Center for American Studies, MCSU Lublin

27/09/2026

A changing of the guard at PAAS! At this year’s Polish Association for American Studies conference in Szczecin, the outgoing PAAS Board officially handed over the reins to a new team for the next three years. The outgoing Board was led by President Marek Paryż, with CAS’s very own Edyta Frelik serving as Vice-President, and Tomasz Jacheć as Secretary, Ewelina Bańka as Treasurer, and Katarzyna Macedulska as Board Member. Izabella Kimak represented PAAS on the Board of the European Association for American Studies. A big thank you to the whole team for 3 years of service to the Polish American Studies community! The newly elected PAAS Board is headed by Kacper Bartczak, with Beata Zawadka, Grażyna Zygadło, Jarosław Hetman, and Tomasz Sawczuk joining him for the new term.

The transfer of power was peaceful, ceremonial, and conducted under the watchful eyes of Americanists in Szczecin. We wish the new Board every success and we’re keeping our fingers crossed for the next three years! There is more good news on the European front: earlier this year, at the EAAS Board meeting in Bologna, Izabella Kimak of UMCS was re-elected Secretary General of EAAS for another four-year term. Congratulations, Iza! Ewelina Bańka will now take over as the PAAS representative to EAAS.

A few snapshots below from the old Board, the new Board, and the symbolic passing of the baton in Szczecin.

23/09/2026

From Cindy Sherman's many faces to the holy spires of Polish Chicago: CAS was busy morphing America in Szczecin! Edyta Frelik, in her paper “Cindy Sherman’s American Morph-ologies,” explored how Sherman’s staged photographs invite us to imagine stories that are never quite told, and how our readings of these images change over time. Izabella Kimak, in “A City of Holy Spires”: The Catholic Church in Polish Chicagoan Writing, turned to another facet of American culture: religion and the Polish American experience. A big thank-you to the organizers and everyone who made Szczecin such a stimulating place for conversations about America in all its changing forms.

21/09/2026

Who gets to decide which stories belong on library shelves? In Kim A. Snyder’s powerful documentary The Librarians (2025), ordinary American librarians find themselves at the center of extraordinary battles over books, censorship, and the freedom to read.

Join us for a screening followed by a conversation about contemporary America, q***r representation, and the role of libraries in our communities. The discussion will be moderated by Dr. Edyta Frelik with librarians Opal Ćwikła and Katarzyna Poleszak. Lublin Miasto Literatury Festival, Centrum Kultury w Lublinie Saturday, September 26, 12:00 PM

21/09/2026

Last week, Dr Lidia Kniaź-Hunek was once again invited to participate in the AI Summit, organized by the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology. PJATK

Last year, the discussion focused on whether we should use AI in our professional work, including academia. This time, the question was no longer whether or why we should use it, but how to use it responsibly and effectively to create positive change in the world.

16/09/2026

We are pleased to announce the 2nd edition of the MigraMedia MOOC: Representation of Migration in Visual Media, developed as part of the Erasmus + MigraMedia project.
📅 6 October–9 November 2026
🌍 Free online course
🎓 1 ECTS / 25 hours
💬 Language: English (B1 recommended)
The course explores how films and other visual media represent migration, borders, refugees and diversity across different geographical and cultural contexts, while fostering critical thinking, media literacy and intercultural awareness.
No prior knowledge is required.
👉 Enrol here:

The MOOC builds on the power of film and other visual media to express complex issues, and on the power of visual storytelling to transform attitudes and perceptions.

01/09/2026

The MigraMedia project is coming to an end...

The recent results of our work (the UMCS team included dr. Ewa Antoszek, prof. Zbigniew Mazur and dr. Anna Bendrat, now ) have been published in the latest issue of Lublin Studies in Modern Languages and Literature, available at https://journals.umcs.pl/lsmll

and in "Migration Narratives in European, American, and African Media: History, Critical Reading, and Teaching" available through the publisher's website: https://hilpub.uni-hildesheim.de/entities/publication/5a1285b2-8c41-4557-a110-cbdbe4032fb2 or at: https://hilpub.uni-hildesheim.de/server/api/core/bitstreams/7c39a5e7-1758-491b-9e90-22288ac43abd/content .

All are open access so enjoy reading and feel free to use the materials in your classrooms!

10/07/2026

Class of 2026, you did it! Congratulations to our BA and MA graduates on successfully defending their theses and earning their degrees, and to their supervisors, Dr Lidia Kniaź-Hunek, Dr Edyta Frelik, and Prof. Małgorzata Rutkowska. All this despite malfunctioning restrooms and a building-wide water shortage. Talk about resilience 🙃🦸‍♀️🦸‍♂️💪

19/06/2026

Exciting news straight from Chicago! 😎

Our own Dr. Izabella Kimak is speaking with Łukasz Dudka from Dziennik Związkowy about her research on Polish American literature!

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1E6ntMAu3A/

17/06/2026

American Studies at the crossroads! Dr Edyta Frelik represented CAS at the 10th World Congress of the Polish Institute of Arts & Sciences of America, held on June 12–13 in Lublin under the theme “Crossroads of Cultures.” Hosted in partnership with Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, this multidisciplinary event gathered over 150 presenters from Poland and abroad across 42 panels. Dr Frelik presented a paper entitled "Between Lublin and New York: Tadeusz Mysłowski’s Transatlantic Crossroads." The congress also featured a special exhibition devoted to the Paris-based Kultura literary journal. In the photo, Dr Edyta Frelik is joined by two fellow presenters and representatives of the Polish Association for American Studies: Prof. Marek Paryż, University of Warsaw, President of PAAS, and Prof. Mateusz Świetlicki, University of Wrocław. Prof. Paryż and Dr Frelik both serve on the PAAS Board, with Dr Frelik as Vice-President.

15/06/2026

After years of working at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, we finally got to meet the woman herself!
Last week, Dr. Lidia Kniaź-Hunek attended the Women in Tech Summit organized by Perspektywy Education Foundation. She listened to inspiring keynote speeches, joined engaging workshops, and connected with women from across the tech industry. Along the way, she met a humanoid robot and even posed for a photo with a convincing lookalike of Maria Skłodowska-Curie.