An international on-line seminar titled "Difficult Heritage of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade", concluding the research project "Memory of Slavery in Gullah and Geechee Communities". The seminar provided an opportunity for networking with academics from outside Europe who specialize in the topics of memory and heritage related to the transatlantic slave trade. One of the attendees, along researchers and scholars, was South African writer Manu Herbstin, the author of "Ama, a Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade," which won the 2002 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book. A Brazilian edition translated into Portuguese is currently being prepared under the initiative of seminar participant Professor Gustavo Brito.
The event was funded by the Excellence Initiative grant at the Faculty of International and Political studies at Jagiellonian University. Organized by Dr. Elżbieta Binczycka-Gacek, Dr. Jakub Kościółek, Mgr. Monika Kwiatkowska, and Professor Dariusz Brzostek from the Institute of Cultural Studies at Nicolaus Copernicus University, in collaboration with the Polish Cultural Studies Association, Toruń branch,
Activity - Co-organizing the Seminar
When: May 31th, 2024
Where: Online Seminar
Filiations and Affiliations - Bonds, Entanglements, and Social Networks in African Literatures and Cultures. Drawing its inspiration from Edward Said’s discussion of the ways in which texts become ‘worldly’ through a series of filiations and affiliations, the ALA invites papers and panels that address such relations in all their forms.
Activity - Hosting a panel:
When: May 23-25th, 2024
Where: University of Louisville, KY, USA
Website of the 49th annual meeting of the African Literature Association
Elżbieta Binczycka - Gacek is co-organizing the 7th Congress of Polish Africans, which will take place in the very center of Cracow, in the buildings of Jagiellonian University. Likewise, the exhibitions accompanying the Congress will be located in the university buildings and the Congress partners, i.e. the Jagiellonian Library, the Jagiellonian University Museum and the Ethnographic Museum in Krakow.
Activity - Co-organizing the conference
When: May 23-25th, 2024
Where: Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland
Elżbieta Binczycka - Gacek has co-organized a seminar "The Difficult Legacy of Slavery in Africa and the African Diaspora" as part of the grant "Memory of Slavery in Gullah and Geechee Communities." funded through Excellence Initiative - Research University grant program. The seminar has featured speeches by members of the research team: Dr. Elżbieta Binczycka-Gacek and Jakub Kościółek, Ph.D. of Institute of International Studies of Jagellonian University in Cracow, and Dariusz Brzostek, Prof., of the Institute of Cultural Studies at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń.
The seminar, focused on how contemporary communities in the former dependent territories (colonies) manage the memory of slavery in narratives and practices, constructing their identity today by, as Stuart Hall wrote years ago, "Telling history anew." At the same time, keeping in mind the social and cultural terrain from which slavery is extruded as a shameful economic underbelly of modernity and a specter looming over the world of emerging civil liberties (Black Atlantic, colonialism, plantation monocultures), would like to set aside the ideological, political, artistic and affective filters with which the modern West (or Global North) seeks to tame and rationalize the ethically troubling phenomenon of human trafficking and slave labor.
Activity - Co-organizing the Seminar
Activity - Presenting a conference paper:
Elżbieta Binczycka - Gacek has took part in a seminar " Multisensory Approaches in Migration Studies" organized by Migrare, Centro de Estudos Geográficos - CEG, IGOT, and the Critical Heritage Studies Hub of Jagiellonian University,
Seminar 'Multisensory Approaches in Migration Studies', organized by Amandine Desille and Karolina Nikielska-Sekuła, editors of the 'Visual Methodologies in Migration Studies' volume (2021, Springer). The Seminar featured presentations by migration scholars conducting research with the employment of multisensory methodologies, followed by a knowledge co-production session. It offered insight into a topic that steadily attracts more attention in migration studies and addresses the question of the role of the body and the senses in migration processes, exemplifying how to conduct research through multisensory, creative methods.
