Speakers

disselbeck-igrzyska-2016

Works as a economic policy advisor at the Liberal Institute of the Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit, Germany. He has studied economics and law at the University of Erfurt and graduated with a master in public policy from Victoria University Wellington, New Zealand. In his PhD he examined the European rules on public debt and the German debt brake. Previously, Fabian Disselbeck worked as a research fellow at the University of Erfurt and for Deloitte Consulting.

gradvohl-igrzyska-2016

Contemporary Central Europe is the main topic of Paul Gradvohl's historical research and publications. Among these (co-editor): Culture et identité en Europe centrale. Canons littéraires et visions de l'his­toi­re (Paris, Institut d'Études Slaves/Brno, Masaryk University, 2011) or L'Euro­pe médiane au XXe siècle : fractures, décompositions – recompositions – sur­com­po­sitions (Prague, CEFRES, 2011). Director of the Center for French Civilization and Francophone Studies at the Warsaw University (2012-2016) years, he recently came back to the Université de Lorraine. In 2013 he published, with Violaine Gelly, a biography of Charlotte Delbo (Paris, Fayard). The book was awarded the Prix de la critique by the French Pen Club (December 2013). He started working on a global approach of Central Europe (historiographical, see Revue d'études comparatives Est-Ouest, 20014/2, or centered on fears since 1918 Esprit 2016/March-April, nr 423) and is often interviewed in the media about the recent events in Central Europe (Le Monde, Radio France Internationale, France Info these last weeks).  

wojciechowicz-igrzyska-2016

Rabbi at the Center for Progressive Judaism (Reform) and Synagogue Ec Chaim. He took part in an educational program aimed at liberal rabbis to work in the countries of the former Soviet Union. He was also a supportive rabbi during the summer camps of the Netzer (Noar Cyoni Reformi) in Kiev. In the years 2007-2010, he was a rabbi at the progressive Shaarei Shalom in St. Petersburg. Since 2015, he is also the Vice-President of the Polish Council of Christians and Jews.

podolska-new-igrzyska-2016

A journalist focused on the topic of multicultural Lodz. In 2000, she started the “Colorful Tolerance” initiative. She is one of the founders of the Tolerance Institute Associoation. Since 2011, she is the Director of the Marek Edelman Dialogue Center.

ruszel-igrzyska-2016

Adiunkt w Katedrze Ekonomii Wydziału Zarządzania Politechniki Rzeszowskiej im.Ignacego Łukasiewicza. Absolwent Wydziału Studiów Międzynarodowych i Politologicznych Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego. Założyciel i ekspert Instytutu Polityki Energetycznej im. Ignacego Łukasiewicza. Ekspert ds. polityki energetycznej w Fundacji im. Kazimierza Pułaskiego oraz ekspert ds. energii i klimatu w Instytucie Kościuszki. Ekspert Laboratorium Idei - Prezydenckiego Programu Eksperckiego KPRP (2012-2013). Recenzent międzynarodowych i krajowych czasopism naukowych. Autor monografii: Bezpieczeństwo energetyczne Polski. Wymiar teoretyczny i praktyczny (2014), Polski wpływ na kształtowanie polityki energetycznej UE (2016).

frenkel-igrzyska-2016

Absolwent Wydziału Studiów Międzynarodowych i Politologicznych Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, menedżer w firmie rodzinnej. Przygotowuje doktorat na temat roli paryskiej „Kultury” w kształtowaniu polskiej polityki wschodniej. Stały współpracownik „Liberte!”.  

czachorowski-igrzyska-2016

Dziennikarz, poeta, tłumacz, wydawca. Rzecznik prasowy Muzułmańskiego Związku Religijnego w RP, Przedstawiciel MZR w RP na Dolny Śląsk. Redaktor naczelny kwartalnika „Przegląd Tatarski”, redaktor prowadzący „Rocznika Tatarów Polskich”, redaktor polskiej edycji czasopisma Tatarów litewskich „Lietuvos totoriai”. Założyciel i redaktor naczelny Inicjatywy Wydawniczej Çaxarxan Xucalıq, autor dwunastu zbiorów poetyckich oraz licznych publikacji związanych z tematyką tatarską i muzułmańską. Członek Stowarzyszenia Dziennikarzy RP.

