Justyna Beinek, assistant professor of Slavic languages and literatures (Ph.D, Harvard University, 2001), specializes in Polish and Russian nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature, with a particular focus on Romanticism, cultural studies, and comparative literature. Her research interests include the engagement of Polish and Russian literatures with issues of memory, nation, gender, authorship, the body, and the idea of the “West.” She is currently completing her book, The Album in the Age of Russian and Polish Romanticism: Memory, Nation, Authorship, based on extensive archival research in Poland and Russia.

Jack Bielasiak, professor of political science (Ph.D, Cornell University, 1975), is a specialist in comparative politics. His major research emphasis is on the transformation of communist societies and the entry of Poland into the European Union. His research in this field has focused on political participation and decision-making processes. He serves as the editor of Poland Today and Polish Politics: Edge of the Abyss . He is currently working on the manuscript Reading Post- Communism: Elections and Party Systems in Transitions . In conjunction with these interests, Professor Bielasiak teaches courses including Transitions to Democracy, East European Politics, Post-Communist Politics, Comparative Revolutions, the Politics of Genocide, and Political Tyranny. In 2004, he served as the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Central European, East European, and Russian Studies at Warsaw University.

Bill Johnston, associate professor of comparative literature and of second language studies (Ph.D, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1995), is one of the leading translators of Polish literature in the Englishspeaking world. Working in both prose and poetry, he has translated such authors as Witold Gombrowicz (Bacacay), Tadeusz Rózewicz (New Poems), Magdalena Tulli (Dreams and Stones and Moving Parts), Andrzej Stasiuk (Nine), Krzysztof Kamil Baczynski (White Magic and Other Poems), Juliusz Slowacki (Balladina), Boleslaw Prus (The Sins of Childhood and Other Stories), and Stefan Zeromski (The Faithful River and The Coming Spring). Johnston has held fellowships from both the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 2005 his translation of Magdalena Tulli’s Dreams and Stones (Archipelago Books, 2004) won the AATSEEL Translation Award.

Padraic Kenney, professor of history (PhD University of Michigan, 1992), writes about social and political change in Poland and Eastern Europe. His most recent books are Wroclawskie zadymy and The Burdens of Freedom: Eastern Europe Since 1989 . He is also the author of A Carnival of Revolution: Central Europe, 1989 , and Rebuilding Poland: Workers and Communists, 1945-1950 . Currently, he is researching a book on political prisoners in the twentieth-century world.

Beate Sissenich, assistant professor of political science (PhD, Cornell University, 2003) is a specialist in European Union enlargement to the east. She is completing a book manuscript titled “State-Building by a Non-State: European Union Enlargement and the Transfer of EU Social Policy to Poland and Hungary.” Her research interests include the formation and functioning of regional systems; transnational policy networks; intergovernmental, state and non-state actors; and transnational contentious politics.

Halina Goldberg, assistant professor of musicology (Ph.D, City University of New York Graduate Center, 1997), has a main research interest in the music of Chopin and a general interest in the music of Poland and Eastern Europe. She is the editor of The Age of Chopin: Interdisciplinary Inquiries and the author of Music in Chopin’s Warsaw . She has lectured at Warsaw’s Polish Chopin Academy and at Warsaw University; at Jagiellonian University in Kraków; at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC; and at the University of Rouen, France. She is a member of the editorial board of Polish Music Journal.

Several other IU faculty members specializing in Eastern European studies also contribute to scholarship on Poland:

Ronald Feldstein (Slavic languages and literatures) and Steven Franks (linguistics) recently published a book on Polish linguistics; JeanRobinson (political science) works on family response to state policies in post-socialist societies;Maria Bucur (history) teaches East European history and gender studies; Owen V. Johnson (journalism/history) researches mass media and history in East Central Europe; Karen Kovacik (English/creative writing – IUPUI) translates contemporary Polish poetry; Michael Alexeev (economics) studies the economic transformation of former centrally planned economies; Sarah Phillips (anthropology) works on the anthropology of postsocialist societies; Beverly Stoeltje (folklore) teaches on nationalism, difference, and gender in Eastern Europe; Jack Bloom (Sociology – IU Northwest) lectures and writes on Polish politics, opposition, and dissent; Charles Wise (public and environmental affairs) teaches about democratization and transition in Eastern Europe and the CIS; and Sue Grimmond (geography) researches urban and rural climate changes in Poland.