Piotr Oczko, PhD, Associate Professor, was born in Kraków in 1973. He studied English Philology (M.A. thesis: The Representations of Faust in English Romantic Literature , 1997) and Polish Philology (MA thesis: 'Chess' by Jan Kochanowski. Between the History of Literature and the History of the Game , 2000). In 1997 he received a translation award from the Ministry of Flemish Culture in Brussels, in 2000 he was granted a scholarship by Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund and in 2006 he got a scholarship in the framework of Adam Krzyżanowski Fund. Moreover, in 2010 and 2014 he received the awards of the Rector of the Jagiellonian University.

His doctoral dissertation, a comparative study on Joost van den Vondel’s Lucifer, was defended in 2002. He has conducted research at the universities of Leiden, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Nijmegen, Antwerp, London and Berlin and was a visiting professor at Charles University in Prague in 2006. His academic interests cover above all literature and culture of the Dutch-speaking countries; old Polish, English, and German literature; tragedy and the tragic in European literature up to the seventeenth century; medieval drama; literature and the question of evil; New Historicism; national identity and stereotypes; art history: seventeenth-century genre Dutch painting, functional arts and crafts of the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, old Dutch pottery – especially tiles, emblem books; and LGBT studies.

Piotr Oczko has published ca. 100 papers and 9 books:

1. Holandia. Książka do pisania (Holland. A Book for Writing, 2019); 2. Holenderskie flizy na dawnych ziemiach polskich i ościennych (Dutch Tiles in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Neighbouring Lands), vol. I: Umywalnia na Zamku Wysokim w Malborku. Jej historia i wystrój (The Lavabo at the High Castle in Malbork: Its History and Design, together with Jan Pluis, 2018); 3. Holenderskie flizy na dawnych ziemiach polskich i ościennych (Dutch Tiles in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Neighbouring Lands), vol. II: Mody i wnętrza (Fashions and Interiors, 2018); 4. Gabinet Farfurowy w Pałacu w Wilanowie. Studium historyczno-ikonograficzne (The Faience Room in Wilanów Palace. A Study in Its History and Iconography – together with Jan Pluis, 2013); 5. Miotła i krzyż. Kultura sprzątania w dawnej Holandii, albo historia pewnej obsesji (A Broom and a Cross. The Culture of Cleanliness in Holland, or the History of an Obsession, 2013); 6. Homoseksualność staropolska (Old Polish Homosexuality – together with Tomasz Nastulczyk, 2012); 7. Życie i śmierć doktora Fausta, złego czarnoksiężnika, w literaturze angielskiej od wieku XVI po romantyzm (The Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, the Wicked Sorcerer, in English Literature from the Sixteenth Century to Romanticism, 2010); 8. W najdroższej Holandyjej… Szkice o siedemnastowiecznym dramacie i kulturze niderlandzkiej (In Holland Dearest… Essays on the Seventeenth-Century Dutch Drama and Culture, 2009); 9. Mit Lucyfera. Literackie dzieje Upadłego Anioła od starożytności po wiek XVII (The Myth of Lucifer: The Literary Representations of the Fallen Angel from the Antiquity to the Seventeenth Century, 2005).

Moreover, he was the editor and co-author of:

1. I See Wide Rivers… From the History of Old Dutch Literature (together with Jerzy Koch, 2018); 2. I See Wide Rivers… From the History of Dutch Literature of the 19th and 20th Century (together with Jerzy Koch, 2018); 3. Wspomnienia polskiego wygnańca/ The Remembrances of a Polish Exile (together with Jarosław Ławski, 2013); 4. CAMPania – zjawisko campu we współczesnej kulturze (CAMPaign – Camp in Modern Culture, 2008); 5. Słownik Sarmatyzmu. Idee, pojęcia, symbole (The Dictionary of Sarmatism: Ideas, Terms, Symbols, 2001).

Professor Piotr Oczko is the author of many papers on the history of Dutch and Polish literature and art, and a translator from English, German and Dutch into Polish (e.g. Mariken van Nieumeghen , 1998; Joost van den Vondel, Lucifer , 2002; B. Jezernik, Wilde Europe. The Balkans in the Gaze of Western Travellers , 2007; J. Huizinga, Dutch Civilisation in the 17th Century and Other Essays , 2008; F. Westerman, Ararat , 2009, Notes amsterdamski – Amsterdam Notebook , 2016).

He is a member of CODART, an international network for art historians and curators of art from the Low Countries.

E-mail: piotrek.oczko@uj.edu.pl