Prelegenci Archive - Igrzyska Wolności

Orina Krajewska

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish actress, theater instructor, co-founder and President of the Małgosia Braunek “Be” Foundation, promoting an integral approach to health in prevention as well as in the treatment of chronic diseases, especially oncological diseases.

In September 2018, she published a book Holistic Health Paths. Be a collection of over a dozen interviews conducted with outstanding specialists representing various health-related fields. The book is a guide for those who want to learn what integral medicine is and how to holistically care for their health and for their loved ones.

Aleksandra Knapik

Freedom Games 2018

A feminist, activist, publicist and young politician.

Gets involved in protests and actions for women rights, minorities (including LGBT+), animal rights, for democracy and secularism of the state. Awarded with “Point for Lodz” for organization of Celebration of the Lodz Uprising – Revolution of 1905.

Member of Save the Women Committee 2017. Member of the Board for Gals for Gals Lodz Association. Born in Lodz, her grandmother was a textile worker. Has PhD in Protein Biochemistry, attended graduate school at University of Lodz and University of Virginia.

Now works as a Quality Assurance specialist in  biopharrmaceuticalcompany and serves as an employee representative.

Michał Boni

Igrzyska Wolności 2018

Polish politician and culture expert. Member of the Sejm of the first term, from 2014 deputy to the European Parliament of the 8th term.

In 1990 and in the years 1992-1993 Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, in 1991 Minister of Labor and Social Policy, in 2008-2009, Secretary of State in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister.

In 2009-2011, minister-member of the Council of Ministers and chairman of the Standing Committee of the Council of Ministers, in the years 2011-2013, Minister of Administration and Digitization.

† Piotr Pawłowski

Freedom Games 2018, Igrzyska Wolności 2018

Polish social activist, founder and president of the Friends of Integration Association and the Integration Foundation whose goal is to work for people with disabilities.

Creator and editor-in-chief of the “Integration” magazine – the largest free bimonthly magazine addressed to people with disabilities, their families and friends.

The originator of many high-profile social campaigns.

In 2003, he opened the first Integration Center.

Shahin Vallee

Freedom Games 2018

Former economic advisor to the French Minister of Economy, he is a senior economist at Soros Fund Management.

His research interests are focused on international macroeconomics, but he is particularly interested in the areas of research at the intersection of financial markets and public policy. In Bruegel he works in particular on the international monetary system, European economic governance and monetary and macroprudential policy.

Shahin has a master’s degree from Columbia University in New York, as well as a degree in Public Affairs in Sciences Po in Paris, as well as a BA in La Sorbonne.

Sebastian Adamkiewicz

Freedom Games 2018

Doctor of Humanities, a graduate of the University of Lodz.

Museologist, assistant professor in the historical department of the Museum of Independence Tradition in Łódź. Associate of the Children’s University of Curious History, columnist for the historical portal Histmag.org.

Author and participant in many projects in the field of historical education and popularizing history.

Błażej Lenkowski

Freedom Games 2018

Political scientist, publicist. The creator and president of the board of the Industrial Foundation publisher of the “Liberte!” Magazine.

Dariusz Paczkowski

Igrzyska Wolności 2018

The President of the Klamra Foundation. A Polish social activist, street art artist. An initiator and coordinator of a number of activitis for promoting democracy, human rights, and animal rights.

He is the Founder and leader of the Animal Liberation Front – a nationwide movement of animal rights defenders. He worked at the Gaja Club and at the ARKA Ecological Foundation.

He is also the Editor-in-Chief and publisher of Mamiły Mampazury, a magazine published by Animal Liberation Front.

He has been honored with numerous prizes for his work, including: “Polcul” (2001), Helena Radlińska Award for Social Animators (2010), Dobrych Uczynki (2011), “Friend of the Blind”. He is also the laureate of the Patriotically Zawręceni 2014 poll. He also received an honorary mention in the POLIN 2017 Awards competition.

Barbara Dolniak

Freedom Games 2018

Deputy Speaker of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland of the 7th term.

A graduate of the Faculty of Law at the University of Silesia in Katowice in 1983. In the years 1983-1987, she was judge at the Provincial Court in Katowice (now: District Court in Katowice).

She completed post-graduate studies: in the field of European Union Law at the University of Silesia (2007), Public Relations – at the Olsztyn College of Information Technology and Management Tadeusz Kotarbiński (2011) and civil law – a course run by the National School of Judiciary and Public Prosecution in cooperation with the Institute of Law Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences (2013).

In the years 1987-2015, she was a judge. In the judicial structures she also held managerial positions, being a deputy chairman and a chairman of civil departments.

On November 5, 2015, she resigned from the office of the judge as a result of the constitutional ban on joining the position with the parliamentary mandate. On November 12, 2015 she was elected the Deputy Speaker of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland

A member of the National Board of the Nowoczesna party.

She is also a honorary patron of the Grzegorz Dolniak Foundation “Sportowa Szansa”, which supports young athletes. For her social and charity work, she was awarded with the Golden Badge of the Polish Society for the Blind and special thanks from the Association of Amazons “Sosnowiec” as well as an award for “all her help and a beautiful heart” from the “Dzieciom Będzina” Association.

Marta Zdanowska

Freedom Games 2018, Igrzyska Wolności 2018

Employee of the Dom Literatury (House of Literature) in Łódź.

Barbara Piegdoń

Freedom Games 2015, Igrzyska Wolności 2018

Publisher of the magazine “Książki. Magazyn do czytania”, former editor-in-chief of the “Gazeta Wyborcza Łódź” (2004-2015).

She began her journalistic work in the underground press. She was an editor in the weekly “Region” and “Dziennik Dolnośląski”, she cooperated with the Polish broadcasting station for the BBC radio. She participated in the program “The Role of Print Media in a Democratic Society”. In 2007 she became the winner of the Ostre Pióro award, she also received the Order of Polonia Restituta from President Bronisław Komorowski.

She is also the author of the family saga “Wrocławski dzień jak co dzień”, which has a television screening.

Bożena Przyłuska

Freedom Games 2018

Entrepreneur, passionate social activist and designer, and sociologist and management specialist by education.

Varsovian, feminist, atheist, supporter of the secular state. Co-Ordinator of Świecka Szkoła. An activist of the Warsaw Women’s Strike and vice-president of the Congress of Świecie Association.

She graduated from the University of Warsaw and Collegium Civitas. After several years of work in international advertising agencies and the birth of two sons, she chose an independent business.

Hanna Lis

Freedom Games 2018, Igrzyska Wolności 2018

Polish Italianist, journalist and TV presenter. She was journalist in TVP in the years 2008-2009.

She graduated of the Secondary School Stefan Batory in Warsaw. She graduated Italianist at the University of Warsaw. She speaks fluent English, Italian and Swedish, and also communicates in French.

From March 2018 she runs talk show “Between words” at Polsat Café.

She is Wiktor’s laureate for the year 1996 in the category of the discovery of the year. In 2002 she appeared in Marian Terlecki’s film Do Yours, the risk is yours as Emil’s ex-wife.

Borys Budka

Freedom Games 2018

Polish lawyer, doctor of economic sciences, academic teacher, local government and politician, member of the Sejm of the 7th and 8th term, minister of justice in 2015, deputy chairman of the Civic Platform since 2016.

He works as an academic teacher at the Department of Law at the Faculty of Finance and Insurance of the University of Economics and after the transformation of the University of Economics in Katowice.

In the Sejm of the 8th term, he became a member of the Justice and Human Rights Committee and the Legislative Committee, and in addition became the deputy chairman of the Special Committee for changes in codifications. 26 February 2016 elected as vice-president of Civic Platform. In November he was appointed the Minister of Interior and Administration in the shadow office created by the Civic Platform.

Marek Migalski

Freedom Games 2018, Igrzyska Wolności 2018

Polish political scientist, doctor of humanities, academic teacher, political journalist and politician, member of the European Parliament in the 7th term.

He works at the Institute of Political Sciences and Journalism at the University of Silesia in Katowice as an adjunct in the Department of Political Systems in Poland and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. He is also a lecturer at the Institute of European Studies of the Humanitas High School in Sosnowiec. In his scientific and didactic work he deals with issues of contemporary political and party systems.

He published articles on the Polish political scene in the press, including in Dziennik, Gazeta Wyborcza, Rzeczpospolita and Wprost.

Author of the books entitled: “Naród Urojony” (2017, Biblioteka Liberte!) and “Budowanie narodu. Przypadek Polski w latach 2015-2017” (2018, Bibilioteka Liberte!).

Mariusz Książek

Freedom Games 2018, Igrzyska Wolności 2018

Entrepreneur and economic activist. He is the head of two holding companies: the Marvipol Development Capital Group, which is involved in property development and the British Automotive Holding Capital Group, dealing in import, sales and comprehensive after-sales service for Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston Martin cars.

It is also the largest shareholder of Synektik SA, a listed radiopharmaceutical producer on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, a distributor of diagnostic equipment in Poland, a da Vinci robotic system – known devices used in surgery all over the world.

Michał Brzeziński

Freedom Games 2018

Lecturer at the Faculty of Economic Sciences at the University of Warsaw. He studied economics and philosophy at the University of Warsaw. He also deals with the political economy of democracy in Poland. He is a social expert of the Polish Committee of the European Anti-Poverty Network EAPN Poland. He published dozens of works in international scientific journals.

Specializes in research on: Income Distribution, Happiness, Transition Economics, Applied Econometrics, History of Economic Thought, Methodology of Economics.

Ignacy Morawski

Freedom Games 2018

Economist, he founded SpotData, which since June 2017 is part of the Bonnier Business Polska publishing house (Puls Biznesu).

Analyzes macroeconomic phenomena occurring in the euro area and other countries of the European Union.

He cooperates with the Polish Academy of Sciences, where he is a member of the team preparing the semi-annual report “Economy of Poland – Forecasts and Opinions”. She is also a co-worker of the Financial Observer.

He graduated of political science at the University of Warsaw and economics of the Bocconi University in Milan.

Daria Hejwosz-Gromkowska

Freedom Games 2018

Doctor of Humanities, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Educational Studies of the University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznan. Her field of scientific interest is mainly focused on higher education and especially university education.

Author of the book “University education and creation of social elites” and Co-Editor (along with Witold Jakubowski) books “Popular culture; identity; education”. Project Member: Poland.

In 2005, she participated in the International Academy for Leadership (IAF) organized by the F.Naumann Foundation,  “No education: No Freedom, No Opportunity” seminar, and in 2008 with the support of FFN at the International Human Rights Academy organized by the University of Utrecht.

Robert Sobiech

Freedom Games 2018, Igrzyska Wolności 2018

Sociologist, director of the Institute of Public Policies at Collegium Civitas. Lecturer at the Institute of Applied Social Sciences at the University of Warsaw and at the National School of Public Administration, where he has the role of the head of international cooperation and adviser to the director. Author of over 40 publications prepared for government and self-government administration, non-governmental organizations and international organizations such as OECD, UNDP, UNDCP European Social Dialogue Committee in Central Government Administrations.

His interests include politics, public relations and communication in the public sector, public affairs and public opinion.

Kazimiera Szczuka

Freedom Games 2018

Critic and historian of literature, member of the Gender and Literature Team of the Institute of Literary Research, and also a television journalist. Activist of women’s movements and a member of the Krytyka Polityczna band.

She teaches at the postgraduate Gender Studies of the IBL PAN, Polish-Jewish Studies at the Institute of Literary Research and the Polish Academy of Sciences, and at the general high school in the Warsaw School of Sociotherapy. Author of historical literary articles, journalistic texts and books.

Witold Stępień

Freedom Games 2018

Polish politician and local government official, since 2010 the marshal of the Lodz region.

He worked at ZPW Konstilana, and from 1986 he was deputy manager of the heating plant. Later he was employed, among others in the municipal swimming pool in Konstantynów Łódzki, in 1997 in the Communal Enterprise of the Konstantynów Łódzki commune, where he came to the position of technical director.

In 2001 he took part in establishing regional structures of the Civic Platform. In 2002, he became the secretary of the city in the constitution of the City of Warsaw. In 2008, he was appointed a member of the board of the Lodz region, and in 2009 as the deputy marshal.

Marta Madejska

Freedom Games 2018

Cultural studies graduate, museum assistant, journalist and writer. Associated with the Topographies Association. Deputy editor-in-chief of  “Miasto Ł”; magazine. Author of the book “Aleja włókniarek” – a reportage about the Lodz factories female employees.

She runs projects related to oral history. She works at the Museum of Art in Lodz.

Adam Szłapka

Freedom Games 2018

Politician, member of the Sejm of the 8th term. Former director of the Project: Poland Foundation and an expert at the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland during the presidency of Bronisław Komorowski. General Secretary of Modern of Ryszard Petru. Member of the Special Services Committee and Foreign Affairs Committee.

Tomasz Lis

Freedom Games 2018

Polish television and press journalist, radio, television and press columnist, since March 26, 2012 editor-in-chief of the weekly Newsweek Polska.

From 1997 he worked at TVN, where he was a co-founder (together with Grzegorz Miecugow and Milan Subotic), then the head of the editorial office and the main issue of “Facts” leading from Monday to Friday. From 2003 to today he is a regular guest on Friday radio Tok FM. He comments on current events in the composition which has remained unchanged for 15 years, together with Wiesław Władyka and Tomasz Wołek. The program has been led by Jacek Żakowski from the very beginning.

Kasia Gauza

Freedom Games 2018

Programmer. She promotes the identity of Łódź and the history of workers, and since 2012 she has organized the celebration of the 1905 Revolution. For this she received the “Punkt dla Łodzi” (Point for Lodz) award. Together with the Krytyka Polityczna club, she was awarded the “Za zasługi dla miasta Łodzi” (For Merits for the City of Lodz) prize.

A member of the all-Poland informal movement Gals for the Gals,  who is fighting for women’s rights.

Marcin Celiński

Freedom Games 2018

Social activist, publicist and blogger of the Liberté! Magazine. He is also a co-founder and president of the Liberal Forum. In the past, he was a Lublin councilman connected in turn with: ROAD, Unia Demokratyczna, Unia Wolności and Democratic Party. He specializes in the analysis of the real estate market and economic policy.

