Departments
Department of Political Thought and Culture’s History
The Department was established in 1997 thanks to the initiative of prof. Roman Wapiński. It was created by prof. Wapiński’s students and closest colleagues.
Current academics in the Department:
- prof. UG, dr hab. Grzegorz Berendt
- prof. UG. dr hab Arkadiusz Janicki
- prof. dr hab. Zbigniew Opacki
- prof. dr hab. Tadeusz Stegner - kierownik Zakładu
- dr Piotr Koprowski
Main topics of research:
- the history of Polish thought and political culture, changes in public awareness
- religious relations on Polish lands in XIX and XX centuries
- the history of relations between nations inhabiting the territories of the former Republic
- everyday life on Polish lands in XIX and XX centuries
The Department organizes scientific sessions and publishes collections of research. It has organized following scientific sessions in the past few years:
- 1998 Ukraine between the East and the West
On the verge of independence
- 1999 Polish people and their neighbors. Distance and merging of cultures. Part I
- 2000 1999 Polish people and their neighbors. Distance and merging of cultures. Part 2
Poland-Ukraine. People of Reconciliation
- 2001 The Republic’s Heritage. Distance and merging of cultures.
10 Years of Ukraine’s Independence
- 2002 In the Kitchen and at the Table. Distance and merging of cultures.
- 2007 Home- the meeting of private and public spheres in the XIX and XX centuries civilizational transformations.
- 2007 A Woman and the Media.
- 2008 II Republic with the sea in the background. A session dedicated to the memory of prof. Roman Wapiński.
- 2010 Our and not our sea.
- 2014 The Year 1914. What Poland, What world? The research interests of professor Roman Wapiński.
- 2018 The Year 1918 in my village, my town, my country, my world.
The most important publications: Polish people and their neighbors. Distance and merging of cultures. Part I, II, III., Gdańsk 2000, 2001, 2002, Between Oder and Dnieper. Religions and Nations, Part I. II, Gdańsk 1997, 2000, The Time of XX century- not only in the Polish perspective, Gdańsk 2000, On the Verge of Independence, Gdańsk 1999, Poland-Ukraine. People of Reconciliation, Gdańsk 2002, In the Kitchen and at the Table. Distance and merging of cultures, Gdańsk 2003 r. . Home- the meeting of private and public spheres in the XIX and XX centuries civilizational transformations, Gdańsk 2008, A Woman and the Media, Gdańsk 2008. Our and not our sea, Gdańsk 2011. Jaka Polska, Jaki świat? What Poland, What world? The research interests of professor Roman Wapiński, Gdańsk 2016.
Department of Modern Global History
The Department’s Profile:
The research and didactic activity of the Department’s employees focuses on global history in the 20th century. Prof. dr hab Mieczysław Nurek, who specialized in the history of British-Polish relations in the first half of the 20th century, was the creator and first head of the Department. The Department was also broadening research on the Baltic Sea region and decolonization processes in Africa. Since 2015, the work of the Department is managed by Anna Mazurkiewicz, the student of professor Nurek. Currently, American studies dominate as part of scientific research carried out by the Department’s academics. However, issues related to international relations, diplomacy history, various aspects of social history and history of culture in selected regions of the world are discussed during the didactic classes. Three prestigious international conferences were organized by the Department’s employees at the University of Gdańsk; dedicated to transatlantic migrations (2012), outside the radio activities of the Free Europe Committee, with the participation of the President of Estonia and the US Ambassador (2014) and recently World Congress on Polish Studies (2019), which became the largest conference organized by our Department. Our employees actively participate in the US exchange programs not only regularly conducting lectures and research on the other side of the globe, but also organizing various forms of exchange with American students. Before the Covid-19 Pandemic, students from the USA regularly visited Gdańsk for several days. In the current academic year, we organized two virtual exchange programs. The first one was concerned with III year History students preparing a joint project with students from the University of Michigan-Dearborn. The second was a program of 9 online sessions with the participation of Valdosta State University students. The meetings that are scheduled for three weeks of May 2021 were prepared in cooperation with PhD students from the Historical Faculty of UG and the Faculty of Languages UG. The Department’s academics also perform the function of student exchange coordinators under the Erasmus program. Currently, there are six PhD students in the Department, including six graduate students form the Doctoral School of Humanities and Social Sciences at UG.
