III Congress of Polish Czech Studies and Czech Polish Studies 2028
The next session of the Committee of Programmes of the III Congress of Polish Czech Studies and Czech Polish Studies together with the Board of the Polish-Czech Scientific Association took place on the 27th of November 2025 at the University of Wrocław. At the beginning, dr Andrzej Krawczyk presented his newest book Edward Benesz. Polityk z Europy Środkowej. Later on in the session, several matters connected to organising the Congress mentioned above were discussed. The Congress is planned for spring 2028. Thirty-three institutions and partner organisations from Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia participate in the preparations. The University of Wrocław plays a significant role among them, and the central part of the proceedings of the Congress of Polish Czech Studies took place at the University in 2016.
The idea of the Congresses emerged in communities interested in Polish-Czech scientific and educational cooperation, especially in the Board of the Polish-Czech Scientific Association, founded in 2006. The Congress of Polish Czech Studies deliberated in autumn 2016 in its original network formula: the “central” session in Wrocław and nine other sessions located in places from Szczecin to Cieszyn. The Congress of Czech Polish Studies took place in the identical network formula in autumn 2019 out of the Czech partners’ initiative.
The next Congresses have been organised since 2023 as joint Polish-Czech projects called the Congresses of Polish-Czech Studies and Czech-Polish.
The Committee of Programmes of the III Congress constituted itself at the University of Wrocław in February 2024. Currently, fifty representatives of partner institutions and scientific custodians of thematic sections are employed there under the management of co-chairmen: prof. Jan Rychlik (a remarkable Czech historian) and dr Ryszard Gładkiewicz (a chairman of the Board of the Polish-Czech Scientific Association).
The organisers of the cycle of congresses have the following aims:
- A cyclic, medium-term (every 5 years), interdisciplinary presentation and balancing of the common studies on issues in both countries and Polish-Czech relations.
- Diagnosis of negative and positive factors in the development of Polish Czech Studies and Czech Polish Studies, and an attempt to define development perspectives, especially suggestions concerning the intensification of studies.
- Creating a forum of intensive, direct contacts among organisations, institutions, communities, and interested people who can influence Polish-Czech scientific and educational cooperation; it would foster the integration of Polish and Czech facilities, scientific disciplines, and science and the social environment.
- Mutual promotion of interest in Polish and Czech matters, popularising scientific knowledge on these matters; suggesting forms of support for Polish and Bohemian university studies and teaching the Polish and Czech languages.
- Raising awareness on Polish-Czech relations as an important factor in the regional development, especially cross-border regions, indicating in this context the importance of “Czech” aspects in the historical and cultural heritage of Silesia.
Moreover, every edition of the Congress will have its “leading” topic; the leading topic of the III Congress in 2028 will be “Polish and Czech society in the digital age”.
The proceedings are planned in the form of sessions in Opole, 10-13 May, and in Prague, 5-8 June.
In both sessions, the programme will include plenary meetings, sections for particular fields or scientific disciplines, and interdisciplinary seminars and thematic symposia.
The Congress will be open to the broadest professional and “laical” audience, especially for people involved in various ways in Polish-Czech cooperation in the field of science, education, culture, but also for anybody interested in various motifs of “Bohemophiles” and “Polonophiles”.
The Committee of Programmes encourages all people interested in the Congress to contact it: pcztn@wp.pl, tel. 690 125 097
Jadwiga Dunaj is an author of the text
The photo report of the event prepared by Zuzanna Pelc
Translated by Kinga Krzywonos (student of English Studies at the University of Wrocław) as part of the translation practice.
Date of publication: 1.12.2025
Added by: M.K.