Katarzyna Pisarska

Freedom Games 2018

Founder and Director of the European Academy of Diplomacy in Warsaw, Poland and the Visegrad School of Political Studies run in cooperation with the Council of Europe. She is also the Program Director of the Warsaw Security Forum and a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum in Davos. In the past, she has served as adviser to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Polish Parliament, to the Office of National Security at the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland; and continues to work as regular foreign affairs broadcaster in Polish and international media.

Joanna Ostrowska

Freedom Games 2018, Igrzyska Wolności 2018

Polish historian, doctor of humanities in history (Department of History, Jagiellonian University), graduate of the Institute of Audiovisual Arts, (Jagiellonian University), Department of Judaism (Jagiellonian University) and Gender Studies, University of Warsaw. She also studied film and television production at the PWSFTviT in Łódź. She lectured, among others in the Department of Judaism at the Jagiellonian University, at the Gender Studies of the University of Warsaw and at the Polish-Jewish Studies of the IBL PAS. Film critic and selectionist of the Krakow Film Festival. She worked as a playwright with Małgorzata Wdowik and Marta Ziółek.

She deals with issues related to the phenomenon of sexual violence during World War II and forgotten victims of Nazism. Author of the book “Przemilczanie – seksualna praca przymusowa w czasie II wojny światowej” (Silence – Forced Sexual Labor during World War II).

Henryka Krzywonos-Strycharska

Freedom Games 2018

Polish opposition activist in the communist period, signatory of the August agreements, deputy to the Sejm of the 8th term. From 1973 to 1978, she worked as a driver in the Provincial Transport Company Branch of the Municipal Transport Tram in Gdansk. Later, she was employed at the Gdańsk Shipyard as a crane operator, but in 1979 she returned to her previous job.

On August 15, 1980, near the Baltic Opera, she stopped the streetcar she was driving. This event is sometimes referred to as the beginning of the strike of Gdansk public transport during the August events. According to some witnesses, some bus drivers did not leave their busses in the morning, so Henryka Krzywonos joined the ongoing strike. She then became a representative of the WPK in the Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee, and was a member of its presidium.

On August 16, following the signing of the end of the strike in the Gdańsk Shipyard with Lech Wałęsa, and along with Alina Pienkowska, Anna Walentynowicz and Ewa Osowska, she stopped workers at the gates leaving the shipyard, which prevented the strike from being completed. On August 31, she was among the signatories of the August agreements, she was soon dismissed from the Presidium of the MKZ Gdańsk by the founding committee of NSZZ “Solidarność” in her workplace.

Anna Dziewit-Meller

Freedom Games 2018

Polish journalist with Jewish and Russian roots. Also known as the anchorwoman of programs about literature in radio Chilli Zet and TVN station. She’s co-authored a collection of interviews like “Głośniej! Rozmowy z pisarkami” (Louder! Conversations with writers), the novel “Disko” and „Gaumardżos. Opowieści z Gruzji” (Gaumardżos. Tales from Georgia), which she wrote with her husband. In 2016, Dziewit-Meller started an online website devoted to books bukbuk.pl. She also writes for “Tygodnik Powszechny”.

 

Zbigniew Pisarski

Freedom Games 2018

Political analyst, foreign and security policy media commentator, lecturer and social entrepreneur. He is a Founder and President of the Casimir Pulaski Foundation, a leading Polish think-tank specialising in foreign policy and security. He is also a co-founder of the European Academy of Diplomacy, first European non-governmental diplomatic academy. Zbigniew is the Chairman of the Warsaw Security Forum, an annual high-level international conference on defence and security.

Magda Melnyk

Igrzyska Wolności 2018

A columnist, analyst and reporter. A graduate of the Faculty of International and Political Studies at the University of Lodz. She specializes in the area of Spanish speaking countries, political transformation, social movements and women’s rights. LIBERTÉ publishing house! is going to publish her book on nationalisms in Spain “Dlaczego Hiszpania treszczy?” (Why Spain crackles?)

Krzysztof Dudek

Freedom Games 2018

Polish lawyer, in 2007-2016 director of the National Center for Culture.

From 2016, director of the New Theater in Łódź.

During his studies he was an activist of the Independent Students’ Union, among others vice-chairman of NZS at the University of Lodz. He was also active in The Orange Alternative.

Initiator of social actions such as “Pamiętam. Katyń 1940 “(I remember. Katyń 1940),” Prawo do kultury ” (Right to culture),”Native – add to favorites” (Ojczysty- dodaj do ulubionych), he also became the chairman of the chapter awarded by the President of the Republic of Poland Medal” Zasłużony dla Polszczyzny”.

Krystyna Boczkowska

Freedom Games 2018

Manager, president of the Management Board of Robert Bosch and representative of the Bosch Group in Poland.

She is active in many organizations associating employers. She worked in the Polish-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce, in which she held the position of Vice-President of the Board for 3 terms until 2016. Since 2014 she has been a member of the Board of the Association of Employers of Automotive and Industrial Goods.

She actively supports the idea of diversity in business. She is a member of the Congress of Women’s Program Council.

 

Olga Kozierowska

Polish business journalist, social activist, motivational speaker, trainer and mentor. Founder of the first organization in Poland that works for women’s entrepreneurship and their success in business under the name Sukces Pisany Szminką. Connected with the Eurozet Group.

She is the originator of the nationwide competition “Success Written with the Lipstick of a Businesswoman of the Year”, which over 9 years has been publicizing and rewarding entrepreneurial women in Poland. Dr Irena Eris is the chairman of the competition jury. In 2016, the Honorary Ambassador of the competition was Noreena Hertz.

In 2015, the premiere had its own project “Power Show” – monodrama connectors with motivational speech, stand-up and musical inspiration. In 2016, she established a foundation which in 2016 runs Danone as an ambassador of the Activia brand.

Jolanta Kwaśniewska

Freedom Games 2018

First Lady of Poland in the years 1995-2005, founder and president of the “Porozumienie Bez Barier” Foundation, a lawyer.

A member of international organizations and an honorary patron of numerous European and global initiatives.

Initiator and organizer of various and exceptionally successful pro-health campaigns (regarding breast cancer, heart disease, diabetes, AIDS).

For many years he has been dealing with the topic of preventing violence against women. She conducts trainings for women coming out of unemployment, as well as image training, patronizing the Dress for Success Poland Association.

Co-Founder of the Congress of Women.

She is the honorary chairman of the Polish branch of the international organization Vital Voices, whose aim is to develop and discover the leadership potential of women through the idea of ​​mentoring.

She was honored with many national and international prizes and awards for charity and humanitarian activities.

Dariusz Paczkowski

Freedom Games 2018

Social activist, street art artist, human rights and animal activist. Co-founder of the 3fala.art.pl group, the happening group “Under supervision” and the Animal Liberation Front. President of the Klamra Foundation.

Coordinator of many polish and international graffiti jams, happenings, as well as actions for the LGBT movement and democracy.

His activity has been repeatedly honoured and awarded, among others by the Australian Independent Foundation for the Promotion of Polish Culture “Polcul”, the Ecological Foundation Arka and the Local Activity Center in the Helena Radlińska Competition for Social Animators.

Dorota Danowska

Freedom Games 2018, Igrzyska Wolności 2018

A philosopher, dietitian and bioethicist. A longtime animal rights activist and owner of the oldest Polish vegan restaurant VEGA in Wroclaw. “Otwarte Klatki” (Open Cages) activist. She began to fight for animal rights in the 1980s.

Marek Góra

Igrzyska Wolności 2018

Professor at the Warsaw School of Economics, head of the Department of Economics I.

An economist specializing in labor economics and pension systems. Co-author of the reform of the pension system in Poland (“Security through diversity”) introduced in 1999 by the government of Jerzy Buzek. Co-founder of Polska Grupa Emerytalnej / Polish Pension Group SGH, dealing with research and consultancy in the field of pension systems.

In 2002-2005 he worked as the adviser to the President of the Republic of Poland Aleksander Kwaśniewski. Member of the board of the European Association of Labor Economists (1990-1997) and a member of the board of advisers for Population Europe.

Artur Dunin

Freedom Games 2018, Igrzyska Wolności 2018

Politician, geodesist, member of the Polish Parliament, member of the Platforma Obywatelska party.

He graduated from the Faculty of Geodesy and Cartography of the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow. He worked in the city office in Zgierz as the head of the Urban Planning, Land Management and Geodesy Department. In the Sejm of the eighth term, he became a member of the Infrastructure Committee and the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development.

Anna Materska-Sosnowska

Freedom Games 2018

Political scientist, doctor of humanities in the field of political sciences (2004). Lecturer at the Department of Political Systems. Scientific secretary of the Olympiad on Poland and the Modern World (from 2008). A member of the Polish Political Sciences Society.

Małgorzata Starczewska-Krzysztoszek

Freedom Games 2018, Igrzyska Wolności 2018

Doctor of economics, main economist of the Leviathan Confederation. Lecturer at the Faculty of Economic Sciences of the University of Warsaw.

Joanna Kos-Krauze

Freedom Games 2018

Joanna Kos-Krauze is one of the most important directors in contemporary Polish cinema. She has
received over two hundreds international and Polish awards for films which she co-directed: My
Nikifor, Saviour Square, Papusza, Birds Are Singing in Kigali.

She studied Polish and Hebrew literature and language, but even back then she was interested in
film. In 1997, she started work as an associate director for many Polish directors.

Meeting Krzysztof Krauze, one of the most important Polish filmmakers, was a groundbreaking
moment in her creative biography. In 1996, she collaborated with him on Debt.

She came up with the idea of My Nikifor. The story of a primitivist painter active in Krynica half a
century ago became the biggest Polish festival hit since the early 1990s. The film received 6th awards
in Karlovy Vary – including ones for the best film and best director, best actress.
Her subsequent films – Saviour Square, Papusza, and Birds Are Singing in Kigali have been well
received by critics, audience and film festivals.

Her work is constant pursuit – for subjects, form, for challenges. Through films like My Nikifor and
Papusza she has explored the magical world of artists and art. While Saviour Square delves into the
complexities of interpersonal relationships. Her film Birds Are Singing in Kigali tells a story of
Rwandan genocide, personal connections and discovering yourself through a perilous journey.
Joanna prefers to make something awkward which will be a result of trying, instead of repeating the
same thing to perfection.

She is a President of Polish Guild of Film Directors.

Andrzej Kompa

Freedom Games 2018, Igrzyska Wolności 2018

Lecturer since 2006. Research interests: Byzantine, antiquity, genealogy. Associate Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and History of the University of Lodz for quality arrangements in the 2016-2020 term, before that he works as Dean’s plenipotentiary for promotion since 2009 until 2016. Secretary of the Byzantnological Commission of the Polish Historical Association (AIEB), founding member of the Ceraneum Center and the Association of Historians of Antiquities.

Ewa Tyszko

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish journalist, associated with the local TV station from Lodz, TV TOYA. She also cooperates with the ZOOM Channel,  Puls Biznesu, and Angora weekly. As a reporter, she is in charge of cultural programs.

She was awarded by the academic milieu in Lodz with the Honor Academicus award. She is also the winner of the Crystal Screen in the National Competition for Local Television “This Concerns Us” in the category “My Little” for the program “Behind the Promised Land”.

Piotr Beniuszys

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish political scientist and sociologist. A member of the editorial team and author of numerous publications at Liberté!. He specializes in the evolution of liberal thought and in the history of Western European liberal parties.

Dariusz Gzyra

Freedom Games 2018

A PhD candidate at the Institute of Philosophy and Social Studies, Pedagogical University of Cracow. A columnist and a social activist. He focuses on the topics of bioethics, human relations with animals, and aesthetics.

He is the Director of the Student Section of Polish Ethics Association. A member of the Laboratory of Animal Studies – Third Culture at the Faculty of Philology, the University of Silesia. A scientific editor of the animal rights ethics desk of the interdisciplinary academic yearly ZoophilologicaPolish Journal of Animal Studies. He ccoperates with the Filozofuj! magazine.

He wrote a number of articles devoted to the ethics of human-animal relations published in journals and monographs. He co-authored a book Filozofia wobec świata zwierząt (Philosophy and the Animal World). His most recent book, Dziękuję za świńskie oczy (Thank You for the Pig’s Eyes) was published in autumn 2018 (Wydawnictwo Krytyki Politycznej).

Przemysław Staciwa

Freedom Games 2018

A journalist at TOYA TV. He cooperates with the Liberte! magazine.

An author of articles and reportages published in Gazeta Wyborcza, Najwyższy Czas, Krytyka Polityczna, Tenisklub, among others.

Awarded with the Crystal Screen by the Polish Chamber of Electronic Communications for his reportage “Monsters”.

Sławomir Sierakowski

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish sociologist and political commentator. He is the founder and leader of Krytyka Polityczna (Political Critique), an Eastern European movement of liberal intellectuals, artists and activists. He is also the director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Warsaw and the president of the Stanislaw Brzozowski Association, overseeing its publishing house and online opinion site as well as the cultural centers in Warsaw, Gdansk, Cieszyn and Kiev.

He holds a degree from the University of Warsaw. hHe has been awarded fellowships from Yale, Princeton, Harvard and twice from the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna. Richard von Waizsäcker Fellow at Robet Bosch Academy in Berlin.

He is a contributing opinion writer for The International New York Times, a columnist for Project Syndicate, and regularly publishes articles in the Financial Times and Die Zeit.

Agata Stremecka

Freedom Games 2018

President of the Board at the Civic Development Forum (FOR).

A graduate in political science, a passionate linguist, a specialist in public relations and marketing, she started her career with voluntary work in the Sejm, then coordinated the activities of press offices during several election campaigns.

She cooperated with entrepreneurs as a director in the Polish Chamber of Commerce.

In the years 2007-2015, she was managing private companies focusing on the promotion of foreign investors in Poland and marketing in the area of protection and health promotion.

Jacek Michałowski

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish civil servant and social activist, former head of the office of the President of the Republic of Poland, Bronisław Komorowski.

He graduated from the Psychology Institute at the University of Warsaw. He was an associate of Workers’ Defense Committee and Committee for Social Self-Defense KOR. In 1980, he joined „Solidarity” as a secretary of works unit commision. After the introduction of the Martial Law in Poland he worked for a secret unit structure.

In 1989, he became an advisor for vice-president of OKP, he took part in a presidental campaign for Tadeusz Morawiecki. Between 1989 and 1998, he was the director of Studies and Analysys Office of Polish Senat. Then, for 2 years he was a general directior of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland – Jerzy Buzek.

