Beckett Research Group in Gdańsk

The University of Gdańsk Samuel Beckett Seminar 2026
Research Echoes, and Neurocognitive Beckett

11 May 2026, Gdańsk, Poland

Beteween.Pomiędzy Festival 2026: University of Gdańsk, Poland

Place: Gdańsk Miasto Literatury, ul. Długa 35, 80-827 Gdańsk
Time: 11 May 2026, 10:00 – 14:00

Scholars and practitioners eager to share their current research on the life and work of Samuel Beckett in a variety of local and global contexts will meet in Gdańsk (Poland) on 11 May 2026. We offer space for intense discussion on current academic and artistic approaches to Samuel Beckett. The seminar will culminate in a round-table discussion Between.Europe with the confirmed participation of the internationally celebrated actor Clara Simpson, a Greek choreographer Dionysios Tsaftaridis, and Polish academics Klaudia Łączyńska (University of Warsaw) and Izabela Curyłło-Klag (Jagiellonian University).

PROGRAMME:
• Clara Simpson (Ireland) in conversation with Tomasz Wiśniewski (Poland): Neurocognitive Challenges in Delivering Bilingual Not I / Pas moi
• José Henrique Rodrigues Machado (Brazil): Brazilian Beckett
• Marta Kruczalak (Poland): A Beckett Zine
• Anita Rákóczy (Hungary): Uprooted Tree, Burning Leaves, Echoes of History: Waiting for Godot in Western Ukraine
• Klaudia Łączyńska (Poland): Embodied, but are they embedded? Characters’ situatedness and cognitive processes in Samuel Beckett’s early plays
• Angelo Romagnoli (Italy): Neurophysiology in Beckett’s Stagecraft: Space as a Directorial Device
• Online keynote address with a Q&A session: S.E. Gontarski (USA):
Neural Circuitry, Information Transfer and the Arts of Literature and/in Performance

The seminar will be chaired by Tomasz Wiśniewski (University of Gdańsk) and Angelo Romagnoli (Università degli Studi G. d’Annunzio di Chieti-Pescara).

Collaboration with Trinity College Dublin

[🇵🇱PL poniżej👇]We invite for a workshop showcase: A BECKETT ENSEMBLE
🗓️FRIDAY 24th April 2026, 3pm
📍Teatr BOTO

This workshop invited students to form a temporary collective that explored embodiment, sound, voice, and media through the works of Samuel Beckett📖 Rather than stage a single piece, they studied how “Beckettian” performance operates as a form of world-building, with emphasis on how stillness and silence affect audience attention. The workshop was entirely open to non-actors/non-performers, and was run as an inclusive, ecological community for exploration of the fundamentals of devising and embodied storytelling🎭

👉Moderators: Nicholas Johnson (Trinity College Dublin), Adam Lichtl (TCD) and Tomasz Wiśniewski (UG)

🇮🇪The workshop was conducted with the support of the Embassy of Ireland in Poland and the Between.Pomiędzy Festival 2026 and was part of the classes of the Management of Artistic Institutions.

👉Nicholas Johnson is Associate Professor and Head of Drama at Trinity College Dublin, where he acts as the arts and health lead for the Global Brain Health Institute and co-directs the Trinity Centre for Beckett Studies. He has published widely on Samuel Beckett, Bertolt Brecht, and theatrical modernism. He directs, facilitates, translates, and works as a dramaturg internationally.

[🇵🇱PL👉] Zapraszamy na pokaz pracy warsztatowej: A BECKETT ENSEMBLE
🗓️PIĄTEK 24 kwietnia 2026, godz. 15.00
📍Teatr BOTO

W ramach warsztatu studenci utworzyli tymczasową społeczność, badając poprzez dzieła Samuela Becketta zagadnienia ucieleśnienia, dźwięku, głosu oraz mediów 📖 Jako alternatywę dla jednorazowej inscenizacji, podczas warsztatu zbadano jak „Becketiańskie” przedstawienia działają jako forma tworzenia świata. Szczególną uwagę uczestnicy poświęcili temu, jak bezruch i cisza wpływają na uwagę odbiorcy. Warsztat był dostępny dla wszystkich chętnych - także dla osób, które nie są związane z praktyką teatralną. Był przeprowadzony w ramach inkluzywnej społeczności otwartej na eksplorowanie podstaw tworzenia i ucieleśniania narracji🎭

