Luke Darby Bartosik

Founder of the Center For American Studies, CEO

Lawyer and philosopher. Graduate of the LL.M. in American Law program organized by The Catholic University of America  Columbus School of Law (Washington, D.C.). Fellow of the American Institute on Political and Economic Systems organized by The Fund for American Studies and Charles University in Prague (2017), the Hayek Summer Workshop organized by the Institute For Economic Policy at the Leipzig University (2018), and the Institute For Leadership in the Americas at the University of the Andes in Santiago, Chile (2019). Member of the advisory committee of the Journal of Liberty and International Affairs and former translator for the TransLegal World Law Dictionary. He gained international experience working for an American law firm (Kurczaba & Associates, Attorneys at Law in Chicago) and the federal court in the capital of the United States (Superior Court of the District of Columbia). His academic pursuits are centered around legal and political theory and philosophy, history of economic thought, and constitutionalism. Great fan of old American music, antiques, and cats.

Michał Urbańczyk

CFAS Professor, Director of Academic Affairs

Habilitated Doctor of Laws and assistant professor at the Department of Legal and Political Thought at the Faculty of Law and Administration at the University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznan. An expert in the field of freedom of speech and its boundaries (including hate speech), specializing in the study of American political and legal thought. Author of the monograph „Liberal Doctrine of Freedom of Speech and the Freedom of Historical Expression” (which is his Ph.D. dissertation), “The Idea of Dignity in the Jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of the United States”, and dozens of academic articles, book chapters, expert opinions, and popular-science papers. Speaker at a multitude of nationwide and international academic conferences (Vilnius, Prague, Warsaw, Poznan). Participant of the international project EUROPEAN WISE – Europe After the WWII – Multidimensional Effects of Integration as a Guarantee for State and Human Security. Expert for the “Society for Tolerance” project conducted by the Polish Association Against Anti-Semitism and Xenophobia (Otwarta Rzeczpospolita). Counselor of the American Law Society – one of the most active student organizations in Poznań. Chairman of the organizing committee of the first and second international conference „In search of the European doctrine of freedom of speech” (2016 and 2017), which gathered scholars from Italy, France, Finland, the United States, Great Britain, Netherlands, Hungary, Cyprus, Egypt, Ukraine, Lithuania, and Poland (including Justices of the Supreme Court and the Supreme Administrative Court of Poland).

Leah Wortham

CFAS Professor of Law

Professor Leah Wortham graduated summa cum laude and with membership in Phi Beta Kappa from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota and received her J.D. degree from Harvard Law School. She has taught the required legal ethics course at the Columbus School of Law of The Catholic University of America (CUA) in Washington, D.C. since 1983. Professor Wortham has worked extensively with the D.C. Bar in a number of capacities regarding legal ethics and the regulation of the legal profession. She served on the D.C. Bar Rules of Professional Conduct Review Committee from 2000-2006 (Chair 2004-2006, Vice-Chair 2001-2004). She serves as the CUA director of the American Law certificate program offered at Jagiellonian University and an LL.M. program offered in cooperation with Jagiellonian. In 1996, she commenced working with Jagiellonian University in their establishment of the first successful clinical program in Central Europe. In June 2008, she received the Zasluzony dla UJ, a medal awarded by the JU Faculty Senate upon recommendation of the University Rector to honor people whose services are deemed to be of extreme merit to Jagiellonian University.

Susanna Frederick Fischer

CFAS Professor of Law 

Lawyer and historian. A New York attorney and an English barrister. Her primary areas of practice and her main research interests are copyright law, art law, media law, cyberlaw, and constitutional law, from a comparative law perspective. Professor Fischer received her legal education at Merton College, University of Oxford, where she received a B.A. in jurisprudence, and the University of Virginia School of Law, where she was awarded the LL.M. degree. She also studied at Princeton University, where she earned an A.B. in history, magna cum laude. She practiced for five years as a barrister in London, England, at 5 Raymond Buildings (currently headed by Desmond Browne QC and Matthew Nicklin QC). She represented clients before all levels of English courts and tribunals, including the House of Lords. In London, she also worked part-time as a Night Lawyer providing pre-publication legal advice for News International plc, the publishers of The Times, The Sunday Times, and the Sun. She also taught Contracts at London Guildhall University. She later spent three years practicing intellectual property law as an associate at two New York City law firms, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom LLP and Paul, Hastings, Janofsky and Walker LLP. She teaches or has taught copyright law, art law, entertainment law, introduction to intellectual property law, international intellectual property law, constitutional law, comparative law, comparative constitutional law, and civil procedure. 

