B.A. seminars 2024–2025 (Full-time programmes)

What is this list?

This is a list of B.A. seminars we intend to launch in our full-time B.A. programmes whose third year of study is the academic year 2024–2025; that is, the seminars are planned to start in 2024 and end in 2025, at the end of the three-year B.A. programme. This list is intended for:

  1. Students at the Faculty of English who are about to enter the third year of their full-time B.A. programme: this is your reference point before B.A. seminar interviews;
  2. Candidates for our full-time programmes: this list gives you a snapshot of what seminars were on offer for the study cycle that started two years earlier, that is in 2022.

What about these seminars?

Part of the third year of study at a B.A. programme is about preparing a B.A. paper (B.A. thesis, if you like) under the supervision of the teacher whose B.A. seminar you are in. Seminar groups are subject to formal limits as to the minimal and maximal number of students who can enrol in each seminar. As we cannot tailor the list of seminars to the exact needs of all the students—how could we know?—we may need to ask you to go through an interview with your prospective B.A. thesis supervisor.

At some point before the start of the academic year you may be asked about your preferred B.A. seminar—please stay tuned to your e-mail inbox and the Faculty of English intranet. Your task is easy: browse this list in search of seminars which are offered for the programme in which you are a student and let us know, when asked, which seminar is your favourite. We will take note of it and ensure your interview is with the right teacher and their committee.

Please note: We do not guarantee that you will be able to join the preferred seminar. Enrolment into a particular seminar is subject to conditions such as the total number of students in the third year of study, the result of your interview, and others. In particular: if there are more students interested in a given seminar than the number of students the seminar can accept, your interview may decide if you enrol in the seminar you would prefer or are offered a seat in a different seminar.

How to navigate the list?

The list is sorted by name of the teacher. The format is the following: title of the seminar, the name of the teacher, information on programme priority, and the description of the seminar.

Which seminar is for whom?

B.A. seminars conducted in English are open to all students of Faculty of English programmes taught in English, with the proviso that priority is given to students of the programme to which the seminar is assigned. (See the Programme priority line in the heading for each seminar.)

Moreover, the student must choose a seminar where research is carried out within the discipline (linguistics/literary studies) assigned to the field of study; for example, ELTIT students are not eligible for seminars in literary studies.

The programmes in the list and their abbrieviations are:

  • English Philology (Filologia angielska) — FA
  • English-Celtic Philology (Filologia angielsko-celtycka) — FAC
  • English and Chinese Studies (Filologia angielsko-chińska) — FACh
  • English Linguistics: Theories, Interfaces, Technologies — ELTIT
  • English Studies: Literature and Culture — ESLC

Tech-enhanced EFL teaching: Harnessing videos, apps, and games for effective learning

dr Karolina Baranowska

Programme priority: FA, FAC, FACh

Description

Integrating media and new technologies into EFL teaching fosters an engaging and effective language learning environment that caters to the diverse needs of learners given that these technologies enable anytime, anywhere learning, providing flexibility and accessibility that traditional classroom settings cannot. The main goal of this seminar is to familiarize students with the methodology of research in the area of Foreign Language (FL) learning and teaching, with a special focus on research revolving around the use of new technologies, for example the effectiveness of exposure to FL videos, games, or the use of language learning applications. Students will also learn how to take part in academic discussions by presenting their own projects.

Candidates wishing to participate in this seminar should be interested in second language acquisition and teaching, however, the seminar is open not only to students enrolled in the teacher training programme, or students having prior experience in teaching. Additional materials will be provided to candidates who have not previously participated in didactic courses to help them understand selected aspects of teaching and the nature of language acquisition in general.

Course requirements include timely submissions of particular components of the BA thesis and active participation in class discussions.

Representations and embodiments of fear, evil and illicit desires in British and Irish literature

dr Katarzyna Bronk-Bacon

Programme priority: FA, FAC, FACh

Description

In her No go the bogeyman Marina Warner (2000: 17) states that, historically, humanity has been dealing with fear by naming its sources as well as embodying and representing it by means of artistic means of expression. This seminar will investigate British and Irish literature and various paraliterary texts of culture across centuries to investigate how cultures imagined and discussed representations of evil and how they embodied or disembodied their fears as various types of monstrosities or sensations. Together with Jeffrey Jerome Cohen (1996: 20) we will try to find out why the monstrosities we have culturally engendered and perpetuated via literature should be seen as “our children”, and why they persistently want us “to reevaluate our cultural assumptions about race, gender, sexuality, our perception of difference, our tolerance toward its expression”. We will further engage in reading stories and accounts of menacing phenomena which are difficult to put into words or to embody, and thus delve into narratives on and of personal and cultural trauma that can only be expressed by means of hauntings, spectres and beastly or abject beings.