👉Prowadzenie: Nicholas Johnson (Trinity College Dublin), Adam Lichtl (TCD) i Tomasz Wiśniewski (UG)

🇮🇪Warsztaty odbyły przy wsparciu Zielono mi. Ambasada Irlandii w Polsce oraz Festiwalu Between.Pomiędzy 2026 w ramach zajęć na kierunku zarządzanie instytucjami artystycznymi.

👉Nicholas Johnson jest adiunktem i Kierownikiem Katedry Dramatu w Trinity College w Dublinie, gdzie kieruje projektami z zakresu wpływu sztuki na zdrowie w Global Brain Health Institute oraz współprzewodniczy Trinity Centre for Beckett Studies. Dotychczas publikował dzieła poświęcone Samuelowi Beckettowi, Bertoltowi Brechtowi oraz modernizmowi teatralnemu. Zajmuje się dramaturgią, reżyserią i tłumaczeniem.

[⬇️ENG below⬇️] Paula Meehan jest gościnią tegorocznego Festiwal Literatury i Teatru Between.Pomiędzy | International Festival of Literature and Theatre. To jedna z najważniejszych współczesnych poetek irlandzkich, której twórczość zdobyła międzynarodowe uznanie i liczne nagrody🇮🇪 Zadebiutowała tomem “Return and No Blame” (1984), a jej najnowszy zbiór “The Solace of Artemis” (2024) został uhonorowany Pigott Poetry Prize.

🖋️Oprócz poezji tworzy także dramaty i angażuje się w działalność edukacyjną, prowadząc warsztaty pisarskie w różnych środowiskach. Wśród licznych wyróżnień, szczególne miejsce zajmuje członkostwo w prestiżowym irlandzkim stowarzyszeniu artystów “Aosdána” oraz pełnienie funkcji Irlandzkiej Profesorki Poezji w latach 2013-2016. Meehan pozostaje ważną postacią współczesnej kultury irlandzkiej.

💙Podczas tegorocznej edycji Festiwalu Between.Pomiędzy Paulę Meehan będzie można usłyszeć dwukrotnie, podczas wydarzeń:
📍Memory Keeper by Trade | wykład irlandzkiej poetki Pauli Meehan(Biblioteka Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego)
🗓️12.05.2026, 11.30-12.30

📍Home by Starlight – spotkanie autorskie z irlandzką poetką Paulą Meehan (Dom Literatury w Gdańsku)
🗓️13.05. 2026, 17.00-18.30
Wydarzenie jest współorganizowane przez Dom Literatury w Gdańsku pod patronatem Gdańsk Miasto Literatury Unesco.

[⬇️ENG⬇️]
Paula Meehan is one of the most important contemporary Irish poets, whose works gained international recognition and multiple awards🇮🇪 She debuted with “Return and No Blame” volume (1984), and her most frequent collection “The Solace of Artemis” (2024)” was honored with the Pigott Poetry Prize.

🖋️In addition to poetry, she writes plays and is involved in educational activities, running writing workshops in various settings. Among her many honours, her membership of the prestigious Irish artists’ association “Aosdána” and her role as Irish Professor of Poetry from 2013 to 2016 hold a special place. Meehan remains a significant figure in contemporary Irish culture.

💙During this year’s edition of the Between.Pomiędzy Festival, you can meet Paula Meehan twice:
📍“Memory Keeper by Trade” – lecture with Irish poet Paula Meehan (University of Gdańsk Library)
🗓️12.05.2026, 11.30-12.30 pm

📍“Home by Starlight” – book signing with Irish poet Paula Meehan (The Gdańsk House of Literature)
🗓️13.05.2026, 5.00-6.30 pm
The event is co-organized by the Gdańsk House of Literature under the patronage of Gdańsk City of Literature UNESCO.

