Dr. Monika Adamczyk-Garbowska

Professional Background

Professor Monika Adamczyk-Garbowska received a Ph.D. in English literature and translation theory, and an M.A. in American literature from Maria Curie-Sklodowska University. During her fellowship at the Museum, she was Vice-Chair of the Department of Cultural Studies; Head of the Center for Jewish Studies; and Professor of American and Comparative Literature at Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin, Poland. For her Ina Levine Invitational Scholar Fellowship, Professor Adamczyk-Garbowska conducted research on “Landscapes after the Khurbn: Survivors’ Returns to Poland after WWII as Depicted in Jewish Memorial Books.”

Professor Adamczyk-Garbowska has made significant contributions to Jewish and literature studies. She is the author of Odcienie tożsamości: Literatura żydowska jako zjawisko wielojęzyczne [Shades of Identity: Jewish Literature As a Multilingual Phenomenon] (Lublin: Wydawnictwo UMCS, 2004); Polska Isaaca Bashevisa Singera – rozstanie i powrót [Isaac Bashevis Singer’s Poland: Exile and Return] (Lublin: Wydawnictwo UMCS, 1994); and Polskie tłumaczenia angielskiej literatury dziecięcej. Problemy krytyki przekładu [Polish Translations of English Children’s Literature: Problems of Translation Critique] (Wroclaw: Ossolineum, 1988). Professor Adamczyk-Garbowska has also edited six books: Kazimierz vel Kuzmir. Miasteczko różnych snow [Kazimierz vel Kuzmir: A Shtetl of Various Dreams] (Lublin: Wydawnictwo UMCS, Lublin 2006); with Bogusław Wróblewski Biłgoraj czyli raj. Rodzina Singerów i świat, którego już nie ma [Bilgoraj or Paradise: The Singer Family and the World That Is No More] (Lublin: Wydawnictwo UMCS, 2005); with Marta Kubiszyn and Grzegorz, Żuk Dziedzictwo kulturowe Żydów na Lubelszczyźnie. Materiały dla nauczycieli [Jewish Cultural Heritage in the Lublin Region: Teaching Materials] (Lublin: Brama Grodzka –Theatre NN Center in Cooperation with the Center for Jewish Studies and Projectguggenheim, 2003); with Konrad Zieliński, Ortodoksja-Emancypacja-Asymilacja. Studia z dziejów ludności żydowskiej na ziemiach polskich w okresie rozbiorów [Orthodoxy-Emancipation-Assimilation. Jews of the Polish Lands during the Partitions] (Lublin: Wydawnictwo UMCS, 2003); Chone Shmeruk, Świat utracony: O twórczości Isaaca Bashevisa Singera [The Vanished World of Isaac Bashevis Singer] (Lublin: Wydawnictwo UMCS, 2003); and with Antony Polonsky, Contemporary Jewish Writing in Poland: An Anthology (Lincoln & London: University of Nebraska Press, 2001). Professor Adamczyk-Garbowska has also translated several books and written scholarly articles and essays in English, Polish, and Russian. In addition, she has lectured and presented papers at several conferences in Europe, Israel and the United States. At the time of her fellowship, Professor Adamczyk-Garbowska was a member of the editorial board of Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry (published by the Littman Library of Jewish Civilization), and an editor of the literary quarterly Akcent (published in Lublin). In 2004 she was awarded the Jan Karski and Pola Nirenska Prize for her research and teaching of Jewish culture and Yiddish literature and language.

Fellowship Research

During her tenure at the Museum, Professor Adamczyk-Garbowska conducted research for her project, “Landscapes after the Khurbn: Survivors’ Returns to Poland After WWII as Depicted in Jewish Memorial Books.” In this ground-breaking research she introduced the genre of Yizkor books to a Polish audience by creating an anthology of texts from approximately 100 Yizkor books that highlight the differences between Polish and Jewish cultural topography. Professor Adamczyk-Garbowska concentrated her research on the Holocaust and post-war periods focusing specifically on the psychological and cultural impact which these periods had on Jews who returned for a short time to their destroyed homes in Poland. She also included other, predominantly Yiddish, sources that depict this impact of the Holocaust upon Polish Jews.

Professor Adamczyk-Garbowska was in residence at the Mandel Center from September 1, 2006 to May 31, 2007.