In 2000, he became a program director of Polish-American Freedom Foundation.

In 2008, he became a member of the editorial team of Nowa Europa Wschodnia.

Between July 6, 2010, and August 7, 2015, he was the  Head of the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland.

In 2015, he became the Chairman of the Board of the EFC Foundation. He was also a member of the council in Bronisław Komorowski Institute.

Adam Rębacz

Freedom Games 2018

A history and civics teacher at the 9th Klementyka Hoffmanowa Heigh School in Warsaw.

Apart from his teacher’s duties, he is involved in organizing extracurricular activities for students, such as projects on the national minorities, intergenerational dialogue, and relations between Poland and its neighbors.

Jan Wróbel

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish teacher, journalist, columnist, lecturer, and school director. He holds a Master Degree in history.

He also coaches the “Bednarska” sports’ team. 

He is a regular contributor at Dziennik Gazeta Prawna as well as at Radio TOK FM, where he hosts a morning programme. He also supports the School for Leaders initiative.

He was an adviser and an author of numerous speeches of the former Prime Minister of Poland, Jerzy Buzek.

He is an author of school coursebooks for high school students.

Joanna Kluzik-Rostkowska

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish politician and member of the Sejm for Civic Platform and former Minister of National Education of the Republic of Poland.

She was a member of the Law and Justice (PiS) party back in 2007, but led a breakaway group in 2010 to form a more liberal movement: Poland Comes First, of which she was the leader. She resigned from the party in June 2011, joining Civic Platform.

In November 2013, following a cabinet reshuffle by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, she was appointed to head the Ministry of National Education.

Mikołaj Cześnik

Freedom Games 2018

Associate Professor. Director of the Institute of Social Sciences, Associate Dean for Academic Development, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Sociologist and political scientist. His research interests include public opinion and political choices of citizens. He specializes in the analysis of political systems, especially democracy, and frequently comments on political issues in the mass media. Member of Polskie Generalne Studium Wyborcze [Polish General Election Study], a pioneer Polish initiative, which aims to systematically and scientifically record and analyze the process and the results of parliamentary elections, in Poland.

Co-author of Demokracja – gospodarka – polityka. Perspektywa polskiego wyborcy. [Democracy – economy – politics. The Perspective of a Polish voter] and author of numerous publications in academic journals. Principal Investigator of Wiedza polityczna w Polsce [Political Knowledge in Poland] research project.

At SWPS University, he teaches political science with the focus on research in the area of politics and democracy.

Radovan Durana

Freedom Games 2018

A Co-Founder of the Institute of Economic and Social Studies (INESS) in Bratislava, where he works as a senior analyst.

He specializes in public finance, wrote numerous studies on taxes pensions, and labor issues.

He completed his studies at the Faculty of Management at Komensky University in Bratislava. He also used to work as a credit risk analyst at a commercial bank.

Paweł Kasprzak

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish columnist, the leader of the Citizens of Poland (Obywatele RP) movement.

He is also a cinematographer and film editor, producer, and author of television programs, activist of the anti-communist opposition during the Polish People’s Republic.

Moreover, he also acts as the president of the board of the Free Polish Citizens Foundation, whose aim is to support, provide funding and organizational back-up for the Citizens of Poland movement.


Photo: Albert Zawada / Agencja Gazeta

Andrea Virág

Freedom Games 2018

A Hungarian researcher and analyst at Republikon Institute, where she is also responsible for international projects.

In 2015, she obtained a BA in Political Science from the Faculty of Law and a BA in History from the Faculty of Humanities at the Eotvos Lorand University (ELTE). She studied survey statics at ELTE TÁTK (Faculty of Social Sciences), where she taught statistics for BA students.

Previously, she contributed to various research projects at ELTE and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, gaining valuable experience in quantitative research methods.

Her main research interest include voting behavior and the political system of Hungary.

Balázs Gulyás

Freedom Games 2018

A Hungarian sociologist and activist, lecturer at Eotvos Lorand University (ELTE).

He organized a number of the biggest protest in Hungary in the past five years. As a result of the 2014 protests he initiated, the government withdrew a proposed tax on internet usage, and since his group’s 2018 protests, the opposition parties stopped nominating multiple candidates against the governing Fidesz party’s candidates.

Since 2010, he manages Fideszfigyelo, a civic journalism facebook-page with 190.000 followers.

At Eotvos Lorand University (ELTE) he teaches American elections and post-truth politics.

Andrzej Saramonowicz

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish film director, actor, journalist, and scriptwriter. Member of the Board of the Directors’ Guild of Poland.

He studied history at University of Warsaw before turning to journalism. He collaborated with some of the main polish mainstream magazines, such as Gazeta WyborczaViva, and Przekrój.

In 2000, his first screenplay and movie Pół serio won him the main award at the 2000 edition of the Festival of Polish Fiction Movies in Gdynia and kickstarted his career as a filmmaker.

He then went on to write, produce and direct some of the biggest commercial successes of Polish cinema in the last decade. His comedies Testosteron, Lejdis, and Idealny facet dla mojej dziewczyny alone totaled 4.6 million viewers, approximately a quarter of all tickets sold in that period.


Photo: Fryta73 || CC 2.0

Donald Tusk

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish politician who has been the President of the European Council since 2014. He served as Prime Minister of Poland from 2007 to 2014 and was a co-founder and chairman of the Civic Platform political party.

Tusk has been involved in Polish politics since the early 1990s, having founded several political parties and held elected office almost continuously since 1991. Tusk was one of the co-founders of the free-market-oriented Liberal Democratic Congress party. He entered the Sejm in 1991, but lost his seat in the 1993 election which went badly for the Congress.

In 1994, the Congress merged with the Democratic Union to form the Freedom Union. In 1997, Tusk was elected to the Senate, and became its deputy speaker.

In 2001, he co-founded another centre-right party, Civic Platform (PO), and he was again elected to the Sejm, and became its deputy speaker.

He was elected Prime Minister in 2007 and with his party’s victory in the 2011 Polish parliamentary election, he became the first Prime Minister to be re-elected since the fall of Communism in Poland.

In 2014, he became President of the European Council, and was re-elected to this position in 2017. He resigned as Polish Prime Minister to take the role, having been the longest-serving Prime Minister of the Third Polish Republic.


Zdjęcie: European People’s Party || CC 2.0

Michael J. Abramowitz

Freedom Games 2018

President of Freedom House.  Before joining Freedom House in February 2017, he was director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Levine Institute for Holocaust Education. He led the museum’s genocide prevention efforts and later oversaw its public education programs.

He was previously National Editor and then White House correspondent for the Washington Post.  He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and former fellow at the German Marshall Fund and the Hoover Institution. A graduate of Harvard College, he is also a board member of the National Security Archive.

Find Mr Abramowitz on Twitter

Barbara Nowacka

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish  politician and feminist activist, the leader of Polish Initiative and Civic Coalition.

A left activist, formerly in Labor United, and later in Your Movement, in October 2015 she became leader of the United Left coalition for the Polish parliamentary election, 2015, bringing together Labor United, Your Movement, the Democratic Left Alliance, the Greens, and the Polish Socialist Party.

In 2014, she  joined Janusz Palikot’s Your Movement, becoming a joint leader, and helped to create the United Left, a broad coalition.

In 2016, Foreign Policy magazine included Nowacka, together with Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk of Razem, on its annual list of the 100 most influential global thinkers for their role in organizing protests against a total ban on abortion in Poland.


Photo: Adrian Grycuk || CC 3.0

Shalini Randeria

Freedom Games 2018

Rector of the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, Professor of Social Anthropology and Sociology at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, as well as the Director of the Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy.

She is currently a member of the Editorial Boards of the American Ethnologist, Public Anthropologist and The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology as well as a member of the Advisory Board of the journal Comparative Migration Studies. She serves on the Board of Trustees of the Central European University (CEU), the Academic Advisory Board of the Wien Museum as well as the Advisory Board of the Higher Education Support Program of the Open Society Foundations.

Her research foci include the anthropology of law, state and policy, particularly the transnationalisation of law, normative pluralism; reproductive rights, population policy and gender; displacement and privatisation of common property resources; the anthropology of globalisation and development; post-coloniality and multiple modernities; and civil society and social movements.

She studied at the universities of Delhi and Heidelberg, was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, received her Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from the Free University, Berlin in 1992, and habilitation in 2002.

She was Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Zurich, as well as Professor and Founding Chair of the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology of the Central European University Budapest, and has held Visiting Professorships at Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich, at the University of Vienna and at EHESS, Paris as well as at the Berlin Social Science Research Center and the Free University of Berlin. 

She has been a Member of the Senate of the German Research Council (DFG), President of the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA) and a Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Studies, Berlin. She has served on the Advisory Board of the Wenner-Gren Foundation, New York and as member of the Editorial Board of Annual Review of Anthropology.

Recent edited volumes include: Migration and Borders of Citizenship (with Ravi Palat, special issue of Refugee Watch. A South Asian Journal on Forced Migration, 2017); Border Crossings. Grenzverschiebungen und Grenzüberschreitungen in einer globalisierten Welt (vdf Hochschulverlag, 2016); Politics of the Urban Poor (with Veena Das, special issue of Current Anthropology, 2015); Anthropology, Now and Next. Diversity, Connections, Confrontations, Reflexivity. Essays in Honour of Ulf Hannerz (with Thomas Hylland Eriksen and Christina Garsten, Berghahn Publishers, 2014); Jenseits des Eurozentrismus. Postkoloniale Perspektiven in den Geschichts- und Kulturwissenschaften (with Sebastian Conrad und Regina Römhild, 2nd edition, Campus Verlag, 2013); and Critical Mobilities (with D’Amato, Gianni, Panese, Francesco, Ruedin, Didier, and Ola Söderström, Routledge, 2013); Eckert, Andreas and Shalini Randeria, eds. Vom Imperialismus zum Empire: Nicht-westliche Perspektiven auf Globalisierung (Frankfurt a. M.: Suhrkamp, 2009); Fuchs, Martin, Antje Linkenbach, and Shalini Randeria, eds. Konfigurationen der Moderne: Diskurse zu Indien (Special issue, Soziale Welt 15, Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlag, 2004).

Agnieszka Holland

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish film and TV director and a screenwriter. Her first steps in cinematography she took by Krzysztof Zanussi’s side. She received her first significant award in Cannes for movie Aktorzy prowincjonalni, after which she gained international recognition.

Her films were quickly noticed worldwide, which resulted in her being nominated for an Oscar three times, for the movies Gorzkie żniwa, Europa, Europa, and W ciemności. In works she often raises serious topics that stem from war experiences of the protagonists. Her films are often compared to that of Andrzej Wajda.

Since January 2014, she is the Chairperson of European Film Academy in Berlin.

Robert Biedroń

Freedom Games 2018

Mayor of the city of Słupsk, a former MP, local government official, expert on human rights organizations in Poland and abroad, columnist.

A member of the advisory group on gender equality, forced displacement, and protection at the United Nations. A former delegate to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. A former vice-chairman of the Seym Committee on Justice and Human Rights and a member of the Sejm Foreign Affairs Committee.

A graduate of the School of Political and Social Leaders and the Human Rights School at the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights.

The Founder of the Podkarpackie Institute – a foundation that develops civil society in Podkarpacie. The Founder of the Institute of Democratic Thought.

Jamie Whyte

Freedom Games 2018

A New Zealand politician who is a former leader of ACT New Zealand, a free market political party of New Zealand.  In February 2017, he joined the Institute of Economic Affairs as Director of Research.

He is a former philosophy lecturer, currency trader, and management consultant. He has written books and newspaper columns about reasoning and politics.

Since 2004, he has written books for general audiences and newspaper columns, aiming to expose shoddy reasoning, especially by politicians. In 2006 he won the Reason Foundation Bastiat Prize for journalism (jointly with Tim Harford of the Financial Times) and in 2010 he was named runner up. In June 2014, he won the Institute of Economic Affairs Arthur Seldon Memorial Award for Excellence for Quack Policy (2013).

He is the author of Crimes Against Logic (titled Bad Thoughts: A Guide to Clear Thinking in the UK; 2004), A Load of Blair (2005), and Free Thoughts (2012), and has also written columns for many notable publications, including The Times, City A.M., Standpoint, Financial Times, and The Wall Street Journal.

He has also occasionally broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and television.

Whyte’s political philosophy is classical liberalism, in the tradition of Friedrich Hayek.


Photo: Mathmo || CC 3.0

Dorota Masłowska

Freedom Games 2018

Polish author, playwright, columnist, and composer. She won the Nike Literary Award for her novel Paw królowej.
She penned the acclaimed Wojna polsko-ruska pod flagą biało-czerwoną, for which she was awarded the polityka Passport award. She is also the creator of plays performed around the world, including Dwoje biednych Rumunów mówiących po polsku and Między nami dobrze jest.
On May 9, 2018, Wydawnictwo Literackie released her latest novel, Inni ludzie.
A columnist at the Dwutygodnik magazine.

Photo: Karol Grygoruk

Radosław Sikorski

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish politician and journalist. He was Marshal of the Sejm from 2014 to 2015 and Minister of Foreign Affairs in Donald Tusk’s cabinet between 2007 and 2014. He previously served as Deputy Minister of National Defense (1992) in Jan Olszewski’s cabinet, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (1998–2001) in Jerzy Buzek’s cabinet, and Minister of National Defense (2005–2007) in Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz and Jarosław Kaczyński’s cabinets.

From 2002 to 2005, Sikorski was a resident fellow of the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., and executive director of the New Atlantic Initiative. He was editor of the analytical publication European Outlook.

As Poland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, he was a strong supporter of closer ties with the EU’s Eastern Neighbors. He opted for the integration of those countries into European structures, advocated anchoring Ukraine within the European Union and called for economic changes in Belarus.

Sikorski was the main architect, along with his Swedish counterpart and friend Carl Bildt, of the eastern policy of the EU – which came to be called the Eastern Partnership.

On November 6, 2015, he was appointed a Senior Fellow at Harvard University’s Center for European Studies. He is also a distinguished statesman with the Brzezinski Institute on Geostrategy at CSIS.

On February 11, 2016, he was elected the Chairman of the Board of the Bydgoszcz Industrial-Technological Park.


Photo: Krzysztof Dubiel || CC 4.0

Janusz Palikot

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish politician, activist, philosopher, and businessman, the leader of the Your Movement party.

