Dr Maryna Szoda from Belarus, a researcher specialising in Belarusian studies, cultural studies and literary translation, has become the newest participant of the Scholars at Risk programme (SAR). She will stay in Kraków until February 2024. During her stay, she will be able to continue her research and expand her collaboration with both Polish and foreign colleagues thanks to the Jagiellonian University.
The Villa Decius Institute for Culture, in cooperation with Jagiellonian University, is implementing the SAR Residency Program as part of the international Scholar at Risk network. IKWD offers a safe residence, to academics at risk of harassment and repression, for an academic semester and logistical support combined with a variety activities to engage in the life of the Kraków academic community and promote their scientific and research activities in Poland.
The scholarship stay in Kraków will last until February 2024, during which Dr Maryna Szoda will continue her academic work and establish cooperation with other researchers, not only from the local university community but also internationally, thanks to the cooperation with Jagiellonian University.
During her stay, Dr Maryna Szoda will conduct classes and deliver lectures on mythologisation and mythopoetry in literature, cultural semiotics, Belarusian literature in European cultural contexts, and translation studies and literary translation.
‘Academic freedom is not only at the core of the idea of the university, but also of democratic societies. Authoritarian regimes often regard academics as a major challenge to their power. When academics are threatened by discrimination, persecution or violence, not only individual lives and careers are at risk, but also the future of the university as a global truth-seeking community based on open scientific debate that is driven by a diversity of ideas, people, and perspectives. I am delighted that we can welcome our colleague from Minsk to our university’, said Prof. Beata Kowalska, JU Academic Ombudsperson (JU representative at SAR).
‘For more than 20 years, Villa Decius has constantly offered the opportunity to continue literary and, since 2018, scientific work to outstanding artists who, having left their place of origin, continue their work abroad, often in exile. The research output produced during these stays is important for the development of science, the strengthening of democratic values, the maintenance of national identities and the establishment of international relations. We look forward to continuing our cooperation with the SAR Network, Jagiellonian University, and our guest Maryna Szoda’, stressed Dr hab. Dominika Kasprowicz, Prof. UJ, Director of the Villa Decius Institute for Culture.
Born in 1973 in the city of Pruzhany, Belarus, Dr Maryna Szoda graduated with a degree in philology from Belarusian University in Minsk. She defended her doctoral thesis entitled Myth and Mythmaking in the Creative System of William Butler Yeats. From 2000 to 2021, she worked at the Department of Cultural Studies of the Faculty of Social and Cultural Studies at Belarusian State University. In 2022/23, she worked as a visiting professor at the European Humanities University in Vilnius. In 2012–2016, she participated in meetings and workshops of the International Translator Seminar ‘Translators Without Borders’. She translates from Polish and Ukrainian. She was awarded the Prajdzidzishevt prize for her translation of the story Weiser Dawidek by Paweł Huelle (2014). She has translated other works, including Matka Joanna od Aniołów by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, Mercedes-Benz by Paweł Huelle, Opowiadania by Sławomir Mrożek, Primeval and Other Times and Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk, Native Realm by Czesław Miłosz, Kajtuś czarodziej by Janusz Korczak, Teorie literatury XX wieku by A. Burzyńska and M. P. Markowski etc. Her academic interests include theory and history of myth, history of Belarusian literature in the context of world culture, and translation studies.
Source: Villa Decius Institute website
