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In Memory of prof. Iwona Bartosiewicz

Prof. Iwona Bartosiewicz, a German and Dutch Studies academic and Vice-Rector for Research for the 2016-2020 term, passed away on the first day of 2024. Today, on this  November day, I reminisce about Prof. Bartosiewicz.

In 1976, Iwona Bartosiewicz began studying at the Institute of German Studies under the guidance of prof. Nobert Morciniec, combining her studies with a specialization in Dutch Studies. In the 70s, there were not many students of Dutch Studies (although I was one of them), so even though we did not all begin our studies in the same year, we all knew each other as we would organize different events, excursions, and meetings with guests from the Netherlands together.

After her thesis defense in 1981 and graduating with honors (she was one of only six students of Dutch Studies, who were defending their master’s theses that year; although she still used her maiden name, Frąckiewicz), she was hired as an assistant in the Department of Applied Linguistics and Industrial Cooperation at the Institute of German Studies of the University of Wrocław. Her supervisor was prof. Eugeniusz Tomiczek, although he had the title of a doctor at the time. That way, both Iwona and I (I was hired a year prior) were working together under the same supervisor. After some time, I moved to prof. Morciniec’s Department of German and Dutch Studies, but Iwona stayed with prof. Tomiczek. Under his guidance, in 1988, she defended her PhD dissertation titled Analoge Sprichwörter im Deutschen, Niederländischen und Polnischen. Eine konfrontative Studie [Identical idioms in German, Dutch, and Polish. A comparative study], in which she combined her interests in German and Dutch linguistics, especially in phraseology and paremiology. Later, she focused on pragmalinguistics and developed fundamentals for the theory of politolinguistics concerned with the analysis of journalistic political texts. She was the first academic in Poland to conduct such research. Politolinguistics was also her chosen discipline for the monograph she wrote for her habilitation, which took place in 1999, titled Formen der Persuasion im deutsch-polnischen politischen Dialog. Untersuchungen zu politischen Reden zwischen 1989 und 1995 [Forms ofpersuasion in the political dialogue between Germans and Poles. The analysis of political speeches from 1989-1995].

In her politolinguistic studies, one could see the influence of prof. Tomiczek. That was something we had in common; prof. Tomiczek taught me during my first years in academia. Iwona and I were both avid readers of newspapers, and we often exchanged our observations concerning rhetoric and arguments. That did not change even when I moved to the Chair of Dutch Studies after it was established in 1989, while she stayed in the Institute of German Studies. We would still meet to exchange academic insights, and in the meantime, her first papers, concerning phraseology and paremiology, were published in Neerlandica Wratislaviensia.

Later, Iwona Bartosiewicz focused more on German studies, however, staying true to her interests in politolinguistics by publishing papers about the political speeches of Roman Herzog, Władysław Bartoszewski, and Helmut Kohl, the rhetoric in the process of reconciliation between Poles and Germans in 1989–1995, and the rhetoric of self-presentation of the German Federation of Expellees. Moreover, she also presented her interest in argumentation theory in other, often surprising, contexts. For instance, she wrote about the art of rhetoric based on the biblical story of the Three Magi, about “the precepts of articulation and poetry” of Euzebiusz Słowacki (father of the Polish poet, Juliusz Słowacki), about the rhetoric of humor (so-called Ars bene ridendi), as well as about whether Hercules Poirot followed the principles of rhetoric argumentation.

After her habilitation (in 2003 she became a professor at the University of Wrocław; in 2009 she was officially granted the title of professor by the president; in 2011 she received the most prestigious form of the professor title), she became “Doktormutter” for eight PhD students and reviewed several dozen doctoral and habilitation theses. She was an esteemed researcher and was known not only in Poland. She was a member of many scientific councils for prestigious linguistic journals, including Applied Linguistics, Forum Artis Rhetoricae, and Kwartalnik Neofilologiczny. She was also the executive editor for the oldest Polish journal about German Studies, Germanica Wratislaviensia, as well as a member of many scientific societies, such as Internationale Vereinigung für Germanistik, Verein der Freunde des Instituts für deutsche Sprache in Mannheim, and Stowarzyszenie Germanistów Polskich. She was a visiting professor in Berlin, Paris, and Bochum, and a member of the international chapters of the Iwan Wyhowski Award and the Lew Sapieha Award, which award Ukrainian and Belarusian researchers.

However, prof. Bartosiewicz was also an important figure for the University of Wrocław. When prof. Norbert Morciniec retired in 2002, she became his successor in the Institute of German Studies. That same year, she began her 10-year-long career as Deputy Director for Teaching Affairs at the Institute, working alongside her supervisor, Director Tomiczek. Also in those years, we closely collaborated, and as one of the effects of this cooperation, in 2004, the German Studies and the Dutch Studies were awarded an outstanding assessment by the Polish Accreditation Committee.  In 2012, she took over as the Director of the Institute for a term of 2012-2016, as prof. Tomiczek’s condition did not allow him to continue. She represented the Faculty of Letters in the Senate of the University of Wrocław, and was the Deputy Chairperson of the Senate’s Science and International Cooperation Committee. In the years 2016-2022, she was a member of Adam Jezierski’s Rector’s College as Vice-Rector for Research.

During all this time, we would often meet and discuss the plans and prospects of the University. She was always deeply concerned with “our University,” even after her term ended. I was watching her accomplishments from up close. And then I learn about her condition.

Prof. Iwona Bartosiewicz passed away shortly before her 67^th birthday. I will always remember her.

Stefan Kiedroń

Date of Publication: 8.11.2024

Added by: M.J.

Translated by Marta Kawik (student of English Studies at the University of Wrocław) as part of the translation practice.