All her academic career has been connected with the University of Warsaw, Department of Italian Studies, where she was appointed Assistant Professor. Research and Schollarship of research rhetoric, discourse analysis, pragmatics, theory of argumentation, methodology of language sciences, methodology of foreign languages teaching. Specific foci of research: rhetoric in the transmission of knowledge; rhetorical literacy; professional and expert communication; persuasion and self-persuasion; ideologies and critical discourse; creativity and teaching; humor and rhetoric. She accomplished several research stays at leading universities in Italy and France. She has also gained international teaching and lecturing experience. At present she serves as president of the Polish Rhetoric Society. Maria Zaleska obtained her MA summa cum laude in Italian Philology, graduating from the Department of Italian Studies, University of Warsaw (1991). Her Ph.D. thesis Gli usi modali dell’indicativo nell’italiano parlato [“Modal uses of indicative in spoken Italian”] was defended at the University of Warsaw (2001). Her habilitation thesis (Retorica della linguistica. Scienza, struttura, scrittura [“Rhetoric of linguistics. Science, structure, writing literacy”]) was published in 2014.

E-mail: maria.m.zaleska@gmail.com