KF Online Programs

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As the author of The Captive Mind, a book of essays on politics and postwar Polish intellectuals who embraced communism, Czesław Miłosz was labeled "a political writer." While acknowledging that some of his writings were political indeed, he distanced himself from them and defied this arbitrary classification. After all, he considered himself – and he truly was – a lyrical poet. What is the place of The Captive Mind in Miłosz's literary output, then? To answer this question, the lecture will explore the work's main features and discuss some events of the poet's biography and postwar European history.

Reymont's novels exist in contemporary Polish culture through cinema. Andrzej Wajda's Land of Promise entered the canon of Polish cinematography and, to a large extent, shaped the perceptions of Polish history. It was similar to the adaptation of The Peasants. Today, Reymont's texts and their adaptations become interesting again in the context of the discussion about how national history relates to the history of social groups and the conflicts between them.

Wiesław Myśliwski (b. 1932) is one of the few living writers who made their debut more than fifty years ago and, due to the importance of their works published at that time, belong to the history of literature of the 20th century. At the same time, Myśliwski successfully entered the 21st century and settled there well. What is the secret of this writer's duration? What is the key with which Myśliwski opened his readers' minds in the last century and still works?

Snow White and Russian Red's language is the product of a post-dependent imagination, shaped by the history of Poland as a Russian province in the 19th century and as a satellite country of the USSR in the 20th century. The author of this novel excellently manages to recreate the cultural game of inferiority and superiority, inseparable from empire and provinces' geography.

Join us for the Foundation's first webinar discussing mathematical concepts, and featuring, as a speaker, distinguished scientist, recipient of the Shaw Prize in mathematics, and member of the KF Collegium of Eminent Scientists, Professor Henryk Iwaniec of Rutgers University. Prof. Iwaniec will illustrate what kind of ideas drive old and modern mathematics by answering a few notorious questions. Is mathematics a science or an art, in other words, do we discover or create the rules of mathematics? He will describe a mathematical argument that leads to an operation that is inconsistent with common sense (a magic duplication of a ball for free). Examples of ineffective results will be given. Questions about the distribution of prime numbers will be discussed. Prof. Iwaniec will also speak about the history of mathematics, in particular about the achievements of Polish mathematicians.

Quarantine Jazz concert featuring Mateusz Smoczynski, Violin, and Stephan Braun, Cello promoting their new album Keep On Turnin.

Recorded at Piekarnia Cichej Kobiety in Zielona Gora on November 7, 2020 as part of "Seifert Concerts" series

May 07, 2021 @ 11 am

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Watch the episode here>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qgrx69N3WU&lc=UgxUjSWqKz__OWY3fSJ4AaABAg

Andrzej Stasiuk (b. 1960) is one of the most renowned Polish writers of the turn of 20 and 21 centuries. In his case, biography is intermingled with the artistic creation and almost inseparable from it. The culture of the United States played a key role in his intellectual formation. He calls himself a child of communism and American pop-culture. Stasiuk's prose's point of departure is a margin and a periphery in sociological, cultural, moral, and geographical meaning. He continually plays a game with his provincial origins, both in social and national dimensions, and seeks to penetrate the global province such as Central and Eastern Europe to find his own private cultural and spiritual center in it.

In the second lecture devoted to a group of poets known as the "New Wave" or "Generation 68," who emerged in the late 1960s and 1970s in response to specific sociopolitical conditions, Jaroslaw Anders continues to discuss their common preoccupations and individual poetic voices that shaped the literary and political sensibilities in the last decades of communism in Poland. Hardly limited to political or social subjects, the poems explored the whole range of experience of their contemporaries, while bearing the indelible mark of their collective condition. Their poetry absorbed and transformed the realities of their time into a rich fabric of references that remain relevant until the present day.

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Does Henryk Sienkiewicz, a man from the age of steam, have his place in the digital age culture? Is this writer, Nobel prize winner, whose novels were once absolute bestsellers still interesting for scholars and the audience at the beginning of the 21^st century? Or could he potentially be?

The lecture will try to answer these questions, showing some digital scholarly stories told about Henryk Sienkiewicz's life, work, and reception (for example, his journeys to America and Africa or monuments for Sienkiewicz erected over the years). It will also analyze traces of Sienkiewicz's presence in contemporary culture - including novels, films, and video games.

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Subscribe to the KOSCIUSZKO TV YouTube Channel and get notified every time a new video gets posted. Kosciuszko TV YouTube >>>>

In this webinar, Professor Robert I. Frost will analyze the diversity of legal systems across the vast multi-ethnic, multi-religious, and multi-cultural Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He will examine the underlying philosophy of the political union, demonstrating why it was able to function for over 200 years. This webinar is based on Professor Frost's forthcoming second volume of "The Oxford History of Poland-Lithuania: Volume I: The Making of the Polish-Lithuanian Union, 1385-1569. "

A poet, educator, and scholar Anna Frajlich talks about the decades of reading and writing and her most recent book "The Ghost of Shakespeare" in a conversation with a writer and translator Ross Ufberg.

Jaroslaw Anders, a writer, translator, and editor, talks about the poetic formation known as the "New Wave" or "Generation 68," which dominated the Polish poetic landscape in the late 1960s and 1970s, and emerged in protest against the Polish literary scene that, in their view, neglected its public obligations. The talk will delve into works by Adam Zagajewski, Stanislaw Baranczak, Ryszard Krynicki, and Ewa Lipska.

Please watch and sing along to the Kosciuszko Foundation Virtual Caroling Event, recorded on Saturday, December 19th at the KF in Washington, D.C.

Listen to a concert of Polish and American Christmas carols performed by children and youth. 

Join us to experience an extraordinary journey into outer space while listening to the music by Frederic Chopin. Watch the episode promoting Adam Ustynowicz's film, Chopin. The Space Concert with an astronaut, George Zamka, and pianist Karol Radziwonowicz.

Watch the episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPUCn3c6Xf0&t=35s

A panel discussion: "Maria Sklodowska Curie – A Pioneer for Women in Science?" featuring esteemed speakers Susan Quinn - an award-winning author of biography Marie Curie: A Life, Prof. Maria Siemionow - a world-renowned scientist and microsurgeon and Keiko Kawashima -  Professor at Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan. The discussion was moderated by Nobel Prize-winning scientist, the Frank H. T. Rhodes Professor of Humane Letters, and a member of the KF Collegium of Eminent Scientists - Prof. Roald Hoffmann

The Kosciuszko Foundation Collegium of Eminent Scientists and the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America (PIASA) host webinar featuring the PIASA Scientific Awards Presentation and a Lecture "The Origin of Cellular Life" by Jack W. Szostak, the Nobel Prize Laureate in Physiology or Medicine, 2009.