He was elected to Sejm on 25 September 2005 in the 6 Lublin district, running on the Civic Platform list, and was re-elected in 2007.

He left Civic Platform in 2011 and founded Movement of Support, later renamed Palikot’s Movement, an anti-clerical and liberal party, which won 10 percent of the vote in the 2011 parliamentary election.

Palikot is known in Poland for being one of the more colourful and controversial politicians, famous for his publicity stunts. In April 2007 during a PO press conference, Palikot wore a T-shirt with “I am with the SLD” (“Jestem z SLD”) on the front and “I am gay” (“Jestem gejem”) on the back. He later stated that he wanted to highlight the role PO should play in contemporary politics – as defenders of minorities.

Brendan Simms

Freedom Games 2018

Professor of History of European International Relations, Centre of International Studies, University of Cambridge, and Fellow of Peterhouse. He has been involved in policy work through the (Conservative) BOW Group, the (Labour) Foreign Policy Centre, the British Irish Association, and the Bosnian Institute (London).

He is also co-president of the Henry Jackson Society and President of the Project for Democratic Union. He has been interviewed by BBC 4, BBC World Service, RTE, and numerous Balkan radio programmes. Simms has given lectures in Britain, Ireland, Germany, Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia on various aspects of the Bosnian War.

An author of numerous articles and reviews for the Times Higher Educational Supplement, Observer, Sunday Times, Sunday Telegraph, Spectator, The times, Independent, Evening Standard, London Review of Books, and Wall Street Journal. Publications: Unfinest hour. Britain and the destruction of Bosnia (2001),  Europe. The struggle for supremacy, 1453 to the present (2013), among others.

Brendan Simms will join Freedom Games for the second time.

Elzbieta Cherezinska

Freedom Games 2018, Igrzyska Wolności 2018

A Polish writer specializing in historical novels, a theatrologist. She graduated from the fcaulty of theatre studies of the Theatre Academy in Warsaw. As an author of historical novels she debuted in 2005 with a book written in cooperation with Szewach Weiss – Z jednej strony, z drugiej strony. Next, she published a novel based on the memories from the Lodz Ghetto, entitled Byłam sekretarką Rumkowskiego. Dzienniki Etki Daum. In Gra w kości, released in 2010, she tackles the theme of Polish Middle Ages, devoting the book to the Congress of Gniezno of the year 1000. At the same time, she released several books from the Północna drogaset in Scandinavia at the turn of 10th and 11th century.

She made the bestsellers list for the first time in 2012 with with her first book from the Odrodzone Królestwo series, set in the times of the fragmentation of Poland and contrasted with the history of Central Europe. One of her most recognized books is, however, the two-volume  Harda Królowa, about Świętosława – the daughter of the first Polish prince and the sister of the first Polish king, Boleslaw I the Brave.

Apart from the Middle Ages, Cherezinska is also interested in the World War II – which has been reflected in her book Legion – and the diplomatic games in the 19th century – her monumental book Turniej cieni. 

She writes her books in cooperation with historians, archeologists, and other experts in the field. She does not, however, shy away from enriching the stories she tells with elements of fantasy. When she published her first book on the Piast dynasty back in 2010, she wrote: “I worry that as a nation we still perceive our history as too heavy of burden. I would rather it became a practical guide in our journey”.

Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish politician who served as the minister of interior from February 25,  2013, to September, 22, 2014.

He participated in Cracow’s opposition movement in the early 1980s. In 1990, he co-established the Office for State Protection and the Centre for Eastern Studies, a think-tank organization. He served as the deputy director of the center for eight years, specifically from 1991 to 1993 and from 1996 to 2001.

In the early 2000s, he left the state administration and began to work in private sector, founding a firm on the investment risk and analysis of the competitive environment (ASBS Othago, then “Sienkiewicz and Partners”).

On February 25, 2013, Sienkiewicz was appointed by President Bronisław Komorowski as interior minister to the cabinet led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk. He replaced Jacek Cichocki in the post.

He resigned along with the entire government following the election of Donald Tusk as the new President of the European Council and did not enter the new cabinet headed by Ewa Kopacz.


Photo: Ministerstwo Spraw Wewnętrznych RP – Oficjalny profil MSW na portalu Flickr

Olgierd Łukaszewicz

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish film and theatre actor. He has appeared in over 60 films since his 1969 graduation from the Ludwik Solski Academy for the Dramatic Arts in Kraków. Between 2002 and 2005 and 2011-2018, he was the President of the Polish Union of Stage Actors (Związek Artystów Scen Polskich).

He performed for Teatr Rozmaitości in Kraków (1968–1970), and then he moved to Warsaw. There he cooperated with several theatres: Teatr Dramatyczny (1970–1973), Teatr Współczesny (1973–1974), Teatr Powszechny (1974–1986), and Studio (1986–1997).

In 1988, he moved to Vienna, Austria. For the next eight years he was performing in front of German-speaking audiences. He returned to Poland and joined  Teatr Narodowy (1997–2001). In 2000, he returned to the stage of Teatr Współczesny. Since 2003, he has been a part of the Teatr Polski team.

He initiated several unconventional performances by Warsaw actors (including the “Namiot Przymierza” happening or “Noc pielgrzyma”, a theatrical mystery play to honor Juliusz Słowacki).

He is best known for his role of Albercik in a famous Polish 1983 film, Seksmisja. Jerzy Stuhr was his co-star.


Photo: Emilia Gowin || CC 3.0

Marci Shore

Freedom Games 2018

Associate professor of history at Yale University. She is the translator of Michał Głowiński’s The Black Seasons and the author of Caviar and Ashes: A Warsaw Generation’s Life and Death in Marxism, 1918-1968; The Taste of Ashes: The Afterlife of Totalitarianism in Eastern Europe, and most recently, The Ukrainian Night: An Intimate History of Revolution.

Photo: Rostyslav Kostenko

Przemysław Żurawski vel Grajewski

Freedom Games 2018

Since 1987, a researcher and an academic teacher of the University of Łódź – first in the Faculty of Philosophy and History, and since 1995, in the Institute and then the Faculty of International and Political Studies.

In 1992, he worked at the Office of the Minister of National Defence for Defence Policy of Poland. In the years 1995-1996, he was an employee of the Office of the Undersecretary of State, a Government Plenipotentiary for European Integration and Foreign Assistance. In the years 1996-2001, he worked in the European Institute in Łódź. Next, in 2005-2006, he was a contemporary agent of the EPP-ED, an expert in charge of the monitoring of the political situation in Belarus, Moldova, Russia, and Ukraine in the European Parliament in Brussels.

Editor of The Portfolio – Ukrainian and East European Bulletin. 2006-2009 visiting professor of the Belarusian European Humanities University in Vilnius. 2007-2008 commentator of international relations in national channel TVInfo. Since 2012, a columnist of the Gazeta Polska Codziennie daily, where he commented on international relations, history, and military security.

Since 2008, a visiting lecturer of KSAP (National School of Public Administration). In the years 2006-20012, a researcher in the European Centre Natolin. He is also a lecturer of the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of FA.

In 2013, he was an expert on foreign policy in the Piotr Glinski’s team (shadow cabinet) and a member of the Law and Justice (PiS) Programming Council. Since 2015, he has been a coordinator of the Security Defense and Foreign Policy Section in the National Council of Development at the President of Poland and an advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland and to the Speaker of the Senate.

 

Sebastian Szymański

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish philosopher specializing in ethics and practical ethics.

His research interests are focused on the issue of justice and ethical problems regarding new technologies, in particular robotics and AI.

He works at the Faculty of “Artes Liberales” of the University of Warsaw, where he is a member of Techno-Humanities Lab. He teaches robotics and ethics of new technologies.

He is Chairman of the ethical and legal group in the expert team of the Ministry of Digital Affairs for the Polish strategy of AI.

Recently, he published book The Justifications of the Theory of Justice. The Legacy of John Rawls (Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar, 2018).

Ada Florentyna Pawlak

Freedom Games 2018

She is a member of the Polish Transhumanist Association, author of publications on transhumanism, lecturer, and business coach.

She graduated in law and anthropology from University of Lodz and in communications in business fromthe Faculty of Political Science at the National Defence University in Warsaw.

She worked on developing a business communication strategy in international new media companies. She was also a trainer of the National Center for Culture and a business trainer (a graduate of the Heuresis Management Trainers School).

Currently, she works on her PhD thesis at the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Lodz. Her research is in the field of transhumanism, a new philosophical and political movement supported by private capital creating a civilizational change which impact will be felt in every area of life in the near future.

She runs the EverMind company, which offers trainings on Revolution 4.0 focusing on how technological innovations affect social and cultural processes and how the creation of new needs influences the transformation of brand strategies and ways of communicating with consumers.

The mission of EverMind is to make entrepreneurs aware that artificial intelligence and cognitive revolution create a “new world”, which requires adaptation and implementing new strategies in companies.

Mikołaj Mirowski

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish historian and columnist. He is the Director of the Department of Publications and Digital Repository of Polish History Museum.

He cooperates with the Museum of Independence Traditions in Lodz, where he coordinates an event series titled “Plus or Minus – Historical Confrontations”.

He is interested in the topics of historical memory, USSR (1917-1941), Polish People’s Republic and the relations between the Jews and Poles. His articles were published in Rzeczpospolita, Gazeta Wyborcza daily, Polityka weekly, Tygodnik Powszechny, Znak or Fronda LUX.

Moreover, he coordinates the project “Warsaw of Two Uprisings” conducted in the Warsaw Rising Museum. He’s the author of a book titled Rewolucja permanentna Lwa Trockiego. Między teorią a praktyką (Leon Trotsky’s Permanent Revolution. Between Theory and Practice).

Magdalena M. Baran

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish philosopher, historian of ideas, and columnist.

She obtained a PhD in philosophy from the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. Her research interests include: philosophy of war, applied ethics, political and social philosophy, history of ideas.

She participated in the Summer School in Philosophy and Politics program organized by IWM (2003, 2006), and Visegad Summer School (2004).

She was a scholar at the University of Vienna and Politische Akademie der ÖVP (2005), a visiting professor at the University of Siegen (2014), Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (2015), and University of Murcia (2016).

She is a member of the editorial board of Liberté! quarterly.

She is the author of several books: Znaczenie wojny. Pytając o wojnę sprawiedliwą (Liberté! 2018) and Oblicza wojny (Arbitror 2018). Currently, she works on her new book: The Tools of War (2019, forthcoming).

Krzysztof Tomasik

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish writer, editor, LGBT activist, and a member of Krytyka Polityczna. He specializes in biographies.

He is the author of a number of articles devoted to the history of homosexuality in Poland in the 19th and 20th century and two books dealing with this topic: Homobiografie (2008, 2014) and Gejerel. Mniejszości seksualne w PRL-u (2012, 2018).

He is also the editor of a collection of reportages Mulat w pegeerze (2011), a diptych about women who were sex symbols of Polish cinema (Seksbomby PRL-u and Demony seksu), and a biography Grażyna Hase. Miłość, moda, sztuka (2016).


Photo: Jakub Szafrański

Małgorzata Tkacz-Janik

A doctor of humanities and expert in Culture Studies, entrepreneur, lecturer, publicist, and social activist.

Currently, she is active in the non-profit sector. In the years 2009-2011, she was a co-President of the Polish Greens group.

Member of the Silesian Regional Assembly for the 2010-2014 term. In 2014, an independent presidential candidate for the city of Gliwice. Head of the “Przestrzenie Dialogu” Foundation Council, member of the Congress of Women Programme Board and the Congress of Women Association.

Initiator of the Silesian Women Trail initiative. Repeatedly rewarded for her work for civil society. Plenipotentiary of the Congress of Women for the Centenary of Women’s Rights celebration.

Tomasz Kamiński

Freedom Games 2018

Ph.D. in humanities, an assistant professor at the Faculty of International and Political Studies, University of Lodz.

His research activities focus mainly on various aspects of the EU-China relations, the Sovereign Wealth Funds, and regional/local authorities developing paradiplomatical relations with foreign partners.

He is also an active blogger and a regular contributor to the Liberté! magazine, a leading Polish political quarterly. His publications can be found at academia.edu or researchgate.net.

Marek Tatała

Freedom Games 2018

Vice President and Economist at the Civil Development Forum (FOR Foundation) in Warsaw, Poland – a think tank founded by Professor Leszek Balcerowicz.

He received his BSc in Economics and Politics from the University of Bristol in England and MA in Economics from the Warsaw School of Economics in Poland.

In 2013, he completed the CPPR-ACE Winter School in Public Policy Research Methods in India and the Think Tank MBA program organized by the Atlas Network.

He is the graduate of the Atlas Leadership Academy.

Joanna Ellmann

Freedom Games 2018

A Secretary of the Board at Aureus Link Foundation.

She graduated in Art History from the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan,  Public Relations from the University of Warsaw, and from Gdansk Debate Academy. She’s been involved in social and political activities for over 20 years.

She was a member of the Freedom Union (UW), a Vice-President of the Pojekt: Polska association, Chief of Electoral Staff for the Nowoczesna party in Masovian voivodeship.

She actively supports the Secular School and HejtStop initiatives and various endeavors related to the European integration.

Henryk Wujec

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish politician, physicist, and a member of democratic opposition in The Polish People’s Republic. He was elected as a Member of Parliament a number of times, he served as a vice-minister of agriculture and between 2010 and 2015 he was a social affairs advisor to the President of Poland.

In 1980, he was one of “Solidarity” founders. He was a member of the National Committee of the “Solidarity” Independent and Self-Governing Trade Union (NSZZ “Solidarity”) and a member of the NSZZ “Solidarity” Mazowsze Region Management Board. After the introduction of the martial law he was imprisoned between 1981 and 1984 and from June to September 1986. Until 1989 he was involved in the activities of the underground “Solidarity”, from 1987 to 1990, he was a secretary of the Citizen’s Committee beside the Chairman of the NSZZ “Solidarity” Lech Wałęsa. In 1989, he was a participant of the Round Table conference in Group for Trade Union Pluralism.

Between 1989 and 2001, he was a deputy of Sejm, from 1997 to 1999 a co-chairman of the Committee for Agriculture and Rural Development. From 1999 to 2000, he was a secretary of state at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. He was a secretary of the Citizen’s Parliamentary Club, the Parliamentary Club of the Democratic Union, the Parliamentary Club of the Freedom Union between 1997 and 1999. A member of the Democratic Union, the Freedom Union, and the Democratic Party since August 2006.