Karl-Friedrich Israel

CFAS Professor of Economics

Dr. Karl-Friedrich Israel is a senior researcher at the Institute for Economic Policy at Leipzig University in Germany. He obtained his doctorate degree in economics from the University of Angers in France in 2017 working on the costs and benefits of central banking. He holds a MSc in Applied Statistics from Oxford University, UK, a MSc in Applied Mathematics from ENSAE ParisTech, France, as well as a BSc and MSc in Economics from Humboldt- University of Berlin, Germany. He is an organizing member of the Austrian Economics Meeting Europe and is a Mises Institute Research Fellow. In his career, he worked as a lecturer at the Department of Law and Economics in Angers from 2016 to 2018. He is an author of numerous book reviews, translations, book chapters, and articles in prestigious academic journals. His broader research interests lie in the areas of macroeconomics, the history of economic thought, economic methodology, econometrics and Austrian economics.

David Jones

CFAS Professor of International Relations and Political Science

Professor David A. Jones received his Ph.D. from State University of New York in public management and his Habilitacja from University of Warsaw in political science. He has served on the faculty of American Studies Center, Institute of The Americas and Europe, University of Warsaw since 2005, where also he taught at the Institute of International Relations (2006-2016) and has taught International Management I and II since 2008 at the Faculty of Management. He is a senior graduate lecturer at Norwich University, the Military Academy of the State of Vermont, where he has taught Global Corporate Diplomacy and Intercultural Communication in the International Environment since 2006, receiving its Outstanding Faculty Award in 2018. Also, he received a University of Warsaw Rector’s Award in 2017 for his book, Four Eagles and a Dragon: Successes and Failures of Quixotic Encirclement Strategy in International Relations, An Analysis (London: Bloomsbury, Plc.).

Arkady Wenerski

CFAS Legal Advisor

Lawyer. Legal trainee (aplikant radcowski). Co-founder of the Society of Economic Law “Liberalization-Privatization-Deregulation” and a member of the American Law Society. Organizer and speaker at national conferences as well as seminars. A volunteer at the AMU University Legal Clinic as well as an activist for various foundations and non-governmental organizations. Participant of various courses, training programs and summer schools in the field of law. His interests and area of ​​professional expertise is related to public procurement law and contract law. Enthusiast of travel, literature and sport, and – since childhood – a supporter of Real Madrid.

Katarzyna Bruzanesse

Voice coach and acting instructor

She is an actor, director, teacher and speech therapist by education. Katarzyna Bruzanesse perfectly combines all teaching techniques during her classes. Her work includes perfecting diction, practicing voice impostation, working on the text, getting to know your personality and building character psychology, working with the word (narration, keeping attention, body language), expressing emotions as well as developing imagination – increasing concentration, self-control, self-confidence and getting rid of stage fright.

Per Bylund

CFAS Professor of Entrepreneurship & Political Scientist

Per Bylund is an Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship & Records-Johnston Professor of Free Enterprise at the School of Entrepreneurship in the Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University, and an Associate Fellow of the Ratio Institute in Stockholm. Dr. Bylund has published research in top journals in entrepreneurship, economics and management, and published two books. He has founded four business start-ups. At CFAS, he teaches a course on Business-Planning from Scratch: Entrepreneurship in Theory and Practice.

Steve Szrom

CFAS Professor of Law & Negotiation Instructor

Steve Szrom is a graduate of the Harvard Law School. He has previously taught at the Harvard Law Negotiation Workshop, including an iteration conducted through video conferences. A former U.S. Army infantry officer, he has practical and academic experience in cross-cultural negotiations and collaborative leadership. At CFAS, he teaches a course on The Fundamentals of Negotiation Methods and Techniques. This course is focused on applying the fundamentals of interest-based negotiation in an international and domestic law & business context.

Patrick Higgins

CFAS Professor & Language Instructor (English)

Patrick Higgins received a Bachelor of Art in Economics and a Bachelor of Science in Sociology from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in 2010, a Master of Arts in Sociology from George Mason University in 2013, and a Master of Arts in Economics from George Mason University in 2017. Currently, Patrick Higgins is a PhD candidate at the University of Łódź, Faculty of Law and Administration, and also a member of the Alexis de Tocqueville Center for Political and Legal Thought. His interests are in the Austrian school of economics, new economic sociology, constitutional political economy, and the history of ideas. J. Patrick Higgins is the author of many scholarly works. He also owes his many years of experience to the work on the editing of English-language books, commentaries and articles in law, economics and sociology. As a teacher, he also teaches English, including legal English, and conducts specialist courses (legal drafting, business English, academic English, and others).