Activity - Presenting a conference paper:
Elżbieta Binczycka-Gacek has participated in International Conference on Gender Studies: “Gender and Power” organized by London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research which took place in London (UK) in February 24–25, 2024.
The conference explored the past and current status of gender identity around the world, examined the ways in which society is shaped by gender and situated gender in relation to the full scope of human affairs.
Activity - Presenting a conference paper:
When: February, 24-25rd, 2024
Where: London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research, London, UK
Elżbieta Binczycka-Gacek has participated in 1st International African Congress. The Congress which took place in Toruń (Poland) on February 21–23, 2024.
The Congress addressed issues related to the historical, political, economic, cultural, and social aspects of the African continent and its development. The scope of the conference covered a large geographical and thematic area, from Tunisia to South Africa, including Africans in the diaspora. The Congress was interdisciplinary in nature. Scholars representing (but not limited to) the following fields were encouraged to submit their applications: cultural and religious sciences, ethnology and cultural anthropology, history, linguistics, literary studies, art sciences, economics and finance, socio-economic geography, security sciences, social communication and media sciences, political and administrative sciences, legal studies, sociology, philosophy, and international relations. The combination of multiple perspectives allowed for a holistic view of the phenomena taking place on the African continent, along with its complexity and diversity.
Activity - Hosting a panel:
Activity - Presenting a conference paper:
When: February, 21-23rd, 2024
Where: Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland
Elżbieta Binczycka-Gacek has participated in the 8th Afroeuropeans Network Conference: Intersectional Challenges in Afroeuropean Communities which took part in Vrije Universiteit, Brussels, Belgium.
This conference was hosted by Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and co-organised by the Africa Platform of Ghent University Association (GAP), the Brussels Centre for Urban Studies (BCUS), the European Network Against Racism (ENAR), the Research Centre Gender, Diversity and Intersectionality (RHEA), and the Centre for Literary and Intermedial Crossings at VUB, along with a wide variety of other institutions in Belgium. The conference was the result of a long collaboration between academics, writers, artists, and activists that gave rise to the International Afroeuropeans Network.
The conference aimed to consider how Afroeuropean communities were shaped by the intersections of ‘race’ and ethnicity with other markers of identification such as gender, class, sexuality, ability, age, citizenship status, language, etc. Informed by intersectional thinking (Combahee River Collective, 1979; hooks, 1981; Crenshaw 1989) and its rejection of unidimensional perspectives in activism, policy, and research, the conference explored how diverse processes of privileging and discrimination interacted, making for complex and dynamic experiences of what it meant to be Afroeuropean. It acknowledged that the racial and ethnic alterity of Afroeuropeans intersected with other identities (e.g., male, female, queer, working-class, religious, disabled, aged, etc.) and specifically sought to examine to what extent these intersections created new alignments and opportunities.
Of particular interest were the multiple ways in which Afroeuropeans challenged dominant modes of representation and knowledge production, for instance, by claiming space and citizenship, altering taken-for-granted modes of knowing and organizing, and presenting their experiences and perspectives as part and parcel of European society and identity. The conference engaged with the dynamism emerging from the growing decolonisation movements and their calls for rethinking dominant modes of knowledge production and representation. Reflection was invited on the various layers of intersectional existence, activism, and scholarship with a special focus on the lives of Black Europeans with ancestry in Africa and African diasporic geographical locations such as the Americas and the Caribbean. Building on the notion of ‘subjugated knowledge’, the conference explored how marginalized positions might also give rise to innovative epistemological positions, resistance to and revision of the status quo, and inspire activism and reforms of institutions and policies in Europe and beyond.
Activity - Hosting a panel:
Activity - Presenting a conference paper:
Elżbieta Binczycka-Gacek has participated in the XXIII Congress of The International Comparative Literature Association: Re-Imagining Literatures
of the World: Global and Local, Mainstreams and Margins at Ivane Javakhisvhili Tbilisi State Universit in Tbilisi in Georgia.