iszkowski-igrzyska-2016

Political sociologist, member of the editorial team of Liberté!. He is an author of the book Po co nam Europa? (Why Do We Need Europe?; 2009). In the years 2012-2014 he was the Head of Plan Zmian - a think tank of Twój Ruch.

doering-igrzyska-2016

The designated representative of the Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit for Central Europe and the Baltic States in Prague. Until 2015 he was the director of the Liberales Institut (Liberty Institute), the think tank of the Foundation in Berlin. He has studied philosophy and history at Cologne University (Ph.D. in Political Philosophy in 1990) and University College London. He authored several books: Kleines Lesebuch über den Liberalismus (ed., translated into 22 languages/English translation: Readings in Liberalism, published by the Adam Smith Institute) (1992), The Political Economy of Secession (ed., with Jürgen Backhaus) (2004), Kleines Lesebuch über den Föderalismus (2005), Globalisation: Can the free market work in Africa? (2007), Traktat über Freiheit (2009), Freedom, The Rule of Law, and Market Economy (2011), Freedom – Frontier – Ford. Der amerikanische Western in der politischen Bildung (ed., with. Klaus Füßmann) (2012). He also published numerous articles in German and international academic journals and daily newspapers on economic, political and historical subjects. Member of the Mont Pelerin Society since 1996.

palmer-igrzyska-2016

A libertarian author and theorist, a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute and Vice President for International Programs at the Atlas Network. He teaches political economy and legal and constitutional history for the Institute for Humane Studies the Institute of Economic Studies Europe. He also works with such organizations as Liberty Fund, and the Council on Public Policy. Palmer has been active in the promotion of libertarian and classical liberal ideas and policies since the early 1970s. He has been editor of several publications, including Dollars & Sense (the newspaper of the National Taxpayers Union), Update, and the Humane Studies Review, and has published articles in such newspapers and magazines as the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Spectator of London, National Review, Slate, Ethics, and the Cato Journal.

olga-igrzyska-2016

Editor-in-Chief of “4liberty.eu Review” - a half-yearly magazine devoted to current European topics discussed from the CEE perspective. She is also the coordinator of the 4liberty.eu network on behalf of Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom. Since 2013, she works with Industrial Foundation - the publisher of the Liberte! magazine - based in Lodz, Poland. Apart from her professional activities, she is also currently doing her PhD in Audiovisual Translation at the University of Lodz.

lenkowski-igrzyska-2016

Political scientist, journalist, entrepreneur, activist. President of the Board of Industrial Foundation (Liberte!, 4liberty.eu, 6. Dzielnica, Freedom Games). President of the Faculty of International and Political Studies of the University of Lodz Graduates’ Association. Spokesman for the Committe for the Defence of Democracy (KOD) in Lodz. Formerly, he cooperated with Young Centre Association/Projekt: Polska.

michalski-igrzyska-2016

Professionally, an applied graphics designer and a pedagogue. Out of necessity, Coordinator of Committee for the Defence of Democracy in Lodz and the region. He actively participates in meetings, lectures and protests organized by the Committee in Poland.

celinski

Polish entrepreneur, publicist, deputy Editor-in-Chief of “Liberté!” magazine. Civic and municipial activist, former Councillor to the city of Lublin and a member of the Lubelskie voivodeship government assembly.

jazdzewski

Polish columnist and commentator, Editor-in-Chief of “Liberté!”. Expert on international relations, co-founder of a community centre 6. Dzielnica in Lodz, Poland. Columnist of such publications as Gazeta Wyborcza, Rzeczpospolita, Polityka, Wprost; commentator for TOK FM radio station and TVP television channel. Marshall Memorial Fellow. He was chosen as a leader in a project carried out by Teraz Polska magazine nominating 25 leaders for the next 25 years. He is the co-author of two books Liberal reflections on life chances and social mobility in Europe and Democracy in Europe Of the People, by the People, for the People?.

