– “The image of the Republic of Poland in European geographical and historical works of the 18th century, and its Old Polish reception” („Obraz Rzeczypospolitej w europejskich dziełach geograficznych i historycznych w XVIII w. i jego staropolska recepcja”). The research is carried out under the supervision of dr hab. Filip Wolański, prof. UWr of the Historical Institute, with the funding of PLN 1,020,904.00.

– “In the face of danger. The Second Polish Republic and its society of the 1935-1939 period in the light of reports by the voivodes of central voivodeships” („W obliczu zagrożenia. II Rzeczpospolita i jej społeczeństwo lat 1935-1939 w świetle sprawozdań wojewodów województw centralnych”). The research is carried out under the supervision of prof. Piotr Cichoracki of the Historical Institute, with the funding of PLN 2,908,533.36.

– “Philosophy for Poland” („Filozofia dla Polski”). The research is carried out under the supervision of prof. Radosław Kuliniak of the Institute of Philosophy, with the funding of PLN 1,004,074.00.

Researchers about their projects

Prof. Filip Wolański about the project: “The image of the Republic of Poland in European geographical and historical works of the 18th century, and its Old Polish reception.”

The idea for the research project was born while searching for the connection between the Western European and Old Polish geographical thought.

A major inspiration were also the possibilities opened up by the tools of contemporary digital humanities, containing a wide array of solutions still not used for research of such issues in Poland.

The project aims to assess the image of the Republic of Poland in European geographical and historical works created in the 18th century, and its reception in the Old Polish geographical thought and historiography since the beginning of the Saxon period in 1697 to the collapse of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795. Its research will be based on written sources from France, Italy, Great Britain, and the German Reich territory, which inspired Old Polish authors. Obtained research results will facilitate the identification of the most significant elements of the Republic of Poland in European written sources of the 18th century. It will also help identify the origin of knowledge transfer to the Old Polish written sources. The research database will comprise properly categorized information about the Republic of Poland (anthroponyms, toponyms, etc.), along with its sources. The project will make use of research methods related to digital humanities due to the necessity of implementing methods which help with processing a large number of texts for the research. Hence, there is a need to process and obtain the text in a form suitable for machine language analysis.

The image of the Republic of Poland created in European geographical and historical written sources was a phenomenon shared in the writing culture of the whole continent. However, it does not mean its simplified standarization. The realization of the research will indicate the common features and differences in the discourse regarding the Republic of Poland. It will also help to recognize the wide array of expressions used to describe the Republic of Poland. For instance, it was perceived as a country in the state of anarchy, but also as a bulwark of Christianity or an example of republicanism. As a consequence, it will allow us to undertake the search for mutual inspirations and influences between different spheres of the European thought, and their relation with the Old Polish environments.

The research team consists of researchers from the University of Wrocław, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, University of Gdańsk, and Radboud University in Nijmegen. The group of six people carrying out the research comprises experienced researchers and young historians, including a PhD student. Besides the Polish researchers, a historian from the Netherlands also takes part in the project. The research will be carried out in collaboration with the Department of Historical Atlas at the Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History Polish Academy of Sciences.

Prof. Piotr Cichoracki about the project: “In the face of danger. The Second Polish Republic and its society of the 1935-1939 period in the light of reports by the voivodes of central voivodeships.”

The research project aims to develop, prepare for publication, and publish (print and digital form) periodic reports by the voivodes of the 6 central voivodeships of the Second Polish Republic (białostockie, warszawskie, kieleckie, lubelskie, łódzkie, and krakowskie) during the 1935-1939 period. Documents intended for editing are divided into three categories. The first one is the monthly report on political life (Polish, or of national minorities) and from the religious movement. The second one is the monthly security report (including the political and common crimes) and the reports on the activities of the professional movement. The third one is the semi-annual report on the activities of social organizations.

The specified scope of content across all categories of the reports by voivodes results in the most complete image of the functioning of the society of the Second Polish Republic. Also, it often serves as the only testament to some of its aspects. Its key aspect is the registration of the legal social activity, and the capture of actions directed against the Polish state. The reports are characterized by their unprecedented versatility of information compared to other sources from the period. Also, they were created for the internal use of the state administration, which results in their high level of objectivity.

The aim of the project is to share and publicize uniformly developed scientific archive materials. Those records cover approximately 40% of the territory of the Second Polish Republic, and systematically register the activity of approximately 45% of its citizens during the last years of independent Poland.

