Ohio State is in the process of revising websites and program materials to accurately reflect compliance with the law. While this work occurs, language referencing protected class status or other activities prohibited by Ohio Senate Bill 1 may still appear in some places. However, all programs and activities are being administered in compliance with federal and state law.

Welcome to Dr. Aleksandra Urzędowska . Spring 2026 Polish Fulbright Professor

January 6, 2026

Welcome to Dr. Aleksandra Urzędowska . Spring 2026 Polish Fulbright Professor

Dr. Urzędowska

Happy New Year from the SEELC! As the new semester nears, we hope you share our excitement in preparing for another year of shared learning experiences. 

As part of the new semester, we would like to introduce and invite you to welcome Dr. Aleksandra Urzędowska, Assistant Professor at the Department of Journalism and Visual Communication at the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Krakow. Dr. Urzędowska is joining us this semester as part of the continued partnership between the SEELC and the Polish Fulbright program and will be teaching Polish 5196: Genres of Digital Media this Spring and we hope you will join her their or at one of our many events in the coming months!

Please welcome Dr. Urzędowska and check out a brief introduction below!

If you ask Dr. Aleksandra Urzędowska where she comes from, the answer is immediate and unwavering: Poland. Kraków.
That’s where she was born, raised, and educated—and where her academic roots still run deep. 
 
Aleksandra is trained as both a Polish studies scholar and a journalist, a combination she has seamlessly brought together in her academic work in media linguistics. She is fascinated by how language behaves in media—especially once it enters the digital environment of social media, online journalism, and, perhaps most intriguingly, comment sections. In her research, comments are never “just comments”: they are micro-genres where emotions, opinions, identities, and values are negotiated in real time.
 
She loves teaching about media and journalistic genres, particularly their transformations in the digital age. One of her major research passions is digital reportage, understood as a hybrid, multimodal, and interactive genre. She has a special fondness for American digital reportage, which she follows closely with both scholarly curiosity and genuine enthusiasm.
 
Another key area of her research is the commentosphere—the dynamic communicative space created around media content through user comments. Aleksandra often jokes that she has turned spending time on social media into a fully legitimate academic lifestyle. And, importantly, she truly enjoys it.
 
Aleksandra has participated in numerous Erasmus exchanges across Europe, and international collaboration is a natural part of her academic life. For the past three years, she has served as a team leader in an international research group at her home university and is currently the principal investigator of a NAWA-funded international research project, focusing on digital media communication and user participation—especially commenting practices.
 
At Ohio State University, Dr. Urzędowska will teach: POLISH–INTSTDS 5196. Genres of Digital Media – Polish and European Perspectives
 
The course explores journalistic genres in the digital era from Polish, European, and American perspectives. Students will analyze social media, user-generated content, media ethics, and media literacy, as well as emerging forms of storytelling—from digital reportage to data-driven and immersive narratives. The course combines analysis, discussion, and practical reflection, showing how contemporary media function as spaces of meaning-making, emotion, and responsibility.
 
Her teaching style is open, dialogic, and decidedly anti-boring. Aleksandra likes it when things are happening, when there are many threads to follow and tasks to juggle. She is very open to people and the world around her, believing that media are best understood through shared discussion and diverse perspectives.
 
Outside of academia, she loves live music and regularly goes to concerts, enjoys long walks (often accompanied by new research ideas), and—somewhat unexpectedly—grows a plenty of avocado plants at home. She appreciates things that grow slowly but consistently.
 
If you are curious about how contemporary media work, why journalistic genres keep changing, and why the comment section might be the most revealing text of the day—this course is definitely for you.