A co-founder and Chairman (between 1992 and 1997) of the Supervisory Board of the Mutual Insurance Company “TUW”, a co-founder (2004) and Chairman of the Board of the Polish Chamber of Regional and Local Products and since June 2009 the President of the Management Board of the Chamber, Chairman of the Standing Conference on the Social Economy (SKES) in Poland and since April 2009 the Deputy Chairman of the Team for systemic solutions in social economy, which was formed by the Prime Minister.

He was honoured with the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta for the participation in formation of the State School of Higher Education in Chełm (2002) and the Commodore’s Cross with the Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta (2006) on the 30th anniversary of the Workers’ Defence Committee formation. A winner of the Andrzej Bączkowski Prize (2006). An Honorary citizen of the city of Biłgoraj (2009).

Detmar Doering

Freedom Games 2018

The designated representative of the Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit for Central Europe and the Baltic States in Prague. Until 2015 he was the director of the Liberales Institut (Liberty Institute), the think tank of the Foundation in Berlin.

He has studied philosophy and history at Cologne University (Ph.D. in Political Philosophy in 1990) and University College London.

He authored several books: Kleines Lesebuch über den Liberalismus (ed., translated into 22 languages/English translation: Readings in Liberalism, published by the Adam Smith Institute) (1992), The Political Economy of Secession (ed., with Jürgen Backhaus) (2004), Kleines Lesebuch über den Föderalismus (2005), Globalisation: Can the free market work in Africa?(2007), Traktat über Freiheit (2009), Freedom, The Rule of Law, and Market Economy (2011), Freedom – Frontier – Ford. Der amerikanische Western in der politischen Bildung (ed., with. Klaus Füßmann) (2012).

He also published numerous articles in German and international academic journals and daily newspapers on economic, political and historical subjects. Member of the Mont Pelerin Society since 1996.

Marcin Król

Freedom Games 2018

Professor of philososphy and history of ideas at the University of Warsaw. A former Dean of the Department of Applied Social Sciences and Resocialization (untlil 2012).  President of the board of Stefan Batory Foundation.

Member of the Academic Advisory Board of the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna and of Collegium Budapest.

His newest book To the Small Group of the Happy Few comes out in October 2018.


Photo: Adam Kozak / Agencja Gazeta

Marcin Anaszewicz

Freedom Games 2018

Apart from being a lawyer, he holds a PhD in social sciences (University of Warsaw). He is the President of Instytut Myśli Demokratycznej, a think tank founded by Robert Biedroń, where he is in charge of its new political project.

Previously, he was coordinating the successful political campaigns of Robert Biedroń – in 2011, when he was running for Parliament, and in 2014, for the President of the City of Słupsk. He was also a board member in a number of companies, he conducted restructuring programs, and was responsible for marketing communications and developmental projects.

In 2014, he moved to Słupsk, where as a strategic director he conducted a financial and organizational restructuing of the city structures.

His professional experience includes also his work in state-owned enterprises and state administration.

Joanna Tokarska-Bakir

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish culture anthropologist and Religious Studies researcher. She works for Institute of Slavic Studies of Polish Academy of Sciences. A  A.W. Mellona, A. von Humboldta fellow at Davis Center for Historical Studies, Princeton University. She also took part in the Marie Curie Fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study,  Princeton University (2013-2015).

She is the author of several books, including: Légendes du sang. Une anthropologie du préjugé antisémite en Europe (Albin Michel, Paris 2015), Pogrom Cries (Peter Lang 2017), and Pod klątwą. Społeczny portret pogromu kieleckiego (Czarna Owca, 2018).

Michał Boni

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish politician. He has been involved in the ‘Solidarity’ underground movement since 1980. He has been a member of the national authorities of ‘Solidarity’ since 1989 and in 1990, became Chairman of the Mazowsze Region Management Board.

He was the Minister of Labor and Social Policy in 1991 and from 1992 to 1993, he held the position of Secretary of State in the same ministry where he was responsible, inter alia, for labor market policy. From 1998 to 2001, he was the Chief Advisor to the Minister of Labor and Social Policy.

He was also the Head of Strategic Advisors to the Prime Minister Donald Tusk from 2008 and Minister of Administration and Digitization of Poland from 2011 till 2013.

He has been a Member of European Parliament since 2014.

 

Aleksander Smolar

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish writer, political activist and adviser, vice-president of Institute for Human Sciences and president of the Stefan Batory Foundation.

He was a member of the communist Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR) which ruled Poland and served as a vice-secretary of the committee of the party in the Political Economy Department at his school. He was removed from the party for publicly defending Leszek Kołakowski, a Polish revisionist Marxist philosopher who was critical of Marxism-Leninism.

Smolar took part in the March 1968 events, a series of protests by students and young factory workers against the repressive nature of the communist party in Poland. He was arrested and imprisoned until February 1969. He was expelled from the university and after being released from prison worked in heavy industry. In 1971, he emigrated from Poland, going to Italy, United Kingdom and France. Eventually he began working for Centre National de l Recherche Scientifique in Paris.

In 1973, he began publishing a quarterly political journal Aneks, which he continued until 1990. He served as a spokesperson for the Workers’ Defence Committee (Komitet Obrony Robotników) a civil society group which aided the families of workers who were being persecuted by the communist authorities. He also served as a representative of the Committee for Social Self-Defense KOR (Komitet Samoobrony Społecznej KOR) abroad.

After the fall of communism in 1989 in Poland, Smolar served as an adviser to the first non-communist prime minister of Poland, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, and then to prime minister Hanna Suchocka. He was in the leadership of the Democratic Union (Unia Demokratyczna) party, as well as the successor Freedom Union (Unia Wolności).

In 1990, he was named president of the Stefan Batory Foundation. He serves on the board of the European Council on Foreign Relations and is a vice president of the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna.


Photo: Adam Stępień / Agencja Gazeta

Anna Bikont

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish journalist, reporter, and writer. A Psychologist by education. She cooperated with Tygodnik Mazowsze, a weekly of the underground Solidarity movement. Later, she has been cooperating with Gazeta Wyborcza daily.

In 2017, she received an honorary degree from the University of Gothenburg.

She is the author of over a dozen of books, including: Pamiątkowe rupiecie, przyjaciele i sny Wisławy Szymborskiej (1997, with Joanna Szczęsna), Lawina i kamienie. Pisarze wobec komunizmu (2006, also with Joanna Szczęsna), for which she was awarded Culture Foundation Grand Award.

For her book My z Jedwabnego she received European Book Prize and National Jewish Book Award (category: book about Holocaust), whereas the U.S. edition of the book was listed by The New York Times as one of the most important books of the year 2016.

In 2017, her book Sendlerowa. W ukryciu was published, for which she was later awarded the Ryszard Kapuściński Award, the Poznań Literary Award, the Literary Award of the Capital City of Warsaw, and was nominated for the NIKE Literary Award and the ANGELUS Central European Literature Award.


Photo: Mateusz Skwarczek / Agencja Gazeta

Piotr Voelkel

Freedom Games 2018

A co-founder VOX Capital Group, which includes companies operating in related industries, such  as manufacturing of constrution materials, interior design, and furniture design. He is a co-founder of  Concordia Design, a design center in Poznań, and VOX-ARTIS Foundation for the promotion of Polish  contemporary art. Piotr Voelkel is also the President of Wielkopolskie Towarzystwo Zachęty Sztuk Pięknych (The Greater Poland Society of Zachęta National Gallery of Art), whose collection is included in the  permanent exhibit at the National Museum in Poznań.

Additionally, Piotr Voelkel co-founded Collegium Da Vinci, a higher education institution offering degree  programs in Arts and Engineering (IT), in Poznań, as well as Da Vinci Education Group that includes primary,  middle and secondary schools.

Piotr Voelkel is a businessman, art connoisseur, promoter of Polish design, sponsor of multiple cultural and educational projects, and a recipient of the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restitute for outstanding contributions to the development and promotion of Polish business and for contributions to the
community.

Artur Nowak-Gocławski

Freedom Games 2018

CEO of ANG Group,  CEO of the “Będę Kim Zechcę” foundation, the leader of the Nienieodpowiedzialni.pl project.

In finance since 25 years, during the last 15 years as an entrepreneur he has gained a reputation as a pioneer of modern cooperative activity. He is an advocate of building organizational culture based on common good and the social responsibility of business.

The leader and founder of ANG Group, which includes 700 financial experts of ANG Spółdzielnia (the first such structure in the financial area). He participates in numerous social projects, including as the CEO of the “Będę Kim Zechcę” foundation and leader of the nienieodpowiedzialni.pl project.

In addition to the many awards given to ANG Spółdzielnia for its ethical business strategy and promotion of values, he is also the winner of the “People who changed business” award from the Responsible Business Forum.

Monika Auch-Szkoda

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish sociologist, feminist activist, associated, among others with the Warsaw Women’s Strike. She deals with the issue of reproductive rights and the rights of the disabiled. She is a co-creator of the Social Committee #Jesteśmy.

Jacek Filek

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish philosopher, Professor in the Department of Ethics at the Institute of Philosophy of the Jagiellonian University.

He studied at the Jagiellonian University, where he also obtained his PhD and habilitation. After becoming a professor he has been continuing his work as full professor.

He is the author of a number of publications, including: Z badań nad istotą wartości etycznych (Kraków 1995), Ontologizacja odpowiedzialności (Kraków 1996), Filozofia jako etyka (Kraków 2001 – nominated to the J. Długosz award for the best book in humanities in 2001), Filozofia odpowiedzialności XX wieku (Kraków 2003 – with a ministerial prize), Filozofia odpowiedzialności XX wieku. Teksty źródłowe (Kraków 2004), Życie, etyka, inni (Kraków 2010), Etyka. Reinterpretacja (Kraków 2014 – awarded with  J. Tischner prize) and over a 100 of articles in national and foreign periodicals.

Agnieszka Grzybek

Freedom Games 2018

An equality expert, translator, and editor. She is the co-founder of STER Foundation for Equality and Emancipation.

She coordinated such research projects as “Przełamać tabu – prawa ofiar przemocy seksualnej” (Breaking the Taboo – Rights of Sexual Violence Victims) and “Sojusznicy czy przeciwnicy? Jak przekonać środowisko lekarskie w Polsce do wspierania praw reprodukcyjnych i seksualnych” (Allies or Adversaries? How to Convince Medical Personnel in Poland to Support Reproductive and Sexual Rights).

In the years 2007-2014, she coordinated a regional program “Democracy of the Sexes” on behalf of Heinrich Böll Foundation in Warsaw.

She translates books in the field of humanities (eg. Sto haseł o równości. Podręczny słownik pojęć dotyczących równości kobiet i mężczyzn w sferze zatrudnienia i polityki społecznej, równych szans i polityki rodzinnejPolityka równości płci w praktyceEkonomia i płeć, eds. A. G. Dijkstra, J. Plantega, Nowa singielka by K. Trimberger, and Mistyka kobiecości by Betty Friedan).

She co-authored and co-edited (together with Joanna Piotrowska) a book Polityka a płeć (Politics and Gender, H. Böll Foundation, Warsaw 2005) and published a number of articles devoted to equality.

In the years 2002-2005, she was a member of the Program-Consulting Council working on behalf the then plenipotentiary of Polish government dealing with the equal status of men and women.

She used to teach history of women’s movement after 1989 as a part of the Gender Mainstreaming program at the Institute of Literary Research of Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN).

Monika Rosa

Freedom Games 2018

A member of the Polish Parliament of the .Nowoczesna liberal political party and a Chairwoman of the party in Silesia. In the Polish Parliament she is currently a member of the energy and State Treasury standing committee and ethnic and national minorities standing committee.

Prior to joining the Parliament, she worked in the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland. She has been involved in non-governmental organizations, e.g. Projekt: Polska Association, worked in local media, and ran a student newspaper.

Katarzyna Lubnauer

Freedom Games 2018

PhD, she is a Polish politician, mathematician, and academic teacher. She is a member of the Polish Parliament and, since 2017, the leader of .Nowoczesna liberal political party. In the Polish Parliament she is currently a member of the education, science, and youth committee.

Prior to joining the Parliament, she was a lecturer at the University of Łódź. She was one of the initiators of the “Secular School” campaign, which aimed at cutting state funding to religious education classes in public schools across Poland.

Janusz Marszalec

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish historian, PhD in humanities in the field of history with the specialization in recent Polish history. He currently works at the Gdansk Museum.

In the years 2000-2008, he worked at the Institute of National Remembrance, in the years 2008-2017, he was a deputy director of the Museum of the Second World War. He is also one of the authors of the main exhibition of this Museum.

He is a laureate of the Polityka‘s Historical Award for 1999 for his debut book Protection of public order and safety in the Warsaw Uprising, the KLIO Scientific Award (2000) for outstanding contribution to historical research, funded by the Historical Book Publishers Agreement, and the Jan Górski Award granted by Towarzystwo Miłośników Historii in Warsaw, as well as the “Pro memoria” medal, the medal “For commemorating the fights for Warsaw in the years 1939-1945” and the “Pro Patria” medal.

He is also a former adviser to Prime Minister Donald Tusk in the Political Cabinet of the Prime Minister.

Rafał Stobiecki

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish historian of historiography, Head of the Department of History of Historiography and Historical Auxiliary Sciences at the Institute of History of the University of Lodz.

In 1985, he graduated in history at the Institute of History of the University of Lodz and began working as an assistant at the Department of History of Historiography, University of Lodz. In 1995, he obtained a PhD degree in the humanities, and in 1999, a postdoctoral degree, based on the dissertation: Bolszewizm a Historia. Próba rekonstrukcji bolszewickiej filozofii dziejów (Bolshevism and History. An Attempt to Reconstruct the Bolshevik Philosophy of History). He obtained the professor’s title in 2007.

In his research, he focuses on the problems of historiography of the communist era, Russian and Soviet historiography of the 19th and 20th centuries, and Polish émigré historiography after 1945.

His recent publications include: Historycy polscy wobec wyzwań XX wieku (2014), W poszukiwaniu innej historii. Antologia tekstów opublikowanych na łamach periodyków Instytutu Literackiego w Paryżu, an introduction, edited together with S. M. Nowinowski, (2015); Władysław Pobóg-Malinowski, Wacław Jędrzejewicz. Listy 1945-1962, editing and introduction together with z S. M. Nowinowski, Warsaw 2016; Klio za Wielką Wodą. Historycy polscy w Stanach Zjednoczonych po 1945 r. Warsaw 2017; „Zeszyty Historyczne” z perspektywy półwiecza edited and co-authored together with S. M. Nowinowski, Warsaw 2017.

