Workshop focused on applying the methodology of entangled history to the history of Poland
This symposium is the second workshop out of a series of seminars in a collaborative project on “The Entangled History of Poland” supported by the “Excellence Initiative – Research University” programme of the Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Masaryk Institute and Archives of the Czech Academy of Sciences and the Centre for Polish-Lithuanian Studies, University of Aberdeen. The aim of the project is to apply the methodology of entangled history to the history of Poland, defined as the histories of the people living within the borders of the modern Republic of Poland as well as the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, regardless of ethnicity.
Adopting the concept of 'entangled history' will facilitate extensive research in the field of Polish and Central European history, enabling a better understanding of phenomena such as institutional transfers and forms of organisation of social life, long-distance trade, international political contacts, intellectual networks, changes in scientific and religious discourses, cultural interactions and biographical metamorphoses. We will specifically focus on the context and circumstances of content reception, selection mechanisms, and strategies applied during the adaptation of new phenomena into the native culture. This approach can be summarized with three words: relationships, interactions, and circulation.
By considering not only equal and harmonious relations but also asymmetric histories, including failed transfers, we aim to draw a fuller picture of interactions between cultures, groups, or societies in the past and present. The history of Poland constructed in this way will encompass simultaneous and intersecting processes on a global scale, as well as diachronic regional phenomena. It will be based on the study of political, economic, intellectual, and artistic networks anchored in a specific time and space, which are also subject to dynamic and inevitable changes as a result of mutual multidirectional contacts.
The speakers will pre-circulate the first drafts of their papers before the symposium to be presented and discussed during the workshop. In order to get access to the papers, please write an email to marcin.jarzabek@uj.edu.pl. Texts presented in the seminar will eventually compose a collected volume of studies on the entangled history of Poland.
On 15th of January at 10 am, Marcin Jarząbek from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow will held an open lecture Cultural transfer and the idea of purity – nationalization and segregation attempt of Central European cultural diversity (19th c.–1939). It will also be possible to join the lecture online via Zoom.
Sponsored by:
Czechoslovak-Polish Scholarly Entanglements in the Cold War Between High Politics and Individual Strategies (GA ČR GF21-45624L)
Lumina quaeruntur: “Images of science” in Czechoslovakia 1918–1945–1968 (LQ300772201)
“Excellence Initiative – Research University” programme of the Jagiellonian University, Cracow
