50 years of Cultural Studies [PHOTO]
The year 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the first cultural studies in Poland at the University of Wrocław. On this occasion, the Institute of Cultural Studies of the University of Wrocław has organised a number of events.
We would like to invite you to participate on 13 June 2022 at 12:00 in the ceremonial unveiling of a plaque commemorating Professor Stanisław Pietraszko, long-standing director of the Institute of Cultural Studies and founder of the faculty. The plaque will be placed on the wall of the building at ul. Szewska 50/51 in Wrocław. The event will be accompanied by a performance of QUALITY VALUES by a cultural studies rap group led by Prof. Mirosław Kocur.
Stanisław Pietraszko graduated in Polish Studies from the University of Wrocław in 1951. He was a student of Tadeusz Mikulski, one of the most eminent scholars of the Polish Enlightenment, who also studied the issues of the so-called “Regained Territories”, with particular emphasis on the cultural life of Wrocław. Pietraszko took his doctoral dissertation under his supervision in 1956 on the basis of his research in literary studies. This resulted in a critical study of The Rhyming Art by Franciszek K. Dmochowski. At the same time, S. Pietraszko began to take a broader interest in cultural issues, which was reflected in articles published in the monthlies “Nowe Sygnały” and “Odra”. After the publication of his monumental work „Doktryna literacka polskiego klasycyzmu” (“Literary doctrine of Polish classicism”) in 1966 (which was the basis of his habilitation proceedings), he devoted himself fully to analyses in the field of cultural theory, as well as to the activities carried out within the Interdepartmental Cultural and Educational Study Unit that he founded. In 1972 the unit changed its name to the Inter-Faculty Study of Contemporary Culture and began enrolling the first students of cultural studies in Poland. He headed Wrocław’s cultural studies department for over a quarter of a century. He died in 2010.
In his concept Pietraszko assumed that culture exists objectively and is something separate from the social and civilisational order. Culture presents itself as a way of life of people based on their relation to values. It is a relatively autonomous part of the human universe, realising itself in human behaviour and products. S. Pietraszko was even inclined to see in cultural studies the “theoretical physics” of the humanities.
Also on 13 June, the annual Prof. Stanisław Pietraszko Lectures and Seminars will be inaugurated. At 17:00, in room no. 208, ul. Szewska 36, Prof. Dorota Głowacka from the University of King’s College in Halifax will deliver the inaugural lecture entitled “The Lost World>> of Eastern European Jews in the perspective of the concept of <<cultural genocide>> of indigenous peoples”.
On 23 June from 15:00 the annual CULTURNATIVE will take place. On that day, lecture halls will be transformed into exhibition spaces, where projects prepared by students of cultural studies will be presented. We will look at the transformations of our lives in social media, objects of media archaeology, lost hopes, migrations, images of war in Ukraine, multi-species communities, “insta” censorship and the world seen through the eyes of machines. At 18:00, another meeting of the “Alumni Patio” series will take place, during which we talk about cultural studies and what comes after cultural studies. This time, our guests will be artists: Maciej Bączyk, Martyna Majewska and Łukasz Rusznica. The meeting will be followed by a unique Cultural Studies Slam, the winner of which will be determined by the “ohs” and “ahhs”. You can sing, recite, perform… All artistic tricks are allowed! Finally, DJ Monument will perform his set. Maciek Bączyk hides under this pseudonym. Like a fern flower on St John’s night, he appears very rarely, usually to celebrate exceptional events. And so it will be this time, too!
