Is Professor of European Studies in the University of Oxford, Isaiah Berlin Professional Fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He is the author of nine books of ‘history of the present’, including The Polish Revolution: Solidarity, The Magic Lantern: The Revolution of ’89 Witnessed in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin and Prague, The File and, most recently, Facts are Subversive. His essays appear regularly in The New York Review of Books and he writes a column in The Guardian which is widely syndicated in Europe, Asia and the Americas including in Gazeta Wyborcza. He is currently leading a major Oxford University research project on global free speech norms in the internet age, which can be followed in 13 languages on www.freespeechdebate.com, and writing a book on free speech.
Experts - history
Timothy Garton Ash
Monika Baar
Rosalind Franklin Fellow and Senior Lecturer at the University of Groningen (Netherlands). She completed her undergraduate studies in History and Literature and Linguistics at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest and was awarded her doctorate in Modern History by the University of Oxford in 2002. She subsequently held positions at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin and the University of Essex. Her research focuses on modern historiography, cultural history and the history of political thought. Her recent book, Historians and Nationalism: East-Central Europe in the Nineteenth Century was published by Oxford University Press (February, 2010). She is participant of the research programme History of Political Thought in East-Central Europe (2008-2013), which is hosted by the Centre for Advanced Study, Sofia.
Krzysztof Bobiński
Is the President of Unia & Polska, a pro-European organisation. He worked with the Financial Times as its Warsaw Correspondent from 1976 to 2000 and later published Unia & Polska, a magazine devoted to EU issues. He writes for openDemocracy and is associate editor on the Europe section of Europe’s World. He is a co-chair of Steering Committee of Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum. He studied modern history at Magdalen College, Oxford. He is a Commander (II class) of the Stella della Solidarieta’ Italiana.
Emil Brix
Holds a doctorate in history from the University of Vienna. Since 1982 he’s served for the Foreign Service of the Republic Austria. 1986 – 1989 he worked for the Austrian Parliament and was the head of the Cabinet of the Austrian Minister of Science and Research. From 1990 to summer 1995 he was the Austrian Consul General in Krakow, Poland. From 1995 to 1999 Director of the Austrian Cultural Institute in London. Later on he was the head of the Department for Cultural Programming at the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Secretary General of the Austrian Research Association and a lecturer at the College of New Europe of the International Cultural Centre in Krakow.
Andrzej Bryk
Historian, lawyer, a specialist for Northern American issues. He is a professor at the Jagiellonian University, Harvard University and other universities. Former advisor of the Polish Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki. He is a member of the Chair of the History of State and Law.
Paweł Dobrowolski
Professor of Collegium Civitas. Consul at the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Edinburgh 1990-95, Vice Director of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Office 1995-2000, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary in Canada 2000-2004, Director of Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Press Office 2006. Graduated from history at the Warsaw University. Author of books devoted to history of medieval Europe.
Hilde Elisabeth Haaland
Representative of the Secretariat of the Nordic Council, Department of Documentation. Graduated in History, literature and Latin studies from the University of Oslo. Historian of medieval history from the University of Oslo 1998. Specialist on Icelandic Sagas and Norse religion and culture. Author of several articles on Norwegian and Icelandic medieval history. Radio journalist and theatre and literature critics 1996-2000. Archivist at The National Archives of Norway 1998-2000. Senior archivist and editor at the Nordic Council Secretariat from 2000.
Ewa Junczyk-Ziomecka
Since 2006 Undersecretary of State at the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland. She is dealing with issues connected with the Polish-Jewish relations. She graduated from the Law Department and did post-graduate journalistic studies at Warsaw University. She worked as a journalist and editor-in-chief of the “Dziennik Polski” daily in Detroit. She also was a member of the Dialogue group. In 2001 she was nominated for the director for the development of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews. She is a member of the „Otwarta Rzeczpospolita” Association, of the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute and of the Association of Polish Journalists. Author of a book about Pope John Paul II A Man Among Us, she published in Kultura and Tygodnik Powszechny.
Tamás Katona
Ambassador of The Republic of Hungary to Poland (2000-2002). Professor of history and politician. 1998-2000 professor and lecturer at Károli Gáspár Protestant University, Budapest. 1990-1998 Member of Parliament (Hungarian Democratic Forum, Hungarian Democratic People's Party). 1990-1992 Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. 1992-1994 Secretary of State, Prime Minister's Office.
Csaba G. Kiss
A cultural and literary historian; an essayist and a researcher on Central European cultures; studied Hungarian and German and comparative literature of Eastern Europe (comparing similarities between Polish and Hungarian literature). Hungarian opposition activist (Hungarian Democratic Forum) in the years 1987-1990. In 1992-1995 Director of the Institute of Central Europe in Budapest. Since 1995 scholar at the ELTE University in Budapest. 1994-2004 Visiting Professor in Zagreb. Author of several books on Central European literary and political matters published in France, Germany, Slovakia, Croatia and Poland. His book Dziennik polski (1980-1982) was translated and published in Poland.