CONGRESS SESSIONS
Activity - Presenting a conference paper:
When: July, 24-29th, 2022
Where: Ivane Javakhisvhili Tbilisi State Universit, Tbilisi, Georgia
Elżbieta Binczycka-Gacek has participated in the 46th Annual African Literature Association Conference: BEYOND CENSORSHIP? Literature, Film, Media and Public Discourse organized by African Literature Association in Washington D.C. in the USA.
Censorship, from colonial times until the crumbling of authoritarian regimes in the 1990s, was a threat hovering over the landscape of the first generations of writers, intellectuals, and filmmakers. One could easily argue that censorship constituted itself as an institution of the African imagination. Writers, filmmakers, and public intellectuals who did not conform to authoritarian ideologies spearheaded by the one-party system were treated as suspects, with the unfortunate consequences that such a classification entail. Prison notebooks became almost a rite of passage for writers. Wole Soyinka, Mongo Beti, Nadine Gordimer, Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong’o, Bernard Dadié, Nawalel Saadawi, and many more experienced exile, imprisonment, or other forms of insidious harassment. While we cannot underestimate the current forces of censorship that are hovering over the creative imagination, free speech, and advocacy, we could proclaim that old modalities of censorship are on the retreat, if not outright obsolete.
Activity - Presenting a conference paper:
Elżbieta Binczycka-Gacek has participated in the 43nd Annual African Literature Association Conference: Literature, Politics, and Global Geographies at Yale University in New Heaven in the USA.
The conference featured two keynote lectures that provided insightful perspectives on African literature. Boubacar Boris Diop discussed the importance of writing in national languages, drawing from the critique of Cheikh Anta Diop. Diop emphasized the significance of using indigenous languages to preserve cultural identity. Simon Gikandi explored the concept of "untranslatables" in African languages, using examples like Okot p’Bitek's poem, "Song of Lawino," to illustrate the challenges of translating cultural nuances into English.
Additionally, the conference included a mini film festival at the Whitney Humanities Center, where documentaries and new movies were screened and discussed with directors. Author auditorium events, in partnership with the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, featured renowned authors such as Aminatta Forna, Imbolo Mbue, Jennifer Makumbi, and Okey Ndibe, who shared insights into their creative processes and inspirations.
Notable moments included the transformation of the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library into a vibrant party space, featuring performances by Senegalese master-musician Papa Susso and Balla Kouyaté. Nigerian author Akachi Adimora Ezeigbo's poignant dirge in Igbo for novelist Buchi Emecheta, and the collaborative efforts of Yale student volunteers, added to the conference's rich tapestry of cultural exchange and scholarly discourse. Overall, the event celebrated the diversity and vitality of African literatures and literary scholarship, challenging prevailing paradigms in world literature theory.
Activity - Presenting a conference paper:
Elżbieta Binczycka-Gacek has participated in Conference Religion in film, film in religion at Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Poland.
Film scholars and religious studies experts from across Poland joined forces on May 31 - June 1, 2019, at the Faculty of Management and Social Communication of the Jagiellonian University to collectively analyze and discuss the connections between film and religion. These two seemingly distant issues are surprisingly closely correlated. The conference addressed both films that are based on religious themes (and there are quite a few of them!) and how religion today utilizes film for its purposes.
The special guest of the conference was Father Prof. Marek Lis, the author of many expert publications in the field of religious film. He is among others, the co-editor of the "World Encyclopedia of Religious Film."
The academic supervision of the conference was provided by Prof. Grażyna Stachówna, Ph.D., from the Institute of Audiovisual Arts.
Activity - Presenting a conference paper:
Elżbieta Binczycka-Gacek has participated in the Conference: The living presence of the dead in Polish and European culture at University of Szczecin in Szczecin, Poland.
