Zbigniew Jan Mańkowski

Zbigniew Jan Mańkowski is an active faculty member at the Department of History and Theory of Art, Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, specializing in interdisciplinary research connecting literature, art, and social life. His academic journey began at the University of Gdańsk's Faculty of Philology and History where he earned his PhD, influenced by Maria Janion's hermeneutic school through professors Małgorzata Czermińska and Kazimierz Nowosielski.

His research focuses on aesthetic reflexivity—an interdisciplinary concept examining theoretical and cognitive potential in artistic practices, particularly in Czesław Miłosz's writings. He explores creative existence philosophy through Józef Czapski's work, analyzes social dimensions of contemporary Polish prose (Anderman, Huelle, Tokarczuk), and investigates poets' engagement with visual arts (Broniewski, Różewicz, Herbert). His methodological approach combines hermeneutics with cultural anthropology, extending traditional literary studies to incorporate emotional cognition and lived experience.

His publications demonstrate consistent scholarly output from his 2005 monograph Widzieć prawdę to recent habilitation research on Miłosz. The articles reveal strong thematic continuity in examining literature-art relationships, with increasing focus on aesthetic reflexivity as an analytical framework. His work bridges theoretical literary analysis with practical applications through the Social Design Laboratory.

As an educator in integral pedagogy and coordinator of the Social Design Laboratory within ECS-ASP cooperation, he actively connects academic research with contemporary cultural understanding. His participation as an expert in the Pomerania 2030 development scenarios program demonstrates applied research engagement with regional development challenges.