He was a scholarship holder of the Fund for Promoting Independent Science and Culture (1993), as well as the Polish Cultural Foundation, Polonia Aid Foundation Trust (1999, 2000), Kosciuszko Foundation (2010).

In the years 2011-2014, he was a member of the Historical Sciences Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences. A member of the editorial team of the Dzieje Najnowsze magazine.


Zdjęcie: Wydział Filozoficzno-Historyczny Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego

Krzysztof Iszkowski

Freedom Games 2018

A political sociologist, member of the editorial team of Liberté!. He is an author of the book Po co nam Europa? (Why Do We Need Europe?; 2009). In the years 2012-2014, he was the Head of Plan Zmian – a think tank of Twój Ruch.

Sylwia Spurek

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish lawyer, her PhD in law she obtained at the University of Warsaw, a legal adviser, legislator, feminist.

She deals with criminal law, administrative law, anti-discrimination law, international law, and constitutional law. Since 1999, she has been involved in activities for human rights. In 2015, she was appointed as the Deputy Commissioner for Human Rights of the Republic of Poland.

From 2002 to 2005, she worked in the Secretariat of the Government Plenipotentiary for Equal Status of Women and Men, where she dealt with the government’s draft law on preventing domestic violence.

In 2008-2015, she was a member of the Team for the European Court of Human Rights at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2010-2012, she was a representative of the Chief of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister in the Committee on the Protection of Rights.

Until 2014, she cooperated with the Chancellery of the Prime Minister as the councilor of the Prime Minister in the Legal Department. Until June 2015, she was the deputy head of the Government Plenipotentiary for Equal Treatment and was responsible, among others, for the coordination of governmental work on the ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence.

She is a member of the Polish Society of Anti-Discrimination Law and the Polish Legislative Society. She is certified by a specialist in the field of assistance to victims of violence of the National Ambulance Service for Victims of Domestic Violence “Blue Line” of IPZ PTP.

She is also an Honorary Member of the Femfund Feminist Fund, collecting funds and granting grants to feminist organizations. She is an expert at the European Institute for Gender Equality (EU), Gender Equality Unit (CoE), and United Nations Population Fund (UNDP). In 2017, she was elected to the board of Equinet for a two-year term.


Photo: Rzecznik Praw Obywatelskich

Piotr Augustyniak

Freedom Games 2018

PhD in philosophy, a translator, essayist, author of theater performances, professor at the Cracow University of Economics.

In 2011-2012, a scholarship holder of the Austrian Republic at the University of Vienna.

An author of 5 books, including Homo polacus. Eseje o polskiej duszy and Trans. Filozofia Cezarego Wodzińskiego. The editor of the volume Wyspiański / Zbudź się Polaku. His book Wyspiański. Burzenie polskiego kościoła will be published soon.

A member of the editorial team of Przegląd Polityczny and the editorial team of Liberte!. His articles were also published in Gazeta Wyborcza, Znak, Respublica, and Tygodnik Powszechny.

At the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Cracow, together with Bartosz Szydłowski, he conducts a series of theatrical and philosophical meetings known as “The Art of Thinking”.

Aleksandra Przegalińska

Freedom Games 2018

PhD in philosophy of artificial intelligence, Assistant Professor at Kozminski University, currently Research Fellow at the Center for Collective Intelligence at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston. Recent visiting scholar at The New School for Social Research/ Brown University in New York City (2014).

In 2011, she worked as the Chairman of Media Regulation Working Party at the Council of European Union in Brussels. As a William J. Fulbright Scholar Aleksandra also majored in Sociology at The New School for Social Research in New York (2012), where she participated in research on identity in virtual reality, with particular emphasis on Second Life.

Her current primary research interest include consequences of introducing artificial intelligence systems to people’s social and professional sphere as well as wearable technologies and human/bot interaction.

Remigiusz Ryziński

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish writer, philosopher, and culture expert. He graduated from the Jagiellonian University. He studied also at the Sorbonne, with Julia Kristeva as his supervisor. His PhD dissertation was devoted to A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments by Roland Barthes. In 2012, he completed his postdoctoral research on modern French feminism.

He is a Full Professor and an academic lecturer in Warsaw. He was a fellow of the French government, the Schumann Foundation, the Nippon Foundation, Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, as well as the City of Warsaw.

He edited a number of publications devoted to modern culture and philosophy. His ain interests include gender and queer theories. He is the author of over several dozens of academic publications in Poland and abroad. He translated the works of Sartre, Eco, and Kristeva.

He is also the author of three scholarly books and a reportage Foucault w Warszawie (Foucault in Warsaw), for which he was nominated to the Nike Literary Award. His latest book, Dziwniejsza historia (Stranger History) will be released by the Wydawnictwo Czarne this autumn.

Brunon Bartkiewicz

Freedom Games 2018

CEO of ING Bank Śląski. He has held positions within ING, both in Poland and the Netherlands, since the 1990s.

In 1995, he was appointed CEO of Bank Śląski, which position he held until June 2000.

As of then, he was General Manager and Management Board member at ING Direct NV, responsible for credit, market and operational risk, operational and IT support.

He returned to ING Bank Śląski (Poland) as CEO in 2004 and held the position until 2010. At that time he became member of the General Management Team at ING Direct, responsible for activities in Spain, Italy, France, Great Britain, and Australia. As of 2012 he was in charge of ING operations in France, Italy, Poland, Spain, Romania, and Turkey.

As Chief Innovation Officer at ING Group (since 2014), he played a major role in accelerating ING’s pace of innovation, developing and promoting innovative ideas and solutions, applying new technologies and delivering speed-to-market of successful ideas. 

In 2016 he returned as CEO of ING Bank Śląski.

He is a graduate of the Main School of Planning and Statistics in Warsaw (currently, Warsaw School of Economics) with a degree in Economics at the Foreign Trade.

Maja Komorowska

Freedom Games 2018

Maja Komorowska-Tyszkiewicz is a Polish acclaimed theatre and film actress. She has appeared in over 35 films since 1970.

She was born to Count Leon Komorowski from Kurmen (the Korczak coat of arms), and Irena née Leitgeber.

The 1970s also witnessed Komorowska’s screen debut in a short film by Krzysztof Zanussi called Mountains at Dusk, after which she soon became the director’s favorite actress. He cast her in his best productions, including The Family Life, The Quarterly Balance, The Spiral and At Full Gallop.

She also worked with Andrzej Wajda on The Wedding and The Maids of Wilko, with Tadeusz Konwicki on How Far from Here, How Close and The Lava, and with Istvan Szabo on Stories of Budapest.

She was awarded Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (for outstanding contribution to national culture, for achievements in artistic creativity and teaching activities, 2011; Commander’s Cross, 2004; Knight’s Cross, 2000).

Stefan Chwin

Freedom Games 2018

A highly prolific Polish novelist, essayist, literary critic, and historian of literature whose life and literary work is closely linked to the city of Gdansk. He holds a post of Literature Professor at the University of Gdansk, his professional interests are focused on romanticism.

In the 1980s, he was a member of the editorial board of the renowned Transgresje series. The best-known novel by Stefan Chwin is entitled Hanemann (1995). It has been translated into German, Swedish, Spanish, and English. The plot of the novel is set in Gdansk in the wake of World War II.

He penned numerous books, including Romantyczna przestrzeń wyobraźni (1988), Literatura i zdrada (1993), Samobójstwo jako doświadczenie wyobraźni (2010), Samobójstwo i grzech istnienia (2012), Miłosz. Interpretacje i świadectwa (2011), Miłosz. Gdańsk i okolice (with Krystyna Chwin, 2012), Krótka historia pewnego żartu (1991), Esther (1999), Złoty pelikan (2003), Kartki z dziennika (2004), Żona prezydenta, Dolina Radości, Dziennik dla dorosłych, and Panna Ferbelin (2011), Ein Deutsches Tagebuch (2015), and Srebrzysko. Powieść dla dorosłych (2016), among others.

He is also an author of several fantasy books: Ludzie-skorpiony and Człowiek-litera (published as Max Lars) and essays, such as Zwodnicze piękno (2016).

In 1997, he received the Erich Brost Danzig Award for his merits on Polish-German reconciliation.


Photo: Marcin R. Chwin

Hanna Zdanowska

Freedom Games 2018

Before Hanna Zdanowska became the Mayor of the City of Lodz, she served six years as the Director of the Office of Lodz Chamber of Commerce and Industry. In 2006, Hanna Zdanowska became the Councilor of the Lodz City Council, and later the Vice-Mayor of Lodz in charge of education, sport and EU funds. In autumn 2007, she was elected a Member of the Polish Parliament from the Civic Platform list. She served as the Deputy Chairman of the Special Commission “Friendly State” for matters related to the reduction of bureaucracy. On December 13, 2010 Hanna Zdanowska, after the victory in the elections for the local government was sworn for the position of the Mayor of the City of Lodz. She was elected for a second term by the Lodz inhabitants already in the first round of the elections in 2014.

Ziemowit Szczerek

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish award-winning writer, journalist, and translator.

He debuted as a co-author of Paczka radomskich (A Pack of Radomskie Cigarettes) (2010). His book Przyjdzie Mordor i nas zje, czyli tajna historia Słowian (Mordor Will Come and Devour Us – A Secret History of Slavs) – a collection of reportage texts from a trip to Ukraine written in gonzo style – was awarded with the Polityka Passport in 2013.

His latest novel Siódemka (Seven) (2014) is devoted to Polish reality stretching along the road no. 7. Apart from that, he is the author of an alternative vision of Polish history contained in the book Rzeczpospolita zwycięska (Victorious Commonwealth) (2013).

He collaborates with a number of magazines, including Polityka, Nowa Europa Wschodnia, Ha!art, Dwutygodnik, and Tygodnik Powszechny.

Andrzej Leder

Freedom Games 2018

Polish philosopher of culture, psychotherapist, and author. He has been working at Institute of Philophy and Sociology of Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) since 1996, since 2010 as full professor.

In the years 1992-2012, he was a member of the editorial team of Res Publica Nowa. He was also a contributor in the Ozon magazine.

In 2015, his book Prześniona rewolucja. Ćwiczenie z logiki historycznej was nominated for the Nike Literary Award and the Kazimierz Moczarski History Prize for the best book.

Luba Jurgenson

Freedom Games 2018

Born in Moscow in 1958, she is currently a full Professor at the Department of Slavic Studies of Sorbonne University. Her main research areas include: witness literature about Nazi camps and Gulag, representations and memory of mass violence in Eastern and Central Europe (20st century).

She has penned and edited several books and articles, notably on memory of Gulag and Stalin’s repressions. Reently, she published Le Goulag, témoignages et archives (Laffont 2017) written in cooperation with Nicolas Werth.

Eustachy Rylski

Freedom Games 2018

Polish fiction writer, playwright, and screenwriter. He debuted in 1984 with a diptich titled Stankiewicz. Powrót. 

He is the author of such novels as Człowiek w cieniu, Warunek, Na Grobli, Obok Julii, as well as collections of short stories Tylko chłód, Wyspa, Szara lotka, and essays – such as, for instance, Po śniadaniu.

He was awarded several prestigeous literary prizes.

His works have been translated into many languages worldwide.

 

Photo: www.ArekMarkowicz.pl

Paul Gradvohl

Freedom Games 2018

Contemporary Central Europe is the main topic of Paul Gradvohl’s historical research and publications. Among these (co-editor): Culture et identité en Europe centrale. Canons littéraires et visions de l’his­toi­re (Paris, Institut d’Études Slaves/Brno, Masaryk University, 2011) or L’Euro­pe médiane au XXe siècle: fractures, décompositions – recompositions – sur­com­po­sitions (Prague, CEFRES, 2011). Former director of the Center for French Civilization and Francophone Studies at the Warsaw University (2012-2016), he came back to the University of Lorraine. In 2013, he published, with Violaine Gelly, a biography of Charlotte Delbo (Paris, Fayard). The book was awarded the Prix de la critique by the French Pen Club (December 2013). He started working on a global approach of Central Europe (historiographical, see Revue d’études comparatives Est-Ouest, 20014/2, or centered on fears since 1918 Esprit 2016/March-April, nr 423) and is often interviewed in the media about the recent events in Central Europe (Le MondeRadio France InternationaleFrance Info these last weeks).

Máté Hajba

Freedom Games 2018

The director of the Hungarian Free Market Foundation, which advocates economic freedom, civil rights, and tolerance in Hungary. He is also the vice president of Civic Platform, a Hungarian organization, which runs anti-racist campaigns and promotes democratic values.

He is interested in the relationship between the state and the individual and in the concept and history of liberty.

He writes for international and national press and blogs on issues such as tolerance, international relations, and the digital economy.

To spread the concept of individualism, liberty, tolerance, and free market, he co-founded a youth organization named Eötvös Club.

A member of AMO External Staff.

Marcin Frenkel

Freedom Games 2018

A Ph.D candidate in humanities at the Faculty of International and Political Studies, University of Lodz and a manager in a family company.

He is also a member of editorial team at the magazine Liberté! – a leading Polish political quarterly and a regular contributor of research papers to the “Civic Institute” – a political think-tank.

His publications can be found at academia.edu.

A member of AMO External Staff.

Martin Reguli

Freedom Games 2018

An analyst at the Slovak F. A. Hayek Foundation. He focuses primarily on the areas of economics, social policy, and foreign affairs at the level of Slovak Republic and the European Union.

He participated in the formation of education and information portals,  as well as delivered lectures.

He has direct experience in working in the legislative chamber and with the research projects in the areas of foreign policy and the political development in the CEE countries.

A member of AMO External Staff.

Kryštof Kruliš

Freedom Games 2018

Research Fellow of AMO Research Center, his research focuses on the internal market of the EU, EU law and relations between the EU and Anglophone countries.

He received his Ph.D. in the European Law at the Law School of the Charles University in Prague in 2017, where he graduated summa cum laude his master degree in Law and legal science. He studied in Sweden at Jönköping International Business School under the Socrates-Erasmus programme. He graduated with distinction his second master programme in Anglophone studies at the Metropolitan University Prague, where he has started to give lectures.