The title of the conference may sound paradoxical and carry an apparent contradiction. The term "living presence" seems to be a clear negation of everything that is dead. However, this contradiction is superficial, and it is precisely this assertion that we aim to prove through our conference. Drawing from romantic notions that death does not end anything and that the worlds of the living and the dead intersect, create points of contact, and mutually influence each other, we seek to explore these ideas further.
Despite our romantic inspiration, we do not intend to limit ourselves to it. Our goal is to explore, across various literary and cultural periods, the signs and traces of how the world of the dead influenced the living, and vice versa. We are interested in the relationality of these two realms, the fantasies associated with them, and their social consequences. We do not intend to confine ourselves to any specific geographical or temporal boundaries.
Activity - Presenting a conference paper:
Elżbieta Binczycka-Gacek has co-organized the II International Conference Mythical Cosmos: Creation of the World at Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Poland.
The conference titled "Mythical Cosmos" took place on March 16-17, 2017, in Krakow. It was part of a series of conferences aimed at creating a platform for researchers interested in classical mythology, ancient mythologies, and pre-Christian myths to meet with scholars exploring mythology in popular culture, art, texts, and contemporary phenomena. The conference aimed to present similarities and differences between these worlds, focusing on specific themes and motifs. The theme of the upcoming conference was "The Creation of the World."
Activity - Co-organizing the conference
Elżbieta Binczycka-Gacek has participated in the 42nd Annual African Literature Association Conference: Justice and Human Dignity in Africa and the African Diaspora at Kennesaw State University and Emory University in Atlanta in the USA.
The conference focused on the pursuit of justice and the preservation of human dignity have been enduring themes in cultural production originating from Africa and its diaspora, serving as rallying points in the struggle for freedom and acknowledgment. Artists, filmmakers, and writers from these regions often delve into the complexities of justice and the threats to human dignity amidst various forms of oppression. Whether they construct fictional realms or critique their societal contexts, these creatives advocate for critical reassessment and socio-political mobilization.
The equitable treatment of individuals and the safeguarding of their dignity resonate as recurrent motifs in African literary and cultural expression, prompting urgent contemplation, imaginative reconstruction, and scholarly exploration. These texts offer alternative narratives that challenge narrow and biased representations perpetuated by mainstream media about Africa and its inhabitants.
Acknowledging the persistent challenges to justice and the nuanced ways in which the arts engage with these issues, the organizers underscore the importance of focusing on justice and human dignity. This emphasis provides a platform for critical reflection and celebration of the current landscape of creative endeavors emanating from Africa and its diaspora.
Activity - Presenting a conference paper:
When: April, 5-10th, 2016
Where: Kennesaw State University and Emory University, Atlanta, USA
Elżbieta Binczycka-Gacek has participated in the XXI Congress of The International Comparative Literature Association: The Many Languages of Comparative Literature at Universität Wien in Vienna in Austria,
The comparison of literary texts from different cultural spheres and in different languages was the foundation of comparative literature. Even as comparatist paradigms changed and developed, and comparative criticism expanded considerably, the crossing of borders between languages remained essential to the discipline.
For the first time, the theme of a congress organized by the International Comparative Literature Association was "language" – language in all its meanings and embedded in various contexts: as a "national" idiom, the basis of literary texts; as source-language and target-language in literary translation; as the set of languages forming "world literature" in its literary manifestation; and as the canon of languages that "world literature" actually concentrated on. Language – both written and spoken – served as the self-evident medium of all the objects of comparative literature, as well as the indispensable meta-language of scientific discourse and literary terminology.
The multilingualism of comparative literature posed both a challenge and an opportunity. From its beginnings, the polymorphous diversity of world literature constituted the attraction and wider reach of comparatist reading. However, even the most accomplished polyglot comparatist could master only a relatively small range of languages, conditioning the discourse more than might be apparent in a scholarly culture increasingly influenced by the English language.
