Speakers and guests of the Congress
Agata Araszkiewicz
PhD in the humanities, affiliated with Paris 8 University in France and Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium. Literary historian, art critic, translator and commentator on the writings of Luce Irigaray
and Paul B. Preciado; columnist for Czas Kultury, feminist activist. Co-founder of the 8 March Women’s Alliance, member of the Women’s Congress Programme Council and initiator of the Women’s Congress in Brussels. Her published monographs include Wypowiadam wam moje życie. Melancholia by Zuzanna Ginczanka (2001), Nawiedzani przez dym (2012), and La révolution oubliée. L’émergence d’une écriture féminine dans l’entre-deux-guerres polonais (2013). She edited and wrote the afterword to Zuzanna Ginczanka’s poetry collection Mądrość jak rozkosz (2017) and served as academic adviser to the exhibition at the Museum of Literature in Warsaw Zuzanna Ginczanka. Tylko szczęście jest prawdziwym życiem (2015–2016). Initiator of the Polish-diaspora feminist association Elles sans frontières in Belgium. She lives in Brussels and Paris.
Agata Kominiak
Educator, trainer and social-project manager. She leads empowerment workshops for teenage girls and involves them in civic action. Co-author of the “Girls Rule!” game and the report “Intercultural Assistants — Adaptation and Inclusion”.
Honoured in the education category of the 2024 WielkoPolka competition. A graduate in education from Adam Mickiewicz University and holder of an MBA. Board member of the Julia Woykowska Foundation and founder of the Women’s History Museum Foundation.
Paulina Kirschke
Journalist, author of the “Herstories of Poznań” podcast and contributor to Głos Wielkopolski and DYNKS magazine. Activist, president of the Julia Woykowska Foundation and co-founder of the Women’s History Museum Foundation.
Co-author of the “Girls Rule!” game and the “More Women” workshops. Author of A Subjective Guide to Women’s History in Greater Poland. Awarded a Marshal of the Voivodeship cultural scholarship (2024); graduate of the Poznań City Leaders School.
Anna Jankowiak
Archaeologist, researcher, columnist, blogger and author of numerous articles (online as @wiedzma_od_wiedzy).
Her research focuses on ancient cultures and how they are adapted in the contemporary world, particularly in Nazi propaganda.
She studies the history of witches and people practising magic, and their representation in different cultures and periods, with particular emphasis on antiquity, the early Middle Ages and early-modern witch trials.
Goddess and heroine archetypes and their modern reinterpretations are another important area of her research. Social media specialist.
Iwona Chmura-Rutkowska
Educator, sociologist and anti-discrimination trainer affiliated with the Faculty of Educational Studies at Adam Mickiewicz University. She leads, researches and advises on projects concerning the hidden functions of education, prevention of stereotype-driven violence, anti-discrimination education and women’s history.
Member of the Polish Educational Research Association, the Youth Education Team and the Critical Pedagogy Section of the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Committee on Education, the Scientific Council of AMU’s Interdisciplinary Centre for Gender and Identity Studies and the “When Science Is a Woman at AMU” team.
Educator, sociologist and anti-discrimination trainer affiliated with AMU. Leads projects on education, violence prevention and women’s history. Member of numerous academic and expert groups. Co-creator of research into equality in education and of the exhibition “Women Scientists — the First Women’s University Careers in Poznań”.
Katarzyna Milewska (Dworaczyk)
Author, trainer, mediator and vice-president of the Miejsce Ludzi Foundation. Her work concerns conflict resolution, changing beliefs and healing intergenerational trauma. She publishes on parenting, conflict, anger and trauma.
She is the author of the books „Konflikty w rodzinie”,”Minimediacje”,”Kim chciałaś być, gdy byłaś dzieckiem? Dzieckiem”, “Wszystko co jest teraz, zaczęło się tam”, and “Herstorie 1918/1919”. She is currently working on a biography of Aleksandra Banasiak, a heroine of the June 1956 Poznań protests, and on accounts of therapeutic sessions: stories showing how beliefs and inherited experiences affect our choices and shape individuals and entire societies.
Michał Bomastyk
President of the Institute for Counteracting Exclusion. Feminist and community activist. A philosopher by training and doctoral candidate at the Nicolaus Copernicus University’s Institute of Philosophy in Toruń. Completed postgraduate studies in gender studies and teacher training. His research interests centre on feminist and exclusion theories. Equality educator who has given lectures on discrimination, stereotypes, exclusion and human rights. Initiated the European Equality University project and the Equality Open Lectures series run by the Institute for Counteracting Exclusion, devoted to building an inclusive, open society. Participant in the Let’s talk about (anti)racism seminar in Bucharest. Currently completing postgraduate studies in human resources. Teaches organisations how to develop equality strategies. He also coordinates the Equality Counselling Centre at Nicolaus Copernicus University and Amnesty International’s Toruń local group. Outside work, he is a fan of television series and cats.