Employees:
Dr hab. Anna Mazurkiewicz, prof. UG
Mazurkiewicz is the author of monographs regarding American and Polish relations after World War II and devoted to the experience of Central European political refugees. Her work “Political Refugees from Central and Eastern Europe in the American Cold War Politics, 1948-1954” (Warszawa-Gdańsk, 2016) won the title of the best, foreign language book on the history of the United States (Willi Paul Adams Award, 2019) awarded by the Organization of American Historians. In 2020, DeGruyter published her latest work devoted to the history of the Assembly of Captive European Nations – the organization financed by the US Free Europe Committee. Mazurkiewicz is also an editor of four collective works devoted to migration issues, four of which were published outside Poland. A scholarship holder of the Fulbright Commission (Stanford University), Kościuszko Foundation (University of Minnesota), Visegrad Fund (Central European University), American Polish Research Fellowship (University of Notre Dame). A lecturer at American universities – State University of New York at Buffalo, Valdosta State University (USA) – as a scholarship holder of the Kościuszko Foundation. The president of the Polish American Historical Association (2017-2018). In 2013-2016, the vice president of this American organization. A member of the Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies, the Polish Historical Society, the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Commission for the Studies on Polish Diaspora, the Committee for Research on Migration of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The Fulbright Ambassador in Gdańsk, a mentor in Top Minds program. A laureate of many awards. In 2006, Mazurkiewicz was honored with the main prize of the National Cultural Center for the best doctoral thesis on historical sciences. Awarded with the Medal of the National Education Commission (2014), and Mieczysław Haiman Medal by the Polish American Historical Association (2019) and others.
Dr hab. Przemysław Różański, prof. UG
The subject of research conducted by Różański is the policy of the United States of America towards Nazi Germany’s genocide of Jews in occupied Poland, 1939-1945. Różański examines the US relations to “the final solution” and persecution of the Jewish population preceding the industrial genocide in the death chambers. The aim of Różański’s current project is to determine how the location of the Jewish minority in the area of Poland occupied by the German Reich from September 1, 1939, was perceived in the United States and what initiatives (or lack thereof) were taken by the USA and American Jewish population to help persecuted followers of Judaism, derange the German plans of annihilation of the Jewish community. Różański is a scholarship holder of the Polish American Research Fellowship (Notre Dame University, USA) and an active participant in many international conferences.
Dr Zbigniew Landowski-
A graduate of Arabic studies, explores the modern history of oriental studies (including Gdańsk), cultures and confessions of the East, region studies and “atypical” tourism. Landowski is also interested in art history and everyday life in Asia in all its manifestations, especially music and traditional clothing, and a broader-cultural image of the world (in religious, ethnological, and regional perspective) in modern history. In case of Islam, Landowski focuses on the analysis of the forms of folk Islam present in Central Asia.
Dr Piotr Derengowski –
A researcher of racial discrimination against African Americans in the American army by the prism of military courts. Additionally, the participation of Poles in the Civil War is also in the sphere of his interests. Derengowski is finishing the edition of William Kossak’s journal, born in Gdańsk, a cartographer and at the same time the commander of the pontoon-bridge column serving under Sherman’s orders. Simultaneously, he is preparing for a publication of a work devoted to the Polish Brigade of Kacper Tochman, which was created in Louisiana.
Department of Polish and Global XIX Century History
The Department of Polish and Global XIX Century History in the Institute of History consists of five scholars. Since 2017, the Department has been chaired by prof. Krzysztof Lewalski.
The Department offers classes, discussion sessions, lectures and seminars to students in fields such as: History, Regional Studies and Historic Tourism, Religion Studies, Russian Philology, Kashubian Ethno-Philology Studies, Russian Studies and German Studies.
Besides the shared research interests of Polish and global XIX century history, each of the Department’s academics focuses on other specific research areas.
Prof. Iwona Sakowicz-Tebinka specializes in the history of Russia and Great Britain. Prof. Sakowicz-Tebinka is also interested in history of the press and travel literature, as well as the phenomenon of XIX century’s pilgrimage.
Dr Anna Łysiak-Łątkowska’s research topics are the socio-philosophical thought in the Age of Enlightenment, the Polish-French relations, French history and culture since the XVIII to the early XX century, and women’s social history and the moral matters of the XVIII and XIX centuries.
Dr Michalina Petelska studies the Polish-Scandinavian and Polish-Canadian relations, as well as the history of emigration from the Polish lands. Dr Petelska is also interested in issues related to Museology.
Dr Tomasz Rembalski focuses on issues related to social and economic history, especially the matters of XIX century Kashubian nobility and the Kashubian-Pomeranian country of the early XX century. Dr Rembalski is also interested in regional issues, genealogy, and editing historical sources.
Prof. Krzysztof Lewalski studies religious issues on Polish lands in XIX and XX centuries, especially the relation of Christian Churches to the Jewish matter, Polish-Jewish relations, the history of Roman-Catholic Church in the Kingdom of Poland and Russia in XIX and XX centuries, as well as issues of everyday life of clergy and memoirs’ editing. Additionally, prof. Lewalski is interested in secularization of Christianity in a historical perspective.
Departments
Institute of History:
Institute of History of Art:
Institute of Archeology and Ethnology: