Prof. Iwona Sadowska has taught at Georgetown University since 2005 and brings over a decade of experience in linguistics and cultural studies. She teaches Polish and Russian language, Slavic literature, and film studies at Georgetown in the Department of Slavic Languages and with the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies (CERES), Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. Sadowska serves as an elected member of the Georgetown University Faculty Senate for the 2011-2014 term. She has just completed a book under contract with Routledge Press that was published in 2012. At 647 pages in length, Polish: A Comprehensive Grammar is the most extensive description of the Polish language system published internationally and is unique in addressing gender issues in the language. Sadowska was honored at the 6th and 7th Annual Georgetown College Honors ceremonies (in 2012 and 2013, respectively) for having received multiple nominations by students who were asked to nominate faculty in the College who "they feel have shaped their Georgetown experience in a meaningful way." At Georgetown, she has led film screenings and discussions, language conversation hours, and guest lecture events, including with former Polish President and Georgetown Distinguished Scholar Aleksander Kwaśniewski and U.S. Ambassador to Poland Victor Ashe. [Listen to Amb. Ashe Discussion]

Sadowska did her graduate studies in Slavic languages and literature at the University of Gdańsk (Uniwersytet Gdański) in Gdańsk, Poland and was awarded a fellowship by the Polish Ministry of Education to study at the Pushkin Russian Language Institute (Государственный институт русского языка имени А.С. Пушкина) in Moscow, Russia. Her fields of interest include sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, Slavic literature, and film studies.

Sadowska has worked extensively with language schools in the Washington metropolitan area, overseeing instruction in over 40 languages for students from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Defense Language Institute, the U.S. Department of State, and other institutions. In her work, she has developed innovative curricula and teaching methodologies, trained instructors in language pedagogy, and run seminars on Russian, French, Spanish, and Portuguese language testing at the IMF to harmonize assessment methods and levels. She pioneered an intensive program at the IMF to train Spanish native speakers to serve as Portuguese to Spanish interpreters, and she has participated in the U.S. Government's Interagency Language Roundtable. She has run the Polish language program at the Polish Embassy in Washington, D.C., and she has extensive experience teaching introductory through advanced Russian and Polish, including to U.S. and other diplomats.

Professional Affiliations

• American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages (AATSEEL)
• Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES)
• Kościuszko Foundation
• Modern Language Association (MLA)
• Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America (PIASA)
• Polish Library, Washington, D.C.