NAWA scholarships for our researchers
Three of our researchers dr Magdalena Gibiec, dr Michal Halicki and dr hab. Anna Śledzińska-Simon, prof. UWr, have become NAWA BEKKER programme scholarship recipients. The programme supports the international mobility of doctoral students, researchers and academics.
Dr Michał Halicki of the Department of Geoinformatics and Cartography (Institute of Geography and Regional Development, Faculty of Earth and Environmental Management) has been awarded a scholarship from the NAWA BEKKER programme, under which he received funding for a one-and-a-half-year research internship at the German Institute for Geodetic Research of the Technical University of Munich (DGFI-TUM). During the internship, dr Halicki will carry out a project entitled. “Prognozowanie poziomu wody w rzekach w oparciu o zagęszczone pomiary altimetryczne z wielu misji altimetrii nadirowej i z satelity SWOT.” The internship will begin on 1 March 2025 and last until 30 September 2026.
The goal of the project is to build a hydrological forecast system based solely on satellite data. – This is an ambitious task, but its positive realization would make it possible to create the world’s first forecast system of this type – our researcher admits.
The internship trip will enable dr Halicki to network with world-class experts in the field of hydrogeodesy. The project is also a great opportunity to strengthen cooperation between the University of Wrocław and the Technical University of Munich.
Dr hab. Anna Śledzińska-Simon, prof. UWr of the Chair of Constitutional Law (Faculty of Law, Administration and Economics) will leave for the European University Institute in Florence. – My research asks the question of the relationship between the protection of reproductive rights, in particular access to abortion, and liberal constitutionalism. I accept that abortion is a unique test of the limits of democratic principles, human rights and the rule of law, especially in terms of separation of powers and judicial review. In this context, abortion appears as a key indicator of the health of liberal constitutionalism, acting as the proverbial canary in the coal mine. It signals the erosion and even collapse of the basic principles of liberal democracy, as manifested in such processes as the regression of democracy and the rule of law, human rights violations, and the growing dominance of the executive branch over other segments of the power system.
The aim of the project is to analyze whether and how constitutional, judicial and legislative changes in the field of abortion are leading to a transformation of both the concept of liberal democracy and the so-called “sexual contract,” which is the foundation of liberal constitutionalism.
The research focuses on the example of four countries with different approaches to abortion and different constitutional traditions: France, Ireland, Poland and the United States. This comparison will be supplemented by an analysis of the processes accompanying changes in abortion regulation, such as the politicization of the constitutional judiciary, the increasing secularization of society, the simultaneous ideologisation and religious radicalisation of public debate, and the growing influence of populism on democratic processes.
An analysis of these processes will provide a deeper understanding of how the debate and changes in abortion law reflect broader transformations in power dynamics, the relationship between the individual and the state, and the concept of human rights in modern democracies. This project seeks to diagnose the state of recognition of reproductive rights as a key condition for the realization of women’s equal citizenship. At the same time, it examines how these changes affect gender relations within democratic and social processes, offering new insights into the transformations taking place in the modern world.
Dr Magdalena Gibiec of the Historical Institute of the University of Wrocław will be doing a 3-month research internship at Columbia University as part of the scholarship. You can read about the researcher’s scientific interests, among others, here: https://uwr.edu.pl/en/on-the-trail-of-the-lost-archive/
Complied by Kg
Date of publication: 21.01.2025
Added by: M.J.
