Historian, publicist and politician. Untill February 2007 subeditor of Wprost weekly. Polish commentator in national as well as commercial Polish TV stations. Former Undersecretary of State in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister. Director of the East Center of Polish Open University and deputy of the board of foundation „ Aid for Poles in the East”. Author of many publications about Polish eastern politics.
Experts
Jerzy Marek Nowakowski
Sinead O’Gorman
Sinead O’Gorman is the European Director at Scholars at Risk (SAR). Based in the UK, Ms. O’Gorman leads SAR’s international outreach efforts, including the design and implementation of SAR’s strategy for Europe, establishing national and regional SAR sections and increasing global participation in SAR’s protection and prevention activities.Ms. O’Gorman previously served as Deputy Executive Director at Scholars at Risks’ New York office, and has over 15 years’ experience in higher education, development cooperation and human rights. Prior to joining SAR, Ms. O’Gorman served as Program Officer-Africa at the Institute of International Education (IIE) and held program and research positions at the Council for Assisting Refugee Academics (CARA) in London and at the Irish Council for International Students (ICOS) in Dublin. She holds an MSc in Development Studies from the London School of Economics, an MA in French from the Université de Montréal, a BA in English and French from Trinity College Dublin and was a pensionnaire étrangère at the Ecole normale supérieure (ENS), rue d’Ulm.
Beata Ociepka
She is political scientist, professor of International Relations and International Communications at the University of Wrocław, Institute of International Studies (ISM). She was the founder of the Section of International Communication at the ISM and author of the curriculum for the specialization in Public Diplomacy and Media for students of International Relations. Prof. Ociepka worked also at the Warsaw University and taught at Jagiellonian University in Krakow. Her last book, published in 2017 by Peter Lang, was “Poland’s New Ways of Public Diplomacy”. She is the head of International Communication Section of the Polish Society for International Studies. She specializes in international communication, public diplomacy and nation branding, and comparative media studies. Her current research project is focused on the EU countries cultural diplomacy with Russia at the time of the war in Ukraine.
Aleksandra Ohar
Studied cello at the Academy of Music in Warsaw under Tomasz Strahl. Guest student at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Augsburg under Julius Berger. Alekszandra Ohar attended master courses at the Mozarteum Salzburg and in Łańcut, Źagań and Zamośći under famous cellists like A. Bauer, J. Berger, K. Michalik and T. Strahl. Already at the age of 12, she received the first prize at a competition for cello and double bass students in Rzeszów and several other awards at Polish festivals and competitions. In 2005 Ohar took part in the P. Casals International Competition in Germany. Besides her classical cello repertoire (Haydn, Dvořák, Tschaikovsky and others), Ohar also devotes herself to contemporary music (she participated in the Laboratorium Muzyki Współcesnej project). She performs as a soloist as well as an orchestra and chamber musician.
Joanna Orlik
PhD from the Jagiellonian University. Cultural manager. Since 2002 she works for the Malopolska Institute of Culture in Krakow, since 2007 as its director. Since 2006 member of the Orientation Council of the Cultural Centres Historic Monument European Network. Founder and first editor-in-chief (2002-2007) of the quarterly “Autoportret. Pismo o dobrej przestrzeni” (“Self-portrait. The quarterly on good space”).
Katarzyna Oyrzanowska
Works for UNHCR as a specialist for Integration of Refugees UNHCR.
Gürkan Özturan
Gürkan Özturan works as the Media Freedom Monitoring Officer of Media Freedom Rapid Response, at the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom in Germany's Leipzig. Özturan was trained in the field of European Studies as a researcher on radicalisation and polarisation during his masters degrees at Centre International de Formation Europeenne and Istanbul Bilgi University. Özturan previously worked as a journalist and executive manager at dokuz8NEWS and frequently appeared on international media as commentator on Turkey and digital rights and liberties. He has served as board member for various anti-racism and rights-focused civil society organisations and social movements in Turkey, currently he is a board member for Turkey-European Foundation, Media Research Association and Red Ribbon Istanbul.
Tomasz Padło
Freelance photographer and co-founder of Bezgranica Foundation dealing i.a. with exposing and describing the phenomenon of stability of relict boundaries. He treats photography as a representation of reality and uses it for knowledge promotion, therefore he focuses mostly on documentary photography, in particular on the little-invasive street photography. For many years he has been involved in studying the problem of perceiving Europe. It has also diverted his photographic interest into this issue, after taking up trials to recognize and understand the Orient. He is a geographer by profession and has been appointed as an Assistant Professor in the Institute of Geography of the Pedagogical University of Cracow.
Joanna Pająk
Psychologist (Jagiellonian University), management trainer (MATRIK School), Public Relations & marketing consultant. She specializes in trainings of communication skills, project management in marketing, the use of creativity training methods and relations with media. After longstanding experience in advertising agencies, she runs her own little enterprise. She is interested in films, loves travelling and getting to know foreign cultures. In her free time, she practices yoga or running.
Tamás Pál
Professor of Sociology, Director of the Institute of Sociology of Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest. Former president of Hungarian Sociological Association, Vice-President of the National UNESCO Commission. Visiting professorships in US, Canadian, UK, German, Austrian, Russian, Ukrainian and other universities. Main interests: political sociology, science policy, sociology of intellectuals, comparative studies on East- and Central Europe.
