Eastern Studies

Full-time undergraduate and graduate studies in Polish.

1. Humanities and Social Sciences
2. Disciplines: in the field of humanities: history, cultural and religious studies, linguistics. In the field of social sciences: sociology, security studies, socio-economic geography, and spatial management. Leading discipline: history, political science, and administration.

3. Unique program features:

Eastern Studies is the first comprehensive interdisciplinary undergraduate university program in Poland dedicated to Eastern issues. It is adapted to global development trends concerning the creation of so-called “area studies.”

Just as the activities of the Center for East European Studies go beyond the realm of science and teaching, the specificity of Eastern Studies extends beyond a strictly academic dimension, as it is also rooted in its social utility. It is unnecessary to emphasize the role and importance of the Eastern direction for Polish foreign policy and Poland’s national interest. In recent years, there has also been a growing interest in this area within the European Union in terms of political, economic, military, and social aspects. There is no doubt that the increase in interest translates into a growing demand for well-educated and prepared specialists in this region’s issues. Long-standing experience in direct relations and shared historical destinies opens up opportunities for Poland to play an important role in the European Union’s activities in this area. By providing educated experts and good specialists, Eastern Studies is an academic endeavor that serves the development of Poland and enhances its standing both in its immediate neighborhood and within the European Union.

A particular feature of the studies, unique in the country, is the skillful combination of teaching by outstanding scholars with significant research achievements and practitioners who have gained enormous experience by holding important positions in institutions dealing with the East, including serving in diplomatic and consular services in the countries of interest and working in major Polish analytical institutions.

Exciting opportunities are available to Eastern Studies students through several scholarship programs conducted and coordinated by the Center for East European Studies for individuals from the region of interest. Polish students have a unique chance to meet numerous colleagues from many countries and establish contacts that will bear fruit in the future. Alumni meetings, held every two years, also serve to maintain these contacts.

The Student Scientific Society SEW, together with the Center for East European Studies, organizes student-doctoral scientific conferences, during which students gain organizational skills and present their research findings. The best papers are published in the Center’s scientific journals, “Obóz” and “Nowy Prometeusz.”

4. Location of classes: Central Campus

Tyszkiewicz-Potocki Palace (Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28), Building at Oboźna 7 (entrance from Sewerynów Street)

5. Student internships, field trips.

Eastern Studies students are not required to undergo internships. However, the Center supports student participation in internships through a system of subsidizing trips for foreign internships at Polish diplomatic missions, international institutions, scientific, museum, and cultural institutions. At the beginning of the academic year, the rules for financial support and application are announced. In cooperation with the Pedagogical University in Gori (Georgia), students can participate in the Georgian Literary and Historical Studies Summer School in Gori, with most costs covered by both universities. Through close cooperation with numerous Polish institutions, the Center supports students in their efforts to secure internships in them. The undergraduate study program includes a scientific tour of the region’s countries – a one-week tour in the third year. The Center significantly covers the tour costs in accordance with the appropriate principles.

The Center organizes and finances camps focused on the renovation of Polish cemeteries in the Kresy region. The current study program is available on the website studium.uw.edu.pl/licencjackie-studia-wschodnie

The organizational and intellectual roots of Studium Europy Wschodniej (the Centre for East European Studies) go back to the underground journal Obóz (the Polish word for ‘Camp’, as in Communist camp) established in 1981 and edited throughout the 1980s by Jerzy Targalski, with a small, sometimes changing group which included Andrzej Ananicz, Kazimierz Stembrowicz, Marek Pernal, Wojciech Maziarski, Jan Malicki, Robert Bogdański, and later also Leszek Hensel, Krzysztof Dąbnicki, Jolanta Sierakowska-Dyndo, Grażyna Gytybow, and Iwanyczo Gytybow. From its inception, Obóz, true to its description, focused on the “problems of nations in the Communist bloc.”

In 1990, thanks to the kindness of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the University of Warsaw, the Seminar for Nationality Problems of the Soviet Union and Central & Eastern Europe was established under the academic supervision of Prof. Tadeusz Majda, an outstanding expert on Turkish issues. This new Seminar was initiated by Andrzej Ananicz and Jan Malicki, and supported by Tadeusz Majda. Somewhat later, after the fall of the USSR, its name was changed to Centre for East European and Central Asian Studies and after a time, to Centre for East European Studies (Studium Europy Wschodniej).

At first, the Centre only organized annual seminar and open lectures. Despite a difficult first few years, its contribution to Eastern issues was recognized by numerous renowned lecturers, who generously offered their expertise free of charge. One of them was Prof. Marek Sliwiński, the first to regularly come to lecture at the Centre while still employed as a lecturer at the University of Geneva.

The East European Summer School is the Centre’s earliest initiative. It was established in 1991 and started offering courses as part of a three-week international visiting scholarship programme in 1992. Every year in July, the Summer School holds academic sessions for younger generation researchers from former Soviet republics and Central Europe. The programme focuses on the region’s history and its contemporary affairs.

The crowning achievement of the work of the Centre’s staff was the introduction in 1998 of second-cycle “Eastern Studies” study programme. Soon “Postgraduate Eastern Studies” were created and in the academic year 2012/2013, the Centre started the first-cycle “Eastern Studies” study programme.

A significant part of the Centre’s activity is dedicated to academic conferences focused on the most important issues in the region – more notably “WEEC – Warsaw East European Conference,” “St. Grigol Peradze Caucasus Sessions,” and “Promethean Conference.” The Centre – either independently or in cooperation with others – publishes: Przegląd Wschodni, Obóz, Pro Georgia, Nowy Prometeusz, Warsaw East European Review, Rocznik Centrum Studiów Białoruskich. Biełaruski Historycznyj Ahliad, and Polskii Studii (2012-2020). It also edits the Internet publication BIS – the Centre’s information bulletin dedicated to Eastern issues. In addition, the Centre coordinates numerous scholarship programmes, more notably: Konstanty Kalinowski Scholarship Programme and the Scholarship Programme for Young Scholars. As of 2006, the Caucasian Bureau has been functioning at Tbilisi State University within the framework of the Centre, to support Caucasian-Polish academic collaboration. In 2015, a Kyiv Bureau was established at Kyiv Mohyla Academy, followed by the Balkan, Transnistria, and Vilnius Bureaus. In 2011, the Centre launched a second-cycle “East European Studies” programme in Ukraine, with the participation of students from Kyiv Mohyla Academy, Prykarpattya National University in Lvano-Frankivsk, and National University “Ostroh Academy.”