He worked as an associate in a Prague branch of a leading international law firm where he provided legal advisory within the areas of the Czech law and law of the EU to eminent Czech and foreign clients from both private and public sectors.

In his private legal practice he has focused on the EU law and international public law issues.

He has been cooperating with AMO since 2014. In 2016, he founded registered institute Spotřebitelské forum and became a chairman of its board.

Leszek Balcerowicz

Freedom Games 2018

Polish economist, founder and Council Chairman of Civil Development Forum. The Head of the Department of International Comparative Studies at Warsaw School of Economics. Former President of National Bank of Poland (NBP). Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance in the first non-communist Polish government after the World War II. Doctor honoris causa of over a dozen of universitites in Poland and abroad. Awarded with the Order of the White Eagle, among others.

Kamila Gasiuk-Pihowicz

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish politician, a lawyer, and MP and spokesperson of the .Nowoczesna (.Modern) party. She formerly worked in private legal companies and the office of the Polish Human Rights Defender, and cooperated with the Forum Dialogue Among Nations foundation. In 2015, she was appointed as the spokesperson of the Nowoczesna party. After being elected an MP, she now is a member of the Committee for Health and the Committee for Justice and Human Rights.

Speakers

Orina Krajewska

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish actress, theater instructor, co-founder and President of the Małgosia Braunek "Be" Foundation, promoting an integral approach to health in prevention as well as in the treatment of chronic diseases, especially oncological diseases...

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Aleksandra Knapik

Freedom Games 2018

A feminist, activist, publicist and young politician. Gets involved in protests and actions for women rights, minorities (including LGBT+), animal rights, for democracy and secularism of the state...

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Michał Boni

Igrzyska Wolności 2018

Polish politician and culture expert. Member of the Sejm of the first term, from 2014 deputy to the European Parliament of the 8th term...

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† Piotr Pawłowski

Freedom Games 2018, Igrzyska Wolności 2018

Polish social activist, founder and president of the Friends of Integration Association and the Integration Foundation whose goal is to work for people with disabilities...

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Shahin Vallee

Freedom Games 2018

Former economic advisor to the French Minister of Economy, he is a senior economist at Soros Fund Management...

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Sebastian Adamkiewicz

Freedom Games 2018

Doctor of Humanities, a graduate of the University of Lodz. Museologist, assistant professor in the historical department of the Museum of Independence Tradition in Łódź...

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Błażej Lenkowski

Freedom Games 2018

Political scientist, publicist. The creator and president of the board of the Industrial Foundation publisher of the "Liberte!" Magazine...

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Dariusz Paczkowski

Igrzyska Wolności 2018

The President of the Klamra Foundation. A Polish social activist, street art artist. An initiator and coordinator of a number of activitis for promoting democracy, human rights, and animal rights. He is the Founder and leader of the Animal Liberation Front...

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Barbara Dolniak

Freedom Games 2018

Deputy Speaker of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland of the 7th term. A graduate of the Faculty of Law at the University of Silesia in Katowice in 1983. In the years 1983-1987, she was judge at the Provincial Court in Katowice...

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Marta Zdanowska

Freedom Games 2018, Igrzyska Wolności 2018

Employee of the Dom Literatury (House of Literature) in Łódź...

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Barbara Piegdoń

Freedom Games 2015, Igrzyska Wolności 2018

Publisher of the magazine "Książki. Magazyn do czytania", former editor-in-chief of the "Gazeta Wyborcza Łódź" (2004-2015). She began her journalistic work in the underground press. She was an editor in the weekly "Region" and "Dziennik Dolnośląski"...

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Bożena Przyłuska

Freedom Games 2018

Entrepreneur, passionate social activist and designer, and sociologist and management specialist by education. Varsovian, feminist, atheist, supporter of the secular state...

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Hanna Lis

Freedom Games 2018, Igrzyska Wolności 2018

Polish Italianist, journalist and TV presenter. She was journalist in TVP in the years 2008-2009. She graduated of the Secondary School Stefan Batory in Warsaw. She graduated Italianist at the University of Warsaw...

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Borys Budka

Freedom Games 2018

Polish lawyer, doctor of economic sciences, academic teacher, local government and politician, member of the Sejm of the 7th and 8th term, minister of justice in 2015, deputy chairman of the Civic Platform since 2016...

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Marek Migalski

Freedom Games 2018, Igrzyska Wolności 2018

Polish political scientist, doctor of humanities, academic teacher, political journalist and politician, member of the European Parliament in the 7th term. He works at the Institute of Political Sciences and Journalism at the University of Silesia in Katowice...

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Mariusz Książek

Freedom Games 2018, Igrzyska Wolności 2018

Entrepreneur and economic activist. He is the head of two holding companies: the Marvipol Development Capital Group, which is involved in property development and the British Automotive Holding Capital Group, dealing in import, sales and comprehensive after-sales service for Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston Martin cars...

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Michał Brzeziński

Freedom Games 2018

Lecturer at the Faculty of Economic Sciences at the University of Warsaw. He studied economics and philosophy at the University of Warsaw. He also deals with the political economy of democracy in Poland...

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Ignacy Morawski

Freedom Games 2018

Economist, he founded SpotData, which since June 2017 is part of the Bonnier Business Polska publishing house (Puls Biznesu).
Analyzes macroeconomic phenomena occurring in the euro area and other countries of the European Union...

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Daria Hejwosz-Gromkowska

Freedom Games 2018

Doctor of Humanities, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Educational Studies of the University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznan. Her field of scientific interest is mainly focused on higher education and especially university education.

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Robert Sobiech

Freedom Games 2018, Igrzyska Wolności 2018

Sociologist, director of the Institute of Public Policies at Collegium Civitas. Lecturer at the Institute of Applied Social Sciences at the University of Warsaw and at the National School of Public Administration...

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Kazimiera Szczuka

Freedom Games 2018

Critic and historian of literature, member of the Gender and Literature Team of the Institute of Literary Research, and also a television journalist. Activist of women's movements and a member of the Krytyka Polityczna band...

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Witold Stępień

Freedom Games 2018

Polish politician and local government official, since 2010 the marshal of the Lodz region...

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Marta Madejska

Freedom Games 2018

Kulturoznawczyni, asystentka muzealna, dziennikarka i pisarka. Związana ze Stowarzyszeniem Topografie. Zastępczyni redaktor naczelnej Łódzkiej Gazety Społecznej „Miasto Ł”. Autorka książki „Aleja włókniarek” – reportażu opowiadającego o łódzkich pracownicach fabryk...

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Adam Szłapka

Freedom Games 2018

Politician, member of the Sejm of the 8th term. Former director of the Project: Poland Foundation and an expert at the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland during the presidency of Bronisław Komorowski...

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Tomasz Lis

Freedom Games 2018

Polish television and press journalist, radio, television and press columnist, since March 26, 2012 editor-in-chief of the weekly Newsweek Polska...

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Kasia Gauza

Freedom Games 2018

Programmer. She promotes the identity of Łódź and the history of workers, and since 2012 she has organized the celebration of the 1905 Revolution...

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Marcin Celiński

Freedom Games 2018

Social activist, publicist and blogger of the Liberté! Magazine...

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Katarzyna Pisarska

Freedom Games 2018

Founder and Director of the European Academy of Diplomacy in Warsaw, Poland and the Visegrad School of Political Studies run in cooperation with the Council of Europe...

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Joanna Ostrowska

Freedom Games 2018, Igrzyska Wolności 2018

Polish historian, doctor of humanities in history (Department of History, Jagiellonian University), graduate of the Institute of Audiovisual Arts, (Jagiellonian University), Department of Judaism (Jagiellonian University) and Gender Studies, University of Warsaw...

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Henryka Krzywonos-Strycharska

Freedom Games 2018

Polish opposition activist in the communist period, signatory of the August agreements...

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Anna Dziewit-Meller

Freedom Games 2018

Polish journalist with Jewish and Russian roots. Also known as the anchorwoman of programs about literature in radio Chilli Zet and TVN station...

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Zbigniew Pisarski

Freedom Games 2018

Political analyst, foreign and security policy media commentator, lecturer and social entrepreneur...

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Magda Melnyk

Igrzyska Wolności 2018

A columnist, analyst and reporter. A graduate of the Faculty of International and Political Studies at the University of Lodz...

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Krzysztof Dudek

Freedom Games 2018

Polish lawyer, in 2007-2016 director of the National Center for Culture.
From 2016, director of the New Theater in Łódź...

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Krystyna Boczkowska

Freedom Games 2018

Manager, president of the Management Board of Robert Bosch and representative of the Bosch Group in Poland. She is active in many organizations associating employers. She worked in the Polish-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce...

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Olga Kozierowska

Polish business journalist, social activist, motivational speaker, trainer and mentor...

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Jolanta Kwaśniewska

Freedom Games 2018

First Lady of Poland in the years 1995-2005, founder and president of the "Porozumienie Bez Barier" Foundation, a lawyer.
A member of international organizations and an honorary patron of numerous European and global initiatives...

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Dariusz Paczkowski

Freedom Games 2018

Coordinator of many polish and international graffiti jams, happenings, as well as actions for the LGBT movement and democracy.

His activity has been repeatedly honoured and awarded, among others by the Australian Independent Foundation for the Promotion of Polish Culture "Polcul"...

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Dorota Danowska

Freedom Games 2018, Igrzyska Wolności 2018

A philosopher, dietitian and bioethicist. A longtime animal rights activist and owner of the oldest Polish vegan restaurant VEGA in Wroclaw.

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Marek Góra

Igrzyska Wolności 2018

Professor at the Warsaw School of Economics, head of the Department of Economics I. An economist specializing in labor economics and pension systems. Co-author of the reform of the pension system in Poland...

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Artur Dunin

Freedom Games 2018, Igrzyska Wolności 2018

Politician, geodesist, member of the Polish Parliament, member of the Platforma Obywatelska party...

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Anna Materska-Sosnowska

Freedom Games 2018

Political scientist, doctor of humanities in the field of political sciences (2004). Lecturer at the Department of Political Systems. Scientific secretary of the Olympiad on Poland and the Modern World...

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Małgorzata Starczewska-Krzysztoszek

Freedom Games 2018, Igrzyska Wolności 2018

Doctor of economics, main economist of the Leviathan Confederation. Lecturer at the Faculty of Economic Sciences of the University of Warsaw...

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Joanna Kos-Krauze

Freedom Games 2018

Director and screenwriter, President of Directors’ Guild of Poland. She co-created part of the films with her husband Krzysztof Krauze...

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Andrzej Kompa

Freedom Games 2018, Igrzyska Wolności 2018

Lecturer since 2006. Research interests: Byzantine, antiquity, genealogy. Associate Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and History of the University of Lodz for quality arrangements in the 2016-2020 term...

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Ewa Tyszko

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish journalist, associated with the local TV station from Lodz, TV TOYA. She also cooperates with the ZOOM Channel,  Puls Biznesu, and Angora weekly. As a reporter, she is in charge of cultural programs...

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Piotr Beniuszys

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish political scientist and sociologist. A member of the editorial team and author of numerous publications at Liberté!. He specializes in the evolution of liberal thought and in the history of Western European liberal parties...

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Dariusz Gzyra

Freedom Games 2018

A PhD candidate at the Institute of Philosophy and Social Studies, Pedagogical University of Cracow. A columnist and a social activist. He focuses on the topics of bioethics, human relations with animals, and aesthetics...

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Przemysław Staciwa

Freedom Games 2018

A journalist at TOYA TV. He cooperates with the Liberte! magazine. An author of articles and reportages published in Gazeta Wyborcza...

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Sławomir Sierakowski

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish sociologist and political commentator. He is the founder and leader of Krytyka Polityczna (Political Critique), an Eastern European movement of liberal intellectuals, artists and activists. He is also the director of the Institute...

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Agata Stremecka

Freedom Games 2018

President of the Board at the Civic Development Forum (FOR). A graduate in political science, a passionate linguist, a specialist in public relations and marketing, she started her career with voluntary work in the Sejm...

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Jacek Michałowski

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish civil servant and social activist, former head of the office of the President of the Republic of Poland, Bronisław Komorowski. He graduated from the Psychology Institute at the University of Warsaw...

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Adam Rębacz

Freedom Games 2018

A history and civics teacher at the 9th Klementyka Hoffmanowa Heigh School in Warsaw. Apart from his teacher’s duties, he is involved in organizing extracurricular activities...

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Jan Wróbel

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish teacher, journalist, columnist, lecturer, and school director. He holds a Master Degree in history. He also coaches the “Bednarska” sports’ team...

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Joanna Kluzik-Rostkowska

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish politician and member of the Sejm for Civic Platform and former Minister of National Education of the Republic of Poland. She was a member of the Law and Justice (PiS) party back in 2007...

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Mikołaj Cześnik

Freedom Games 2018

Associate Professor. Director of the Institute of Social Sciences, Associate Dean for Academic Development, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Sociologist and political scientist. His research interests include public opinion...

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Radovan Durana

Freedom Games 2018

A Co-Founder of the Institute of Economic and Social Studies (INESS) in Bratislava, where he works as a senior analyst. He specializes in public finance, wrote numerous studies on taxes pensions...

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Paweł Kasprzak

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish columnist, the leader of the Citizens of Poland (Obywatele RP) movement. He is also a cinematographer and film editor, producer, and author of television programs, activist of the anti-communist opposition during the Polish People's Republic...

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Andrea Virág

Freedom Games 2018

A Hungarian researcher and analyst at Republikon Institute, where she is also responsible for international projects. In 2015, she obtained a BA in Political Science from the Faculty of Law and a BA in History from the Faculty of Humanities at the Eotvos Lorand University (ELTE)...

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Balázs Gulyás

Freedom Games 2018

A Hungarian sociologist and activist, lecturer at Eotvos Lorand University (ELTE). He organized a number of the biggest protest in Hungary in the past five years. As a result of the 2014 protests he initiated, the government withdrew a proposed tax on...

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Andrzej Saramonowicz

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish film director, actor, journalist, and scriptwriter. Member of the Board of the Directors' Guild of Poland. He studied history at University of Warsaw before turning to journalism...

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Donald Tusk

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish politician who has been the President of the European Council since 2014. He served as Prime Minister of Poland from 2007 to 2014 and was a co-founder and chairman of the Civic Platform political party...

