Organizers
Agnieszka Naumiuk, Associate Professor
Employed at the Faculty of Education of the University of Warsaw since 2002.
Since 1996, she has been collaborating with the NGO movement in Poland.
Coordinator of international educational programs at the Faculty of Education: Erasmus + and Erasmus Mundus ADVANCES.
Trainer, consultant, and researcher of social organizations. Lecturer at universities in Poland and abroad. Member of the Editorial Board of the Educational Quarterly and a long-term collaborator of the Journal of Social Pedagogy (currently Social Pedagogy Nova), reviewer of articles in Polish and international journals in the fields of social pedagogy and social work.
Research interests: the role of social organizations as educational environments, the relationship between civic engagement and educational processes, the role of social activists and community in social change, integration and social inclusion of groups at risk of exclusion, links between pedagogy and social work, support for youth, adult education, Jane Addams, and the concept of American settlements, educational role in social justice and human rights development.
Author of books: The Educational Role of Non-Governmental Organizations – A Case Study of the United Way Movement (2003); Social Participation of Youth (2007); Education-Participation-Change in the Experiences and Imaginations of Local Activists (Social Animators) (2014); Jane Addams, Life and Work (2024). Co-author of the book: Inclusion from the Perspective of Social Pedagogy and Special Education. Questions, Contexts, Discussions (2018); Editor-in-chief of the multi-authored monograph: Minding the Gaps and Challenging the Change in Social Work (2021). Author of over 40 articles (domestic and international) in the fields of social pedagogy and social work, with particular interest in democracy and civil society development.
Coordinator international research projects: “Innovation in Crisis: Community Responses to Marginalisation in Europe” (2015/2016) “RESPONSIVE – Enhancing Citizen Participation in Europe’s Social Services Response to Social Needs” HORIZON EUROPE (2023-2026)
Graduate of the Fulbright Poland scholarship program 2022/2023.
Mary Weaks-Baxter, Ph.D.
Rockford University
Andrew H. Sherratt Professor, Department of English
Director, Jane Addams Center for Civic Engagement, Rockford University. Oversee the work of the Jane Addams Center, which organizes campus service projects, assists professors in creating Community-Based Learning and engaged research projects, and offers programming that cultivates an attitude of civic responsibility.
With over 35 years of experience teaching in higher education, Dr. Weaks-Baxter teaches courses in writing and American and British Literature. She has served two terms as Faculty Chair of the Rockford University Faculty and has worked with students on civic engagement projects on issues ranging broadly from human trafficking and domestic violence to environmental conservation and job equity.
Monographs:
Leaving the South: Border Crossing Narratives and the Remaking of Southern Identity. Jackson, MS: UP of Mississippi, 2018.
With Christine Bruun and Catherine Forslund. We are a College at War: Women Working for Victory in World War II. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois UP, 2010. Released in paperback Fall 2015.
Reclaiming the American Farmer: The Reinvention of a Regional Mythology in Twentieth-Century Southern Writing. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 2006.
Edited Books:
With Carolyn Perry. The History of Southern Women’s Literature. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 2002.
With Carolyn Perry. Southern Women's Writing: Colonial to Contemporary. Gainesville: UP of Florida, 1995.
With Floyd C. Watkins and John T. Hiers. Talking with Robert Penn Warren. Athens: UP of Georgia, 1990.
Selected publications on Jane Addams:
With Belinda Wholeben. “Jane Addams’s Education, Hull House, and Current-Day Civic-Engagement Practices in Higher Education: Coming Full Circle.” The Oxford Handbook of Jane Addams. Patricia M. Shields (ed.) et al., Oxford UP, 2023. Available digitally.
Perspective: Walking in Jane’s Shoes . WNIJ/NPR. Perspective podcast. Aired August 28, 2019.