A graduate of Cambridge University where he studied English Literature, Mark has 33 years of experience in the best schools in the private sector in the UK. He taught at Marlborough (whose alumni include the Duchess of Cambridge and the Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice); Eton (where he taught, among others, Damian Lewis of Homeland and Billions fame) as well as a number of future government ministers, and Radley, where he was both Head of English and Director of University Entrance. He has 11 years experience as the Head of College at Clifton, a school of 1250 pupils and an annual turnover of £30 million. Mark came to Warsaw every year as part of a team to interview Polish scholarship candidates for places at top schools in the UK. Those experiences convinced him that Warsaw needed a school, modelled on the best schools and universities in the UK, for its many gifted and talented pupils. Akademeia High School is that school. 

dr Karolina Watras completed her A Levels at the Cheltenham Ladies’ College in the UK. She received her undergraduate degree in History of Art from Christ’s College, Cambridge. Karolina studied Gothic Architecture for a Masters at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London and subsequently returned to Cambridge to pursue her MPhil and doctoral research at Jesus College.

Dr Watras has worked at the University of Cambridge as a supervisor and Affiliated Lecturer at the Department of History of Art, Acting Director of Studies at Jesus and Trinity Colleges, and course leader at the Institute of Continuing Education. She returned to Poland and joined Akademeia in 2014.

Dr Watras’s broader interests include Surrealism, transregional exchanges between 20th century avant-gardes, artist’s books, art under totalitarian regimes, and twentieth century aesthetic theory. Throughout her academic research and teaching dr Watras has always followed an interdisciplinary approach, which informs her work as the Head of the Humanities Department and which she strives to instill in her students.