THE UNIVERSITY OF GDAŃSK SAMUEL BECKETT SEMINAR 2026
Research Echoes, and Neurocognitive Beckett

11 May 2026, Gdańsk, Poland

Beteween.Pomiędzy Festival 2026: University of Gdańsk, Poland

Place: Gdańsk Miasto Literatury, ul. Długa 35, 80-827 Gdańsk
Time: 11 May 2026, 10:00 – 14:00

Scholars and practitioners eager to share their current research on the life and work of Samuel Beckett in a variety of local and global contexts will meet in Gdańsk (Poland) on 11 May 2026. We offer space for intense discussion on current academic and artistic approaches to Samuel Beckett. The seminar will culminate in a round-table discussion Between.Europe with the confirmed participation of the internationally celebrated actor Clara Simpson, a Greek choreographer Dionysios Tsaftaridis, and Polish academics Klaudia Łączyńska (University of Warsaw) and Izabela Curyłło-Klag (Jagiellonian University).

PROGRAMME:
• Clara Simpson (Ireland) in conversation with Tomasz Wiśniewski (Poland): Neurocognitive Challenges in Delivering Bilingual Not I / Pas moi
• José Henrique Rodrigues Machado (Brazil): Brazilian Beckett
• Marta Kruczalak (Poland): A Beckett Zine
• Anita Rákóczy (Hungary): Uprooted Tree, Burning Leaves, Echoes of History: Waiting for Godot in Western Ukraine
• Klaudia Łączyńska (Poland): Embodied, but are they embedded? Characters’ situatedness and cognitive processes in Samuel Beckett’s early plays
• Angelo Romagnoli (Italy): Neurophysiology in Beckett’s Stagecraft: Space as a Directorial Device
• Online keynote address with a Q&A session: S.E. Gontarski (USA):
Neural Circuitry, Information Transfer and the Arts of Literature and/in Performance

The seminar will be chaired by Tomasz Wiśniewski (University of Gdańsk) and Angelo Romagnoli (Università degli Studi G. d’Annunzio di Chieti-Pescara).

The University of Gdańsk Samuel Beckett Seminar is part of the Between.Pomiędzy Festival 2026 (11-17 May), which also includes performances, a series of workshops Sharing Crafts run by Annabel Arden (Complicité: Devised Theatre), Clara Simpson ('Riders to the Sea' by John Millington Synge), and Nicholas Johnson and Adam Lichtl (an April session 'A Beckett Ensemble'). There are open discussions, meetings with a leading Irish poet Paula Meehan, and Polish theatre makers such as Agata Duda-Gracz, Michał Derlatka, and Maciej Gorczyński, exhibitions, and other events. For more information on the Between.Pomiędzy Festival see: www.between.org.pl

In 2026, the Beckett seminar is co-organised with the Department of Neuroscience, Imaging, and Clinical Sciences, Università degli Studi G. d’Annunzio di Chieti-Pescara (Italy). The session marks the establishment of institutional foundations for furthering research in this field in the forthcoming years. The keynote address Neural Circuitry, Information Transfer and the Arts of Literature and/in Performance will be delivered online by Professor S.E. Gontarski (FSU) and followed by Q&A session.

The Samuel Beckett Society online seminar with the Beckett Research Group in Gdańsk as a case study. Join us on Monday 16 March 2026 (6 pm Polish time).

REMINDER: Early Career Scholars Seminar: Research Clusters We want to remind interested parties that the latest in the Samuel Beckett Early Career Scholars Initiative series of webinars takes place next Monday. This session will focus on forming research c…

