Katarzyna
TryczyńskaPhD

From language research to professional practice

Her academic path began with Dutch philology at the University of Wrocław, where she studied from 2000 to 2005. She also studied at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in 2003–2004, developing her knowledge of linguistics, literature and translation alongside first-hand experience of life in the Netherlands.

From 2006 to 2025, she was associated with the University of Wrocław's Department of Dutch Studies as an assistant professor. During that period, her work brought together research, teaching and academic leadership. She developed courses in language, specialized communication, terminology and translation, supervised undergraduate and master's students and worked in the Committee for the Quality of Higher Education. A visiting research stay at Utrecht University in 2009 formed part of her international academic experience. From 2013 to 2020, she also headed the Centre for Culture of Low Countries at the University of Wrocław.

In 2014, she earned her doctorate in linguistics and translation studies, defending her dissertation with distinction. Her research examined Dutch translations of contemporary Polish novels, focusing on how translators handle culture-specific items. It involved comparing texts closely and examining the decisions through which literature takes on meaning for readers in another language.

Her subsequent research extended into legal terminology and translation of specialized texts. She returned to Utrecht University as a visiting researcher in 2015 and worked as a visiting researcher at KU Leuven's Antwerp campus in 2017 and 2019. A Bekker programme award supported her 2019 research on terminology and the translation of Polish and Dutch labour-law texts. This work required attention to the relationship between language and legal systems.

In 2021, she co-authored a study with Prof. Frieda Steurs on European labour law and its challenges for multilingual terminology and translation. Drawing on European, Polish, Dutch and Belgian contexts, the paper examined problems that arise when legal concepts cross linguistic and institutional boundaries. Her wider academic collaborations have included the University of Vienna, University of Belgrade, Comenius University Bratislava, the Dutch Language Union (Nederlandse Taalunie), the Embassy of the Netherlands and the Representation of Flanders in Poland.

She began exploring AI in 2022 and uses it in content analysis and generation. Her background in research and translation provides a context for her interest in these tools: how to assess a translation and interpretation, use terminology properly, check a source and judge whether a text communicates what its author intends and pay attention to cultural differences in communication. It resulted in a paper on AI-supported Translation Tools for Legal Texts: A Comparative Analysis which she co-authored with Andrzej Greńczuk and Prof. Iwona Chomiak-Orsa. In her writing, she examines the relationship between useful assistance and the understanding a person needs to retain.

In 2023, she co-founded the PETRA-NED network for literary translation with Dr Bojana Budimir and Dr Goedele De Sterck. The international network is a platform for teachers of literary translation from Dutch to exchange experience and develop learning materials based on the PETRA-E framework. It continues a central concern of her academic work: how translators develop the knowledge, skills and judgement their profession requires.

Today, she applies this academic foundation through her business activities Talencentrum and Zaken in Polen. At Talencentrum, her work combines language education with consulting for businesses: assessing communication needs, organising specialist terminology, improving translation processes and preparing professionals for presentations and negotiations with attention to language and cultural differences. Her teaching draws on more than twenty years of experience and includes Dutch, English and Polish as a foreign language.

Through Zaken in Polen, she combines research skills, linguistic precision and cultural understanding to support Dutch-speaking clients operating in Poland. She analyses markets and potential partners, helps adapt proposals and documentation to the Polish context, and coordinates local projects and specialists. The habits of scholarly work—examining evidence, identifying ambiguity and distinguishing facts from assumptions—inform how she approaches business questions. Her language expertise supports clear communication between teams, while her organisational work connects analysis with practical implementation.

For The Next Convergence, she brings this experience of research, teaching and professional practice to the question of how people will work and learn with AI. Her essay on university life asks where assistance supports understanding, and where it begins to replace the thinking and practice through which understanding develops.