Theme: To look at things differently, or us and our world outside the box

Contemporary societes, including Polish society, are increasingly diverse: every day we meet people from different ethnic and cultures, people with various disabilities, and elderly, not to metion rhe wealth of individual expressions - clothes, hairstyles, hair colors, etc. They appear more and more intensively in our social life, both because there are actually more of them - due to global migrations, increasing life expectancy, and also because they can ant want to "come out of the shadows". They can do it, because we have more and more activities aimed at their inclusion in social life, and they want - because they are increasingly aware af their rights and possibilities. However, there is still a lot of work to be done: most of us do not know how people in some way different from us can and should be supported, how to relate to them, wgat problems they face, etc. Our event will provide answers to these pressing questions. TEDx University of Warsaw will be devoted to the topics of economics, ecology, education, as well as the issue of aging societies (and coping with the experience of reaching old age) and the issues of living with disabilities and the autism spectrum.

Biblioteka Uniwersytecka w Warszawie
ul. Dobra 56/66
Warsaw, Mazowieckie, 00-384
Poland

Angelika Greniuk

Scientist dealing with the social life of people with disabilities

Angelika Greniuk is a researcher affiliated with the Institute of Applied Social Sciences at the University of Warsaw, in her doctoral thesis she addressed the topic of independent living in the activities of the Polish movement of people with disabilities. She is involved in a number of research projects devoted to, for instance, caregivers and people with disabilities protesting in the Sejm or pilot-tested solutions for independent living in Poland. She is co-author of the report "List of (dis)presence. Disability in school textbooks". Since 2019, she is a member of The European Network on Independent Living - ENIL Youth. For several years she was professionally associated with an NGO and media on the subject of disability

Elwira Zielska

Certified international rugby in wheelchairs referee

Elwira Zielska is a sociology graduate of the University of Warsaw. Her master's thesis on the professionalization of wheelchair rugby clubs was awarded by the PTS Sport Section and PFRON in contests for the best thesis. Social and marketing researcher. Certified international rugby in wheelchairs referee. Fascinated by the sport and its social function. In addition to refereeing rugby, she trains young referees.

Ewa Zaraś-Januszkiewicz

Dendrologist

A dendrologist, will talk about the role of gardens in urban space, as well as the opportunities and challenges related to their existence.

Jolanta Perek-Białas

Researcher and expert in the latest quantitative methodologies

Jolanta Perek-Białas specializes in sociology of aging/gerontology, evaluation of public policies (including senior policies). She has been a coordinator and participant in a number of international projects related to, among others, the mobilization of older people (including in the labor market), discrimination against older workers, support for caregivers of the elderly. Author and co-author of numerous publications on these topics. She has worked with the UNECE European Commission, the OECD, the World Bank, as well as with national, regional and local institutions dealing with senior policies.

Katarzyna Iwińska

Expert and research manager in international projects on energy transformation, energy justice and decarbonization

Katarzyna Iwińska is an expert and a research manager in international projects on energy transformation, energy justice and decarbonization. She conducts research on the perception of social changes in the environment, especially in the area of planning large energy investments (nuclear power plants, geothermal, shale gas). She is an adjunct professor, Vice-Rector for Research at Collegium Civitas, an educator and enthusiast of activism (for the environment, too).

Katarzyna Śledziewska

Specialist in the digital economy

Katarzyna Śledziewska is a Managing Director of DELab UW and at the Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw. She conducts research on the digital transformation of companies and public institutions, focusing on the transformation of work and organizational culture as a result of the introduction of solutions based on artificial intelligence. She is the author of numerous reports and expert opinions in the field of digitization, and co-author of the book Gospodarka cyfrowa. Jak nowe technologie zmieniają świat. She knows from experience the specifics of the educational system for neurodiverse people, including training process for the labor market.

Ksenyia Homel

Activist

Kseniya Homel holds a master's degree from the Institute of International Relations and the Institute of Social Prevention and Resocialization at the University of Warsaw. She is currently a doctoral student at the Institute of Applied Social Sciences at the University of Warsaw and an associate of the Migration Research Center at the University of Warsaw. Her research interests cover social activity of migrant women and migrants, their participation in the life of the host society, and the functioning of support networks.

Maria Dąbrowska-Jędral

Instructor and trainer of modern therapeutic methods for people with autism spectrum disorders

Maria Dąbrowska-Jędral is a mother of an adult son with autism, for whom she left medicine and set off on a journey through autism. She loves to verify science in practice. An instructor and a trainer of modern therapeutic methods for people with autism spectrum disorders - RDI® and HANDLE®. In her everyday work with people on the autism spectrum and their families, she asks questions, challenges stereotypes, and seeks solutions based on human needs. She is constantly in awe of the complexity of the nervous system and human nature. Her favorite questions are: "What else don't I see?" and "What else is possible?". She inspires others to look wider, deeper, and further.

Mikołaj Lewicki

Economist, researcher of the social life of mortgage

Mikołaj Lewicki (Assoc. Prof.) – works at the Department of Sociology, University of Warsaw; his main areas of interest concern development and modernization theories, mortgage market and mortgage population in Poland and valuation practices. Recently published books: “The Future cannot Begin. Polish Transformation Discourses according to Theories of Time and Theories of Modernization”, “The Social Life of Mortgage” and co-authored “Culture on Peripheries” .

Mikołaj Pawlak

Researcher dealing with the issues of migration

Mikołaj Pawlak focuses on ignorance studies and examines the failures of public policies. His recent publications analyze the role of ignorance in the social response to migration.

Monika Kostera-Kociatkiewicz

Researcher, co-creator of the concept of humanistic management

Monika Kostera is a professor in Economics and Humanities. She works as a Professor of Sociology at the University of Warsaw, as well as Professor of Management at the Institut Mines-Télécom Business School, Université Paris-Saclay, France, and Professor of Management at Södertörn University, Sweden. She was also employed as Professor and Chair in Management in the UK, including Durham University. She has written and published texts on organization theory and ethnography, as well as poetry. She is co-editor of the academic journal Gender, Work and Organization; she has co-edited several journals, including the British Journal of Management. Her current research interests include organizational imagination, notions of work and organizational ethnography. She is a member of the Erbacce Poets’ Cooperative.

Paulina Malinowska-Kowalczyk

Secretary General of the Polish Paralympic Committee

From 2002 to 2017, Paulina Malinowska-Kowalczyk was associated with Polish Television. She hosted and co-created programs on Polish Television related to social issues or sports of people with disabilities. For nearly 10 years she hosted the program Pełnosprawni dedicated to Paralympic sports and activities of people with disabilities on TVP Sport. From 2017 to 2020, she served as spokeswoman for the Polish Paralympic Committee. In 2020, she was appointed to the Social Council of Sports and the Social Council of Women's Sports by Minister of Sports Danuta Dmowska-Andrzejuk. In October 2020, she was appointed Secretary General of the Polish Paralympic Committee. Since May 2021, she has been part of the National Development Council - Social Affairs Council to the President of the Republic of Poland, where she heads a team on matters of persons with disabilities. Appointed as Advisor to the President of the Republic of Poland on July 15, 2019.