Lecturer

Polish and Irish Literature; Polish American Literature

 

Email: jmerchant@luc.edu

 

Office: Crown Center 109

Phone:  773-508-2991

 

Research Interests:

• Polish and Irish Literature
• Polish American Literature
• Literary Translation from Polish

Courses Taught:

• LITR 200 - European Masterpieces (Variable topics)
• LITR 221 - Polish Authors (Variable topics)
• LITR 280 - World Masterpieces

Loyola Service:

• Organized annual October student reading of Dziady, by Adam Mickiewicz
• Faculty reviewer and judge for the annual Undergraduate Student FORUM, a competition of papers on Central and Eastern Europe
• Coordinated visit by International Writing Program (IWP) writers to upper-level MLL language classes, 2016, 2017
• Chair, Faculty Committee Assessment Review of LITR 200-level courses, 2016
• Chair, Faculty Committee Assessment Review of UCLR 100-level courses, 2015
• Organized and presented Polish and Mexican poetry reading, 2014

Service Outside Loyola:

• Book Review: Adam Mickiewicz's Forefather's Eve, Trans. Charles S. Kraszewski, Slavic Review (Pending)

• Book Review: John Guzlowski's Echoes of Tattered Tongues, Polish American Studies Journal, Spring 2017
• Ongoing multi-year translation project, The Polish Reception of Walt Whitman (Title pending), by Marta Skwara, 2016-
• "Anthony Bukoski: An Outpost of Polishness," Polish American Historical Association Conference, Denver, CO, January 2017
• "Teaching Polish Literature in Translation to Non-Polish and Polish Heritage University Students," Polish Teachers, Students, and Parents Conference, Chicago, IL, December 2016
• Public lecture - "The Literature of the Polish American Experience," September 2013, Chopin Theatre.
• Public lecture - "Polish American Poetry: Reading Between the Lines," April 2013, Crown Center.

Education:

• Ph.D. University of Chicago, 2006
• M.A. University of Illinois-Chicago, 1997
• M.A. The Ohio State University, 1994
• B.A. University of Iowa, 1990