Graduated in Polish studies and history of drama at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków in 1993. 1996-2001 Ph.D. candidate at the Centre for European Studies. 2002 – Ph.D. in humanities. An expert of IDRIE (Institute of Regional and European Community) in Kraków. Worked on the advisory board in the Cultural Department of the Kraków City Council. Main co-ordinator at the Centre for European Training. Lecturer at the postgraduate European studies and the School for Cultural Management. Also worked in an expert group preparing the strategy of regional development for the Małopolska Province. General Assembly of ENCANT (2000). Published in periodicals and daily press.
Experts - international relations
Bożena Gierat-Bieroń
Magdalena Góra
Currently working at the Institute of European Studies, Jagiellonian University, Kraków and is at present the visiting researcher at the Centre for European Studies, Lund University, Sweden. She holds a PhD in Political Science from the Jagiellonian University, and her doctoral thesis (2007) concerned the issues of relations between Poland and Israel after World War II. Her academic interests include processes of collective identity formation in the context of EU enlargement, the European Union as an actor in international relations, contemporary Polish foreign policy. She participates in several research projects. She also co-edited volumes: "Collective Identity and Democracy in the Enlarging Europe" (with Zdzisław Mach and Katarzyna Zielińska) (2012); "Democracy, State and Society. European integration in Central and Eastern Europe" (Katarzyna Zielińska) (2011).
Jakub Groszkowski
Central European analyst at the Warsaw-based Center for Eastern Studies. Author of numerous analyses on foreign and domestic policy of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. His expertise covers political scene in both countries, energy security and regional cooperation in Central Europe. He is also a member of the Polish-Czech/Czech-Polish analytical platform. Graduated in Political Science and Central European Studies from University of Warsaw. Before joining Center for Eastern Studies he worked as a journalist at Polish Radio in Warsaw.
Mihaly Györ
Ambassador of the Republic of Hungary to Poland. Graduated in economics (international economic relations) from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. Since 1975 he has worked in the ministries responsible for foreign trade and economic cooperation. From 1988 to 1994 served as a commercial counsellor at the Hungarian Embassy in Warsaw. Between 1994-2000 Head of Departments in the Ministry of Industry and Trade (later Ministry of Economy) responsible for the economic cooperation with Central and East European countries. In 2000-2002 he continued his career performing the same duties as in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was awarded the “Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland” in 1996.
Ivan Horský
Since 2005 Consul General of the Slovak Republic in Krakow. Graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy at the Comenius University in Bratislava. In 1999 worked for the Ministra of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic. In the years 2000-2004 Consul General of the Slovak Republic in Bonn, Germany. In 2004 held the office of the Director of the Press and Communication Department.
Andrzej Jagodziński
Until 2006 executive director of the International Visegrad Fund. Essayist and translator from Czech into Polish. Correspondent of Gazeta Wyborcza (1990-96). Author of the Visegrad Festival.
Marta Kahancova
Marta Kahancova (1977) studied international economic relations and economic diplomacy at the University of Economics in Bratislava. Later she obtained her MA in Political Science after completing her studies at the Central European University in Budapest in 2002. Marta joined the ASSR in 2002 as a pre-dissertation student and in 2003 as a PhD student, working on a thesis titled Western Multinationals and the European Diversity: Shaping the Convergence of Employment Practices and Industrial Relations. The project explains why there are striking differences in employment practices across several subsidiaries of a Dutch multinational firm located in Western and Eastern Europe, whereas these differences do not necessarily mean East-West stereotypes. From January to December 2006 Marta was a visiting PhD student at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne, Germany. She taught Employment Relations and Organizational Change at the University of Amsterdam’s International School for Humanities and Social Sciences.
Janusz Kahl
Graduated from Copenhagen Business School with additional courses in strategy and foreign trade. Since 1996 he has been Danish honorary consul in Krakow and since 2006 Swedish honorary consul in Krakow for Malopolska, Slesien, Podkarpacie and Swietokrzyskie regions. For over 15 years he has been supporting Danish-Polish business cooperation. He has been Consultant for Copenhagen County and Funen County in interregional cooperation with Malopolska Region since 1992. He is CEO in NordicHouse, a consultancy company for Nordic companies in Poland which was established in 2001 in Krakow. He is an owner and co-owner of private companies – ISS building company and ScanRehab.
Andrzej Kapiszewski
Professor of sociology and political science at the Jagiellonian University, lecturer at the Diplomatic Academy at Warsaw. Former visiting professor at Stanford University and many other foreign universities. Between 1991-1997 in diplomatic service - the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland in the Persian Gulf countries. Author of numerous academic books and articles. Expert in ethnic and national issues, especially in East-West relations and Middle East affairs. He died in Krakow in 2007.
Jan Kavan
MA in journalism at the Charles University, leader of the 1960s student movement in Prague. Following the Warsaw Pact invasion in Czechoslovakia in 1968 he was forced to emigrate to the UK. He studied International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Politics at the University of Reading and in the St Anthony’s College, Oxford University. Founder of Palach Press Agency in London in 1974, which later became the main press agency for Czechoslovak opposition in the Western Europe. It was also the main distributor in the world of documents and reports issued by human rights movement Charter 77. He also formed the Jan Palach Information and Research Trust (JPIRT) which provided Czechoslovak dissidents with books and technical equipment and supported underground university courses. Founder of the East European Cultural Foundation (EECF) and the prestigious quarterly East European Reporter, which published all important documents and articles written by dissidents in Eastern and Central European countries. Returned to Prague from political exile in November 1989 and was elected in June 1990 to the Federal Assembly (Parliament). A notable academic career included posts as the Visiting Professor of Politics and History at the Adeplhi University in New York and as the Karl Loewenstein Fellow in Politics and Jurisprudence at the Amherst College in Massachusetts. He holds several honorary degrees, including the Honorary Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Honorary Doctor of Humane letters at the Adeplhi University. 1973-1989 lecturer at the Institute of Adult Education in London. 1998-2002 Minister of Foreign Affairs. 1999 - 2002 Deputy Prime Minister for Foreign and Security Policy. President of the 57th session of the United Nations General Assembly (2002-2003). June 2002-2006 Deputy to the Czech Parliament, where he worked as Vice-President in the Foreign Affairs Committee. Foreign affairs adviser to the President of the Chamber of Deputies (Parliament) 2007- . Winner of numerous awards for achievements in the strife for democracy and human rights.