Alicja Długołęcka
PhD in the humanities and graduate of the University of Warsaw’s Faculty of Education. For many years she lectured on psychosomatics and sexual rehabilitation at the University of Physical Education in Warsaw. Psychotherapist working in the humanistic-experiential approach.
She has worked for many years in psychosexual education and women’s sexuality, training specialists and young people, lecturing on postgraduate courses and authoring numerous books and articles. These include a textbook on “family life education” for secondary-school pupils and the books “Edukacja seksualna”, “Jak się kochać”, “Seks na wysokich obcasach”, “Zwykła książka o tym, skąd się biorą dzieci”, the album “Wdzięczność”, “Seks trzyma nas przy życiu”, “Wstyd”, and her latest book on the sexuality of mature women, “Przypływ”. Her academic and public-education work focuses on preventing psychosexual disorders, comprehensive sexuality education and promoting sexual health. She works at the Lew-Starowicz Therapy Centre in Warsaw and in her own private practice.
Katarzyna Szkuta — feminist activist and PhD in sociology, with more than 15 years’ experience in research, European institutions, the private sector and NGOs. Former adviser on international affairs to the Belgian Secretary of State for Gender Equality,
Equal Opportunities and Diversity in the Belgian Federal Government.
Marie-Jo Bonnet
Marie-Jo Bonnet was born in Deauville, France, in 1949. She has a doctorate in history and is an art historian, writer and lecturer. In 1979, at Paris VII University, she defended the first doctoral thesis on the history of women’s love relationships, from the 16th to the 20th century
(reprinted several times by Odile Jacob and translated into Polish as Zwiazki milosne miedzy kobietami od XVI do XX wieku, with a foreword by Elisabeth Badinter, Sic!, 1997). She joined the Women’s Liberation Movement in Paris in February 1971 and co-founded the Front homosexuel d’Action Révolutionnaire and the Gouines Rouges in March 1971. In 1975 she helped found the Feminist Studies Group at Paris VII, initiated by Françoise Basch and Michelle Perrot, and later joined the group of women historians gathered around Simone de Beauvoir.
Renata Lis
Writer and author of the queer autobiography “Moja ukochana i ja” (Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków, 2023), nominated for the Nike Literary Award, the Marcin Król Award and Onet’s Olśnienia awards. Featured
(with her wife Elżbieta Czerwińska) in Piotr Jacoń’s documentary “Tego nie ma w umowie koalicyjnej”. Nominated for the Julian Tuwim Literary Award. Columnist for Polityka; also publishes in Książki. Magazyn do Czytania and Dwutygodnik.
Photo: Leszek Holf
Magdalena Baryła-Klimek
Singer (performing as Madlen), lyricist and co-author of the book “Żony (nie)idealne”.
Born in Zielona Góra in 1987 and raised in a small town nearby. In 2007 she emigrated to Germany, where she and her wife settled permanently in a small town
in North Rhine-Westphalia. She has loved music since childhood. She tells her life story not only in her book but also through music, on her album “Kobieta”, which you will hear this evening.
Katarzyna Klimek
Born in Zielona Góra in 1987. For the past ten years she and her wife have run a nursery. Since 2021 she has been happily married to Magda; alongside their deep love, music brings them together, and she manages Madlen’s career with dedication and pride.
She is passionate about music, travel and cars, and values quiet moments at home with her wife above all. Among friends she is known as a charismatic professional, perhaps because she likes to have everything under control.
As they say themselves, they make the perfect duo!
Alice Coffin
French journalist, feminist, lesbian activist and politician. Elected to the Paris Council in 2020. She is affiliated with the political party Europe Ecology – The Greens but is not a member.
In 2020 she published the book Le Génie lesbien (Lesbian Genius).
In the book, she argues that women should expel men and male culture from their lives.
FR
Alice Coffin is a Paris councillor, author of “Le Génie lesbien”, activist, trade unionist and journalist specialising in cultural and media representations of LGBT and feminist minorities. She co-founded Lesbiennes d’Intérêt Général, the first lesbian and feminist endowment fund; initiated the Association des Journalistes LGBTI and the OUT d’Or awards; belongs to the European Lesbian Conference and the feminist collective La Barbe; and teaches journalism at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.