Camilla Higgins

CFAS Language Instructor (English)

Camilla Higgins is a professional language instructor. Having studied Latin, German, Korean, and Polish, she understands the struggle and needs of students who learn English as their second language. Camilla has many years of teaching experience both online and in person; this allows her to work for companies and individual clients alike as an ESL instructor. She likes to move past the textbook English that makes students sound stiff and formal – she often covers culture and street smarts. Her students often describe Camilla as eccentric and long winded, but this characteristic certainly adds flavor to her classes. She specializes in Business English as well as preparing students for taking exams such as FCE, CAE, TOEFL, and others. She creates a comfortable space in which the student can run dialogues in scenarios that actually pertain to the English they need in their walk of life, rather than cramming students’ brain with outdated didactics that instill the rules of the game but not the application.

Jan Biedny 

Project Manager

Philosopher. MA in Philosophy and Film studies student at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. His interests are mainly focused on contemporary film culture, especially the European artistic cinema. From a philosophical standpoint, he is fascinated by philosophy of science and epistemology, but also likes and values the skillful combination of analytical and continental traditions. The most thrilling for Jan is the combination of his two university studies and exploring all kinds of bindings between film and philosophy. Outside of the university, he likes to dig into the Internet culture and follows political and social events in Poland and around the world.

Damian Szlingiert

Director of Finance

Lawyer. Legal trainee (aplikant radcowski). He develops his skills and legal interests working for a law firm in Poznań. Scholarship holder of the Rector’s Scholarship for the Best Students of the University of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan (academic year 2015/2016). In 2017, he received a scholarship to study in Indonesia (Universitas Negeri Medan), where he expanded both his social and academic network, and learned to communicate in the Indonesian language. By co-managing the campaign of one of the committees in local elections in 2018, he gained a lot of experience in team management, cooperation with external entities, logistic and financial planning, as well as taking care of promotional and marketing affairs. A travel, strength sports, and plant lover.

Jacob Łyjak

Media & Public Relations Director 

Lawyer and economist. As part of the Erasmus program, he also studied Business Administration (Betriebswirtschaftslehre) at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität in Münster, Germany. In the 2014/2015 academic year, he was one of the people cooperating with the Parliament of the Student Government at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Adam Mickiewicz University. Co-organizer of po.MOVIE.nia – cyclical evening movie screenings at the Faculty of Law and Administration at the Adam Mickiewicz University aimed at university-wide cinematographic education. Co-founder and vice president (2015-2017) of the student academic association The American Law Society dedicated to the popularization of American culture, economics, history, law, and politics. Active participant and organizer of numerous nationwide and international conferences. Co-creator of TransLegal – World Law Dictionary for lawyers from around the world. In the years 2017- 2018, a member of the audit committee of the Polish Entrepreneurship and Leadership Society, supervising the activities of the board. His professional career has been focused on working at a law firm dealing with legal and tax services for commercial companies. Particularly interested in commercial law. His hobbies include travel, fantasy, politics, financial markets, architecture, and movies. 

Gaspar Kot

Lawyer, CFAS Consultant

Gaspar Kot, LL.M. is an attorney-at-law (radca prawny) in Poland and a Ph.D. candidate at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Faculty of Law and Administration, Chair of Economic Policy. Since 2012, he has been the Coordinator of the LL.M. Program of The Catholic University of America, Washington D.C., USA for Poland. Graduate of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University (2010) and the Catholic University of America, Washington D.C. (LL.M. 2012). His areas of interest and expertise include corporate, commercial and capital markets law. Currently in-house lawyer at UBS.

Jan Solarski

Project Manager

Law student at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and Business Finance and Accounting at the University of Economics. His interests are mainly focused on financial and civil law. He has gained experience in the field of civil law, criminal law, and financial law working for law firms in Poznan. He has received the Rector’s scholarship for the best students in 2018/2019 and 2019/2020. For two years, he has been an active member of the Civil Law “Usus Iuris” Academic Club. He is passionate about economics, politics and history. In his free time, he likes to read a good book and meet his friends.