Students choosing this seminar will be expected to read all assigned texts and, further on, engage in cultural research. This seminar is not for you if you wish to write about American, Canadian or Australian literature - these can only be used in limited comparative studies for this course. Similarly, writing about cinema will conditionally be allowed if the narratives pertain to adaptations of literary works. This seminar is for you if YOU (and not AI) enjoy writing about literature. Students willing to write about age studies are more than welcome.

Sample Bibliography
  • Auerbach, Nina. 1995. Our vampires, ourselves. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome, ed. 1996. Monster Theory: Reading Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
  • Creed, Barbara. 1986. “Horror and the Monstrous-Feminine: An Imaginary Abjection”, Screen 27, 1: 44–71, https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/27.1.44.
  • Kristeva, Julia. 1982. Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. Translated by Leon Roudiez. New York: Columbia University Press.
  • Shildrick, Margaret. 2002. Embodying the Monster: Encounters with the Vulnerable Self. SAGE Publications Ltd.
    Warner, Marina. 2000. No go the bogeyman. London: Vintage.

Diasporic literatures in Canada: Multicultural and Immigrant Voices in Canadian Writing

prof. UAM dr hab. Dagmara Drewniak

Programme priority: FA, FAC, FACh

Description

As Margaret Atwood once said: “We are all immigrants to this place even if we were born here” (Afterword, The Journals of Susanna Moodie, 1970: 62), it is definitely interesting to explore the vast body of Canadian literature from the immigrant perspective. Therefore, the aim of the seminar is to study contemporary Canadian literature, with a special emphasis on the notions of diasporic writing, multiculturalism and immigrant voices in literature. During the course students will discuss various works of the most famous Canadian authors who represent different ethnic origins (e.g. Chinese-Canadian, Japanese-Canadian, Jewish-Canadian and Polish-Canadian among others) as well as a selection of theoretical and critical essays (e.g. by Linda Hutcheon, Margaret Atwood, Wayson Choy) that will provide a certain background for our discussions and future BA papers. We will place a range of chosen literary texts in the Canadian historical and cultural contexts. The seminar will introduce students to the process of writing BA papers within the field of literature. We will address a number of issues ranging from the formal aspect of writing theses to methodology of research, gathering materials and developing a critical approach to the views of others.

Candidates wishing to participate in the seminar should have good knowledge of English and American literature and an authentic interest in literature. Prior knowledge of Canadian literature is not obligatory.

Selected Bibliography
  • Hammill, Faye. 2007. Canadian literature. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
  • Kröller, Eva-Marie. 2004. The Cambridge companion to Canadian literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • New, W.H. 2003. A history of Canadian literature. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

Adapting high culture: Shakespeare

prof. UAM dr hab. Jacek Fabiszak

Programme priority: ESLC, FA

Description

The seminar is dedicated to issues linked to adaptation, a process which is perpetual in human culture. As Aristotle in his Poetics once observed, “the instinct of imitation is implanted in man from childhood, one difference between him and other animals being that he is the most imitative of living creatures, and through imitation learns his earliest lessons; and no less universal is the pleasure felt in things imitated.” Aristotle thus made us aware of how prone humans (and nature) are to imitation; yet, this imitation is always creative, or – as Linda Hutcheon (2014: xviii) remarked about adaptation – it is “repetition without replication, [since] change is inevitable, even without any conscious updating or alteration of setting.” The seminar is addressed to those students who are interested in researching texts of culture, especially Shakespeare’s works, have been adapted and appropriated in contemporary culture: on stage, on screen, on page, etc.

Queer theory and queer praxis in late 20th- and 21st-century English-language literature and culture

dr Beniamin Kłaniecki

Programme priority: ESLC, FA

Description

This BA seminar aims to familiarise participants with various facets of queer theory through the work of such critics as Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Judith Butler, Jack Halberstam, Sara Ahmed, Jasbir Puar and others. In Tendencies, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick famously wrote that ‘queer’ stands for “the open mesh of possibilities, gaps, overlaps, dissonances and resonances, lapses and excesses of meaning when the constituent elements of anyone’s gender, of anyone’s sexuality aren’t made (or can’t be made) to signify monolithically” (1994: 7). Following this definition of queerness, we will utilise theory to explore, through literature and culture, ways of queer living, writing and reading. Each participant will be expected to write a BA thesis that examines selected works of late 20th- and 21st-century English-language literature and culture (from the UK, India or Nigeria) in the framework of queer studies as an area of research devoted to non-normative thinking, feeling and being. Students will receive credit for the winter semester upon submitting the first section of the thesis; the complete thesis should be submitted in the summer semester.

Cognition, culture and language: Modeling human behavior and culture through language use

prof. UAM dr hab. Karolina Krawczak-Glynn

Programme priority: ELTIT only

General description

What determines the choice of one lexeme over another, or one grammatical construction over another, or one conceptualization of the same perceived situation over another? These are important questions that enable scientists to better understand how language works, how the human mind works and what the relation is between language, culture and cognition. To concretize these questions, let us consider some examples:

  1. Are there any differences in understanding concepts such as femininity, identity or freedom across different languages, cultures, genres, genders, etc.?
  2. How does society portray immigration or minority groups?
  3. How are emotions such as anger, pride or shame, conceptualized in different varieties of English, in different languages, etc.?
  4. What are the different strategies and modalities that speakers employ to express their opinions in an interactive situation?

Objectives

In this seminar, you will learn how to use tools that are fundamental in contemporary linguistics and in behavioral science. These tools permit creating descriptive and predictive models of human behavior. More specifically:

  1. You will learn how to design your study
  2. You will learn how to develop your own research questions & hypotheses
  3. You will collect your own language data (including the possibility of multimodal / visual data)
  4. You will learn the annotation / tagging of that data
  5. You will learn data visualization techniques

Evaluation

Evaluation will be based on the successful completion of the BA paper, which will comprise the following components:

  1. Hypothesis proposal and previous research
  2. Study design
  3. Data collection and analysis
  4. Report

Eye-tracking and the bilingual mind

dr Agnieszka Lijewska

Programme priority: FA, FAC, FACh

Description

How you ever wondered how it is possible that you are able to comprehend a text in your native or in your foreign langue(s)? Do you know that you actually see with your brain, not with your eyes? Furthermore, can you read the next two sentences without a problem? “Do yuo fnid this smilpe to raed? Bceuase of the phaonmneal pweor of the human mnid, most plepoe do.” In this B.A. seminar we are going to look into the psychological and physiological factors underlying the process of reading in L1 and L2. A particular focus will be placed on studies employing one of the most innovative methods used in research on language processing such as eye-tracking (monitoring of eye movements). During the seminar students will have access to world-leading eye-tracking equipment and will learn how to use it in research. More specifically, in the seminar we are going to address such questions as: Is the process of reading in L1 and in L2 similar or different at the level of eye movements? Do bilinguals read emotional language the same way in their L1 and in their L2? Does reading in L2 depend on the type of L1 the person knows? Which linguistic or cognitive factors make bilinguals faster or more efficient readers? Equipped with the necessary knowledge, substantial guidance and ample instruction, students will have an opportunity to uncover some of the intricacies of reading and language processing in the bilingual/multilingual mind. In the seminar a selection of research topics will be provided so that each student can work towards a B.A. paper matching their interests.

Selected bibliography
  • Conklin, K., Pellicer-Sánchez, A., & Carrol, G. (2018). Eye-Tracking: A Guide for Applied Linguistics Research. Cambridge University Press.
  • Godfroid, A. (2019). Eye Tracking in Second Language Acquisition and Bilingualism: A Research Synthesis and Methodological Guide (1st ed.). Routledge.
  • Godfroid, A., & Hui, B. (2020). Five common pitfalls in eye-tracking research. Second Language Research, 36(3), 277–305. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267658320921218
  • Rayner, K., Pollatsek, A., Ashby, J., & Clifton Jr, C. (2012). Psychology of Reading. Psychology Press.
  • Rayner, K., Schotter, E. R., Masson, M. E. J., Potter, M. C., & Treiman, R. (2016). So Much to Read, So Little Time: How Do We Read, and Can Speed Reading Help? Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 17(1), 4–34.

Modern Celtic literatures and their cultural contexts

dr Marta Listewnik

Programme priority: FAC, FA

Description

This seminar will be devoted to the literatures of the insular Celtic countries, primarily Wales and Ireland. The focus will be placed on selected cultural contexts of literary production in view of historical and social developments, starting from the notion of Celticism, construction of “Celtic” national identities and minoritisation of Celtic languages in the 19th century. Subsequently, we will reflect on the impact of gender, postcolonial theories, and the current linguistic situation (particularly bilingualism) on contemporary Irish and Welsh prose and poetry. We are also going to explore the reflections of these literatures in other media and pop culture. You will be able to suggest your own research topics based on your interests. Your papers may concern any modern literary works produced by authors from Wales, Ireland and Scotland or works thematically related to Celtic cultures. The choice of the texts discussed will be partly adapted to your topics.

Participants are expected to have a genuine interest in literature and a basic knowledge of Welsh and Irish literary histories. Course requirements include careful reading of the assigned texts, participation in class discussions, preparation and delivery of presentations on the research topic, and timely submission of parts of the BA paper.

Current Environmental Concerns in American Literature

dr Katarzyna Macedulska

Programme priority: FA, FAC, FACh

Description

This seminar is dedicated to an environmental reading of contemporary American literary texts. We will critically examine literary works in terms of how external conditions as well as human-induced changes are shown to affect living organisms. The pressing concerns about sustainable living, the urge to preserve natural habitats, the intricate relation between humans and animals, humans and the land/the water, as well as cultural and political approaches to environmental stewardship have been addressed by many writers. Some of the prominent works we will refer to include Richard Power’s The Overstory (2018), Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (2006), Mary Oliver’s poetry, Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass (2013), Helen McDonald’s Vesper Flights (2020), Heather Durham’s Wolf Tree (2022), and Shelby Van Pelt’s Remarkably Bright Creatures (2022).

Reading fiction, non-fiction, and poetry we will focus not only on the portrayal of the current situation with its manifold and often overlapping crises, but also on the responses, answers and solutions these literary texts suggest and/or overtly provide when it comes to the challenges of today’s world.

Students participating in the seminar are required to write a BA thesis on a chosen subject. While topics related to the seminar’s focus on environmental concerns in American literature are encouraged, other possibilities may also be considered if a student shows and substantiates a particular interest in American literature that they wish to explore.

Issues in phonology and phonetics

prof. dr hab. Geoffrey Schwartz

Programme priority: ELTIT only

Description

  • Is /d/ really the same sound in English and Polish?
  • How can Polish have words like krtań but most other languages can’t?
  • Why does Polish turn /s/ into /z/ in Facebook [fejzbuk] but English doesn’t?

These are just a few of the types of questions we will address in this seminar, which will focus on the relationship between the physical properties of speech sounds and the categorical symbols that are used to represent them, and how this relationship may differ in L1 and L2. In the first semester, we will consider issues of phonological representation, and relate them to specific problems in L2 pronunciation. The second semester of the seminar will focus on students' thesis projects. Students entering the seminar should have good marks in their previous courses on phonetics and phonology.

Selected references
  • Chomsky, N. & M. Halle (1968). The sound pattern of English. New York: Harper & Row.
  • Harris, J. (1994). i. Oxford: Blackwell.
  • Schwartz, G. (2016). On the evolution of prosodic boundaries - parameter settings for Polish and English. Lingua 171: 37-73.

Unveiling word meaning: Exploring lexical relations through corpora and dictionaries

dr Sylwia Wojciechowska

Programme priority: FA, FAC, FACh

Description

The focus of this seminar is word meaning as conceptualized in our mind, understood in context, and represented in dictionaries. We will be looking at the lexicon from the point of view of lexical semantics, lexicology, and lexicography. We are going to explore different lexical relations that exist between word meanings, such as synonymy, antonymy, polysemy and homonymy, as well as conceptual metaphor and metonymy – the cognitive processes that lead to polysemy. We are also going to discuss multi-word expressions, among them collocations and idioms. With this theoretical background, we will see how word meanings and lexical relations are represented in dictionaries, predominantly online dictionaries and glossaries, and what information about the actual usage of words can be retrieved from language corpora, for instance, frequency, register, collocations and connotations. Finally, we will consider the future of dictionaries in view of the application of generative AI in lexicography (ChatGPT).

