In 2020, the AMU Faculty of English signed an exchange agreement with the Faculty of Humanities of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (UC Chile) in Santiago - one of the leading universities in the Latin American and Caribbean region, as confirmed by the QS World University Rankings 2025 [external link to English content].
In June 2025, the Faculty of English was honoured to welcome Prof Francisco Orellana [external link to content in Spanish], Vice Dean for Student Affairs at the Faculty of Humanities at UC Chile, who visited the AMU Faculty of English for the second time to clarify the principles of academic cooperation and student exchange between Poznań and Santiago. His first arrival happened in March 2024. Prof. Orellana, a specialist in phonetics, taught classes and was hosted by Prof. Magdalena Wrembel from the Department of Contemporary English Language. During his second visit to the WA, Prof Orellana was hosted by Prof Jacek Fabiszak from the Department of Studies in Culture and engaged in a variety of highly productive meetings with the faculty authorities, including reviewing the development of interdepartmental academic cooperation with the Vice-Dean for Cooperation and Development Dr Katarzyna Jankowiak and reviewing current student issues with Vice-Dean for Student Affairs Dr Katarzyna Remiszewska. Professor Orellana attended a strategy meeting with Dr. Katarzyna Turska, the Head of the AMU Foreign Language Teaching Centre, and Karolina Żok-Plackowska, a Spanish language teacher at the Faculty of English. Additionally, Professor Orellana held consultations with several colleagues in the Faculty, and it turns out he has already established many connections there.
Below is a summary of the Poznań-Santiago academic exchange from 2020 to 2025.
In November 2018, Dr Urszula Kizelbach visited UC Chile at the invitation of Dr Eric Rundquist, where she gave lectures on stylistics and literature as part of the academic series Dentro de la mente de los personajes ficticios: El lenguaje de la conciencia en la ficción (In the mind of fictional characters: The language of consciousness in literature). In January 2022, Dr Eric Rundquist, considering that he would be, by then, a member of Erasmus+, conducted stylistics with 3rd year undergraduate students and gave a lecture entitled: “Mimesis of Mind: Stylistics and Stream of Consciousness Narration”. Dr. Rundquist's visit played a significant role in promoting interdisciplinary courses in stylistics at the Faculty of English. The initial stages of the collaboration were detailed in the Poetics and Linguistics Association newsletter, PARLANCE 2021, on pages 8-9 (PARLANCE 2021, Issue 1) [external link to PDF]. Further information can be found in PARLANCE 2023, on pages 15-17 (PARLANCE Spring 2023) [external link to PDF].
That same year, as part of the ERASMUS+ student exchange in the summer semester, a student from UC Chile, Javiera Isidora Castro Acevedo, the best candidate selected through a competition at UC Chile, came to Poznan and attended classes in stylistics and literature at the Faculty of English. Javiera also gave a lecture entitled: “Digging up my roots: Chilean tradition, history and folklore” at the Culture Vultures study circle. In May/June 2022. UC Chile was visited by Dr Tomasz Skirecki, a specialist in American culture, who conducted a series of cultural workshops and lectures, including a lecture entitled: “Grant Wood's American Gothic (1930) as an icon of American popular culture” or a workshop entitled: “Native American lexical borrowings in American English as reflections of cultural contact and misunderstandings”.
Dr Elżbieta Wilczyńska from the Department of Studies in Culture travelled to UC Chile in October 2023. During her visit, she presented a lecture and conducted a series of classes focused on US culture, as well as comparing teaching methods in Polish and Chilean universities. A student from the Faculty of English, Michał Sobieralski (1st year MA), returned from a semester-long exchange at UC Chile in the summer semester of 2023. In 2024, UC Chile was visited by Professor Małgorzata Kul, with a series of classes and lectures on phonetics and phono stylistics. Our next student, Agnieszka Lenkiewicz (1st year undergraduate), returned from an exchange in Santiago in 2024.
Dr Marcin Turski and Dr Urszula Kizelbach travelled to Chile in June 2025. Dr Turski led translation classes and workshops on public speaking and had consultations with Prof María Angélica Kaulen, among others. Dr Kizelbach taught and consulted in literary studies with students in the courses of Prof Allison Ramay and Prof Javiera Lorenzini Raty and held meetings with Prof Orellana in the winter semester of 2025. Poznań was visited by another ERSAMUS+ scholar from Santiago, María Jesús Alejandra Hernández Hernández; the scholar's highly fruitful stay at AMU has already been described on the faculty website.
Source: AMU Faculty of English website
