Language of Empowerment

🌍 version in Polish (wersja w języku polskim)

“Language of Empowerment” is an annual seminar series organized at the Faculty of English AMU as part of the International Week for Equality and Inclusion. Through this event, we aim to raise awareness of the dangers of discrimination and contribute to the global debate on values such as acceptance and equality, in accordance with the UNESCO proclamation that:

“Tolerance is respect, acceptance and appreciation of the rich diversity of our world's cultures, our forms of expression and ways of being human. It is fostered by knowledge, openness, communication, and freedom of thought, conscience and belief. Tolerance is harmony in difference. It is not only a moral duty, it is also a political and legal requirement. Tolerance, the virtue that makes peace possible, contributes to the replacement of the culture of war by a culture of peace." (UNESCO's 1995 Declaration of Principles on Tolerance).

Every year, the “Language of Empowerment” features lectures delivered in English and Polish.

List of speakers whom we have had the honor to host

Year 2024

Full playlist [external link]

• Katarzyna Kotula, Polish Minister for Equality
  Opening talk [external link]
• Mary Ellen Curtin, American University, Washington, DC
  Race, representation, and the pursuit of a meaningful vote in US politics [external link]
• Kacper Łodzikowski, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań
  Challenges of implicit bias in AI: Towards awareness and mitigation [external link]
• Iwona Mazur, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań
  A functional approach to audio description as a means of social inclusion in a multimodal world

Year 2023

Full playlist [external link]

• Judith E. Rosenstein, United States Naval Academy
  Sticks and Stones: The power of language [external link]
• Gayathri Prabhu, Manipal Centre for Humanities, MAHE, India
  Interlocutor of Dreams: Narrative Nooks in Rashsundari Debi’s autobiography Amar Jiban (1868)
• Agata Hauser, Faculty of Law and Administration, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan
  Legal empowerment and human rights
• Valentyna Ushchyna, Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University
  Language of Ukrainian empowerment: Discursive construction of national identity in worldview narratives [external link]
• Michael Hornsby, Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan
  Empowering minority language communities: Which approach is best? [external link]

Year 2022

Full playlist [external link]

• Emma Dawson Varughese, Manipal Centre for Humanities, MAHE, Manipal, India
  Feminist empowerment and visual language: An analysis of Neelima P. Aryan’s short graphic story ‘the prey’
• Katarzyna Bronk-Bacon, Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan
  Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century epistolary lessons on ageing and old age [external link]
• Tomasz Wicherkiewicz, Faculty of Modern Languages and Literatures, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan
  Language policies as tools of empowering marginalized language communities [external link]
• WA Student Council, Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan
  Studenci, studentki i osoby studiujące: Inicjatywy Rady Samorządu Studentów i społeczności studenckiej [external link to content in Polish] {Male, female, and non-binary students: Initiatives of the Student Council and the student community}
• Dorota Zyskowska, Porsche Polska
  Równouprawnienie w biznesie: Od teorii do praktyki [external link to content in Polish] {Equality in business: From theory to practice}

Year 2021

Full playlist [external link]

• Kornelia Boczkowska, Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan
  Horsey is not a metaphor: Human-animal relations, gender and the body in experimental film [external link]
• Joseph N. Cooper, College of Education and Human Development, University of Massachusetts Boston
  Anti-Racism, Inclusive Excellence, and The A.R.C. of Justice Framework: A New Paradigm for Sport Leadership [external link]
• Magdalena Zabielska, Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan
  It gave the impression that I wasn’t welcome: Foreigners’ disempowering experiences with healthcare institutions in Poznań [external link]
• Monika Browarczyk, Faculty of Modern Languages and Literatures, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan
  Mrówki wśród słoni. Auto/biograficzne narracje wykluczenia i marginalizacji w Indiach [external link to content in Polish] {Ants among elephants. Auto-/biographical narratives of exclusion and marginalisation in India}
• Dariusz Drążkowski, Faculty of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan
  Oparte na dowodach naukowych metody zapobiegania aktywizacji zagrożenia stereotypem na uczelni [external link to content in Polish] {Research-based methods of preventing the activation of stereotype threat at universities}

Year 2020

Full playlist [external link]

• Samuel Bennett, Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan
  'We' are good, 'they' are bad: Using language to exclude [external link]
• Katarzyna Burzyńska, Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan
  (In)visible and (dis)abled bodies: English early modern dramatists stage pregnant embodiment [external link]
• Agnieszka Kiełkiewicz-Janowiak, Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan
  Gender specification of nouns naming people in Polish: Toward social inclusion and equality? [external link]
• Rafał Jończyk, Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan
  “Women are struggling with task”: How stereotype threat affects creativity in female engineers [external link]
• Błażej Warkocki, Faculty of Polish and Classical Philology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan
  Od „sztuki przewrotnej” do „literatury queer”: Nieheteronormatywne wątki kultury polskiej [external link to content in Polish] {From subversive art to queer literature: Non-heteronormativity in Polish culture}
• Joanna Śmiecińska (Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan) & Jowita Wycisk (Faculty of Psychology and Cognitive Science, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan)
  Rodziny LGBT+ w Polsce: Od stresu mniejszościowego do zmiany społecznej [external link to content in Polish] {LGBT+ families in Poland: From minority stress to social change}