Our Mythical Childhood...
The Reception of Classical Antiquity in Children’s and Young Adults’ Culture in Response to Regional and Global Challenges
Dr Elżbieta Olechowska
Faculty of “Artes Liberales”, University of Warsaw
e-mail: elzbieta.olechowska@gmail.com
Elżbieta Olechowska was born on the Cracovian shore of Vistula in Villa Minervae. Possibly because of that she became a classical philologist and textual critic (Claudian’s De bello Gildonico in the E.J. Brill series Roma Aeterna, a book on Cicero’s manuscript tradition at Ossolineum, and three Cicero’s speeches from 54 BC in Bibliotheca Teubneriana). She was educated at the University of Warsaw, under the direction of Professor Kazimierz Kumaniecki. She worked eight years at the University of Geneva and then spent a year as a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ. Later for almost three decades she worked as a journalist and media manager at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Montreal where she published a six-volume series Challenges for International Broadcasting and a historical monograph The Age of International Radio: Radio Canada International 1945–2007. Since 2008, she works 
at the University of Warsaw, Faculty of “Artes Liberales”, teaching a variety of subjects related to media and classics. Since 2009, she is actively involved in the international project Gnôthi seauton! – Classics and Communism; since 2012, she participates in a series of international research projects focussing on reception of Classical Antiquity in youth culture within the programme Our Mythical Childhood... led by Katarzyna Marciniak: in the project Our Mythical Childhood... The Reception of Classical Antiquity in Children’s and Young Adults’ Culture in Response to Regional and Global Challenges funded by the ERC Consolidator Grant (2016–2021), Elżbieta Olechowska is responsible for the management of the entries in the database Our Mythical Childhood Survey and she researches the reception of Classical Antiquity in TV series for young people. She does not only study children’s literature but with her two older brothers is a character in several children’s books inspired by antiquity and written by her mother, Professor Anna M. Komornicka, an eminent Hellenist scholar.
Recently edited books and publications:
De amicitia: Transdisciplinary Studies in Friendship, eds. Katarzyna Marciniak and Elżbieta Olechowska, Warsaw: OBTA–Faculty of “Artes Liberales” UW, 2016, 438 pp., online: www.al.uw.edu.pl/amicitia
Classics and Class: Greek and Latin Classics and Communism at School, eds. David Movrin and Elżbieta Olechowska, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo DiG–Faculty of “Artes Liberales”, University of Warsaw–Faculty of Arts, Ljubljana University, 2016, 592 pp.
Classical Antiquity on Communist Stage in Poland: Ancient Theatre as an Ideological Medium. A Critical Review, ed. Elżbieta Olechowska, Warsaw: Faculty of “Artes Liberales” UW, 2015, 410 pp., online: www.al.uw.edu.pl/theatre_communist
Tadeusz Zieliński, Queen of the Wind Maidens. Prologue, introduction Michał Mizera, translation from the Russian original Katarzyna Tomaszuk, English translation and textual notes Elżbieta Olechowska, University of Warsaw, Faculty of “Artes Liberales”, Warsaw 2013, 47 pp., online: http://www.al.uw.edu.pl/zielinski_queen
Classics and Communism: Greek and Latin behind the Iron Curtain, eds. Gyorgy Karsai, Gabor Klaniczay, David Movrin, and Elżbieta Olechowska, Znanstvena zalozba Filosofske Fakultete–Collegium Budapest–Faculty of “Artes Liberales” UW, Ljubljana–Budapest–Warsaw, 2013, 576 pp., review by Sylwester Dworacki, online: “Eos” 101 (2014)
Polish Literature for Children and Young Adults Inspired by Classical Antiquity. A Catalogue, eds. Katarzyna Marciniak, Elżbieta Olechowska, Joanna Kłos, Michał Kucharski, Warsaw: OBTA–Faculty of “Artes Liberales” UW, 2013, 444 pp., online: www.al.uw.edu.pl/omc_catalogue