CFP: THE UNIVERSITY OF GDAŃSK SAMUEL BECKETT SEMINAR 2026

Research Echoes, and Neurocognitive Beckett

11 May 2026, Gdańsk, Poland

Between.Pomiędzy Festival 2026: University of Gdańsk, Poland

We invite scholars and practitioners who are eager to share their current work on the life and work of Samuel Beckett in a variety of local and global contexts. We suggest that the issues posed in the seminar title might trigger papers and discussions of a variety of works, in a variety of ways, and through a variety of approaches. We offer space for intense discussion on current academic and artistic approaches to Samuel Beckett. The seminar will culminate in a round-table discussion “Between.Europe: Ireland” with a confirmed participation of an internationally celebrated actor Clara Simpson.
The University of Gdańsk Samuel Beckett Seminar is part of the Between.Pomiędzy Festival 2026 (11-17 May), which also includes performances, a series of workshops Sharing Crafts run by Complicité (“Devised Theatre”), Clara Simpson (on Riders to the Sea by John Millington Synge), Katarzyna Pastuszak (co-ordinator), and Nicholas Johnson (an April session “A Beckett Ensemble”). There are open discussions, meetings with poets and writers, exhibitions, and other events. For more information on the Between.Pomiędzy Festival see: www.between.org.pl
As part of the seminar we propose a two hour session Neurocognitive Beckett co-organised with the Department of Neuroscience, Imaging, and Clinical Sciences, Università degli Studi “G. d’Annunzio” di Chieti-Pescara (Italy). The session marks setting institutional foundations for furthering research in this field in the forthcoming years. On 11 May 2026 , the keynote address by Professor S.E. Gontarski (FSU) “Neural Circuitry, Information Transfer and the Arts of Literature and/in Performance” will be followed by lectures by Dr Angello Romagnoli (Università degli Studi “G. d’Annunzio” di Chieti-Pescara). We offer an invitation to scholars and practitioners who would like to join us in this event in the role of a speaker or in other forms.

Introductory remarks by S.E. Gontarski:
"From ancient gesture systems to digital archives, from neural spikes to electronic media, the arts of literature and performance operate within complex circuits of information transfer; these circuits are at once biological, technological, and cultural. To understand them requires moving beyond purely interpretive models toward an account of art as an event that unfolds across nervous systems and networks. In this sense, literature and performance do not merely reflect changes in human character; they participate in the ongoing reconfiguration of the human as a soft machine embedded in neuromatic environments. Art becomes not a representation of consciousness but one of its active conditions."

Introductory remarks by Angello Romagnoli:
"A tripartite model of spatiality in performance, grounded in experimental evidence from studies of interoception, peripersonal space and hippocampal function, constitutes a meta-framework through which diverse approaches to theatre-making can be illuminated. Two cases prove particularly amenable to such analysis: the rehearsal system developed by Belgian director Thierry Salmon and Samuel Beckett’s directorial practice as documented in his Theatrical Notebooks. The phenomenological foundations of this neurophysiological framework find a significant precedent in the early twentieth-century German debate in psychopathology, in which Neo-Kantianism and Bergsonism figured prominently. These philosophical currents were demonstrably influential on Beckett and arguably formative of his approach to staging, actor direction, and character conception and construction at large."

We invite proposals for 20-minute papers that provide insight into current Beckett scholarship and practice. The deadline for a 200-word proposal is 20 March 2026 ([email protected]). The seminar fee is 100 euros (covers coffee breaks, lunch, and participation in the Between.Pomiędzy Festival). The event is coordinated by Patrycja Zielke.

The Seminar is organised by Beckett Research Group in Gdańsk, and Between.Pomiędzy Research Group in collaboration with Florida State University (USA), the Department of Neuroscience, Imaging, and Clinical Sciences, Università degli Studi “G. d’Annunzio” di Chieti-Pescara (Italy).

Financial support: University of Gdańsk, and Irish Embassy in Poland.

The Beckett Research Group in Gdańsk (BRGiG) was founded and is led by Dr hab. Tomasz Wiśniewski, Prof. UG. It is affiliated to the Department of Theatre Arts in the English and American Studies Institute at the University of Gdańsk. Its honorary patron is Professor S.E. Gontarski of Florida State University in the USA. BRGiG brings together scholars, translators and artists who are engaged in work related to Beckett. Indeed, the encounter of academic and creative worlds – searching for varied and not always complementary ways of seeing Beckett’s work – is the main axis of the activities of BRGiG. We organize regular Beckett seminars in the Tricity area, and also theatre workshops/laboratories and discussions with poets, writers, film makers, theatre workers, and visual artists. We also engage in publishing activities and support numerous artistic projects. Cooperation with the Sopot Dance Theatre has led to the production "Wszystko co widać. Ohio," and the film "All This This Here." Professor Gontarski’s laboratory work from the festival is documented in the film “…but the clouds…,” which has been shown in Poland and the USA, during the Beckett Summer School at Trinity College Dublin, and at the Charles University in Prague. In 2010, the documentary film Back to the Beckett Text (Beckett na Plaży) appeared, and at the 2019 Between.Pomiędzy Festival, S.E. Gontarski’s film "Beckett on the Baltic" had its world premiere.

