The final meeting in the “Meetings at Nehring Hall” cycle
The Institute of Polish Studies and the Society of Friends of Polish Studies in Wrocław invite you to the final lecture in the 29th edition of “Spotkania w Nehringu” (eng. Meetings at Nehring Hall), a cycle of popular lecture series.
8 June 2025 (Sunday) at 11:00–12:00
Prof. Dorota Heck
„Klasycyzm w najnowszej poezji polskiej” (eng. Classicism in Contemporary Polish Poetry)
The lecture will take place in the Reading Room (Nehring Room, ground floor) of the Institute of Polish Studies at the University of Wrocław, pl. Nankiera 15b.
A Biogram of prof. Dorota Heck
Dorota Heck was born on 22 March 1962 in Wrocław, the daughter of Kazimiera Barłożanka and Roman Heck, a professor of history and a medievalist. From 1976 to 1980, she attended the 14th General Secondary School in Wrocław, named after the Belgian Polonia, where she passed the secondary school final examination (matura) in 1980. From 1980 to 1985, Dorota studied Polish studies at the University of Wrocław, and classical philology from 1983 to 1986 at the same institution. Her literary debut came in 1981 with the review Samotność i sacrum of the Tomasz Jastrun’s poetry book “Promienie błękitnego koła” in the monthly journal “Nowy Wyraz” (issue no. 3). After obtaining a master’s degree through her work Formy adresatywne w przekładzie „Eneidy” Andrzeja Kochanowskiego written under the supervision of professor Jerzy Woronczak, she worked from 1985 to 1988 as a junior librarian in the UWr Library’s Old Prints Department, and later, from 1988 to 1992, was employed at the Powstańców Śląskich College of Education at the Literary Theory Department. In 1988 she published in Roczniki Humanistyczne (issue no. 10) her first scholarly article titled Przed zmartwychwstaniem. O poezji Mieczysława Jastruna (1903–1983). In 1992, she defended her doctoral thesis titled Problematyka wartości w eseistyce polskiej 1956–1986 (eng. Issues of Value in Polish Essay Writing 1956–1986), supervised by professor Wojciech Głowala. That same year, she began working at the Department of Polish Literature After 1918, within the Institute of Polish Studies –as an assistant (1992–93), as an assistant professor (1993–2006), and from 2007 to 2018 as an associate professor. Dorota conducted research on the works of Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Karol Irzykowski, Czesław Miłosz, Gustaw Herling–Grudziński, Tadeusz Różewicz, Zbigniew Herbert, Andrzej Kijowski, as well as other less-known or underappreciated authors. She explored the ideas of New Historicism, ethics in contemporary literary studies, and the revival and renewal of philological traditions. In 1995 and 1998 she was a visiting fellow at Darwin College and Newnham College, University of Cambridge. In 1998 she became a member of T. Parnicki Literary Society. In 2001, and later again in 2011 and 2020, she received a scientific award granted by the Rector of the University of Wrocław. As an author of numerous scholarly articles and reviews, she collaborated with magazines such as Topos (from 2003) and Arcana (from 2006). In 2005 she was conferred a habilitation degree through her work Bez znaku, bez śladu, bez słowa. W kręgu problemów duchowości we współczesnej literaturze polskiej. During the winter semester of 2010/2011 she delivered lectures and conducted exercises for students of cultural journalism at the University of Lower Silesia. From 2011, she took the chair of the Four Columns Literary Award (pl. Nagroda Literacka Czterech Kolumn). From that time onward, she also published reviews of recent publications on websites such as wSieci (under the pseudonym Maria Tarczyńska), wPolityce.pl, and wnas.pl. In 2014 she joined the Department of the History of Positivist and Young Poland Literature at the UWr Institute of Polish Studies. In 2015, she was awarded the academic title of professor. From 2016 Dorota directed her Workshop for 20th-Century Literary Culture in the vicinity of the Institute of Polish Studies. That same year, she received a distinction from the jury of the J. Mackiewicz Literary Award and became a jury member in 2017. Also in 2016, she joined the editorial board of the quarterly Nowy Napis. In 2019, she was appointed to the rank of full professor. In 2022, she was awarded the bronze medal Gloria Artis. Dorota Heck resides in Wrocław.
Admission is free. All are warmly invited!
Translated by Arkadiusz Biały (student of English Studies at the University of Wrocław) as part of the translation practice.
Date of publication: 29.05.2025
Added by: M.K.
