An essayist, a translator and cultural manager; Initiator and Director of the Borderland of Art, Culture and Nations Centre in Sejny, Poland. Author and coordinator of numerous European projects focusing on multiculturalism in Central-Eastern Europe, regional diversity and cultural heritage. Former Member of, inter alia, the President’s Council for Culture, Council for Culture at UNESCO-Poland, the Council of the Polish-Lithuanian Adam Mickiewicz Foundation and the Board of the Czesław Miłosz Foundation in Lithuania. Winner of numerous cultural and artistic awards, recently (2004) the Aleksander Langer International Award. Contributed significantly to the promotion of Poland in the world (Diploma of the Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2000) and to the development of cooperation between Poland and Lithuania (Grand Prince Giedymin Order in 2001).
Experts
Krzysztof Czyżewski
Lloyd Dakin
Lloyd Dakin is the Regional Representative of UNHCR based in Budapest. Since 2005, he has been responsible for UNHCR’s operations in Hungary, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia. In 2008, the region for which he is responsible expanded to include Bulgaria and Romania. Mr. Dakin joined UNHCR in 1980 in Thailand. He has previously served with UNHCR in Pakistan, Tanzania and twice at its Headquarters in Geneva. Prior to his current assignment, Mr. Dakin was as UNHCR’s Representative in Armenia from 2001 to 2004. He has an MA in International Administration.
Břetislav Dančák
Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Poland (since October 2023). Before joining the diplomatic service, he occupied the position of Vice-Rector for Internationalization at Masaryk University (2019-2023) and Associate professor at the Department of International Relations and European Studies of Faculty of Social Studies, MU (since 2008). Previously, he served as Dean of the Faculty of Social Studies at Masaryk University (2011-2019). In his professional career he spent academic year (2003/2004) as Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Columbia University in New York. He successfully attended East European Summer School in Warsaw in 1998 and was Executive Director of the East European Summer School Club (2002-2004). Under his leadership was organized the 2nd meeting of Alumnus of EESS at Masaryk University in Brno, the Czech Republic.
His research and teaching activities are focusing on energy security and international relations, with emphasis on the Central European countries in the context of the Trans-Atlantic energy security debate. He was a guarantor and a leading person of the MA study program Energy Security Studies, launched in 2009.
Dr. Břetislav Dančák, born in 1973, is an esteemed academic specializing in political science with a focus on energy security, geopolitics, and transatlantic relations. He is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of International Relations and European Studies at the Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic.
Anna Danilewicz
Cultural animator and manager; currently a head of Education and Exhibitions Department in the Army Museum in Białystok and also a coordinator of social and educational actions and international cooperation in Sybir Memorial Museum (under construction), previously: Head of Department of Coordination of Artistic Work, Marketing and Gaining Funds in Dramatic Theatre in Białystok. Journalist cooperating with Association Marcel Hicter in Brussels and other independent projects, trainer of the Borderland Summer School 2012. Graduated from Białystok University, completed also European Diploma for Cultural Project Management, International Seminary for Cultural Operators, trainings for open education, science and culture, strategic development of cultural organizations.
Norman Davies
A British-Polish historian noted for his publications on the history of Europe, Poland and the United Kingdom. Davies published a book God's Playground, a comprehensive overview of Polish history; Heart of Europe, a briefer history of Poland; Europe: A History and The Isles: A History, about Europe and the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, respectively; Microcosm: Portrait of a Central European City, a history ofWrocław / Breslau, a Silesian city; Rising '44. The Battle for Warsaw, which describes the Warsaw Uprising etc. He has worked for the BBC as well as British and American magazines and newspapers, such as The Times, The New York Review of Books and The Independent. In Poland, his articles appeared in the liberal Catholic weekly Tygodnik Powszechny. Davies was awarded the Order of the White Eagle, Poland's highest civilian award. Norman Davies has been appointed to the Advisory Board of the European Association of History Educators – EUROCLIO.
Irena Dawid-Olczyk
Irena Dawid-Olczykis a cultural studies scholar, trainer, and negotiator. She is also a Human rights activist. She co-founded the La Strada Foundation against Human Trafficking and Slavery (1995), and she coordinated the National Intervention and Consultation Centre for Victims of Human Trafficking (2009). She is the author of innovative training programs. She is the winner of the RPO Paweł Włodkowic Award.
In her free time, she reads.
Michael Daxner
Professor of sociology and president emeritus of the University of Oldenburg, Germany. Since 2003 he has served on an advisory mission to the Minister of Higher Education in Afghanistan. From 2000 to 2002, he served as the principal international officer for the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology for the Provisional Self-Government in Kosovo, and in 2002 became special counselor to the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) office in Belgrade. He first started working with UNMIK as head of the Department of Education and Science while he was an international administrator of the University of Prishtina. He served as a German delegate to the Council of Europe Committee on Higher Education and Research in 1994 and on the board of the European University Association from 1998 to 2001.
Bénédicte de Brouwer
Convinced that if you want to go far, you need to go together, she dedicated her work to European and international cultural collaborations. As head of Culture at the Belgian Creative Europe Desk, she advised cultural and creative actors on the EU funding opportunities and on designing effective cooperation projects. She also worked at the Centre for Fine Arts - BOZAR as Sr Advisor in cultural cooperation and diplomacy. She is currently coordinating the European project United Fashion at MAD – Brussels platform for Fashion and Design. She regularly gives workshops on European perspectives and programmes for Culture.
Katarzyna Dendys-Kosecka
Katarzyna Dendys-Kosecka - actress, singer, culture manager. A graduate of the Vocal and Acting School of Danuta Baduszkowa in Gdynia, pedagogy at the University of Silesia and postgraduate studies in the field of culture manager at the University of Economics in Katowice. Organizational director of the International Theater Festival Without Borders in Cieszyn and Český Těąín. Professionally associated with the Banialuka Puppet Theater in Bielsko-Biała. She made guest appearances at the Musical Theater in Gdynia, the Musical Theater in Lublin, the Dramatic Theater in Koszalin and the Polish Theater in Bielsko-Biała. Piaf's original recital devoted to the work and life of the French singer has been presented at many festivals, theater stages and in prestigious cultural centers.
Jean-Pierre Deru
Jean-Pierre Deru holds a PhD in Law from the University of Louvain, Belgium (U.C.L). He was teaching at the Faculté Ouverte de Politique Economique et Sociale at the U.C.L. Director of the Association Marcel Hicter pour la Démocratie Culturelle, director of the European Diploma in Cultural Project Management which trained more than 570 cultural operators from all over Europe and beyond in cultural cooperation projects management, and member of various European cultural networks; among others Oracle, the European Network of Cultural Administration Training Centres (ENCATC) and the European House for Culture.
