photo: Dominika Hull-Bruska
Let’s talk about the Lower Silesian Science Festival. Interview with dr Aleksandra Ziober
Dr Aleksandra Ziober from the Historical Institute at the University of Wrocław has been appointed university coordinator of the Lower Silesian Science Festival. The Wrocław edition of the Festival this year will be held from 14-21 September under the slogan ‘Trenuj umysł’ (eng. Train your mind). As every year, scientists and academics from the University of Wrocław have prepared a range of attractions for science lovers, both young and old, and the entire programme of DFN 2024 can be found on the website.
We talk to dr Aleksandra Ziober about what will be happening during this year’s Festival, as well as her role in the whole endeavour.
Agata Mitek: The slogan for this year’s Lower Silesian Science Festival is ‘Trenuj umysł’. Where did this idea come from?
This year’s festival slogan refers to the Year of the Polish Olympians and the Olympics held in Paris this year. Just as we train our muscles during physical exercise, we can train our minds by attending lectures (of course those organised as part of the Lower Silesian Science Festival). Let’s remember that engaging in various mental activities has a positive effect on our brains!
Dr Aleksandra Ziober: What is the role of the festival’s university coordinator/coordinator? What will be your role in the whole endeavour?
The role of the coordinator of the Lower Silesian Science Festival is multifaceted and lasts the whole year. My main task is to coordinate the work of all the faculties at the University and to liaise with the people who are in charge of organising the festival in the respective university unit. This is a task that requires organisational skills on many levels such as liaising with the main office of the science festival, in addition, it requires many soft skills such as the ability to resolve conflicts and problems in crisis situations, as many difficult circumstances may arise during the festival that need to be resolved quickly. It also deals with the financial issues of the festival, the administration of documents related to the organisation of the festival and many other matters… I would go on for a long time.
How can the inhabitants of our region be persuaded to participate in the Lower Silesian Science Festival? After all, access to information is so easy nowadays, all you have to do is reach for your mobile phone with the Internet and type the phrase you are interested in into Google. So how do you persuade citizens to leave their homes and meet science and scientists face to face?
This is the biggest challenge facing the organisers of the Lower Silesian Science Festival. Getting the general public interested in research in various disciplines is an extremely difficult task. In order to arouse the public’s interest, the presenter has to have ‘that something’, as not everyone will draw a crowd. So I think that the form of the message plays a huge role here. On the other hand, it is extremely important to promote the event; in my opinion, it is best to use all possible forms of communication (newspapers, radio, social media, etc.) that we currently have access to in order to reach the widest possible audience. Without publicising the event, people will not know about it and thus will not turn up in the halls of our University.
What have the scientists and academics from the University of Wrocław prepared as part of the Lower Silesian Science Festival 2024?
It is hard to describe in a few sentences! For there will be dozens of events at our University, covering all areas of science. As part of the Science Campus, which will take place on 14 September, our lecturers have prepared, among other things, a mobile language clinic and a workshop on the past and future written in stones. In addition, there will be a Mathematical Marathon (this is the 22nd edition of the event!), we will be able to find out whether dinosaurs really were that big, we will learn how to create smoke, fire and explosive mixtures, and there will be a Physical Circus, which is a regular event at the festival. This, of course, is just a substitute… The entire programme of the event can be found in the search engine on the website.
How do I sign up for each event? Is there a registration for all of them? What if someone misses them, what is their chance to see them though?
To sign up for the events organised as part of the festival, it is best to use the search engine on the festival website and find the events you are interested in there. Under each event you will find detailed information on how to sign up – usually just by sending an email, sometimes you have to make a phone call. It all depends on which way the hosts have chosen to sign up.
If someone doesn’t manage to sign up you can always try to approach an event venue, especially one where there were plenty of free places, where a large lecture theatre was available. There is then a chance that a place will be found for us.
On 14 September, there will also be a Science Town, which will take place on the premises of the University of Physical Education named after the Polish Olympians in Wrocław, where admission is free and no prior registration is necessary.
How important is the popularisation of science in the work of a scientist? How can scientists popularise science? How do you do this?
In my opinion, popularising science is one of the most important tasks of any scientist. Unfortunately, many of us do not realise how important this aspect of our work is and how to do it properly. After all, we have to remember that our work is not only about discovering new knowledge, but above all about disseminating it, not only in the university benches, but also in many other ways. In the modern world, we have a great many opportunities to disseminate knowledge, and it seems to me that at our University we are increasingly making good use of these opportunities. Of course, it is important to realise that not all of us scientists are outstanding speakers, but knowledge can also be popularised with the help of photographs and the written word. In order to do this, it seems to me that the easiest way is to use modern social media, depending on the subject we are dealing with we can choose the appropriate format for the information we want to convey. Of course, the internet is only one option. Open lectures organised by various scientific institutions such as museums or libraries, but also, for example, coffee shops, are becoming more and more common, which attracts people interested in a particular topic. Personally, I have a profile in social media, where I share information and interesting facts about the monuments I visit, for which I specialise in historical knowledge, so that I am able to provide the recipients with reliable information.
What dreams do you have for the development of the Lower Silesian Science Festival? Do we already know what the organisers’ plans are for next year?
For now, we are concentrating on perfecting this year’s edition, which is fast approaching. Personally, I am not thinking about what will happen next year at the moment, because now I am facing the hardest stage of the Lower Silesian Science Festival, both from an organisational and physical point of view. It’s hard to wish for anything more in terms of the development of the festival, as it is already the biggest scientific event of its kind in Poland. If I had to wish for something, however, our staff and doctoral and undergraduate students would get more involved in the preparation of the lectures. I know that there are many talented scientists at the university who are involved in research that is extremely interesting to the public and they could get directly involved in organising the DFN.
Dr Aleksandra Ziober – historian, received her PhD in humanities in 2018 from the University of Wrocław. She is an assistant professor in the Department of Economic History, Demography and Statistics at the Historical Institute of the University of Wrocław. For years, she has been involved in events to promote science both at home and abroad. Her research focuses on issues related to factional games in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, mainly during the Free Election, political attitudes of the nobility and their ways of exerting political and social influence (communication strategies) in the 17th century. She directed two research projects funded by the National Science Centre in Krakow and was the recipient of several international research and teaching fellowships (London, Madrid, Würzburg, St. Petersburg, Minsk, Banská Bystrica, Pardubice, Innsbruck, etc.). In 2019, dr Ziober received a scholarship from the Minister of Science and Higher Education for outstanding young scientists. Since 2024, she has been the coordinator of the Lower Silesian Science Festival at the University of Wrocław.