The congress also focused on language in its broadest sense: the usage of language by social and ethnic groups as vectors of literature, the language of themes and discourses, language as a literary subject, and language as the expression of central problems and ideas negotiated in the various literatures of the world. Even in its metaphorical sense, as "languages" of styles and forms, language remained an infinite code with a constant need for decryption, perpetually reproducing the myth of the confusion of tongues and setting new tasks to multilingual humanity in coming to terms with literature and its criticism.
Activity - Presenting a conference paper:
Elżbieta Binczycka-Gacek has participated in the 1st International Conference: Comparative Studies of Language and Culture – Tradition and Innovation at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland.
The conference aimed to examine the issues of comparative research in the fields of linguistics, literary studies, and cultural knowledge. The broad spectrum of topics addressed outlined the current state of research in culture and encouraged discussion regarding its future. The conference provided an opportunity to share research results covering various languages and culture
Activity - Presenting a conference paper:
When: September, 22-23rd, 2015
Where: Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland
Elżbieta Binczycka-Gacek has participated in the 4th International Interdisciplinary Memory Conference in Gdańsk: Memory, Melancholy and Nostalgia at University of Gdańsk in Gdansk, Poland.
The focus of the conference was the phenomena of memory, melancholy and nostalgia. We are interested in all expressions of longing for the past, but also longing for something vague, indefinite or never existent.
Activity - Presenting a conference paper:
When: September, 17-18th, 2015
Where: University of Gdańsk in Gdansk, Poland.
Elżbieta Binczycka-Gacek has participated in the 41st Annual African Literature Association Conference: African Futures and Beyond. Visions in Transition at Universität Bayreuth in Bayreuth, Germany.
Colonial fantasies once imagined the African continent as a relic of the past, relegating it to a "waiting room of history" where it perpetually lagged behind Western futures (Chakrabarty). These conceptualizations obscured the realities and ongoing changes that often occurred, silenced, ignored, or violently repressed. Cultural and political movements across the African continent and its diasporas found various ways to confront and resist these colonialist fantasies, envisioning Black futures on both national and global scales. Black visions of the future increasingly reshaped Western conceptions of Africa and Blackness, altering the trajectory of the African continent, its diasporas, and the wider world.
Political shifts, such as student protests in Senegal, Burkina Faso, and the Maghreb, the end of apartheid, and radical changes in Rwanda, alongside the Arab revolution, sparked new discourses and cultural transformations. Economic growth, collaboration with Asian networks, and the rise of new middle classes in many countries opened unforeseen opportunities. Literature and the arts embraced new intertextualities and epistemologies, fostering interdisciplinary dialogues to enrich our understanding of the world.
Recent advancements in technology and digitalization have transcended conventional communication patterns, revolutionizing global interactions and inviting us into a new era. Literature and cultural expressions, including film, fine arts, performing arts, and the internet, provide spaces to explore and envision these futures. Fiction, particularly AfroFiction, narrates these futures, shaping our collective world with new epistemologies.
Activity - Presenting a conference paper:
Elżbieta Binczycka-Gacek has participated in the Between Discourses, Arts, Media. Comparatistics of tomorrow at University of Warsaw in Warsaw, Poland.
Scope of the conference from comparative literature to comparative humanities - new issues of contemporary comparativism and prospects for its development (changes in the territory of the subject and methods of research); - interference of discursive practices, inter/transdiscursivity, re-discursivization. Literary discourse vs.: journalistic, religious, political, scientific, philosophical (others); forms of presence of other discourses in literature (and vice versa): pastiches, paraphrases, stylizations, parodic and critical references and their functions; literary adaptations of other discourses as well as the presence of literature and literariness in other discourses; the image of the world in literature vs. other discourses; - between arts, between media: inter/transemioticity, comparativity of arts and media - dependencies, inspirations, forms of presence, traces; intersemiotic and intermedia translation; remediation. Literature and literariness vs. other arts/media: music, fine arts, photography, architecture, film, theater, radio, comics, video games.... ; representations of literariness in digital media, digital reinterpretations of literary textual structures; - composition, textual figures, elements of text structure, and text matter as common and differentiating places of arts/media, modeling aesthetic expression; - uses, abuses, manipulations of literature and literariness in other discourses, and literary appropriations and usurpations from/in the space of other arts and various media; - similarity, difference, analogy, identity, contrast, context in the perspective of 21st century comparativism.