Malwina Izydorczyk

Marketing Director

Lawyer. She is interested in commercial law and penal law, and has professional experience in criminal and civil law. Active member of the American Law Society, where she leads the marketing team. Her passions include learning foreign languages and Italian cuisine (she learned about it during an exchange program in Italy!.)

Lara Statkevych 

CFAS Language Instructor (Ukrainian & Russian)

Lara is Ukrainian by birth, so Ukrainian and Russian are her native languages. She graduated from the Pedagogical University in 1993. She has many years of experience teaching the Ukrainian language, literature, and English. After graduating from the university, she worked at the school for 6 years, and then in higher educational institutions of Ukraine and Crimea. In 2008, she successfully defended her dissertation “Forms and functions of intertextuality in the work of Thomas Stern Eliot”. She currently lives in Kyiv and works at Tavriya National University. Larissa has a lot of experience working with foreign students. Her work combines a variety of innovative teaching methods that provide the desired results (project method, interactive and communicative teaching methods). Lara loves to expand her horizons, step out of her comfort zone, challenge and become a better version of herself. 

Oleksandr Statkevych

Administracja, CFAS Language Instructor (Ukrainian & Russian)

Graduate of law and economics, currently also a student of accounting and business finance at the Poznan University of Economics and Business. Since 2017, a member of The American Law Society and since 2019 he works for the Center for American Studies. He is a native speaker of the Ukrainian language and the Russian language. He worked as a freelance translator of Polish, Russian and Ukrainian languages. He also has experience in giving private lessons of the Russian language. Enthusiast of travel, running, jazz music and dogs.

Natalia Gronowska

CFAS Language Instructor (Spanish)

Lawyer and tutor. Holder of multiple Rector’s scholarships for the best students. During her studies, she has been actively working for academic clubs (Civil Law Society, The American Law Society). A student of a Spanish bilingual class, she completed 6 years of learning this language with a very well passed matura exam in Spanish at the bilingual level, which is a state document confirming knowledge of the language at the C1 level (as after philological studies). She lived in Spain for a total of 2 years (first year studying, second year working in an architectural firm). During this time, she thoroughly learned about the culture of this country and perfected her knowledge of Spanish, as well as English. While in Spain, she pursued her passion, which is teaching languages. During classes, she always adapts to the student’s preferences, abilities and needs, making sure that the lessons are diverse and interesting. She has many interests. Her hobbies include psychology, music, sports, travel, cooking; however, her greatest love is dancing, the secrets of which she is currently exploring while studying in Łódź.

Eliza Michalska

CFAS Language Instructor (English & French)

Eliza is a tutor of English and French with five years of experience teaching all ages, from high school to adult students. She is currently in her final year of BA studies of the English Language and English Literature with French Language at the University of Łódź, specializing in translation. Additionally, she studies the French Language and French Literature at the University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznań. She has successfully completed the FCE, CAE, CPE. She has an Advanced Certificate(C1). Eliza is an International Baccalaureate diploma graduate. Her interests include everything about foreign languages as well as British and American culture. She is fond of cinema and theatre. Eliza also loves sports, having played professional volleyball for five years and relishes taking part in half-marathon competitions.

Katarzyna Gierun

CFAS Language Instructor (English)

An anglicist by education, she is very passionate about foreign languages and the way of expressing one’s own thoughts, as well as the usage of words. Although learning languages has always been her forte, it was not until entering university that she decided to make a career out of it. She began with creating translations for a popular online game in 2019, non-commercially. The decision to teach English came quite spontaneously and happened due to several requests in this regard. While teaching, she focuses on the skill of making oneself comprehensible, and yet at the same time maintaining the appropriate balance between “the flow” and accuracy. In her spare time, she reads fantasy novels, watches musicals, writes stories and… learns other languages!

Dominika Żelichowska

Marketing

Student of Psychology at the University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznań. She is interested in addiction therapy and cognitive-behavioral psychology. She is an active member of The American Law Society. Currently, she participates in two projects covered by the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality. In her free time, she roller-blades, reads crime novels, and watches movies.

Mary Hoffman

Marketing

Student of Psychology at the University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznan. She is interested in client-centered therapy, influence of broadly understood culture on human morality, and American humanistic psychology. She is also an active member of The American Law Society. Currently, she participates in two projects covered by the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality. Her free time is mostly spent on listening to alternative music and watching independent cinematography

Caroline Izydorczyk

Marketing

Student of Psychology at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan. Karolina is interested in the subject of eating disorders and psychotherapy in the neopsychoanalytical approach, which has been developed in the USA. She combines a passion for psychology and the culture of the United States. She is an active member of The American Law Society where she works for the marketing team as well as the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality. She devotes her free time to singing and playing the piano.

