Conferences

PAST CONFERENCES

The Faculty of History at the University of Gdańsk hosted a number of prestigious conferences, symposia, and congresses organized in cooperation with international organizations. Each year a variety of thematic conferences are organized at the Faculty of History with at least one a year which is international. Among the most memorable and impactful international conferences, co-organized by our Faculty with prominent foreign and domestic partners there were:

8-9 October 2021: Gdańsk-Danzig-Gduńsk within the Baltic Borderlands

This conference was inspired by the Faculty of History’s joining the Baltic Geopolitics Network organized and hosted by Cambridge University (UK). The event was organized by: the International Border Studies Center of the University of Gdańsk, the Faculty of History of the University of Gdańsk, the University of Cambridge, the Center for Geopolitics UC, the European Solidarity Center, the Lech Wałęsa Institute Foundation, the Gdańsk Museum and the Gdańsk Shakespeare Theater. Among the conference guests there were President Lech Wałęsa, prof. Norman Davies - remotely, prof. Brendan Simms and Charles Clarke, former British Minister of the Interior and two British diplomats.

Selected papers were published in Studia Historica Gednanesnia, vol. 13 (2022).

Program of the conference available at the website of the International Border Studies Center UG.

16-18 September 2021: Borderland. Change and Continuity in the Face of Otherness

This conference marked the tenth jubilee conference of the Committee for Migration Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences (KBnM PAN). It was organized in cooperation with the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Emigration Museum in Gdynia. The annual conference of the Committee for Migration Research of PAN is the largest scientific event dedicated to migration, which integrates the dispersed and interdisciplinary milieu of Polish researchers and contributes to the dissemination of their scientific achievements. The conference program included a plenary session and forty‑three thematic sessions organized in seven (at times eight) concurrent panels. The conference was held in a hybrid formula, with 155 people coming to the conference in the Tri‑City, and 30, using the MSTEAMS platform to attend remotely. In total, 166 people delivered lectures including migration researchers from all over Poland, but also from the USA, Great Britain, Luxembourg, and Germany. The conference program included three methodological workshops for young researchers of migration

Conference website.

A printed summary of the conference is available in English in the 2022 issue of Studia Historica Gedanensia (ed. Alexander Drost and Anna Mazurkiewicz).

7-9 April 2021: The Fourth Biennial Conference of the Medieval Central Europe Research Network, MECERN

After successful conferences in Budapest (2014), Olomouc (2016) and Zagreb (2018), the Fourth Biennial Conference of MECERN (http://mecern.eu/) examined the building of networks in Central Europe, as well as between Central Europe and other parts of Europe and the wider world.

Program.

14-16 June 2019: Seventh World Congress on Polish Studies

The theme of this congress was: “Anniversaries,” and thus it was most fitting to place it within the program of celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the incorporation of the University of Gdańsk. The many anniversaries coalescing in 2019 facilitated an amazing program of 77 concurrent. Historians, sociologists, economists, and literary experts debated on issues related, but not limited to the 100th anniversary of Polish-American diplomatic relations, the 80th-anniversary of the outbreak of WWII, the 30th anniversary of the Polish transformation and the fall of the Berlin Wall, the 30th anniversary of Poland’s accession to NATO (and the 70th anniversary of the founding of the alliance), 15th anniversary of Poland’s accession to the EU, as well as the 450th anniversary of the Union of Lublin. The number of participants overshadowed any previously organized congresses in both PIASA and our Faculty’s history (259 participants, including 86 from the USA, 142 from Poland, and others coming from Canada, Western Europe and Asia). The keynote speakers included: prof. Jan Kubik (Rutgers University, USA & University College London, UK) and prof. Dariusz Stola (Instytut Studiów Politycznych PAN). This Congress was organized jointly by the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America, Inc. and the UG Faculty of History and supported by a grant from the Embassy of the United States of America, and in-kind support from the Emigration Museum in Gdynia, Museum of Gdańsk. Among the partners of this academic meeting, there were: U.S. State Department Exchange Programs Alumni Association, the Polish-American Historical Association, Polish-American Fulbright Commission (also celebrating its 60th anniversary with a special session dedicated to the history of this program in Poland), and our Faculty’s Student Scientific Club.

A printed summary of the Congress is available in Polish, the 2020 issue of Studia Historica Gedanensia (ed. Rafał Kubicki).

Archived program.

5-6 September 2014: From Free Europe to Free Poland: Free Europe Committee during the Cold War

This symposium brought together outstanding scholars of the Cold War who specialize in American psychological warfare, state-private networks, international broadcasting and exile political activities. The focus of the meeting was an examination of the work of the National Committee for a Free Europe / Free Europe Committee. The Ug was honored to host the President of Estonia and the American Ambassador as VIP keynote speakers of the Symposium. The event was co-sponsored by the UG, the European Solidarity Center, and the Institute of National Remembrance, with assistance from the Wilson Center (USA), Leiden University, Helena History Press, Hoover Institution Archives (Stanford, USA), Open Society Archives, and the Polish Radio.

A detailed report of proceedings is available at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington D.C. (authored by A. Ross Johnson).

A video recording of the five panels is available: Panel 1; Panel 2; Panel 3; Panel 4; Panel 5; U.S. Ambassador Stephen Mull; President of Estonia Thomas Hendrik Ilves

31 May–3 June 2012: East Central Europe in Exile: Patterns of Transatlantic Migrations

The Faculty of History partnered with: the Polish American Historical Association, the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Charles University of Prague, the Historical Archives of the Hungarian State Security, the Hungarian Cultural Institute in Warsaw, and the Museum of Emigration in Gdynia. Fifty scholars from thirteen countries came to present their papers in Gdańsk. This conference was made possible by the endorsement from the Visegrad Fund. It resulted in two volumes published by Cambridge Scholar Publishers. This publication won the Oskar Halecki Award from the Polish American Historical Association.

Vol. 1: https://www.cambridgescholars.com/product/978-1-4438-4725-4

Vol. 2: https://www.cambridgescholars.com/product/978-1-4438-4891-6