Dr. Aleksandra Turek

E-mail: a.turek{at}uw.edu.pl
ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8431-1268

Position

Assistant Professor

Research area:

  • Literary Studies
  • Early modern Rajasthani literature
  • History of Rajastani literature
  • Written and oral traditions of Rajasthan
  • Marwari, Dingal
  • Early modern Hindi literature (Braj, Avadhi)
  • Literature and Modern Standard Hindi
  • Literary theory
  • Postcolonial studies

Biographical data

  • 2003 – magister kulturoznawstwa-indologii, Instytut Orientalistyczny, Wydział Neofolologii UW (Obraz społeczeństwa i kultury średniowiecznego Radźasthanu w świetle poematu Dhola Mary ra duha)
  • 2009 – doktor nauk humanistycznych w zakresie literaturoznawstwa-indologii, Wydział Orientalistyczny UW (Dhola Maru jako żywa tradycja narracyjna Indii Północnych)

Academic visits

  • 2016 – visiting scholar w Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani (India)
  • 2018 – Specially Appointed Associate Professor at Graduate School of Languages and Cultures, Osaka University (Japonia)

Scholarships and fellowships

  • 1999–2000 – Government of India (ICCR) scholarship at the Central Institute of Hindi, Agra (India)
  • 2000 – Advanced Diploma in Hindi Language Proficiency, Central Institute of Hindi, Agra (Indie)
  • 2005–2006 – Government of India (ICCR) doctoral scholarship at the University of Rajasthan, Jaipur (India)
  • 2016 – field research in the Shekhawati region (Rajasthan, India)

Research projects and grants

  • 2024–2023 – participation in an international research project Shades of Violence. Aggresion and Domination in Indian Culture (NCN, Inicjatywa Doskonałości dla UJ. Project lead: Prof. Lidia Sudyka, Jagiellonian University). The outcome includes a conference presentation and a published article: Rajput Vocabulary of Violence, “Cracow Indological Studies”, t. XXVI, nr 2, Kraków 2024, s.  241-258.  
  • 2019–2023 – member of a three-person international team in a project funded by the Japanese government (JSPS KAKENHI, grant no. JP19K00519; project lead: Prof. Hiroko Nagasaki, Osaka University, with the participation of Prof. Jaroslav Strnad, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague). Outcome: monograph: Triveṇī. Texts of Three Literary Traditions in Early Modern Languages of North India. A Reader, Kyoto, Vizianagaram 2023.

Membership

Main publications

Authored and co-authored monographs

Edited volumes

Chapters in monographs

  • Individuality versus Collectivity: Pragmatic Goals of Ḍiṅgaḷ gīt Literary Compositions, in Early Modern Literatures of North India: Current Research 2022-2024, Hiroko Nagasaki, Monika Horstmann, Kiyokazu Okita (eds), Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing, Heidelberg 2025, pp. 309-327. https://hasp.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/catalog/book/1553/chapter/22786
  • Old Pattern with New Heroes: Ḍiṅgaḷ gīt in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century,w: Literary Cultures in Early Modern North India. Current Research, in Imre Bangha, Danuta Stasik (eds), Oxford University Press, New Delhi 2024, pp. 215-241. academic.oup.com/book/58024
  • Gęsi w staniczku, czyli o miłości na sposób indyjski i polski, in Poetyka Odrzucenia. Szczątki, resztki, przyległości, in Monika Nowakowska (ed.), Dom Wydawniczy ELIPSA, Warszawa 2024, pp. 166-178.
  • Pṛthvīrāj Rāṭhauṛ’s Veli, in Triveṇī. Texts of Three Literary Traditions in Early Modern Languages of North India. A Reader, Hiroko Nagasaki, Jaroslav Strnad, Aleksandra Turek, Kotoba Books, Kyoto, Vizianagaram 2023, pp. 129-188.
  • A Journey through Mārvāṛ from the Perspective of a Camel, in Journeys and Travellers in Indian Literature and Art, vol. 2: Vernacular Sources, in D. Stasik, A. Trynkowska (eds), Dom Wydawniczy ELIPSA, Warszawa 2018, pp. 35-48.
  • Hostility or Solidarity? The Rājpūts and Jāṭs in the Chāvaḷīs from the region of Śekhāvaṭī, in Polish Contributions to South Asian Studies, in D. Stasik (ed.), Dom Wydawniczy ELIPSA, Warszawa 2017, pp. 82-93.
  • Indie, in Z dalekich krain. Chiny. Indie. Nigeria. Wietnam, A. Dziarmarga, I. Grudziąż (eds), Wydział Informacji o Krajach Pochodzenia DPU, Urząd ds. Cudzoziemców, Warszawa 2015, pp. 33-57.
  • Banjara – hipotetyczni przodkowie Cyganów, in Etnograficzne wędrówki po obszarach antropologii. Tom w darze dla Profesora Lecha Mroza, Łukasz Smyrski, Katarzyna Waszczyńska (eds), Wydawnictwo DiG, Warszawa 2013, pp. 265-271.
  • Indyjskie korzenie Cyganów, in Romowie 2009. Między wędrówką a edukacją, Barbara Weigl (ed.), Academica SWPS, Warszawa 2009.
  • Is the Dhola Maru ra duha only a poetic elaboration?, in Culture, Polity and Economy, Varsha Joshi, Surjit Singh (eds), Rawat Publicatons, Jaipur 2009, pp. 173-182.
  • Narrative Traditions of Rajasthan, in India in Warsaw. Indie w Warszawie. Tom upamiętniający 50-lecie powojennej historii indologii na Uniwersytecie Warszawskim (2003/2004), D. Stasik, A. Trynkowska (eds), Warszawa 2006, pp. 300-306.