Silvia Casalino
Silvia Casalino is an activist, university lecturer and filmmaker. She holds a master’s degree in space engineering and worked at the French space agency from 2001 to 2018. In 2011,
she directed the documentary “No Gravity”, which highlighted women’s experiences in space technology. In 2017 she also co-founded the NGO EuroCentralAsian Lesbian* Community (EL*C). During her three years as president, the organisation grew significantly and now employs ten full-time staff. Silvia is currently co-executive director of EL*C, continuing her work towards its goals.
Irmina Kotiuk
Feminist, activist, lawyer and mother of a boy. She supported strategic litigation concerning LGBT rights in Poland. She was involved in the case Formela and Others v. Poland, which concerned discrimination against a lesbian couple in various areas of life
due to the lack of legal recognition for same-sex couples. She has worked at the European Court of Human Rights and in NGOs; she now works as a lawyer for a political group in the European Parliament.
Prof. Ewa Graczyk
Feminist literary scholar and community activist, professor at the University of Gdańsk.
Author of four sole-authored books, including “Ćma. O Stanisławie Przybyszewskiej” (1994)
and “Przede wybuchem wstrząsnąć” (on Witold Gombrowicz, 2004). She is currently working on another book,
about women activists who organised social and national resistance in Polish territories after the January Uprising. She is active in women’s groups in the Tri-City area and co-founded the gender studies student society that operated at the University of Gdańsk from the early 2000s and produced
many feminist, queer and anti-discrimination activists. The UG Gender Society initiated and organised the Tri-City MANIFA demonstrations. She is a member of Tolerado, an organisation supporting LGBT people.
Jolanta Niezgodzka
She graduated in law from the University of Wrocław and in public-sector management from the University of Economics. She is also a graduate of the 29th School of Political Leaders and the Stefan Batory Foundation’s Local Government Workshop. In 2023 she was a finalist in the Open World programme funded by the US Congress.
Before becoming a member of parliament, she spent six years actively representing Wrocław residents, first on a neighbourhood council and later on the Wrocław City Council. She also serves as chair of the Old Town Neighbourhood Board (since 2017). For years she has worked with initiatives supporting women’s and minority rights, animal welfare, better foster care, climate protection and reliable, open education. Since 2019 she has been vice-president of the Lower Silesian Women’s Congress Association.
Violaine Lucas
Executive director of Choisir la Cause des Femmes. She has worked alongside Gisèle Halimi since 2003. Initiated the publication “La Clause de l’Européenne la plus favorisée” (2008). She organised a European tour of feminist associations to update the state of knowledge
about women’s rights in the European Union, resulting in the 2023 publication “Le Meilleur de l’Europe pour les femmes”. She co-organised the European Gathering of Feminist Activism in Nantes in December 2023 and is responsible for implementing the Best of Europe for Women programme.
Ana Cuesta
Lawyer specialising in European and international labour law. Secretary of Choisir la Cause des Femmes and co-author of the book Le meilleur de l’Europe pour les femmes (Éditions des femmes).
Joanna Gzyra-Iskander
Cultural studies scholar, Polish literature graduate and feminist. She has worked professionally in PR and communications for ten years, four of them in NGOs. Her activism focuses on combating gender-based violence, access to safe abortion and LGBTQ+ rights.
Danuta Wawrowska
Lawyer specialising in criminal law, human-rights defender, Women’s Strike activist, councillor in the Pomeranian Voivodeship Assembly, member of the Pomeranian Women’s Team advising the Marshal of the Pomeranian Voivodeship and of the Women’s Team at the Polish Bar Council.
Anita Kucharska-Dziedzic
Literary scholar, university lecturer, social and political activist, PhD in the humanities, member of Poland’s Sejm in its 9th and 10th terms and deputy chair of the New Left. Associated with the women’s rights movement.
Anna Kiejna
PhD in philology, literary and film scholar, living in the Benelux since 2003. Translator in the European Union institutions.
Feminist in belief and practice, organiser of feminist
and cultural events.
In Poland, she worked with various
media (a radio station and magazines) from her secondary-school years and published several articles in national newspapers. She founded a Polish-diaspora theatre and co-organised the Cineast film festival. Co-founder and vice-president of the feminist Polish-diaspora association Elles sans frontières and one of the main organisers of the Women’s Congress in Brussels.
Agata Czarnacka
Agata Czarnacka (born 1981) is a political philosopher, translator, feminist activist and columnist. From 2012 to 2015 she was editor-in-chief of the Lewica24.pl portal and think tank. She was an independent social adviser to the SLD Parliamentary Group
on democracy and a member of the party’s Political and Programme Council. In 2016 she was a member of the Citizens’ Legislative Committee “Save Women”, co-organised the Black Protests and Women’s Strike in Warsaw and advised the Committee for the Defence of Democracy (KOD) from 2016 to 2018. She regularly contributes to Polityka’s website, OKO.press, Kino magazine and Szum magazine. Recipient of a 2024 City of Warsaw scholarship for “Democracy According to Witches”.
