Guide to the Andrew Debicki Collection

Personal Papers of Andrew Debicki, 1969-2003

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Andrew Debicki Collection, University Archives, PP 441, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas Libraries

Acquisition Information

Gift, Mary Elizabeth Debicki, 2006

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Restrictions

Restrictions on Access

None

Restrictions on Use

Spencer Library staff may determine use restrictions dependent on the physical condition of manuscript materials.

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Related Material

Consult library staff regarding the availability of related photographs, biographical files, and scrapbooks.

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INDEX TERMS

Organizations:

Subjects:

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BIOGRAPHY of Andrew Debicki

Andrew Debicki was a Professor of Spanish at the University of Kansas (KU). Debicki received his B.A. from Yale University in 1955 and his Ph.D. from Yale in 1960.

Debicki was born in Poland on June 28, 1934 and lived in Cuba from 1942-1949. He taught at Trinity College from 1957-1960, and was a Professor at Grinnell College from 1960-1968 before coming to the University of Kansas in 1968. He was named University Distinguished Professor in 1976. During his time at the University of Kansas, he served as Co-Director for the Center for Humanistic Studies, Director of the Hall Center for the Humanities (1989-1993), Vice-Chancellor for Research, Graduate Studies, and Public Service (1994-1996), and Dean of the Graduate School and International Programs (1996-2000). Debicki retired from administration in 2000, but remained on the faculty to teach and conduct research.

Debicki is the author and editor of many publications -- both books and articles -- in both Spanish and English. His monographs include Estudios sobre poesía española contemporánea (La generación de 1924-25) (1968) and Spanish Poetry of the Twentieth Century: Modernity and Beyond (1994).

Debicki held postdoctoral fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation (in both 1970 and 1980), the National Endowment for the Humanities (in 1992), and the National Humanities Center. He received the Balfour Jeffrey Research Award from the University of Kansas in 1984, and a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Residency in 1993. He was awarded the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages Award for Distinguished Service in the Profession in 1999. In 2002, Debicki was honored as a pioneer in modern Spanish poetry by an international group of poets and scholars, as a part of the KU Symposium "The Discovery of Poetry."

In 1998, Debicki and his wife, Mary Elizabeth Debicki, former director of KU's Office of Study Abroad, donated funds to the University of Kansas to establish the Mary Elizabeth and Andrew P. Debicki Graduate Fellowship Fund for graduate students in the humanities. Dr. Debicki died on January 20, 2005.

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SCOPE and CONTENTS

The Andrew Debicki collection of personal papers contains teaching materials and notes from his professorship in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, his curriculum vitae, speeches, and correspondence with students, colleagues, and publishers.

The collection also contains reprints and photocopies of articles of both research and teaching interest to Debicki, articles and book reviews written by and about Debicki, and materials from conferences at which he presented papers. The articles, materials, and book reviews are primarily related to the history and criticism of 20th-century Spanish poetry, with the exception of a series of articles on poetry from the "Siglo de Oro," (16th and 17th century Spain) and are primarily organized by author.

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COLLECTION DESCRIPTION