History, general information

ABOUT PEOPLE

The history of Slavic studies at the University of Wroclaw dates back to the 1840s. Among lecturers who conducted their lectures here were: František Ladislav Čelakovský, Wincenty Kraiński, Wojciech Cybulski, Władysław Nehring, Rudolf Abicht and Paul Diels.

The founding fathers of post-war Slavic studies in Wroclaw were: linguist Leszek Ossowski (1905-1996, doctorate - Jagiellonian University, 1932; postdoctoral degree - Jagiellonian University, 1945) and literary scholar Marian Jakóbiec (1910-1998, doctorate - Jan Kazimierz University, 1938, under supervision of Juliusz Kleiner; postdoctoral degree - Jagiellonian University, 1951).

Leszek Ossowski was taught by outstanding Polish slavists: Edward Klich, Henryk Ułaszyn, Kazimierz Nitsh, Iwan Ziłyński and Tadeusz Lehr-Spławiński. His research interests were shaped under their influence and concerned many areas such as East Slavic dialectology and Polish-East Slavic borderland; Russian and Balto-Slavic accents, Russian language morphology; the location of the Slavic fatherland.

Professor Marian Jakóbiec in 1930-1945 worked at the Ossolineum in Lviv. In 1945 he was employed as an assistant professor (adiunkt) at the Jagiellonian University, but soon moved to the position of press and cultural attaché at the Polish embassy in Belgrade. In 1947 he came to Wrocław and for the next several decades was shaping modern Slavic studies here. Initially he was the headmaster of the Department of Russian Philology (Studies), and then he became the Headmaster of the Institute of Slavic Studies. He initiated research on Slavic folklore and Polish-Slavic literary as well as Slavic cultural relationships. Marian Jakóbiec's research workshop was formed in the traditions of Lviv-Cracow humanities (Eugeniusz Kucharski, Juliusz Kleiner, Marian Zdziechowski, Wacław Lednicki). His study, which was characterized by wide intellectual horizons and elegance of style, resulted in many interesting publications in the field of comparative studies and the history of Eastern- and Southern Slavic literature and Slavic folklore. He was the founder of the “Slavica Wratislaviensia” journal.

During the half-century of the existence of the Institute of Slavic Studies, its employees have been: Zbigniew Barański, Oleh Beley, Krystyna Galon-Kurkowa, Milica Jakóbiec-Semkowowa, Henryk Jaroszewicz, Josef Jodas, Przemysław Jóźwikiewicz, Tadeusz Klimowicz, Bronisław Kodzis, Ewa Komisaruk, Bronisława Konopielko, Krzysztof Kusal, Jaroslav Lipowski, Izabella Malej, Libor Martinek, Agnieszka Matusiak, Anna Paszkiewicz, Larysa Pisarek, Telesfor Poźniak, Michał Sarnowski, Franciszek Sielicki, Kole Simiczijew, Anna Skotnicka, Łucja Skotnicka, Jan Sokołowski, Marian Ściepuro, Zofia Tarajło-Lipowska, Elżbieta Tyszkowska-Kasprzak, Diana Wieczorek, Janina Wołczuk, Włodzimierz Wysoczański.

At present, the Institute of Slavic Studies employs 49 scientific and didactic employees, 3 librarians, 2 administrative employees and an IT specialist. In the academic year 2019/2020 375 people are studying Croatian (with Serbian), Czech, Russian, Ukrainian (two specializations: Ukrainian with English and simple Ukrainian) literatures and languages.

Marian Jakóbiec's successors in the position of headmaster were: Zbigniew Barański (1972-1975, 1981-1987), Franciszek Sielicki (1975-1978), Telesfor Poźniak (1978-1981), Krystyna Galon-Kurkowa (1987-1993), Tadeusz Klimowicz (1993-2005, 2019-2020), Anna Paszkiewicz (2005-2016), Michał Sarnowski (2016-2019), Oleh Beley (2020-2024).

SCIENTIFIC AND POPULARIZATION ACTIVITIES

The Institute of Slavic Studies publishes two journals: “Slavica Wratislaviensia” (founded in 1969; by 2020 over 170 volumes have been published, its editor-in-chief is Ewa Komisaruk) and “Miscellanea Posttotalitariana Wratislaviensia” (founded in 2013, by 2020 7 volumes have been published, its editor-in-chief is Agnieszka Matusiak).

The Institute of Slavic Studies organises two prestigious international scientific symposia: “The Great Topics of Culture in Slavic Literatures” (organised in odd years, the 13^th took place in 2019) and “The Word and the Sentence in Slavic Languages. Description. Confrontation. Translation” (organised in even years, the 14^th took place in 2018). Two other conferences have been emerged lately: “Slavic in the Past and Today. Language, Literature, Culture” (the 4^th took place in 2019) and, at last, a scientific and didactic conference “New Challenges in the Academic Teaching of Slavic Languages as Foreign” (the 2^nd took place in 2019).

There are also two monthly scientific seminars: literary (“Slavic Literary Meetings”) and linguistic one, where the latest research and texts are presented by slavists from Poland and abroad (including the Institute of Slavic Studies employees and PhD students).

The international  cooperation under both the  Erasmus+ program and  bilateral agreements  signed by the University of  Wrocław plays an  important role in the  scientific life of the  Institute of Slavic Studies. Among our partners there are universities from the  Czech Republic,  Kazakhstan, Germany,  Russia, Ukraine and the  USA.

The academic life is enriched by the “Slavic Song Competition”, whose main animator is Wiesława Zybura, and the “One Novel Competition”, organized by Marcin Maksymilian Borowski.