Apart from the topics indicated above, individual BA projects may also involve culture-dependent meanings and sensitive terms as explained in dictionaries and evidenced by corpora. All BA theses need to incorporate either an analysis of dictionary entries or a corpus study regarding the lexical phenomena analysed.

Discourses of health and illness across contexts and genres

dr Magdalena Zabielska

Programme priority: FA, FAC, FACh

Description

Health and illness are particularly sensitive issues that impact our well-being and are crucial in our everyday lives. This seminar aims to examine the discourses of health and illness in different forms and settings, such as popular science literature, medical TV shows, social campaigns, and health-related online forums and blogs. These discourses involve various participant dynamics, such as doctor-patient, doctor-doctor, and patient-patient interactions, each offering unique perspectives and creating diverse discursive landscapes of health and illness. We will analyse how these elements are portrayed and how they affect our understanding of mental and physical health issues.

The seminar is intended to familiarise students not only with various facets of communication about health and illness, but also with the tools needed to examine its aspects. Students’ BA theses will be devoted to the study of various discourses in a variety of contexts within widely understood health communication.

From “the Angel in the house” to the New Woman: Women in the Victorian press

dr Paulina Zagórska

Areas of interest: gender studies, (historical) linguistics, (historical) sociolinguistics, history of English, critical discourse analysis, women’s studies, media linguistics, feminism
Programme priority: FA, FAC, FACh

Description

The nineteenth century saw a major shift in attitudes to and ideals of femininity, especially in the UK and the US. From “the Angel in the house”, epitomizing the perfect Victorian woman, to the so-called “female husband” contesting gender roles, to the militant suffragette, to the New Woman stepping into the job market during World War I, socio-cultural expectations of women underwent a genuine revolution. Those developments can be traced in the contemporary press. Indeed, Victorian newspapers and magazines were instrumental in shaping and reinforcing the discourse surrounding gender roles, and as such they provide a valuable insight into evolving notions of femininity.

This BA seminar is for students interested in investigating how those ideals, images, and changes were reflected in and popularized by the language of the contemporary press, in the context of gender studies and women’s studies. Possible topics for BA theses include comparative and diachronic studies of language in reference to women in the Victorian press, linguistic analyses of gender roles in the Victorian press, contemporary conduct and erotic/pornographic literature, linguistic analyses of newspaper articles addressing social issues involving women (e.g. prostitution, poverty, violence), etc.

Trigger warning: Topics such as misogyny, violence against women, rape, abortion, infanticide, prostitution, and murder may occur over this course.

Course requirements

Timely submission of your thesis.

For further information, feel free to contact me via e-mail.

Selected references

  • Corbin, Alain (ed.). 2020. Historia męskości. T. 2: XIX wiek. Tryumf męskości.
  • Johnson, Allan G. 1997. The Gender Knot: Unraveling Our Patriarchal Legacy
  • Jule, Allyson. 2017. A Beginner’s Guide to Language and Gender.
  • Litosetti, Lia and Jane Sunderland (eds). 2002. Gender identity and discourse analysis.
  • Mohammed, Jowan and Frank Jacob. 2021. Marriage Discourses: Historical and Literary Perspectives on Gender Inequality and Patriarchic Exploitation.
  • Urbanik-Kopeć, Alicja. 2022. Matrymonium. O małżeństwie nieromantycznym.
  • Walsh, Clare. 2001. Gender discourse: language and power in politics, the church and organisations.
  • Wodak, Ruth. 1997. Gender and discourse.

Exploring cross-linguistic differences in morphology and syntax

dr Sylwiusz Żychliński

Programme priority: FA, FAC, FACh

Description

This seminar is intended for students with a keen interest in linguistics and the mechanics of language. Throughout the course, we will explore a selection of topics in morphology and syntax, such as word formation, word order, or parametric variation, which have been central to linguistic debates over the past few decades. The discussion will be framed within generative grammar, but with a reduced emphasis on strictly theoretical syntax to make the material more accessible. Instead, the course will focus on analyzing specific morphological and syntactic phenomena from a comparative perspective, examining differences between languages such as English, Polish, Spanish, or German.

Additionally, students will learn methodologies for conducting contrastive research and will be introduced to empirical tools, particularly acceptability judgments and their use in online acceptability experiments. Students will have the freedom to choose between a descriptive, empirical, or combined approach in their projects. While a variety of potential research topics will be suggested, participants will be encouraged to independently select the topics for their BA theses.