Two members of our Polish Studies program, Krzysztof Borowski and Łukasz Wodzyński, were recently elected to serve on the Executive Board of the North American Association of Teachers of Polish. The election results were announced at the NAATPl General Meeting, which took place in conjunction with the 2025 American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages conference.
Dr. Borowski, who served as the NAATPl President in 2024, has been re-elected to this position for another one-year term. Prior to that, he has also been working on the organization’s board since 2023. In his capacity as President, Dr. Borowski oversees event planning and management, organizational communication, and web operations.
For Prof. Wodzyński, this is the first leadership role within the organization, after having been a member for several years. He was elected for a two-year term. In this role, he will draw on his experience as Acting Director of the Polish Program at the University of Toronto, a position in which he served before coming to UW–Madison.
The North American Association of Teachers of Polish is a professional organization established to promote excellence in Polish language teaching, learning, and research. It holds webinars, discussions, and lectures, and is an affiliate organization of the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages (AATSEEL).
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UW–Madison Polish Studies Program
Educating the Wisconsin public about the Polish language, literature, and culture since 1936.
The University of Wisconsin–Madison Polish Studies Program is the oldest academic program in the United States focused on the study and teaching of the Polish language, literature, and culture. UW–Madison Polish studies offer a comprehensive package of Polish language, literature, and culture courses, a generous scholarship program designed exclusively for its students, and various extracurricular activities each academic year. Since 2022, Wisconsin students have been participating in Polish language and culture summer courses in Poland thanks to a collaboration with NAWA, an academic exchange organization.
The program, dating back to 1935, offers beginning, intermediate, and advanced Polish language courses, in addition to intensive Polish courses for heritage speakers and (under)graduate students. In 2011, the program received the prestigious 2022 Award Distinction from the University of Warsaw for its achievements in promoting the Polish language and knowledge about Polish culture and history. The UW–Madison Polish program also offers a broad range of Polish culture courses on Polish film, contemporary Polish culture, Polish migration to the Americas, a survey of Polish culture from the Middle Ages to modern times, Polish comedy culture, and post-communism.
Each year, the UW Polish program awards scholarships for tuition through the Lapinski fund to undergraduate and graduate students studying the Polish language, literature, and culture. The Polish Student Association (PSA) provides a space for all students interested in events, activities, and learning about Poland and Polish culture. In collaboration with the Polish program faculty, the PSA also co-organizes the Madison Polish Film Festival, an annual celebration of Polish cinematography in Madison, Wisconsin, now in its fourth decade of existence.