Piotr Oczko (1973 – 15 July 2026) was a Polish scholar of Polish, English and Dutch studies, as well as a cultural studies scholar, art historian, translator and professor at the Jagiellonian University.
Life and work The son of , Oczko was born in 1973. He graduated in English and Polish philology from the Jagiellonian University, in 1997 and 2000 respectively. In 1997 he received the translation award from the Flemish Ministry of Culture in Brussels, in 2000 a scholarship from the Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund, in 2006 a scholarship from the Adam Krzyżanowski Fund, and in 2010 and 2014 the Rector's Prize of the Jagiellonian University.
Oczko obtained doctorate in 2002 (supervised by ) and habilitation in 2014. In 2022 he obtained the title of professor of art sciences.
His research interests included the literature and culture of Dutch-speaking countries, early Polish, English and German literature, medieval drama, New historicism, issues of evil in culture, national identities and stereotypes, LGBT studies, and art history, including seventeenth-century Dutch genre painting, emblematics, artistic crafts of the 17th-19th centuries, the history of European ceramics – especially Dutch tiles and delftware.
He published in Znak. He was a member of the CODART, international network for curators of art from the Low Countries. He consulted on the conservation-led restoration of the tiles in the Balthasar Fontana Hall at the .
He described himself as “a collector of old junk, a rainbow feminist and vegetarian, with a heart firmly on the left”. Ryszard Nycz described him as “polymath in the humanities”, “versatile, knowledgeable scholar”, “refusing to be confined within disciplinary cages”.
Oczko died on 15 July 2026, at the age of 53.
Books
Editions
Translations into Polish 2002, 2007. 2007. 2008. 2009. Notes amsterdamski. 2016.
Source.
Awards Kraków Book of the Month Award for the book Pozdrowienia z Mokum. 21 opowieści o Holandii (November 2021) Officer's Cross of the Order of Orange-Nassau (2024) Kraków Book of the Month Award for Suknia i sztalugi. Historie dawnych malarek (December 2024) Kazimierz Wyka Award (2026)
References
External links