Dr Waldemar Cudny gained his education in Poland, at the Faculty of Geographical Sciences, University of Łódź. He received the PhD degree in Earth Sciences, in the field of socio-economic geography in 2004 and the MA degree in Geography, in the field of spatial economy and spatial urban planning in 1999. Since 2005, he has been employed as an assistant professor at the Institute of Tourism and Economic Development, in the Tomaszów Mazowiecki branch of the University of Łódź. Dr Waldemar Cudny specialises in several main research themes. The first of them is the analysis of the socio-economic and spatial transformations taking place in European cities. The other one are issues related to urban culture, festivals and events. He investigated the role of festivals in the socio – economic development of urban areas and in creation of tourism. In the last years Dr Waldemar Cudny was involved in new research project devoted to the use of cars and spaces connected with cars production, useand presentation in creation of tourism phenomena. For the purposes of this research he cooperated with large car manufacturers (e.g.Volkswagen, Porsche, Audi, Lamborghini) as well as with different private and public institutions (e.g. museums, race tracks etc.). By 2016, Dr Cudny has published (individually and as a co-author) the total of over 50 reviewed scientific works in the form of books, articles, and chapters in monographs. The last book, published by Springer Nature in 2016, was devoted to the festivalisation of urban spaces. Dr Cudny is also an experienced academic teacher. In his career so far, he has taught subjects related to urban, cultural geography and tourism. In recent years, he has done research and conducted classes at foreign universities,e.g. the Comenius University in Bratislava (Slovakia), the Catholic University of Eichstätt- Ingolstadt and Justus Liebig-Universität in Giessen (Germany), Umea University (Sweden)and Birmingham University (Great Britain).