czaplinski

Polish literary critic and professor of contemporary literature at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan. He is a jury member of many important literary awards, and one of the most important Polish researchers in the field of literary sociology. He is the author of Ślady przełomu. O prozie polskiej 1976-1996 (Eng. Traces of a Breakthrough. 1976-1996 Polish Prose; 1997), Efekt bierności. Literatura w czasie normalnym (Eng. The Passivity Effect. Literature in the Normal Time; 2004), Polska do wymiany. Późna nowoczesność i nasze wielkie narracje (Eng. Revisiting Poland. Late Modernity and Our Great Narratives; 2009), and Resztki nowoczesności (Eng. Remnants of Modernity; 2011).

mirowski

Polish historian and columnist. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the Museum of Independence Traditions in Lodz where he coordinates an event series titled “Plus or Minus - Historical Confrontations”. He cooperates with Liberté! quarterly magazine and the Forum of Polish Jews. He is interested in the topics of historical memory, USSR (1917-1941), Polish People’s Republic and the relations between the Jews and Poles. His articles were published in Rzeczpospolita, Gazeta Wyborcza daily, Polityka weekly, Tygodnik Powszechny, Znak or Fronda LUX. Moreover, he coordinates the project “Warsaw of Two Uprisings” conducted in the Warsaw Rising Museum.

Baran

Polish philosopher, historian of ideas, editor. Fellow at Politische Akademie der ÖVP, University of Vienna, IWM - Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna, University of Siegen and the Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg. Her research stems from the philosophy of war, applied ethics, issues in social and political life. As a publicist, she deals mainly with the V4 states, as well as art and science. In the years 2007-2010 she held the post of the Editor-in-Chief of Res Publica Nowa magazine. Cooperates with Liberté! quarterly and Kultura Liberalna weekly. 

bendyk

Polish publicist, writer, journalist at “Polityka” magazine. He is mainly interested in topics concerning processes of modernization and postmodernization, social networks, social communication and influence of media (especially New Media) on social and political actions. Since 1999 he has been working for “Polityka”, a major Polish weekly magazine. Bendyk teaches at Warsaw School of Social Psychology and Center for Social Studies at PolishAcademy of Sciences topics concerning social networks, knowledge management and digital culture. At Collegium Civitas he has a lecture on modern ideas. He wrote two books, “Zatruta studnia” (“The Poisoned Well”, 2002), which won several prizes and was nominated to the Nike 2003 Prize, the most important Polish literary award and “Antymatrix. Czlowiek w labiryncie sieci” (“Anti-Matrix. A Man in a Labyrinth of Networks”, 2004). He is writing a blog: bendyk.blog.polityka.pl.

zurawski-vel-gajewski-igrzyska-2016

Polish researcher and an academic lecturer of the University of Łódź (history and political sciences). In 1992 employed with the Ministry of National Defense of Poland. 1995-1996 - in the Office of the Undersecretary of State, Government Plenipotentiary for European Integration and Foreign Assistance. 1996-2001 in the European Institute in Łódź. 2005–2006 – Contemporary agent of the EPP-ED - an expert on Belarus, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine in the European Parliament. 2006-2009 visiting professor of the Belarusian EHU in Vilnius. Since 2008 visiting lecturer of KSAP. 2006-2012- a researcher in the European Centre Natolin. 2012-2015 publicist of the “Gazeta Polska Codziennie”. Since 2013 an expert in Piotr Glinski team and and a member of the PiS (Law and Justice) Programming Council. Since 2015 a coordinator of the Security and Defense Section in the National Council of Development at the President of Poland and an advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland.

severa-igrzyska-2016

He has been leading the Prague office of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom since 1991. In the beginning, he was responsible for projects in the Czech and Slovak Republic, later he became the foundation’s representative for the new EU member states in Central Europe and the Baltics. He studied Business Management at the J.W. Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main. Before joining FNF, he worked for an advertising agency in Frankfurt, he later served as press officer as well as head of corporate communication in several banks and associations in Germany. Besides his engagement for FNF, he is active as PR- and communication consultant and TV producer.

wiewiorski-igrzyska-2016

Director of the Man in Danger festival and Head of the promotion and development department at the Museum of Cinematography in Lodz. A former Head of the Department of Culture by the City of Lodz Office and a journalist of Gazeta Wyborcza daily (1999-2011).

jasina

Polish historian and publicist, member of the Institute of East-Central Europe in Lublin, Poland (2004-2006). He graduated from the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin. Member of the board at Collegium Invisibile (2004-2006). He writes for “Kultura Liberalna”. Jasina also cooperates with the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. He specializes in the history of British and Soviet cinema and modern cultural processes taking place on the territory of the former Soviet Union.

augustyniak-igrzyska-2016

Polish thinker, philosopher and essayist, lecturer at the Cracow University of Economics. In the years 2011-2012, Republic of Austria fellow at the University of Vienna. Expert in German philosophy and mysticism. Author of publications on Nietzsche, Heidegger, Luther and Meister Eckhart. Translator of Theologia Germanica. Researcher of Polish identity and its aporious attitude towards modernity. Author of book Homo polacus. Eseje o polskiej duszy (Znak, 2015). Cooperates with Przegląd Polityczny magazine, his works were also published by Kronos and Znak.

stanchev-igrzyska-2016

Senior Consultant and Central Asia Regional Advisor for Pragma Corp. (www.ksbd.kz and www.bei-ca.net), Board Chairman, Founder and former Executive Director of IME (www.ime.bg) - Bulgaria's first independent and free market think thank (1993), former member and committee chair of the Constitutional Assembly (1990-1991), one of the most quoted Bulgarian observers, best country analyst award recipient for 1996 by Euromoney and a nominee for Bulgaria's Mr. Ekonomika 2004 (as well as laureate of Bulgaria Government Prize - 2002, Templeton - 2006 - as IME Director, and GV Fund for Contribution to the Spirit of Liberty - 2006). He was a principle drafter of a number of reforms from central planning to market economy and is one of the leaders of those reforms.  

tochman-igrzyska-2016

Polish reporter and writer, one of the most widely translated Polish authors of non fiction. His reportages have been published in English, French, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Finnish, Russian, Ukrainian, Czech, Slovak, Romanian, Bulgarian and Bosnian. With Like Eating a Stone, Tochman was a finalist for the Nike Literary Prize and for the Prix Témoin du Monde, awarded by Radio France International. He runs the Polish Reportage Institute with Paweł Goźliński and Mariusz Szczygieł.

freytag-igrzyska-2016

Project Director Russia and Central Asia and Head of Moscow office of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF). Since 2016 he is deputy chairman of the board of trustees of the Boris Nemtsov Foundation for Freedom. He works on better dialogue with Russia, while advocating individual dignity, freedom and responsibility. Since 2012 he has launched new programmes on bilateral dialogue (Genscher Talks), market economy (Gaidar-Naumann Forum), civic and human rights (Gerhart-Baum lectures), promoting entrepreneurship (FuckUp Nights Moscow) and a Summer-School to support the projects of young change agents. From 2010 to 2012 he co-founded and coordinated a dialogue forum in Brussels within the German Free Democratic Party (FDP), while working as political consultant in PA Consultancy g+ Europe (2008-2012). From 2006 to 2008 he worked as European Government Advisor for BP Europe, after having advised a Member of the European Parliament (ALDE-Group) and after research at the Centre of European Policy Studies on EU-Russia relations. Having studied in St. Petersburg, Munich and Brussels he holds an MA in Political Strategy and Communications from the University of Kent and is an officer of the reserve of German tank reconnaissance.

dudek-igrzyska-2016

Polish journalist, reporter and writer. The author of the recently published book about the lives of Muslim women in Poland titled Poddaję się. She graduated from Collegium Civitas in Warsaw in the fields of jorunalism and political science. For many years she was a contributor to such Polish magazines as Polska The Times, Elle, Przekrój and Polish edition of National Geographic Traveller.

hafez-igrzyska-2016

A researcher at the Department of Political Science at the University of Salzburg. He has been teaching at the University of Klagenfurt and the Muslim Teachers Training College University in Vienna. He has been a Visiting Lecturer at Istanbul University and Osmangazi University and a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University in New York City. He is the editor of the German Jahrbuch für Islamophobieforschung (Islamophobia Studies Yearbook, www.jahrbuch-islamophobie.de). In 2009, Dr. Hafez was awarded with the Bruno-Kreisky-Award for the political book of the Year 2009 for his anthologoy Islamophobie in Österreich (Islamophobia in Austria) that he co-edited with Prof. John Bunzl. His last publications include a biography on the former president of the Islamic Council of Austria, Anas Schakfeh (Braumüller Verlag, 2012), From the Far Right to the Mainstream: Islamophobia, Party Politics and the Media (Campus Verlag, 2012), together with Humayun Ansari, and an introduction to the history of Islamic Political Thought, Islamische Politische Denker (Peter Lang Academic Publishers, 2014).

