Professor Leszek Kolankiewicz (1954) is a culturologist, anthropologist of performances; Full Professor in the Section of Theatre and Performances, which he headed from 2003 to 2009. He conducts research on cultural performances, especially rituals of possession cults, on social performances and on theatrical spectacles, especially avant-garde and neo-avant-garde ones. In his cultural studies, he combines the methods of anthropology of performances, performance studies and theatre science.
He received his Ph.D. degree in 1987 on the basis of his dissertation Ethnological Explorations of the Contemporary Theatrical Avant-Garde (part of which was published in 1988 under the title Saint Artaud, Literature Fund Prize and Individual Prize of the Minister of National Education 1989); his postdoctoral degree – in 2001 on the basis of his book Dziady. Teatr święta zmarłych [Forefather’s Eve: Theatre of the Feast of the Dead, 1999, Individual Prize of the Minister of National Education and Sports 2002]. In 2004, he was awarded the title of Professor of Humanities by the President of the Republic of Poland.
Member of the Committee on Cultural Studies at the Polish Academy of Sciences, from 2007-2011 its chairman.
Member of the Polish Committee for UNESCO.
Member of the Polish PEN Club.
In 2017-2020 member of the Central Commission for Academic Degrees and Titles.
In 2010-2012, Chairman of the Team for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
In 2005-2012, director of the Institute of Polish Culture at the Faculty of Polish Studies of the University of Warsaw. From 2012-2016, associate professor at the UFR d’Études slaves and director of the Centre de civilisation polonaise at Université Paris-Sorbonne.
In 2019-2024 member of the Scientific Council of the Discipline of Culture and Religion Sciences at the UW.
Member of the Polish Cultural Studies Society and the Association Cathedral of Culture.
Member of the scientific, program, editorial and publishing boards of, among others, “Didaskalia. Gazeta Teatralna”, “Journal of Theatre Anthropology” (Milan), “Pamiętnik Teatralny” and Biblioteca Teatrale series (Rome).
From 1991 to 2021, employee and associate of the Department of Theater Knowledge at the Aleksander Zelwerowicz Theater Academy in Warsaw.
Author of books:
- Na drodze do kultury czynnej. O działalności instytutu Grotowskiego Teatr Laboratorium w latach 1970–1977 (1978); English publication: On the Road to Active Culture: The Activities of Grotowski’s Theatre Laboratory Institute in the Years 1970–1977 (1979);
- Święty Artaud [Saint Artaud] (two editions: 1988, 2001, Literature Fund Award and Individual Award of the Minister of Education 1989); Czech translation: Svatý Artaud (2024);
- Samba z bogami. Opowieść antropologiczna [Samba with the Gods: An Anthropological Story] (three editions: 1995, 2007, 2016);
- Dziady. Teatr święta zmarłych [Forefather’s Eve: Theatre of the Feast of the Dead] (two editions: 1999, 2020, Individual Award of the Minister of National Education and Sports 2002); Ukrainian translation: Dziady. Teatr swiata pomerłych (2019)
- Wielki mały wóz [The Big Little Vehicle] (2001, Award of the Polish Center of the International Theatre Institute on the occasion of the 42nd International Theater Day Theater Book of the Year 2002).
- Swit kulturnych dijstw (2009).
He has promoted 9 PhDs and 144 MAs.
Awarded, among others, the Medal for Merit to Culture Gloria Artis, Medal of the Commission of National Education, Medal of the 200th anniversary of the University of Warsaw, the Minister of Science and Higher Education Award for lifetime achievement and the Gold Medal of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (Czech Republic).