Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, who received his PhD from Columbia University, is a Research Professor of History at The Institute for World Politics in Washington DC. He formerly held the Kosciuszko Chair of Polish History at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia and is currently serving on the Advisory Council of the National Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC.

He is the author of many books and scholarly articles including Between Nazis and Soviets: Occupation Politics in Poland 1939-1947, After the : Polish-Jewish Conflict in the Wake of World War II, and Poland’s Transformation: A Work in Progress.

Menachem Daum  (on right) is the co-director and producer, with Oren Rudavsky, of the acclaimed documentary, Hiding and Seeking,  recently shown in North America on the Public Broadcasting Station (PBS). . Winner of the Grand Prix – Warsaw Jewish Film Festival and First Prize for a documentary and Best Inter-Faith Film of 2004, Hiding and Seeking has garnered nothing but rave reviews from the New York Times, the New York Post, Newsday, The Village Voice, Nowy Dziennik, The Jerusalem Post – and one could go on and on. The consensus: “Simply the most important documentary of 2004 and a must for every thinking person.” Hiding and Seeking, a profound examination of humanism and religion, centers on Polish-Jewish relations but the issues it addresses are universal. Menachem Daum is an independent producer, director and writer.

Karin Friedrich, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, teaches history at the University of Aberdeen. Professor Friedrich received her MA from Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich and her PhD from Georgetown University in Washington DC. She is a specialist in Prussia and Poland 1500-1800, in the history of political ideas and in early modern identities. She is the author of The Other Prussia: Royal Prussia, Poland and Liberty, and has published many articles on political ideas in Poland-Lithuania, and on identity and nationalism.

Robert Frost, University of Aberdeen, was appointed to the Chair in Early Modern History and as Head of School for Divinity, History and Philosophy in September 2004.  Professor Frost joined the University from King's College, London, where he was Reader in Early Modern History and Head of the History Department.  His main interests lie in the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, in particular in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.  He is also interested in the history of warfare in northern and eastern Europe form the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, the Thirty Years War and the history of Sweden. 

Professor Frost has published After the Deluge:  Poland-Lithuania and the Second Northern War  (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1993) and The Northern Wars:  War State and Society in Northeastern Europe, 1558 - 1721 (Longmans, Harlow, 2000).  He is currently working on The Oxford History of the Polish-Lithuanian Union 1385 - 1815 for Oxford University Press.

Bill Johnston is Director of the Polish Studies Center at Indiana University and associate professor of comparative literature and second language studies. He is one of the leading translators of Polish literature in North America. He has held fellowships with both the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and in 2004 was awarded the Diploma of the Polish Foreign Ministry for promoting Polish culture abroad.

He translates both prose and poetry. Amongst his numerous translations are Juliusz Słowacki's Balladina, Witold Gombrowicz's Bacacay, Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński's White Magic and Other Poems, and Stefan Żeromski's The Faithful River. Professor Johnston will speak on the challenges of translating culture and discuss issues of identity.

In April, 2008, Professor Johnston received the first FOUND IN TRANSLATION AWARD for his translation of New Poems by Tadeusz Rozewicz (Archipelago Books, March 2007), a collection of Rozewicz’s three latest volumes in their entirety: Recycling, The Professor’s Penknife, and The Gray Zone.  The award was established by the Polish Book Institute in Krakow, the Polish Cultural Institute in London, the Polish Cultural Institute in New York, and the W.A.B. Publishers in Warsaw, an annual award for the best translation of a work of Polish literature in the preceding year. 

Andrew Nagorski, Senior Editor at Newsweek International, is responsible for expanding Newsweek’s network of foreign editions, the most recent being Newsweek Polska. Fluent in English, Polish, Russian and French, Mr. Nagorski, author of The Birth of Freedom: Shaping Lives and Society in the New Eastern Europe and a novel, Last Stop Vienna,  has held the position of Bureau Chief  in Berlin, Moscow, and Warsaw, and served as correspondent in many parts of the world. From this broad perspective, Mr. Nagorski will discuss media and contemporary issues.

Eva Nagorski, writer and producer of solidarity., a 22-minute narrative film about loyalty and friendships in the context of the Solidarity era. A writer and translator, she co-authored with Janusz Glowacki on the screenplay No-Smoking Section and translated several of his works including Antigone in New York. Her one-act play, The Coat Rack, was published in Poland's Dialog (translator: Glowacki). She has written scripts for NBC's Las Vegas, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and Deadline. She was senior editor of Notorious magazine, editor of the We Are Family Foundation website, has authored two children's books, has written and produced various projects including a documentary on Nowy Dziennik, and was director of the Nantucket Film Festival Screenplay Competition. In Poland, she was an assistant to Academy Award winning director, Andrzej Wajda, and co-director of the nationwide screenplay competition, New Scenario.

Estanislao (Stan) Oziewicz is a journalist with The Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper based in Toronto, where he has worked as legislative reporter at Queen’s Park and the Quebec Legislative Assembly, as China correspondent, assistant national editor, editor of the weekend Focus section and as an investigative reporter. He now writes on foreign affairs. Born in Argentina to Polish parents, where he was educated at St. Michael’s College School, York University and Ryerson Polytechnic University as well as at l’Universite de Bordeaux, he speaks English, French, Polish and Mandarin. His work has also appeared in the Washington Post, the International Herald Tribune and the South China Morning Post.

Adam Szostkiewicz, born 1952, a Krakow's Jagiellonian University graduate ( Polish philology, M.A.), an activist of Solidarity 1980-1988, political prisoner 1982, underground press journalist, joined Tygodnik Powszechny national Catholic weekly 1988-1999, served as the spokesman for Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki's presidential campaign 1990, worked for BBC Polish Section in London, joined POLITYKA weekly newsmagazine 1999 as Deputy Foreign Editor, a commentator on international relations, religion and culture for Polish national TV and radio. He's married, with two daughters, and commutes between Krakow where he's based and Warsaw where he works.

Irene Tomaszewski is a writer and founding president of the Montreal-based Canadian Foundation for Polish Studies. Her book, Inside a Gestapo Prison 1942-44: The Letters of Krystyna Wituska is scheduled for publication by Wayne State University Press in May 2006. She co-authored Żegota: The Council for Aid to Jews in Occupied Poland 1942-45 and wrote the screenplay for a documentary by the same title produced by Sy Rotter for Documentaries International (Washington DC). She was also the Associate Producer and Researcher for the CBC’s A Web of War, a documentary about Poland in World War II.

Tamara Trojanowska received her MA from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, and completed her PhD at Oxford and the University of Toronto where she is currently head of Polish Studies at the Department of Slavic Literatures and Languages. In this her second appearance at Poland in the Rockies, Professor Trojanowska will direct the cultural segment of Poland in the Rockies, presenting an overview of Polish literary and cultural history that is as interesting for those familiar with the subject as for those just being introduced to it. Together with Professor Johnston, she will address issues of identity – in literature and in contemporary life.