dates:

1998 MYTHOLOGIES POLONAISES

2001 « DEMOKRATA POLSKI » – LA CONTRIBUTION POLONAISE À L’ÉMANCIPATION DÉMOCRATIQUE EUROPÉENNE AU 19ÈME SIÈCLE

2004 EXPOSITION ET LES CONFÉRENCES « LES CHEMINS DE LA LIBERTÉ : SOLIDARNOŚĆ »

2005 JUIFS DE POLOGNE, ENTRLACEMENT DES CULTURES

2009 PAN(K)OPTICUM : AUTOUR DE L’OEUVRE DE MARIAN PANKOWSKI

2010 CONFÉRENCE ET EXPOSITION L’ART FUNÈBRE EN POLOGNE

2011 FROM YOUR LAND TO POLAND : ON THE COMMITMENT OF THE WRITER IN EUROPEAN AND POLISH LITERATURE IN THE 20TH AND 21ST CENTURIES

2012 ‘BARBARIC’ AND ‘CIVILIZED’. POLISH AND WORLD WRITERS IN AN INTERCULTURAL DIALOG ON POETRY

2014 MICROFESTIVAL POETYCKI

2016 DE LA PAROLE À L’ÉCRITURE : LITTÉRATURE ET REGISTRES LINGUISTIQUES

2017 LES DROITS ET LES DEVOIRS DU CRITIQUE LITTÉRAIRE AUJOURD’HUI

2018 WOMEN IN SCIENCE, PAST AND PRESENT / REMEMBERING 1918: EAST AND CENTRAL EUROPEAN MODERNITY. PERFORMING ARTS

2018 BONS MOTS ET COLLAGES DE WISŁAWA SZYMBORSKA

2019 CENTENAIRE DE L’ANNIVERSAIRE DE MARIAN PANKOWSKI

2019 DÉCOUPAGE ET COLLAGE DU SENSIBLE (AVEC KRZYSZTOF SIWCZYK, ISABELLE MACOR)

2021 CULTURAL HERITAGE IN DIGITAL AGE

2021 « POLOGNE- BELGIQUE : LES REGARDS LITTÉRAIRES CROISÉS »

2023 DU POÈME EN PROSE AU SLAM : SUR L’ÉVOLUTION DU RÉCIT POÉTIQUE DU XIXE SIÈCLE AU XXIE SIÈCLE