Guests in the past included: Marcello Magni (co-founder of Complicité), Douglas Rintoul (Complicité), Antoni Libera (Poland), Enoch Brater (USA), H. Porter Abbott (USA), Luz María Sánchez (Mexico), Chong Wang (China), Debby Mulholland (New Zealand), Antonia Rodríguez Gago (Spain), Mark Nixon (UK), Javier Aguirre (Spain), Derek Attridge (UK), Nadia Kamel (Egypt), John Riquelme (USA), and many others.

More details on BRGiG:
https://brill.com/view/journals/sbt/37/2/article-p301_8.xml

[🇵🇱PL poniżej⬇️]
🗞️Tomasz Wiśniewski has recently published an article titled “‘Beckett on the Baltic’ and Other Research Experiments in Gdańsk” in the journal Samuel Beckett Today. The piece focuses on the Beckett Seminars held annually in Gdańsk during the Between.Pomiędzy Festival.

The author examines, among other topics, a series of long-term research experiments inspired by the works of Samuel Beckett. Conducted by a group of scholars since 2010, these experiments combine academic inquiry with creative interpretation, exploring Beckett’s texts through both scholarly and performative practices.

For more information, you can visit the publisher’s website ➡️https://brill.com/view/journals/sbt/37/2/article-p301_8.xml

[🇵🇱PL⬇️]
🗞️Niedawno w czasopiśmie „Samuel Beckett Today” ukazał się artykuł Tomasza Wiśniewskiego zatytułowany „’Beckett on the Baltic’ and Other Research Experiments in Gdańsk”. Tematem przewodnim są Seminaria Beckettowskie, odbywające się corocznie w Gdańsku, od wielu lat w ramach festiwalu Between.Pomiędzy.

Autor omawia m.in. eksperymenty prowadzone przez grupę badaczy od 2010 roku. Są inspirowane twórczością Samuela Becketta, łącząc akademicką perspektywę z artystycznymi interpretacjami.

Więcej informacji można znaleźć na stronie wydawnictwa ➡️https://brill.com/view/journals/sbt/37/2/article-p301_8.xml

The University of Gdańsk Samuel Beckett Seminar:
Theme: TOOLS AND CRAFT
Date: Monday 19 May 2025
Venue: Gdańsk Miasto Literatury, Długa 35, Gdańsk
Spkeakers include:
SE Gontarski (USA)
Clara Simpson (Ireland / France)
Paweł Sztarbowski (Poland)
Anita Rákóczy (Hungary)
Angelo Romagnoli (Italy)
Alice Clabaut (France)
Tomasz Wiśniewski (Poland)

Contact/details: [email protected]

A new article by SE Gontarski "On Fragments: A Piece of Art and the “I” – or Not" to be read here:

https://journals.us.edu.pl/index.php/flit/issue/view/1221

Abstract:
This essay explores the philosophical implications inherent in Samuel Beckett’s most enigmatic and metonymic late theater work, Not I, even as he frequently abjured any interest in philosophy, which he claimed neither to read nor to understand. The play is profoundly ontological, however, and its metonymic stage image engages the classical philosophical conundrum of the relationship of the part, a piece or fragment, say, to the whole, an issue with which Beckett has at least been intrigued for most of his creative life.

Key words: fragments, Modernism, Romanticism, ontology, metonymy, Samuel Beckett, James Joyce, Immanuel Kant, Julia Kristeva, Slavoj ŽižekParole chiave: frammenti, Modernismo, Romanticismo, ontologia, metonimia, Samuel Beckett, James Joyce, Immanuel Kant, Julia Kristeva, Slavoj Žižek

2024: BIEŻĄCE PUBLIKACJE ONLINE