gorak-sosnowska-igrzyska-2016

Assistant Professor at the Department of Economic Sociology and a Vice-Dean for master’s studies at the Warsaw School of Economics. She is also an Assistant Professor at the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, University of Warsaw. Her research interests include: Islamic popular culture and Islam in Poland and wider Europe. She is the editor of a publication Muslims in Poland and Eastern Europe (University of Warsaw Press) released in 2011.

gole-igrzyska-2016

A prominent Turkish sociologist and a leading authority on the political movement of today's educated, urbanized, religious Muslim women. From 1986 to 2001 a professor at the Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, she is currently Directrice d'études at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), Centre d’Analyse et d’Intervention Sociologiques (CADIS), in Paris. Göle is the author of Interpénétrations: L’Islam et l’Europe and The Forbidden Modern: Civilization and Veiling. Through personal interviews, Göle has developed detailed case studies of young Turkish women who are turning to the tenets of fundamental Islamic gender codes. Her sociological approach has also produced a broader critique of Eurocentrism with regard to emerging Islamic identities at the close of the twentieth century. She has explored the specific topic of covering, as well as the complexities of living in a multicultural world.

morozov-igrzyska-2016

Russian journalist, blogger, the founder of Moscow Immanuel Kant's blogger club (2009-2011),  editor-in-chief of the Russian magazine (2011-2015) (online media), visiting lecturer at the Ruhr University (2014-2015). In 2008-2014 columnist in Slon.ru, Colta.ru, Forbes.ru and others.

barakzai-igrzyska-2016

Afghan politician, journalist and a prominent Muslim feminist. Barakzai was appointed a member of the 2003 loya jirga, a body of representatives from all over Afghanistan that was nominated to discuss and pass the new constitution after the fall of the Taliban. In the October 2004 elections she was elected as a member of the House of the People or Wolesi Jirga, the lower house of the National Assembly of Afghanistan. She is one of 71 women out of 249 MPs.She is one of only a handful of female MPs who speak up for women's rights, and faces death threats for her views. In November 2014 she was injured in a suicide attack on a convoy in which she was travelling in Kabul. The attack killed three people and injured 17.

krulis-igrzyska-2016

A Research Fellow at Association for International Affairs Research Center (AMO) in the area of the Internal Market of the EU. The AMO is a preeminent independent think-tank in the Czech Republic in the field of foreign policy.

laszek-igrzyska-2016

Vice President and Economist at the Civil Development Forum (FOR Foundation) in Warsaw, Poland. Graduated from Warsaw School of Economics, exchange student at Stockholm University. Currently PhD Candidate at Warsaw School of Economics, thesis “Long-term impact of banking crises on economic growth”. Researcher at Civil Development Forum, main areas: institutions and long-term economic growth, economic reform, public finance.

tatala-igrzyska-2016

Vice President and Economist at the Civil Development Forum (FOR Foundation) in Warsaw, Poland. He received his BSc in economics and politics from the University of Bristol in England and MA in economics from the Warsaw School of Economics in Poland, where he is currently a PhD student. In 2013, he completed the Winter School in Public Policy Research Methods in India and the Think Tank MBA program organized by Atlas Network. He is a graduate of the Atlas Leadership Academy.

hajba-igrzyska-2016

Vice President of the Free Market Foundation in Hungary. He is also the co-founder of the Hungarian libertarian youth group, Eötvös Club and a vice president of Civic Platform – a Hungarian organization which promotes democratic values.

palling-igrzyska-2016

Estonian politician, representing the Reform Party. Palling was first elected to the Riigikogu in 2007 with 714 votes. In 2015 parliamentary election, Palling got elected for his third term with 1,917 votes. In Riigikogu he became the Chairman of the Parliament's European Union Affairs Committee. In May 2015, was elected to the executive board of the Estonian Reform Party.