Articles

  • A. Turek, P. Borek, Studies in Literary and Cultural Landscapes of Rajasthan, “Cracow Indological Studies”, t. 27, nr 2, 2025, s. V-XX. https://journals.akademicka.pl/cis/article/view/6858
  • Between Tradition and Innovation: Girdhardān Ratnū’s Phog ikkīsīas Contemporary Dingal Verse, “Cracow Indological Studies”, t. 27, nr 2, 2025, s. 147-173. https://doi.org/10.12797/CIS.27.2025.02.08
  • Rajput Vocabulary of Violence, “Cracow Indological Studies”, t. 26, nr 2, 2024, s. 241-258. doi.org/10.12797/CIS.26.2024.02.10
  • Sīta of Sindh, “Cracow Indological Studies”, t. 22, nr 1, 2020, s. 55-72. doi.org/10.12797/CIS.22.2020.01.03
  • Radźasthani – początki języka i literatury, „Przegląd Orientalistyczny”, no. 2 (270), 2019, pp. 157-170.
  • A Good Villain: the Bravery of the Dacoits from the Śekhāvaṭī region of Rājasthān, „Indologica Taurinensia. The Journal of the International Association of Sanskrit Studies”, vol. XL (2014), 2015, pp. 377-389.
  • The Rajasthani Kavar: a pilgrimage in sacred space and to the past, “Quaderni Asiatici”, 2013, pp. 139-151.
  • Radźputowie – stereotypowi bohaterowie Radźasthanu, „Przegląd Orientalistyczny”, no. 3-4, 2011, pp. 142-150.
  • The Dhola-Maru in Rajasthani Folk Theatre, in Theatrum Mirabiliorum Indiae Orientalis. A Volume to Celebrate the 70th Birthday of Professor Maria Krzysztof Byrski, „Rocznik Orientalistyczny”, vol. LX, no. 2, 2007, pp. 368-380.
  • Strofy o Dholi i Maru – radźasthański poemat miłosny, „Przegląd Orientalistyczny”, no. 3-4, 2005, pp. 177-187.

Encyclopedic entries and articles

  • W: Dictionnaire encyclopédique des littératures de l’Inde et de l’Asie du Sud, Anne Castaing, Nicolas Dejenne, Claudine Le Blanc (red.), Classiques Garnier, Paris 2025:
    • „Dhola Maru”, pp. 271-273;
    • „Kathputli”, pp. 460-462;
    • „Khyal”, pp. 472-474;
    • „Khyat”, pp. 474-475;
    • „Kushallabh”, pp. 492-493.

Guest lectures and seminars

Uniwersytet Jagielloński (Kraków), Osaka University (Japonia), Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität (Bonn, Niemcy), Birla Institute of Technology and Science, (Pilani, Indie), Rajasthani Academy (Indie)