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Michael J. Abramowitz

Freedom Games 2018

President of Freedom House.  Before joining Freedom House in February 2017, he was director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Levine Institute for Holocaust Education. He led the museum’s genocide prevention efforts and later oversaw its public education programs...

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Barbara Nowacka

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish politician and feminist activist. A left activist, formerly in Labor United, and later in Your Movement, in October 2015 she became leader of the United Left coalition for the Polish parliamentary election, 2015, bringing...

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Shalini Randeria

Freedom Games 2018

Rector of the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, Professor of Social Anthropology and Sociology at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, as well as the Director of the Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy..

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Agnieszka Holland

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish film and TV director and a screenwriter. Her first steps in cinematography she took by Krzysztof Zanussi's side. She received her first significant award in Cannes for movie...

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Robert Biedroń

Freedom Games 2018

Mayor of the city of Słupsk, a former MP, local government official, expert on human rights organizations in Poland and abroad, columnist...

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Jamie Whyte

Freedom Games 2018

A New Zealand politician who is a former leader of ACT New Zealand, a free market political party of New Zealand.  In February 2017, he joined the Institute of Economic Affairs as Director of Research...

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Dorota Masłowska

Freedom Games 2018

Polish author, playwright, columnist, and composer. She won the Nike Literary Award for her novel Paw królowej.
She penned the acclaimed Wojna polsko-ruska pod flagą biało-czerwoną, for which she was awarded the polityka Passport award. She is also the creator of plays performed around the world...

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Radosław Sikorski

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish politician and journalist. He was Marshal of the Sejm from 2014 to 2015 and Minister of Foreign Affairs in Donald Tusk's cabinet between 2007 and 2014. He previously served as Deputy Minister of National Defense in Jan Olszewski's cabinet, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in Jerzy Buzek's cabinet, and Minister of National Defense in Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz and Jarosław Kaczyński's cabinets...

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Janusz Palikot

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish politician, activist, philosopher, and businessman, the leader of the Your Movement party...

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Brendan Simms

Freedom Games 2018

Professor of History of European International Relations, Centre of International Studies, University of Cambridge, and Fellow of Peterhouse. He has been involved in policy work through the (Conservative) BOW Group, the (Labour) Foreign Policy Centre, the British Irish Association...

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Elzbieta Cherezinska

Freedom Games 2018, Igrzyska Wolności 2018

A Polish writer specializing in historical novels, a theatrologist. She graduated from the fcaulty of theatre studies of the Theatre Academy in Warsaw. As an author of historical novels she debuted in 2005 with a book written in cooperation with Szewach Weiss...

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Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish politician who served as the minister of interior from 2013 to 2014. He participated in Cracow’s opposition movement in the early 1980s. In 1990, he co-established the Office for State Protection and the Centre for Eastern Studies, a think-tank...

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Olgierd Łukaszewicz

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish film and theatre actor. He has appeared in over 60 films since his 1969 graduation from the Ludwik Solski Academy for the Dramatic Arts in Kraków. Between 2002 and 2005 and 2011-2018, he was the President of the Polish Union of Stage Actors...

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Marci Shore

Freedom Games 2018

Associate professor of history at Yale University. She is the translator of Michał Głowiński's The Black Seasons and the author of Caviar and Ashes: A Warsaw Generation's Life and Death in Marxism...

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Przemysław Żurawski vel Grajewski

Freedom Games 2018

Since 1987, a researcher and an academic teacher of the University of Łódź – first in the Faculty of Philosophy and History, and since 1995, in the Institute and then the Faculty of International and Political Studies...

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Sebastian Szymański

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish philosopher specializing in ethics and practical ethics. His research interests are focused on the issue of justice and ethical problems regarding new technologies, in particular robotics and AI...

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Ada Florentyna Pawlak

Freedom Games 2018

She is a member of the Polish Transhumanist Association, author of publications on transhumanism, lecturer, and business coach. She graduated in law and anthropology from University of Lodz...

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Mikołaj Mirowski

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish historian and columnist. He is the Director of the Department of Publications and Digital Repository of Polish History Museum. He cooperates with the Museum of Independence Traditions in Lodz, where he coordinates...

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Magdalena M. Baran

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish philosopher, historian of ideas, and columnist. She obtained a PhD in philosophy from the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. Her research interests include: philosophy of war, applied ethics...

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Krzysztof Tomasik

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish writer, editor, LGBT activist, and a member of Krytyka Polityczna. He specializes in biographies. He is the author of a number of articles devoted to the history of homosexuality in Poland in the 19th and 20th century and two books dealing with this topic: Homobiografie...

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Małgorzata Tkacz-Janik

A doctor of humanities and expert in Culture Studies, entrepreneur, lecturer, publicist, and social activist. Currently, she is active in the non-profit sector. In the years 2009-2011, she was a co-President of the Polish Greens group...

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Tomasz Kamiński

Freedom Games 2018

Ph.D. in humanities, an assistant professor at the Faculty of International and Political Studies, University of Lodz. His research activities focus mainly on various aspects of the EU-China relations, the Sovereign Wealth Funds, and...

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Marek Tatała

Freedom Games 2018

Vice President and Economist at the Civil Development Forum (FOR Foundation) in Warsaw, Poland – a think tank founded by Professor Leszek Balcerowicz...

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Joanna Ellmann

Freedom Games 2018

A Secretary of the Board at Aureus Link Foundation. She graduated in Art History from the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan,  Public Relations from the University of Warsaw, and...

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Henryk Wujec

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish politician, physicist, and a member of democratic opposition in The Polish People’s Republic. He was elected as a Member of Parliament a number of times, he served as a vice-minister of agriculture and..

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Detmar Doering

Freedom Games 2018

The designated representative of the Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit for Central Europe and the Baltic States in Prague. Until 2015 he was the director of the Liberales Institut (Liberty Institute), the think tank of the Foundation in Berlin...

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Marcin Król

Freedom Games 2018

Professor of philososphy and history of ideas at the University of Warsaw. A former Dean of the Department of Applied Social Sciences and Resocialization (untlil 2012).  President of the board of Stefan Batory Foundation...

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Marcin Anaszewicz

Freedom Games 2018

Apart from being a lawyer, he holds a PhD in social sciences (University of Warsaw). He is President of Instytut Myśli Demokratycznej, a think tank founded by Robert Biedroń, where he is in charge of its new political project...

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Joanna Tokarska-Bakir

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish culture anthropologist and Religious Studies researcher. She works for Institute of Slavic Studies of Polish Academy of Sciences. A  A.W. Mellona, A. von Humboldta fellow at Davis Center for Historical Studies, Princeton University...

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Michał Boni

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish politician. He has been involved in the ‘Solidarity’ underground movement since 1980. He has been a member of the national authorities of ‘Solidarity’ since 1989 and in 1990, became Chairman of the Mazowsze Region Management Board...

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Aleksander Smolar

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish writer, political activist and adviser, vice-president of Institute for Human Sciences and president of the Stefan Batory Foundation...

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Anna Bikont

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish journalist, reporter, and writer. A Psychologist by education. She cooperated with Tygodnik Mazowsze, a weekly of the underground Solidarity movement. Later, she has been cooperating with Gazeta Wyborcza daily...

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Piotr Voelkel

Freedom Games 2018

A co-founder VOX Capital Group, which includes companies operating in related industries, such  as manufacturing of constrution materials, interior design, and furniture design. He is a co-founder of  Concordia Design, a design center in Poznań, and VOX-ARTIS Foundation...

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Artur Nowak-Gocławski

Freedom Games 2018

CEO of ANG Group,  CEO of the “Będę Kim Zechcę” foundation, the leader of the Nienieodpowiedzialni.pl project. In finance since 25 years, during the last 15 years as an entrepreneur he has gained a reputation as a pioneer of modern cooperative activity...

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Monika Auch-Szkoda

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish sociologist, feminist activist, associated, among others with the Warsaw Women's Strike. She deals with the issue of reproductive rights and the rights of the disabiled. She is a co-creator of the Social Committee #Jesteśmy.

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Jacek Filek

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish philosopher, Professor in the Department of Ethics at the Institute of Philosophy of the Jagiellonian University. He studied at the Jagiellonian University, where he also obtained his PhD and habilitation...

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Agnieszka Grzybek

Freedom Games 2018

An equality expert, translator, and editor. She is the co-founder of STER Foundation for Equality and Emancipation. She coordinated such research projects as "Przełamać tabu – prawa ofiar przemocy seksualnej"...

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Monika Rosa

Freedom Games 2018

A member of the Polish Parliament of the .Nowoczesna liberal political party and a Chairwoman of the party in Silesia. In the Polish Parliament she is currently a member of the energy and State Treasury standing committee and ethnic and national minorities standing committee...

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Katarzyna Lubnauer

Freedom Games 2018

A member of the Polish Parliament and, since 2017, the leader of .Nowoczesna liberal political party. In the Polish Parliament she is currently a member of the education, science, and youth committee...

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Janusz Marszalec

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish historian, PhD in humanities in the field of history with the specialization in recent Polish history. He currently works at the Gdansk Museum. In the years 2000-2008, he worked at the Institute of National Remembrance, in the years 2008-2017, he was a deputy director of the Museum of the Second World War...

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Rafał Stobiecki

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish historian, lecturer at the Department of History of Historiography and Auxiliary Sciences of the History of the University of Lodz. In 1985, he graduated in history at the Institute of History of the University of Lodz and began working as an assistant at the Department of History of Historiography...

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Krzysztof Iszkowski

Freedom Games 2018

A political sociologist, member of the editorial team of Liberté!. He is an author of the book Po co nam Europa?. In the years 2012-2014, he was the Head of Plan Zmian – a think tank of Twój Ruch...

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Sylwia Spurek

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish lawyer, her PhD in law she obtained at the University of Warsaw, a legal adviser, legislator, feminist. She deals with criminal law, administrative law, anti-discrimination law, international law, and constitutional law. Since 1999, she has been involved...

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Piotr Augustyniak

Freedom Games 2018

PhD in philosophy, a translator, essayist, author of theater performances, professor at the Cracow University of Economics. In 2011-2012, a scholarship holder of the Austrian Republic at the University of Vienna...

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Aleksandra Przegalińska

Freedom Games 2018

PhD in philosophy of artificial intelligence, Assistant Professor at Kozminski University, currently Research Fellow at the Center for Collective Intelligence at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston. Recent visiting scholar at The New School for Social Research/ Brown University in New York City (2014)...

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Remigiusz Ryziński

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish writer, philosopher, and culture expert. He graduated from the Jagiellonian University. He studied also at the Sorbonne, with Julia Kristeva as his supervisor. His PhD dissertation was devoted to A Lover's Discourse: Fragments by Roland Barthes...

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Brunon Bartkiewicz

Freedom Games 2018

CEO of ING Bank Śląski. He has held positions within ING, both in Poland and the Netherlands, since the 1990s. In 1995, he was appointed CEO of Bank Śląski...

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Maja Komorowska

Freedom Games 2018

Polish acclaimed theatre and film actress. She has appeared in over 35 films since 1970. The 1970s witnessed Komorowska's screen debut in a short film by Krzysztof Zanussi (Mountains at Dusk), after which she soon became the director's favorite actress...

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Stefan Chwin

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish novelist, essayist, literary critic, and historian of literature whose life and literary work is closely linked to the city of Gdansk. He holds a post of Literature Professor at the University of Gdansk, his professional interests are focused on romanticism...

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Hanna Zdanowska

Freedom Games 2018

Before Hanna Zdanowska became the Mayor of the City of Lodz, she served six years as the Director of the Office of Lodz Chamber of Commerce and Industry. In 2006, Hanna Zdanowska became the Councilor of the Lodz City Council...

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Ziemowit Szczerek

Freedom Games 2018

Polish award-winning writer, journalist, and translator. He debuted as a co-author of Paczka radomskich (2010). His book Przyjdzie Mordor i nas zje, czyli tajna historia Słowian was awarded with the Polityka Passport in 2013...

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Andrzej Leder

Freedom Games 2018

Polish philosopher of culture, psychotherapist, and author. He has been working at Institute of Philophy and Sociology of Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN) since 1996, since 2010 as full professor...

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Luba Jurgenson

Freedom Games 2018

Born in Moscow in 1958, she is currently a full Professor at the Department of Slavic Studies of Sorbonne University. Her main research areas include: witness literature about Nazi camps and Gulag, representations and memory of mass violence in Eastern and Central Europe (20st century)...

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Eustachy Rylski

Freedom Games 2018

Polish fiction writer, playwright, and screenwriter. He debuted in 1984 with a diptich titled Stankiewicz. Powrót. He is the author of such novels as Człowiek w cieniu, Warunek...

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Paul Gradvohl

Freedom Games 2018

Contemporary Central Europe is the main topic of Paul Gradvohl’s historical research and publications. Among these (co-editor): Culture et identité en Europe centrale. Canons littéraires et visions de l’his­toi­re (Paris, Institut d’Études Slaves/Brno, Masaryk University, 2011) or...

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Máté Hajba

Freedom Games 2018

The director of the Hungarian Free Market Foundation, which advocates economic freedom, civil rights, and tolerance in Hungary. He is also the vice president of Civic Platform, a Hungarian organization, which runs anti-racist campaigns and promotes democratic values...

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Marcin Frenkel

Freedom Games 2018

A Ph.D candidate in humanities at the Faculty of International and Political Studies, University of Lodz and a manager in a family company. He is also a member of editorial team at the magazine Liberté!...

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Martin Reguli

Freedom Games 2018

An analyst at the Slovak F. A. Hayek Foundation. He focuses primarily on the areas of economics, social policy, and foreign affairs at the level of Slovak Republic and the European Union...

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Kryštof Kruliš

Freedom Games 2018

Research Fellow of AMO Research Center, his research focuses on the internal market of the EU, EU law and relations between the EU and Anglophone countries...

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Leszek Balcerowicz

Freedom Games 2018

Polish economist, founder and Council Chairman of Civil Development Forum. The Head of the Department of International Comparative Studies at Warsaw School of Economics. Former President of National Bank of Poland (NBP). Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance...

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Kamila Gasiuk-Pihowicz

Freedom Games 2018

A Polish politician, a lawyer, and MP and spokesperson of the .Nowoczesna (.Modern) party. She formerly worked in private legal companies and the office of the Polish Human Rights Defender, and cooperated with the Forum Dialogue Among Nations foundation...

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