zabuzhko-igrzyska-2016

Ukrainian novelist, poet, essayist, and public intellectual. Her works has been translated into multiple languages. As a trained philosopher and cultural critic, Zabuzhko publishes essays and non-fiction works. Zabuzhko also turns to the Ukrainian history. Her most recent novel, The Museum of Abandoned Secrets (2009), deals with three different epochs (World War II, 1970s, and early 2000s), and, in particular, the topic of Ukrainian Insurgent Army, active in Ukraine in the 1940s and 1950s, and either demonized or silenced by the Soviet historiography. Oksana Zabuzhko’s most famous non-fiction book is Notre Dame d’Ukraine. It focuses on the Ukrainian writer of the fin-de-siècle era, Lesya Ukrayinka (1871-1913), but is also a study of the Ukrainian intelligentsia of that time and their cultural values. More specifically, in this groundbreaking volume Zabuzhko shows Ukraine’s European legacy in regard to the tradition of chivalry and the ways in which it shaped the Ukrainian literature and mentality. Her book Let My People Go won the Korrespondent magazine Best Ukrainian documentary book award in June 2006, The Museum of Abandoned Secrets — Best Ukrainian Book — 2010.

bator_v2-igrzyska-2016

Polish writer. Academically, a philosopher and Cultural Studies specialist. She devoted herself to literature after having previously worked at the universities in London, New York and Tokio. She was a freelance contributor to Gazeta Wyborcza daily. She is the author of several novels: Piaskowa Góra (2009), Chmurdalia (2011), Ciemno, prawie noc (2013) and a forthcoming Rok Królika (2016), as well as numerous essays and reports. Her works have been translated into German, French, Hibrew, Ukrainian, Macedonian, Slovene, Czech and Hungarian. She was awarded numerous prizes for her work, eg. Nike Literary Prize or Swiss Spycher Literaturepreis. In 2014, she was a Visiting Professor in the field of world literature at the University in Brno. In the years 2015-2016, she lived in Berlin as an  Artist-in-Residence of the German DAAD foundation.

stasiuk-igrzyska-2016

One of the most successful and internationally acclaimed contemporary Polish writers, journalists and literary critics. He is best known for his travel literature and essays that describe the reality of Eastern Europe and its relationship with the West. After being dismissed from secondary school, Stasiuk dropped out also from a vocational school and drifted aimlessly, became active in the Polish pacifist movement and spent one and a half years in prison for deserting the army - as legend has it, in a tank. His experiences in prison provided him with the material for the stories in his literary debut in 1992. Entitled Mury Hebronu ("The Walls of Hebron"), it instantly established him as a premier literary talent. After a collection of "Love and non-love poems" (Wiersze miłosne i nie, 1994), Stasiuk's bestselling first full-length novel Biały kruk (English translation as White Raven in 2000) appeared in 1995 and consolidated his position among the most successful authors in post-communist Poland. Together with his wife, he also runs his own tiny but, by now, prestigious publishing business Wydawnictwo Czarne, named after its seat.

kijowski-igrzyska-2016

Polish social activist, IT specialist, journalist, and blogger. He studied mathematics, family sciences and journalism. Leader and founder of KOD (the Committee for the Defense of Democracy, Polish: Komitet Obrony Demokracji), as the results of the Polish constitutional crisis, at the end of November 2015. In December 2015 Mateusz Kijowski was awarded the "Freedom Prize" by Towarzystwo Dziennikarskie (Journalists Association) in recognition of his civic activities, in particular for the swift organization of peaceful protests in defense of democracy and civil rights in Poland.

hausner-igrzyska-2016

Polish politician and economist, former MP, minister in the cabinets of Leszek Miller and Marek Belka, member of the Monetary Policy Council. From 1994 to 1996 he served as Director-General of the Prime Minister's Office. He coordinated preparatory work for, and worked to implement, the "Strategy for Poland" - at the time the key government program of economic and social development of the country. In February 1997, in the Government of Prime Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, he was appointed Undersecretary of State at the Prime Minister's Chancery and Government's Commissioner for Social Security Reform. He served as: Former Minister of Labour and Social Policy (2001–2003), Minister of State Treasury (2004), Minister of Health (2004), Minister of Economy (2003–2005), Deputy Prime Minister (2004).He is also Professor of University of Economics at Kraków. In his research, he is interested in the interaction of economy and politics (political economy, public economy and public administration.) He has authored 231 publications, 48 books, 58 journal articles, and 38 chapters in books. He holds membership in the Polish Economic Association, the Scientific Association of Organization and Management, and the European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy.

