Jean Castex, Prime Minister of France, has appointed Prof. Krzysztof Jarosz from the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Silesia the Chevalier of the Order of Academic Palms. This is the oldest French civil honour granted to scientists and individuals from the world of culture and education. The Insignia of the Chevalier of the Order of Academic Palms are awarded for merits in promoting French achievements in the field of intellectual, scientific and artistic activities.
Prof. Krzysztof Jarosz will be awarded with the distinction for his contribution to the development of French-Polish cooperation in the field of academic education, including teaching French and Franconian literature. The laureate of the order is a Romanist, literary scholar, author of monographic studies on André Gide, Hubert Aquin, Jean Giono and Robert Lalonde, as well as author of over 80 scientific articles, initiator and editor-in-chief of two journals – „Romanica Silesiana” (2006–2017) and „TransCanadiana” (2007–2013). He has translated approximately 20 philosophical (Sartre, Derrida, Deleuze, Bataille…) and literary works (Kokis, Devi…), some of which are considered international philosophy and arts classics. He participates in work of several scientific boards of domestic and foreign literary studies journals.
Following many years of studies on French and Quebec literature, he devoted himself to studying the complexities of French-speaking (and sometimes also creolophonic) literature of Mauritius. He has written about (and translated) Mauritian poets and novelists (Alain Gordon-Gentil, Ananda Devi). He currently supervises the “Frankofonia literaria” publishing series, published jointly by University of Silesia Press and Wydawnictwo w Podwórku from Gdańsk, which was established to promote the outstanding contemporary literary works that originated in the French-speaking world. So far, critical editions of works by Ananda Devi, honorary doctor of our University, have been published in this series. Critical editions of novels by Mauritian writer Amal Sewtohul and authors from Quebec, Monique LaRue and Robert Lalonde, will be published soon.
Due to the pandemic restrictions, the distinction will be awarded at a later date.
