Dr. Katarzyna (Kasia) Bartoszyńska will present "Ireland Among Others” on Friday, January 31st at 3:00 PM in 424 Flanner Hall. Kasia received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Chicago in 2011. She currently teaches at Bilkent University in Turkey. Her research is centered on the development of the novel, with a particular interest in comparative or transnational approaches to literary history. Her dissertation, "Distant Realities: Fictionality in Polish and Irish Literature," used a series of close readings of Polish and Irish novels to challenge the idea that the novel's development is inherently towards realism, and that 'romantic' elements of fiction are unsophisticated remnants of an obsolete literary practice. The project also entailed a consideration of how the peripheral positions of Poland and Ireland on the European socio-political stage shaped their literary trajectories. A second project continues this research, reflecting on ways of conceptualizing the relationship between literature and history, theories of minor writing, and methodologies of comparative studies.