Activity - Presenting a conference paper:
When: March, 17-19th, 2015
Where: University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
Elżbieta Binczycka-Gacek has co-organized the National Academic Conference Paths of Writers. Appendix: Nowa Huta which took place in Cracow.
Nowa Huta is a complex urban entity with an ambiguous status: an autonomous city, a bedroom community, or merely one of Krakow's districts? Its classification into any of these categories confirms or denies its cultural, educational, and recreational functions. With over sixty years of history, Nowa Huta provides arguments for each of these claims. The borderland, undefined nature of the place significantly influenced literary life, affected the nature of its residents, and ultimately contributed to the creation of a negative image (the "black legend" of Nowa Huta, almost a stereotype, persists to this day). On the other hand, communist propaganda sought to promote the vision of Nowa Huta as an "ideal city" (reflected in its urban planning), meeting all the residents' needs. These two conflicting tendencies are overlaid with historical context, making Nowa Huta initially a pride of socialist realism and later a shameful symbol of an oppressive regime. This fact found its representation in the urban space: renaming streets and squares, changing the functions of institutions, and a lack of efforts to preserve the place's former grandeur, among others.
As part of the second edition of the Writers' Paths Festival, we wanted to examine Nowa Huta from various perspectives. For the scientific conference accompanying the festival, we particularly invited scholars, young researchers, and doctoral students in literary studies, theater studies, linguistics, anthropology, sociology, history, cultural studies, media studies, film studies, and other researchers interested in this topic.
Activity - Co-organizing the conference
When: May, 15th, 2015
Where: Cracow, Poland
Elżbieta Binczycka-Gacek has co-organized the National conference Literature on the Borders, which took place in Cracow, Poland.
The conference addressed the following issues:
Borderless Literature – Globalism and Transnational Literature;
Limits of Meaning – Nonsense in Literature;
Borderlands and Literature of Ethnic Minorities;
Translation as Crossing Cultural Borders;
Experience of Border Situations;
Beyond Realism – the Place of Fantasy on the Literary Map;
The End of Literature – Literature of the End.
Expert lectures will also be held during the conference. We strongly encourage you to attend lectures by Joanna Hańderek, Ph.D., Jakub Niedźwiedz, Ph.D., and Tomasz Majkowski, Ph.D., who have already confirmed their attendance.
The aim of the conference was to expand and promote literary and cultural knowledge. Speakers from all over Poland presented the results of their research and reflections, demonstrating the various functions of borders in literature and culture.
Activity - Co-organizing the conference
When: April, 4-6th, 2014
Where: Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland
Conference Website
Elżbieta Binczycka-Gacek has organized as a program director the "Paths of Writers. The city as a space of creators festival" and a national conference "Paths of Writers.: The city as a space for the lives of artists" which was a part of the festival. The festival took place in Cracow, Poland.
Exploring a city through writers' perspectives situates their work within urban context and reveals new literary dimensions. The academic session and events aimed to capture Cracow's uniqueness during the modernism era. Cracow's role as the capital of Young Poland was pivotal in defining modernist identity and its evolving relationship with the cityscape. Walter Benjamin's approach to 19th-century society and Mike Featherstone's insights into the 20th century continued this exploration. Treating artistic existence-in-the-city as a litmus test for modernism's transition to postmodernism raises questions about the strength and differentiation of these categories. We hoped the intellectual journey through writers' paths would shed light on these issues and the literary life in Polish cities from Young Poland to the present day.
Activity - Co-organizing the conference
