Zdzisław Wąsik

Moreover, his recent two books have been acknowledged among English philologists and semioticians far and wide, namely Lectures on the Epistemology of Semiotics (Wrocław 2014), From Grammar to Discourse: Towards a Solipsistic Paradigm of Semiotics (Poznań 2016). The evidence of an international recognition of his scholarly contribution to linguistic semiotics and the theory of discourse were the two invitations, in 2017, to deliver a Master Lecture during the 13th World Congress of Semiotics and a Plenary-Table Lecture at the 8th Latino-American Semiotic Congress in Bogotá.

In recognition of his proposal of the division of academic disciplines in relation to linguistics, he was granted the International Journal of Arts & Sciences Best Conference Paper Award at Orlando, Florida, 2009.

Moreover, in the year 2005, he was elected as Fellow of the International Communicology Institute on the recommendation of the Director Richard Leo Lanigan from the United States of America. Besides, his Department of Linguistic Semiotics and Communicology was officially certified as a Research Group Affiliate as of 1 November 2009. In turn, on 15 November 2009 he was appointed Member of the I.C.I. Bureau, and in Autumn of 2011 Director of Regional-Continental Coordinators for Europe. Recently, in 2017, he has been invited as a Member of the International Advisory Board of the Academy of Cultural Heritages in Helsinki/Athens and, in 2018 selected as the fifth “Laureate Fellow” of the International Communicology Institute for a lifetime achievement of research scholarship).

For his organizational and educational achievements, he was lately distinguished by the President of the Republic of Poland with the Silver Cross of Merit (2008) and subsequently the Golden Cross of Merit (2011).

At present, he conducts three editorial series, two national – Philologica Wratislaviensia: Acta et Studia, since 2007, Philologica Wratislaviensia: Studia Iberica et Latinoamericana, since 2012, (Philological of Higher Education in Wrocław Publishing), and one international – Philologica Wratislaviensia: From Grammar to Discourse, since 2008, (Peter Lang Verlag).

He has been also honored by the Oxford Alumni Card, being affiliated since 2005 as Friend, and since 2010 as Associate.

At the beginning of the academic year 2002/2003, he was as appointed the first Rector in the Philological School of Higher Education in Wrocław, serving in this position until 2013. Some years later, in 2009, he created there for himself the Department of Linguistic Semiotics and Communicology as an independent research entity.

In 1999, he moved to the first position at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, and in 2009 at the Philological School of Higher Education in Wrocław.

In the second position additionally, he directed the Department of English Linguistics in the Institute of English Philology of the Pedagogical School of Higher Education in Opole (currently Opole University) (1991–1992), Department of Linguistics of the State Vocational School of Higher Education in Wałbrzych (2000–2004), Department of English of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń (2001–2006).

Furthermore, he received stipends under the Oxford Hospitality Scheme (1987): in the Trinity College (6 weeks), and as International Research Exchange Scholar (1991): in the Brown University English Language Program, Providence, Rhode Island (1 month); Department of Linguistics and Semiotics Rice University, Houston, Texas (2 months), Department of Linguistics at the University of Southern California and the Department of Linguistics at the University of California, Los Angeles (2 months).

He is best known in Poland as the author of two books on the semiotic paradigm of linguistics (Semiotyczny paradygmat językoznawstwa, 1987), systemic and ecological properties of language in interdisciplinary investigative approaches (Systemowe i ekologiczne właściwości języka w interdyscyplinarnych podejściach badawczych, 1987), and abroad, he is mostly cited as the author of Epistemological Perspectives on Linguistic Semiotics (Peter Lang 2003) and co-editor of Hard-Science Linguistics (with Victor Huse Yngve, Continuum Books 2004.

In his first position, he served for 14 years (1984–1999) as Head of the Department of General Linguistics at the University of Wrocław and, between 2002 and 2010, as Head of the Department of Semiotics in the School of English at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań.

He was Editor of Studia Linguistica. Acta Universitatis Wratislaviensis (1984–1999), as well as President and Member of the Editorial Board of the Treaties of Language Commission (Rozprawy Komisji Językowej) in the Wrocław Scientific Society (1997–1999).

At the same time, from 1982 to 1984, he was a grantee of the Fulbright Fellowship for Senior Scholars: in the Department of Linguistics at the State University of New York in Buffalo (5 months), and the Research Center for Language and Semiotic Studies at the Indiana University in Bloomington (12 months).

In recognition of his scientific work, he has earned, apart from numerous Rector's Awards, two ministerial distinctions, namely, the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technique Prize for outstanding achievements in his doctoral dissertation (1979), Minister of National Education Prize for outstanding achievements in his habilitation (1988).

Between 1972 and 1999, he used to work, from Teaching Assistant to Professor, at the University of Wrocław:

He received his master's title in German (1971) and doctoral degree (1976) in comparative Indo-European linguistics from the University of Wrocław. Subsequently, he habilitated in general linguistics at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań in 1986 and gained his scientific title of Professor of Humanistic Sciences from the President of the Republic of Poland in 1997.

Zdzisław Wąsik (born 3 May 1947) is a Polish linguist and semiotician, Rector Senior and Professor Ordinarius at the Philological School of Higher Education in Wrocław and Professor Senior at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań.