Polish Academic Center to open at UB during national conference

The conference will be sponsored by the Polish Embassy and co-sponsored by the UB Faculty of Arts and Letters.

The center, developed by Piotr Pienkowski, a professor at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, is a unique, inter-university agency of UB and Jagiellonian University that will operate at UB under the aegis of the Polish Ministry of National Education.

It will serve the academic communities of both countries as an information clearinghouse for those interested in pursuing studies related to Poland, its culture and language.

Through an extensive hyper-linked Web site, the center also will provide on-line listings and databases that pertain to resources, events and opportunities of interest to those interested in Poland and in America's Polonia (i.e., Polish-American community). The Web site may be accessed after April 12 at http://wings.buffalo.edu/info-poland/

The April conference will include presentations by distinguished Polish and Polish-American scholars, a reading of work written by Poland's 1996 Nobel Laureate Wislawa Szymborska, an exhibition of Szymborska's manuscripts and memorabilia, an archival exhibit about UB and Poland, and a concert of Polish music featuring the celebrated Silesian String Quartet and the distinguished Polish pianist Janusz Olejniczak.

Featured presenters will include Leonard Polakiewicz, professor at the University of Minnesota and an expert in the status of Polish language and literary training in the U.S., and Wladyslaw Miodunka, director of the Polonia Institute at Jagiellonian University.

Registration is $80, which includes meals, concert tickets and resource materials, or $15 for conference observation only. For conference information and registration, call Tim Rutenber in the UB Office of International Education at 645-2368. For concert information, call 645-2921. To read more about the conference go to http://www.buffalo.edu/news/Latest/PolishConference_pat.html