{"id":1755,"date":"2021-01-19T10:40:50","date_gmt":"2021-01-19T09:40:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/people.unil.ch\/agnieszkasoltysikmonnet\/?page_id=1755"},"modified":"2025-09-04T15:54:40","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T13:54:40","slug":"hello","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/people.unil.ch\/agnieszkasoltysikmonnet\/","title":{"rendered":"Hello!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Hello and welcome!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Professor of American Literature and culture at the University of Lausanne, I teach a range of courses on 19th, 20th and 21st century North American literature, film and history. Born in Warsaw, Poland, I grew up in Los Angeles, California, and moved to Switzerland in 1994. After working at the University of Geneva for 12 years, I have been teaching at UNIL since 2006. All these different cultural backgrounds contribute to my interest in understanding how culture — and counterculture — shapes the stories we tell and the language in which we tell them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My areas of specialization are cultural studies, critical theory, gender and queer theory, the affective and cultural work of genre (including melodrama, the Gothic and adventure narratives), war narratives, and African American literature, history and culture. I have a strong background in Film Studies and work with cinema as well as visual culture and literature. My first monograph was on the American Gothic in 19th century American literature, with a focus on how the Gothic allowed for complex investigations of gender, race and sexuality in the works of authors like Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, James and Gilman. My last monograph also had a genre approach, this time to war narratives in post-WWII American culture, looking at a broad range of literature, film and visual art, in order to argue that the way war stories are told in the US is usually through the formulas of melodrama and adventure, both of which portray military violence as meaningful and attractive, as well as the horror genre which is traditionally antiwar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A recurring question that has motivated my research is how art, literature and language can be used to promote social justice and I have as a result been increasingly concerned with ecological issues. My current research (and much of my teaching) focuses on these issues and especially the role of narrative and language in shaping our responses to this planetary crisis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am also starting a new research project on expanding our memory of the American counterculture, especially the under-studied role of women in this history as well as questions that pertain to the new field of Critical Psychedelic Studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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EN FRAN\u00c7AIS: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

En tant que professeure de litt\u00e9rature et de culture am\u00e9ricaines \u00e0 l’Universit\u00e9 de Lausanne, j’enseigne des cours sur la litt\u00e9rature, le cin\u00e9ma et l’histoire nord-am\u00e9ricains des 19e, 20e et 21e si\u00e8cles. N\u00e9e \u00e0 Varsovie, en Pologne, j’ai grandi \u00e0 Los Angeles, en Californie, et me suis install\u00e9e en Suisse en 1994. Apr\u00e8s avoir travaill\u00e9 \u00e0 l’Universit\u00e9 de Gen\u00e8ve pendant 12 ans, j’enseigne \u00e0 l’UNIL depuis 2006. Tous ces contextes culturels diff\u00e9rents contribuent \u00e0 mon int\u00e9r\u00eat pour la compr\u00e9hension de la fa\u00e7on dont la culture – et la contre-culture – fa\u00e7onne les histoires que nous racontons et la langue dans laquelle nous les racontons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mes domaines de sp\u00e9cialisation sont les \u00e9tudes culturelles, la th\u00e9orie critique, la th\u00e9orie du genre et queer, le travail affectif et culturel du genre (y compris le m\u00e9lodrame, le gothique et les r\u00e9cits d’aventure), les r\u00e9cits de guerre, et la litt\u00e9rature, l’histoire et la culture afro-am\u00e9ricaines. J’ai une solide formation en \u00e9tudes cin\u00e9matographiques et je travaille sur le cin\u00e9ma ainsi que sur la culture visuelle et la litt\u00e9rature. Ma premi\u00e8re monographie portait sur le gothique am\u00e9ricain dans la litt\u00e9rature am\u00e9ricaine du XIXe si\u00e8cle, et plus particuli\u00e8rement sur la fa\u00e7on dont le gothique permettait de poser des questions complexes sur le genre, la race et la sexualit\u00e9 dans les \u0153uvres d’auteurs tels que Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, James et Charlotte Perkins Gilman. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ma derni\u00e8re monographie s’appuyait \u00e9galement sur une approche par genre, cette fois sur les r\u00e9cits de guerre dans la culture am\u00e9ricaine d’apr\u00e8s la Seconde Guerre mondiale, en examinant un large \u00e9ventail de litt\u00e9rature, de films et d’arts visuels, afin d’affirmer que la fa\u00e7on dont les r\u00e9cits de guerre sont racont\u00e9s aux \u00c9tats-Unis passe g\u00e9n\u00e9ralement par les formules du m\u00e9lodrame et de l’aventure, qui pr\u00e9sentent toutes deux la violence militaire comme significative et attrayante.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Une question r\u00e9currente qui a motiv\u00e9 mes recherches est de savoir comment l’art, la litt\u00e9rature et le langage peuvent \u00eatre utilis\u00e9s pour promouvoir la justice sociale, ce qui m’a amen\u00e9 \u00e0 m’int\u00e9resser de plus en plus aux questions \u00e9cologiques. Mes recherches actuelles (et une grande partie de mon enseignement) se concentrent sur ces questions et en particulier sur le r\u00f4le de la narration et du langage dans l’\u00e9laboration de nos r\u00e9ponses \u00e0 cette crise plan\u00e9taire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Je lance \u00e9galement un nouveau projet de recherche visant \u00e0 enrichir notre m\u00e9moire de la contre-culture am\u00e9ricaine, en particulier le r\u00f4le peu \u00e9tudi\u00e9 des femmes dans cette histoire, ainsi que les questions relatives au nouveau domaine des \u00e9tudes psych\u00e9d\u00e9liques critiques.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Earthship, Taos, New Mexico<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Just published and available online: my co-edited (with Christian Arnsperger) volume on ‘The Ecological Future’:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl\/textmatters\/issue\/view\/1228<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Short video about the Master’s specialization program in New American Studies (in French):<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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