Malgorzata (Gosia) Drewniok

My PhD is interdisciplinary and so are my research interests, mainly stylistic analysis, literary analysis, film/TV studies and the study of popular culture. My research focuses on the language of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, with special reference to the characterisation of main villains: vampires. I'm interested in the moment of transformation (human to vampire) and how it is expressed in the language.
The idea of the topic stemmed from my personal interests. Having interdisciplinary BA and MA degrees (BA English Studies and MA in English Language and Contemporary Literary Studies) I've always wanted not only to combine my linguistic and literary interests, but also to include popular culture studies in my research. Stylistics is my starting point - with a BA dissertation on the proper names of fictional characters in Chronicles of Narnia and an MA one on episode titles in Charmed TV series - but I want to explore various directions.

In July 2009 I attended and helped out with The International Gothic Association Conference held at Lancaster University (21-24 July 2009), for more details on the conference please see http://www.monstrous-media.com/.

With Freyja Peters and Chloe Buckley from Department of English and Creative Writing I co-organised an interdisciplinary postgraduate conference entitled Fractured Images/Broken Words held on June 12th 2010 at Lancaster University. For more details please see http://www.lancasterluminary.com/contents/conference.htm

Conference papers:

'"I feel strong. I feel different": Transformations, Vampires and Language in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.' Open Graves, Open Minds: Vampires and the Undead in Modern Culture. 16-17 April 2010. University of Hertfordshire.

'"I feel strong. I feel different": Transformations, Vampires and Language is Buffy the Vampire Slayer.' The Slayage Conference on the Whedonverses 4. 3-6 June 2010. Flagler College, St. Augustine, FL, USA.

'"You're strong. I'm stronger. You have no idea what you're dealing with": Vampires, Masculinity and Language in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Fractured Images/Broken Words. 12 June 2010. Lancaster University.

'"I hate being obvious. All fangy and 'grrr!' Takes the mystery out!": Vampire humour and irony in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Letting The Vampire In. 8-9 December 2010. Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany.

'"I hate being obvious. All fangy and 'grrr!' Takes the mystery out!": Vampire humour and irony in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.' Rethinking Contemporary Gothic: An Interdisciplinary Study Day. 3 June 2011. Lancaster University.

'Vampires, lurks, TV celebrities and dolls: Joss Whedon, the Constant Vampire Reinventor.' International Gothic Association Conference. 2-5 August 2011. Heidelberg, Germany.

'The Witch, the Tabby Cat and the Undead: the Language of the D’Artigo Sisters from Yasmine Galenorn’s Sisters of the Moon series.' Creatures of the Night Conference (part of EUROFAN: Neue Richtungen der Europaischen Fantastik nach dem Kalten Krieg). 29 Sept - 2 Oct 2011. University of Salzburg, Austria.

‘”I apologize. I assumed you knew. I am Dracula.” Count Dracula visits Buffyverse, or Joss Whedon’s Dracula in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.’ Bram Stoker Centenary Conference: Bram Stoker and Gothic Transformations. 12-14 April 2012. Hull and Whitby. UK.

Teaching:
I'm a qualified EFL teacher and have already gained some significant experience. After finishing my MA I taught English in Spain (academic year 2007/2008). In summers of 2008, 2009 and 2010 I taught in pre-sessional EAP course at University of Portsmouth. Currently I am teaching at Lancaster University International Study Centre, working with international students in their foundation year. This academic year (2011/12) I'm also teaching Part II Language of Advertising (term 1) and Part I Language and Style (term 2) in the Linguistics and English Language Dept.