Kle Mens (Klementyna Stępniewska)
(born 1985) Works across media including painting, video art, objects and drawing. Winner of the grand prize at the 12th Geppert Competition (2016). Graduated in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw in 2014 under Professor Jarosław Modzelewski. Her works belong to the National Museum in Gdańsk and private collections.
Solo exhibitions:
2019 — Hybrid Prophecy, Kravitz Contemporary, London. 2019 — Zdrowaśka, BWA Olsztyn. 2018 — Błogosławiona w czerni, BWA Zielona Góra. 2016 — Kato, BWA Tarnów.
Group exhibitions (last five years):
2022 — Secondary Archive, Manifesta 14, Pristina. 2022 — BlasfemINistki, Dom Norymberski, Kraków. 2022 — Sztuka i metafizyka. Postawy i strategie lat 2000–2020, Podbrzezie Gallery, University of the National Education Commission in Kraków. 2019 — Młode malarstwo polskie, National Museum in Gdańsk,
Iwona Demko
IWONA DEMKO — graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków, where she now holds a professorship. She has taken part in more than 200 exhibitions in Poland and abroad.
Curator of feminist exhibitions and author of a book about the first woman student at Kraków’s Academy of Fine Arts, Zofia Baltarowicz-Dzielińska. Initiator and co-organiser of the “Year of Women at the Academy of Fine Arts”, commemorating 100 years of women at the Kraków art school. She is interested in herstory and women’s experiences, especially those of women artists, in light of changing social roles throughout history. For many years she worked on affirming sexuality and female genitalia. Recipient of a Ministry of Culture and National Heritage scholarship (2018) and the Maria Anto and Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven Art Prize for supporting women’s presence and visibility in education and culture (2021).
Zuzanna Hertzberg
Zuzanna Hertzberg (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist, artivist and researcher. Her
artistic practice includes painting, textile work and interventions in public
space. She creates
installations and collages using archival materials, accompanied by spoken performances. Her work examines the interplay between individual and collective memory. By building an affective archive, she traces the mechanisms of marginalising minorities and erasing inconvenient narratives — particularly women’s stories — from historical memory. She treats archives as tools for reclaiming the truth about the past and updating their message to promote the struggle for
social justice and a more equal future. She engages in individual and collective practices countering discrimination and violence against marginalised people and groups.
In 2018 she earned a doctorate from the Faculty of Graphic Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (“Spaces of Ignorance”, 2018).
She has participated in many exhibitions in Poland and abroad.
Aga Szreder
Aga Szreder is a visual artist working at the intersection of art and activism and a co-curator of Post P_rn Arts Fest. Her work focuses on biopower, the body, politics and bringing culturally marginalised social issues into view.
Natalia Waloch
Natalia Waloch is a journalist for Wysokie Obcasy and Gazeta Wyborcza, formerly co-author of the “Herstorie” podcast and now host of the “Po swojemu” programme on Chilli Zet radio. She wrote “Bo NIE. Zacznij odmawiać i żyć po swojemu”, examining cultural mechanisms that silence women and encouraging rebellion. A lifelong feminist and mother of Stanisław and Łucja.
Aga Zbylut
I am an artist, academic, feminist, vegan and occasionally also a curator and activist.
From 1993 to 1999 I studied at the Institute of Culture and Fine Arts of the Higher Pedagogical School in Zielona Góra (University of Zielona Góra), receiving my diploma in
the Drawing and Intermedia Studio. In 2008 I earned a doctorate in applied arts from the Faculty of Multimedia Communication at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznań; in 2012 I completed my habilitation at the National Film, Television and Theatre School in Łódź. Since 2010 I have worked at the Academy of Art in Szczecin (since 2013 as associate professor), where I lead the Photography and Post-Artistic Activities Studio and head the Department of Photography. My work includes more than 150 solo and group exhibitions in Poland, Germany, Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, France, Croatia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Aleksandra Nowak
Aleksandra Nowak is a writer, journalist, cultural studies scholar and activist. Author of the essay collection “Wyp***dalać! Historia kobiecego gniewu” (Znak) and co-author of “Dziwki, zdziry, szmaty. Opowieści o slut-shamingu” (Czarna Owca).
Co-founder of the feminist magazine G’rls ROOM and its sister meeting space Adelfi Space in Berlin. Her recent work has explored the emancipatory potential of monstrosity and hybridity, including collaborations with the New Horizons festival on its feminist section “Third Eye: Other Monsters” and writing the text for “Zwodnicze syreny”, a performance choreographed by Marta Ziółek and shown at the opening of the new building of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw.