Schedule 2021/2022
The annual programme consists of a series of 6 open lecture meetings and 6 seminar meetings for the programme participants only.
WINTER SEMESTER
Cartography of modernity – where is Poland on the world map?
LECTURE
3.12.2021 | JOSEPH CONRAD TODAY
Prof. Robert Hampson | Royal Holloway, University of London
What does Joseph Conrad’s name really mean today? The question, although seemingly simple, gets more complicated the more we look at the position and popularity of Conrad in different countries and various epochs. He was a world-wide writer, present in cultures of numerous countries. While working on board of sailing ships, Conrad himself was able to observe with his own eyes the rapidly modernising reality, which is reflected in the novel “Nostromo”. Conrad carefully watched the birth of globalisation, but he was also aware of the importance of a deep understanding of history, which he made the main theme of, among others, his “Napoleonic novels”. The writer did not lose his political sense either, which is confirmed by the lesser-known essay “Autocracy and War”. All these factors create a multiple and ambiguous portrait of Conrad. The man whom we know by name. But do we understand his message?
SEMINAR
15.12.2021 | “WILL WE BE POLES”? POLISH WAYS OF LIFE AND THE END OF THE END OF HISTORY
Prof. Marek Cichocki | Collegium Civitas
“The end of history” is being fulfilled before our eyes these days. History as such is not ending, and historical processes still continue. However, the European civilisational project, which has its origins in the early 19th century, is being completed and exhausted. European modernity has designed itself as the ultimate fulfilment of the historical process, and in that sense, it is coming to its end. The place of Poland and Poles in that process has always been exceptional. In the sense that the very project did not provide for Poland’s place in the modernity. Nevertheless, Poland did not perish and managed to reach the “end of history”. What is it about the Polish way of life that enabled Poles to survive the 19th and 20th centuries? Is there something in the Polish way of life that will allow Poles to survive the end of history? This attempt to face the challenges of the future must begin with a journey to the sources of the project of modern civilisation.
LECTURE
12.01.2022 | POLISH ROAD TO MODERNITY – ORDINARY OR EXCEPTIONAL?
Prof. Tomasz Kizwalter | University of Warsaw
The answer to the title question can be given as follows: basically ordinary, but also specific (as any such state-national road is). The main problems that arose on it were of a universal nature, however, their particular shape was influenced by specific Polish conditions. Polish modernity is rooted in the transformation of the social, economic and cultural legacy of the First Republic of Poland. The transformation was difficult and, in many cases, painful, carried out in definitely unfavourable political conditions. At the forefront there was the issue of collective identity and its redefinition in the face of social democratisation, as well as the agrarian question, i.e., the increasingly evident necessity to transform the socio-economic relations in agriculture. Those two major issues placed Poland on the European and world map of the modernisation processes.
SEMINAR
24.01.2022 | POLISH POP CULTURE IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT
AUTHOR’S MEETING
16.02.2022 | POLISH MODERNITY FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF LITERATURE
SEMINAR
2.03.2022 | POLISH HISTORICAL EXPERIENCE – LOCAL OR UNIVERSAL?
SUMMER SEMESTER
Modernity and capitalism – the case of Poland
LECTURE
16.03.2022 | POLAND – AN AUTONOMOUS FORM OR IMITATION OF THE WEST?
SEMINAR
30.03.2021 | CREATING MODERNITY – LITERARY IMAGES OF THE BIRTH OF POLISH CAPITALISM AFTER 1989
LECTURE
13.04.2022 | CAPITALISM ON THE TURN? DOES IT NEED TO BE RECONSIDERED?
SEMINAR
27.04.2022 | SPIRITUAL STATE OF CAPITALISM – THE DECLINE OR BOOM?
DEBATE
11.05.2022 | WHERE IS POLAND ON THE WORLD ECONOMIC MAP? MICRO AND MACRO ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES
SEMINAR
27.05.2022 | THE TRANSFORMATION EXPERIENCE – POLISH TRANSFORMATION FROM A LOCAL PERSPECTIVE
SUMMER SCHOOL
July 2021
Lecture and seminar venue: „Marzyciele i Rzemieślnicy. Dom Innowacji Społecznych”, Dom Towarowy Braci Jabłkowskich (3rd fl.), 25 Bracka Street, Warsaw.
Time: 18.00 – 21.00.
* Dates of individual meetings are subject to change. Names of speakers and detailed descriptions of subsequent thematic blocks will be published successively.
Media patrons: Kwartalnik Literacki Wyspa i Instytut Literatury.