tikhomirova-2016

For the previous six  years worked with Boris Nemtsov, first as a press-secretary of Solidarity movement (2009-2012)  and then as an executive director of PARNAS party (2012-2015). Took part in preparing Nemtsov's independent research report on corruption in Russia, Sochi Olympics, and the last one «Putin.War»  which he planned to publish and which was finished by his colleagues. Took part in organizing mass protest rally in 2011-2011 and afterwards protests for supporting political prisoners. In September 2015 was forced to leave Russia. Since then lives in Germany, since January 2016 – the director of Boris Nemtsov Foundation for Freedom which was established in Bonn in late 2015 by the eldest daughter of Boris Nemtsov Zhanna.

kawalec-igrzyska-2016

Polish economist, former Vice-Minister of Finance. In 1989-1994, he worked for the Ministry of Finance, initially as CEO and chief economic adviser to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, and since 1991, as deputy minister. While working for the Ministry of Finance, he served an important role in preparing and implementing the stabilisation and transformation programme for Polish economy (the Balcerowicz Plan). He also led the negotiations and preparation of successive agreements with the International Monetary Fund (1990,1991, and 1993). In 1994-2002, he was Head of the Advisory Team to the Management of Bank Handlowy w Warszawie S.A., and in 1998-2002, Head of Strategy at Bank Handlowy (since 2000, as part of Citigroup). He has frequently served on the supervisory boards of companies, for example in 1990-1991, he was Member of the Supervisory Board of Stocznia Gdańska S.A. (Gdansk Shipyard). He is Member of the Corps of Candidates for Professional Members of Supervisory Boards formed by the Polish Institute of Directors. He is an Arbitrator and Mediator of the Arbitration Court at the Polish Financial Supervision Authority. CEO of Capital Strategy.

zdanowska

Before Hanna Zdanowska became the Mayor of the City of Lodz, she served six years as the Director of the Office of Lodz Chamber of Commerce and Industry. In 2006, Hanna Zdanowska became the Councilor of the Lodz City Council, and later the Vice-Mayor of Lodz in charge of education, sport and EU funds. In autumn 2007, she was elected a Member of the Polish Parliament from the Civic Platform list. She served as the Deputy Chairman of the Special Commission “Friendly State” for matters related to the reduction of bureaucracy. On December 13, 2010 Hanna Zdanowska, after the victory in the elections for the local government was sworn for the position of the Mayor of the City of Lodz. She was elected for a second term by the Lodz inhabitants already in the first round of the elections in 2014.

angana-igrzyska-2016

A feminist scholar and public intellectual, is Co-chair, Political Conflict, Gender and People's Rights Project at the Center for Race and Gender at University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Chatterji is a cultural anthropologist and focuses her work on political conflict; gender, power and violence; nationalism, minoritization and racialization; religion in the public sphere, and reparatory justice. Her scholarship bears witness to postcolonial, decolonial conditions of dispossession and agency. In Kashmir, Chatterji co-founded (2008), and was co-convener of (2008-2012), the People's Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice. In 2005, Chatterji founded the People's Tribunal on Religious Freedom and Human Rights in Odisha. In 2004, Chatterji served on a two-person independent commission on displacement and rehabilitation in the Narmada Valley. Chatterji's publications include:Violent Gods: Hindu Nationalism in India's Present; Narratives from Orissa (2009); Land and Justice: The Struggle for Cultural Survival (forthcoming); co-contributed monograph for which she is lead editor: Conflicted Democracies and Gendered Violence: The Right to Heal; Internal Conflict and Social Upheaval in India (2016); co-edited volume: Contesting Nation: Gendered Violence in South Asia; Notes on the Postcolonial Present (2012); co-contributed anthology: Kashmir (2011); and reports for which she is lead author: BURIED EVIDENCE: Unknown, Unmarked, and Mass Graves in Kashmir (2009), Communalism in Orissa (2006), and Without Land or Livelihood (2004).