Agnieszka Dudek

Marketing & Administration

Philosopher and Master’s student at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan. Her practical experience is the result of coordinating many academic and non-academic projects. Over the last several years, she visited many countries including the USA, Ukraine, Spain, Germany, Ireland, and Morocco. During the summer of 2018/2019 she was a participant of the Erasmus+ Programme at the Universidade do Porto, Portugal. Agnieszka pays attention to the development of intercultural competences. She wrote a thesis in English where she deeply analyzed the so-called Analogical Paradigm. She is an active member of The American Law Society. Privately, Agnieszka is the biggest fan of Formula 1 the world has ever known and a huge Portugal lover.

Aleksandra Grabowska

Finance and Administration

Lawyer and future economist. Currently, she works at the legal department for one of the leading Polish companies in the sales market. During her studies, she was an active member of many academic clubs and participated in several academic conferences. Her management experience is the result of coordinating a few dozen workshops and training courses. She is passionate about commercial and tax law, domestic and international politics, and finance. Privately, she is a (strong!) coffee and board games aficionado. 

Savian  Boroancă Jr.

Founder of Center For American Studies Romania, Speaker

Founder of Center For American Studies Romania and former Counselor in Presidential Chancellery, Compartment of Strategy and Monitoring, Presidential Administration of Romania. At one point he has turned to be an entrepreneur. 

He has graduated from the Faculty of International Business & Economics, English-Spanish Section (Graduation Thesis: “The logic of entrepreneurship and competition in politics”) and has an MA in International Economics and European Affairs (Dissertation Thesis: “The political economy of the Republicans and Democrats in the United States of America”), with both courses finished at the Bucharest University of Economic Studies.  Alumni of Mises University, Auburn University, Alabama, United States of America, Mises Institute. He is passionate about: praxeology, entrepreneurship, politics, diplomacy, cinema and sports. 

Paul Comșa

Center For American Studies Romania Legal Advisor

Currently a Romanian attorney at law and a member of the Bucharest Bar Association. He is mainly specialised in International Commercial Law, Contracts, Private International Law, Corporate Law and Commercial Litigation and has been practicing law in Romania since 2012 gathering both extensive consultancy and litigation experience. Paul’s education is centred around law and economy. He completed his doctoral studies at the University of Bucharest, in the field of International Commercial Law with the PhD thesis called – Means of Financing, Guarantee and Payment in International Trade (2019). Paul also has a Master of Science degree in International Financial Risk Management awarded by the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies (2012) and three Bachelor degrees in Law (2012), Finance, Insurance and Banking (2012) and, respectively, Economy and International Business (2010). As an academic, Paul Comșa taught International Commercial Law, International Commercial Contracts, International Arbitration and Commercial Law at the Faculty of Law of the “Nicolae Titulescu” University from Bucharest between 2012 and 2020.  He also has experience working as a journalist and publishing economy-related articles between 2011 and 2012.  Paul Comșa is an author of books and several articles and scientific studies published in Romanian and English. He also attended numerous law conferences and seminars, mostly in the fields of commercial law and economics.

Paul is passionate about law, economics, politics, history and geography. 

Maciej Turek

CFAS Professor of American Studies & Political Science

Dr. Maciej Turek holds degrees in American Studies and political science. In 2012, he successfully defended a doctoral dissertation in political science, written under the supervision of Professor Marek Bankowicz, devoted to the issues of mechanisms of U.S. vice-presidential selection and how it affected holding of the office of American vice-presidency between 1976 and 2009. He has been a grantee of the Copernicus Society of America (Dickinson College, USA, 2008) and received research grants from the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies and the Freie Universität Berlin (2009 and 2014). He currently holds a position of Assistant Professor at the Institute of American Studies and Polish Diaspora of the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Poland. His broad academic interests encompass issues such as the American political system and its institutions, campaigns and elections in the United States, comparative electoral systems, comparative studies of local governments, as well as financing of politics and elections.

Simon Curyło

Administration

Student at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. He is also an active member of The American Law Society and the Commercial Law Student Association. Since his first year of law studies, he has been gaining work experience working for a legal counsel in Poznan. In 2018, he co-organized a national contest, IP Challenge. He is interested in civil law and legal-political doctrines. Apart from law, he is a music aficionado who plays bass guitar.