On October 19-22, the 4th Congress of International Researchers of Polish History takes place in Kraków. “There are nearly 30 discussion panels that represent an extraordinary wealth of perspectives and intellectual inspirations”, the press spokesman for the Polish History Museum Dr. Michał Przeperski said. The series of conferences, held every five years, was initiated by Cracow historians. The meetings bring together researchers from all over the world interested in Polish the history, culture, and language. The main goal of the conference is to foster dialogue, exchange experience and promote research into the history of Poland.
Since 2007, researchers from various disciplines have been taking part in lectures, meetings and discussions on the history and culture of Poland every five years. The organizer of the Congress is the Polish Historical Society together with the Jagiellonian University, the Pedagogical University of Kraków , the Polish History Museum, Historical Museum of the City of Kraków and the International Cultural Center. The organization of the event is supported by the Ministry of Education and Science and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
This year, the theme of the Congress is “meetings of cultures”. The organisers would like to look at the history of Polish lands through the prism of relations and interactions between various long-term cultural trends and patterns.
“The main goal is to meet researchers: not only historians, but also representatives of other fields who deal with the history of Poland on a daily basis. In a joint dialogue, dispute, exchange of inspiration, new approaches to already well-researched problems will be born, and the current findings will also be questioned. New research projects will also emerge that will allow us to tell about the Polish historical experience all over the world, because it is certainly worth it”, the press spokesman for the Polish History Museum Dr. Michał Przeperski said.
By inviting researchers interested in the history of Poland to Kraków: historians, archaeologists, art historians, anthropologists, sociologists, literary scholars, linguists, and cultural scientists, the organisers would like to address questions about the dynamics, scale and complexity of these interactions, the main directions of their transmission and retransmission, and to examine the impact of the meetings of cultures on the history of Poland.
The Congress includes the presentation of awards within the framework of the fourth edition of the “Pro Historia Polonorum” competition for the best foreign book on the history of Poland and Poles or the Central European region (including the Polish history) published in a foreign publication and foreign language between 2017 and 2021 by researchers affiliated with foreign scientific institutions. Previous winners of the Award were Timothy Snyder, Antony Polonsky, and Robert Frost.
The programme of the congress is available its official website, together with information on various accompanying cultural events.