What are Polish studies?

Depending on the perspective one takes as a scholar, Polish studies can be interpreted quite differently. Many of the various approaches to Polish studies are presented in the podcast Talking Interdisciplinary Polish Studies of the Polish Studies Blog on the platform Polish Studies Interdisciplinary (www.pol-int.org). In two episodes of the podcast, the directors of the leading institutions for Polish studies in the German speaking countries – Dagmara Jajeśniak-Quast (Center for Interdisciplinary Polish Studies in Frankfurt/Oder), Yvonne Kleinmann (Aleksander Brückner Center for Polish Studies in Halle), Peter Oliver Loew (German Institute for Polish Affairs in Darmstadt) und Ruprecht von Waldenfels (Aleksander Brückner Center for Polish Studies in Jena) – discuss their understanding of Polish studies.

While the first part of the conversation is about how each of the four participants interprets (interdisciplinary) Polish studies, the second part deals with the practical aspects of the field – the cooperation with international Polish studies scholars as well as Polish colleagues, the plans and visions for each of the three institutions, and the participants’ expectations and wishes for early career researchers.

For a more in-depth discussion of the question “What are Polish studies?”, we recommend the fifth volume of the publication series Interdisciplinary Polish Studies by the Center for Interdisciplinary Polish Studies, in which former PhD students of the Center showcase different approaches to Polish studies on the basis of their research projects.