fassin-igrzyska-16

Fassin taught in the United States from 1989 to 1994, at Brandeis University and NYU. From 1994 to 2012, he was an agrégé professor of sociology in the Department of Social Sciences at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. Fassin currently serves as a professor of sociology at the University of Paris 8 St-Denis. He is also a researcher at Institut de Recherche Interdisciplinaire Sur Les Enjeux Sociaux. He also served as a contributing editor of Public Culture, a scholarly journal published by Duke University Press. Fassin's research focuses on contemporary sexual and racial politics in France and the United States and their intersections (in particular, concerning immigration issues in Europe) in a comparative perspective. He is author of L'inversion de la question homosexuelle (2005), Droit conjugal et unions de même sexe: mariage, partenariat et concubinage dans neuf pays européens (with Kees Waaldijk, 2008) and Le sexe politique. Genre et sexualité au miroir transatlantique (2009).

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Polish Lutheran bishop of the Evangelical-Augsbourg Church in Poland. For many years he was a member of the Synod of Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Poland and eventually, in the years 2007-2009 was appointed the president of the Synod - the most important body of the Church.

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Polish mufti of the Muslim Religious Association. He is an ethnic Lipka Tatar. He is also the imam of Białystok. He was appointed mufti on the 20 March 2004 during the XV Congress of the Muslim Religious Association. He has a degree in Shari'a law at a university in Saudi Arabia. He is one of the representatives of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth. He also runs a foundation, the aim of which is to build a complex of mosques and trade buildings. He develops agrotourism in the regions of old Tartar mosques. Miskiewicz, mainly for his work with the young Muslims, has received the Cross of Merit.

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Eldest daughter of Boris Nemtsov, a Russian statesman and oppostion leader who was killed on February, 27 2015 in front of the Kremlin walls. Born in March, 1984 in Nizhny Novgorod. Economist by training, started her career in an asset management company. In 2011, she joined RBC Television, a Russian privately owned TV channel with main focus on financial markets and world economy. There she was a market commentator, then a host of her own show "Nemtsova.view". In May 2015, Nemtsova left Russia for Germany and joined Deutsche Welle in August, 2015. At Deutsche Welle she hosts her own show "Nemtsova.Interview". In 2015, she founded Boris Nemtsov Foundation for Freedom in Germany. On June 12, the foundation for the first time named a laureate of Boris Nemtsov Prize. In 2016, the Award went to Russian politician and journlasit Lev Schlossbeg (more info on the website: nemtsovfund.org). The prize is created to pay tribute to Boris Nemtsov's bravery and his political legacy and is awarded annually to a person who shows exceptional courage in fighting for democratic rights in Russia. In October 9-10, the foundation hosts Boris Nemtsov Forum in cooperation with Friedrich-Naumann Foundation.

Marek Marian Belka

Polish professor of Economics, a former Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Poland, former Director of the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) European Department and current Head of Narodowy Bank Polski (National Bank of Poland). From 2006 to 2008, he was Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Europe(ECE). On 27 December 2005, he was appointed by the Secretary-General as the new Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). Marek Belka is an Honorary Member of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation. In October 2013 he was elected into the Polish Economy Hall of Fame.

Marek Safjan

Polski prawnik, sędzia, specjalista w zakresie prawa cywilnego, profesor nauk prawnych, nauczyciel akademicki Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, w latach 1998–2006 prezes Trybunału Konstytucyjnego, od 2009 sędzia Trybunału Sprawiedliwości Unii Europejskiej. Od 2000 Wielki Oficer Orderu Zasługi Republiki Włoskiej. W 2010 odznaczony Krzyżem Komandorskim Orderu Odrodzenia Polski.W 2004 otrzymał Nagrodę im. Księdza Idziego Radziszewskiego Towarzystwa Naukowego KUL. W 2006 został laureatem Nagrody Kisiela, a w 2007 uhonorowany w Strasburgu Medalem Pro merito za działalność jako prezesa Trybunału Konstytucyjnego i zaangażowania w prace i działalność europejskich instytucji badawczych i akademickich.