The research team consists of 24 people. They represent 7 research facilities – Białystok, Kalisz, Kraków, Lublin, Opole, Toruń, Warsaw, and Wrocław.

The outcome of the research is predicted to comprise:

– A series of 30 volumes containing indexed and scientifically developed reports of the voivodes of the 6 central voivodeships of the 1935-1939 period. Each volume will be made of an annual set of periodic reports in all categories for one voivodeship. An estimated length of the series is approximately 1,100 publishing sheets.

– A multi-component didactic-educational module.

– A digital variant of all works, shared in the Open Access format as part of the Repository of the University of Wrocław and the information channels of the university.

Prof. Radosław Kuliniak about the research project: “Philosophy for Poland.”

The project is one of the research tasks performed in the Ingarden Research Centre, which is a thriving facility affiliated to the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Wrocław.

The aim of this project is to carry out research on the yet unknown archive records of the eminent Polish philosopher Kazimierz Twardowski.

At the end of the 19th century, Twardowski led a philosophical renaissance movement based in Lviv, with the motto: “Serve the country through philosophy.” The philosopher started to realize his plan after he had been appointed to the Chair of the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Lviv. In consultation with Władysław Weryha from the research centre in Warsaw, he founded journals “Przegląd Filozoficzny” in 1897 and “Ruch Filozoficzny” in 1911. He was the spiritus movens of the creation of the Polish Philosophical Society in 1904 and the Polish Psychological Society in 1907. He was active both socially and educationally. Moreover, he was the head of various Polish institutions and funds of social assistance. He served as a rector at the University of Lviv during World War I, and also a member of the Lviv Civil Guard during Polish-Ukrainian fights. He became famous for speeches and patriotic lectures for soldiers and civilians in Lviv and other cities of Galicia, tirelessly raising Polish national consciousness.

The research project “Philosophy for Poland” is based on never seen before archive materials which we found in Lviv and Warsaw. They concern Twardowski’s social activity. Gathered texts and correspondence indicate his far-reaching patriotic measures, which aimed to reclaim Poland’s long-awaited sovereignty. Discovered material inspired us to perform further research in this subject, as it pertains to a remarkably interesting period. Twardowski, his struggle for Poland’s independence, and the involvement of his philosophical input remain a field which is not entirely studied.

Our aim is to analyze those materials and publish them in physical and digital forms. In addition, we plan to write a monograph about Twardowski’s social activity. We will research his discovered autobiographical texts, Viennese reports, unknown patriotic speeches (including “O narodzie,” which was given based on Hume’s text), archive records left by his student Helena Słoniewska (who settled in Wrocław), and correspondence with eminent philosophers and psychologists. We hope that the realization of our project will facilitate the accessibility of Twardowski’s social activity for a wider audience, and the presented works will provide us with new findings to expand our knowledge. It connects with mantaining our memory of those difficult times.

The project is carried out by researchers affiliated or associated with the Ingarden Research Centre. The research team includes the philosopher prof. dr hab. Radosław Kuliniak (University of Wrocław, project’s supervisor), historian dr Mariusz Pandura (University of Wrocław), and scientist of librarianship Łukasz Ratajczak (University of Wrocław). It is an experienced research team that has been conducting research in the field of history of philosophy for years, locating, analyzing, and publishing challenging archive records. The team’s scientific achievements include almost 30 monographs created over the past few years, and many more other publications. Dr Joanna Giel (University of Wrocław) will also take part in the grant’s realization.

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The subject of the NPRH is funding, through the competitive process, of long-term projects of editing sources and documents, editorial works, and compendia of knowledge, that help with the research of the Polish cultural heritage. In addition, they cover the monographs and studies regarding the issues of particular significance for the Polish national identity. NPRH aims to create opportunities for funding research projects of important value for the scientific and educational policies of the country, which meet the following requirements:

– They are authentic projects of undoubted scientific merit.

– They have primary significance for carrying out future research projects, or synthesize the actual state of research.

– They are characterized by their utility value for various scientific disciplines in the field of humanities, or artistic disciplines, and are useful in academic didactics.

– They have contents related with humanities, or implement methods appropriate to the field of humanities.

– They require the creation and maintenance of specialized research teams.

More about the results on the Ministry of Science and Higher Education website.

Created by: Katarzyna Górowicz-Maćkiewicz

Translated by Mateusz Czerwiński (student of English Studies at the University of Wrocław) as part of the translation practice.