Prof. Ludmiła Gruszewska-Blaim (University of Gdańsk)
Ludmiła Gruszewska-Blaim is a Professor at the University of Gdańsk; she was a Visiting Professor at Rutgers University during the years 1998-99, 2004, and 2006. She authored several books: Gra w SS. Poetyka (nie)powieści Jerzego Kosińskiego (2005), Wizje i re-wizje w poezji Thomasa S. Eliota (1996), T.S. Eliot: “Murder in the Cathedral” (1995, co-author), Chaos and Cosmos in ‘The Waste Land’ (1994). She is an editor of collected volumes: Texts of Literature, Texts of Culture (2005), Essays on Modern British and Irish Poetry (2005), Structure and Uncertainty (2008), Here/Now – Then/There: Traditions, Memory, Innovation in Modern British and Irish Poetry (2011), Imperfect Worlds and Dystopian Narratives in Contemporary Cinema (2011), Spectres of Utopia: Theory, Practice, Conventions (2012); currently, she teaches several MA seminars on dystopia in film and literature, spatial theory and literary characters, campus novel, and postmodern English literature; she also lectures on contemporary British literature and history of British literature and is the leader of an international team researching alternative worlds in literature, film, and new media.
Mirosław Gołuński, PhD (Kazimierz Wielki University)
Mirosław Gołuński is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Polish Philology and Culture Studies, Kazimierz Wielki University. He is a member of the Teodor Parnicki Literary Association as well as an author of books (Mit w twórczości Teodora Parnickiego, 2012) and texts dedicated to comparative studies of historical fiction (with a particular focus on the historical fantasy books of Teodor Parnicki) and the role of myth in fantasy literature; recently, he published Inwazja zaświatów w polskiej historical fantasy. Rekonesans, Legenda o Lutgardzie w powieści historycznej, and Dwie mityczne interpretacje buntu Masława/Miecława.
Prof. Kenneth Hanshew (Universität Regensburg)
Kenneth Hanshew is a Professor at the Institute of Slavic Studies, Universität Regensburg. He studies Czech, Polish, Russian, Croatian, and Serbian literature and culture, focusing in his research on science-fiction and utopian motifs; he is the author of Švejkiaden: Švejks Geschicke in der tschechischen, polnischen und deutschen Literatur and of several research articles, including some dedicated to Stanisław Lem, Janusz Zajdel, Milan Kundera, and Karel Čapek; he cooperates with American Association of Teachers of Slavic and Eastern European Languages, Modern Language Association, Science Fiction Research Association, and Utopian Studies Society.
Prof. Ármann Jakobsson (University of Iceland)
Ármann Jakobsson is a Professor of Early Icelandic Literature at the University of Iceland and a Vice-chairman of the Icelandic Language Commission. He is an author of many scholarly books, such as The Troll Inside You: Paranormal Activity in the Medieval North (2017), A Sense of Belonging: Morkinskinna and Icelandic Identity c. 1220 (2014), and Nine Saga Studies: The Critical Interpretation of the Icelandic Sagas (2013); he also edited The Routledge Research Companion to the Medieval Icelandic Sagas (2017, with Sverrir Jakobsson), Morkinskinna in the Íslenzk fornrit series (2 vols, 2011, with Þórður Ingi Guðjónsson), and several other anthologies and critical editions. He is also the author of five works of fiction; in his research, he focuses mainly on medieval royal biographies, the paranormal in medieval literature, marginal figures in medieval texts, and, most recently, on the 19th and 20th century scholarship and critical editions.
Mariusz M. Leś, PhD (University of Białystok)
Mariusz M. Leś is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Polish Philology, University of Białystok and the author of books Stanisław Lem wobec utopii (1998) and Fantastyka socjologiczna. Poetyka i myślenie utopijne (Białystok 2008). He also published a series of articles focusing on science-fiction and utopia and is a member of the Science Fiction Research Association, Science Fiction Poetry Association and a jury member for the Jerzy Żuławski Prize.
Tomasz Z. Majkowski, PhD (Jagiellonian University, Cracow)
Tomasz Z. Majkowski is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Anthropology of Literature and Culture Studies at the Department of Polish Studies, Jagiellonian University. He is the author of W cieniu białego drzewa. Powieść fantasy w XX wieku (2013) and researches popular culture, fantasy literature, video games, new media, and fan culture. His works have been published by “Homo Ludens”, “Ekrany”, and “Autoportret”.
Prof. Magdalena Roszczynialska (Pedagogical University)
Magdalena Roszczynialska is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Poetics and Literary Theory and the Department of Media and Culture Studies of the Institute of Polish Philology, Pedagogical University of Cracow. She is a member of the Polish Association for Culture Studies and of the Polish Association for Media Education; she co-operates with academic journals “Studia de Cultura” and “Studia Poetica”, and is the author of Sztuka fantasy Andrzeja Sapkowskiego: problemy poetyki (2009) and of several articles focusing on popular culture and literature, literary fantasy, and fan culture. Her research interests include popular culture and literature, alternative cultures, methodology of literary studies, literary theory, urban anthropology, geo-poetry, urban motifs in literature, and aesthetics.
Prof. Piotr Stasiewicz (University of Białystok)
Piotr Stasiewicz is a Professor at the Institute for Polish Philology, University of Białystok. He is the author of Poezja Tomasza Kajetana Węgierskiego (2012), Modernizacje tradycji w wybranych utworach współczesnej kultury popularnej (co-written with Marek Kochanowski, 2013) and Między światami. Intertekstualność i postmodernizm w literaturze fantasy ( 2017). He is also an editor of Motywy religijne w fantastyce współczesnej (together with Mariusz Leś, 2014) and the author of several articles about culture and literature of the eighteenth century and modern fantasy. Since 2011 he is a jury member for a national literary competition “Świetlne pióro”. He teaches courses on ancient literature and drama, classicism in literature, Enlightenment literature, culture, and thought, and modern fantasy.
Prof. Izabela Trzcińska (AGH in Cracow)
Izabela Trzcińska is a Professor at AGH University of Science and Technology carrying out research in religion studies, history of ideas, and cultural anthropology. Her interests include myths in popular culture, gnosis, western esotericism, art, conceptions of imagination, and anthropology of communication. She teaches MA courses on cultural imagination, cooperated with Ecumenical Television TVP 2, participated in the production of several films dedicated to Christian orthodox tradition and art (dir. Jerzy Lubach, with Fr Henryk Paprocki), and is the director of the Polish Society for the Study of Western Esotericism. She is also a member of the Laboratory for Non-Dogmatic Spirituality and of Polish Bateson Research Group. She is the author of Światło i obłok. Z badań nad bizantyńską ikonografią Przemienienia (1998), Logos, mit i ratio. Wybrane koncepcje racjonalności od XV do XVII wieku (2011), O duchowości inaczej. Coaching w perspektywie przemian kultury współczesnej (2013). She also collaborated as scientific editor and co-author on several book projects: Religia – system – ewolucja (2006), Tajemnica czasu i religie (2005), Światło – czas – transcendencja (2008), Polskie Studia Ezoteryczne. Konteksty (2015, vol. VII in the series Światło i ciemność), was an editor of two thematic volumes “The Polish Journal of the Arts and Culture”: Esoteric Studies. Polish Contributions (2016) and Mythologies of popular culture (2015), and is an author of many research papers.
Creatio Fantastica 