George Zbigniew Gasyna

George Zbigniew Gasyna serves as Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Comparative & World Literature at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, with additional professorial appointments in Slavic Languages and Literatures, the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory, and the Program in Jewish Culture and Society. He will assume the role of Interim Head for Fall 2025.

His educational foundation includes a PhD from the University of Toronto and MA/BA degrees from McGill University, establishing his expertise in Central and Eastern European literary traditions.

Professor Gasyna's research centers on Modern Polish literature through critical theoretical frameworks, specializing in Joseph Conrad and Witold Gombrowicz scholarship. His work explores emigration narratives, exile discourse, travel writing, and Polish-Jewish relations, consistently examining transnational identities and cultural memory within 20th-century literary contexts. This interdisciplinary approach bridges literary analysis with postcolonial and memory studies.

Analysis of his 15 most recent publications reveals persistent engagement with Polish literary figures in global contexts, emphasizing exile experiences, modernist aesthetics, and avant-garde experimentation. Thematic threads demonstrate methodological consistency in analyzing displacement, national identity construction, and the politics of cultural memory across Central and Eastern European literature.

His scholarly recognition includes:

• Conrad Humanities Scholar (2020-25)
• HRI Faculty Fellowship (2017-18)

These honors reflect significant contributions to Conrad studies and humanities research.

No information regarding graduate student advising or external research grants was provided in available materials.