Commission on Central Europe

The commission was established in 1991 on the initiative of Henryk Batowski. It brought together researchers interested in the archaeology, history, and culture of the nations inhabiting central and eastern Europe. In 1993, the Eastern Europe Commission emerged as a separate entity from within the Central Europe Commission. From then on, the Central Europe Commission (one of the most active) has been engaged with themes related to the area that lies between the Baltic and Adriatic seas, between the Łaba [Elbe], Niemen [Neman], and Bug rivers, and on both banks of the central Danube. The current focus of the commission’s research is on national revival, the fate of organisations of states (including the former Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Hungary), and the political history of ethnically, culturally and religiously mixed regions and their mutual relations. The commission has already produced an impressive body of work, which appears in its proceedings (edited by Jan Machnik and Irena Stawowy-Kawka).

Go to the webpage of the journal Central European and Balkan Studies at:

• Polskiej Akademii Umiejętności
• and at Scientific Journals Online ejournals.eu

We are pleased to announce that volume XXVI of Central European and Balkan Studies has been commended by the panel of judges of the Professor Jerzy Skowronek Prize.  The prize is awarded by the editorial board of Magazyn Literacki KSIĄŻKI [BOOKS: the Literary Monthly] and the jury is chaired by prof. dr hab. Jarosław Czubaty. This year saw the prize’s twenty-third edition, and the award ceremony was held on 18 May 2018 during the Warsaw Book Fair.

See the diploma (click here)

Commission Members

Commission on Eastern Europe

The commission emerged from within the Central Europe Commission, which had been formed two years earlier. Though it studies all of the countries of eastern Europe, the research specialisations of its members mean that Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine are now the commission’s primary areas of interest. It strives in its research to take account of the broadest spectrum of issues related to the region’s past and present, including archaeology, history, literature, religion, art, languages, and sociological and political questions.
The commission’s activities are not restricted to seminars alone. It also organises conferences (e.g. Lemkos and Lemko Studies in Poland and Forms of Patriotism in Eastern Europe) and panel discussions. Volumes addressing single and multiple themes have appeared in the commission’s proceedings, which are edited by Andrzej A. Zięba.

Commission Members

Commission on Law

The commission, which constitutes a forum for discussion of current questions, changes, and new developments in law, is composed of lawyers representing almost all branches of public and private law. It aims to formulate non-political opinions on draft normative acts, paying particular attention to bills relating to institutions of fundamental importance to the legal system. The commission’s opinions and assessments are based on sound scientific research designed in accordance with the rules of methodology appropriate to legal science. It is worth stressing here that papers are often presented by researchers from various Polish universities who are not members of the commission, as well as by scholars from abroad.
Its seminars and discussions are, as a rule, open and are therefore very well attended – not only by commission members, but also by non-members, including academics, legal professionals, and even undergraduates and postgraduates.
Two journals appear under the auspices of the commission: Kwartalnik Prawa Prywatnego [Private Law Quarterly] and Czasopismo Prawa Karnego i Nauk Penalnych [Journal of Criminal Law and Penal Studies].

• Go to the webpage of the „Kwartalnik Prawa Prywatnego” (Private Law Quarterly)
• Go to the webpage of the „Czasopismo Prawa Karnego i Nauk Penalnych” (Criminal Law and Penal Studies)

Commission Members

Commission on the History and Culture of Jews

The activities of the commission, which was formed in 1995 and brings together researchers from a number of disciplines, concern the history and culture of the Jews in Poland and Europe. It holds regular meetings with papers and discussions, and also organises, together with the Polish Society for Jewish Studies, the Institute of Jewish Studies at the Jagiellonian University, and the Institute of Religious Studies at the Jagiellonian University, regular Judaic conferences (1995, 1998, 2002, 2007, 2010, 2014) under the title, Jews and Judaism in Contemporary Polish Research. The resulting proceedings are published under the same title.

Commission Members

Commission on the Prehistory of the Carpathians

The commission, which was formed in 1996, brings together researchers dealing with the earliest history of settlement in the Carpathians, who are mainly archaeologists, but are also palaeobotanists and palaeogeographers. The following research topics are now occupying the commission:

1. Humans in the Carpathians in the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene: the Prehistoric use of Carpathian caves.
2. The first farmers and stock rearers in the Carpathians: the question of the neolithisation of the Carpathians.
3. Adaptation of Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age settlements to the environmental conditions of the Carpathians: the flourishing of pastoral communities.
4. Settlement processes in late prehistory and protohistory, with particular reference to the early Middle Ages.

Settlement processes in late prehistory and protohistory, with particular reference to the early Middle Ages. The commission’s proceedings do not appear annually. Instead, the results of the research, which mainly involves Polish-Slovakian cooperation, are issued every few years in a number of large volumes. The commission publishes a yearbook entitled Acta Archaeologica Carpathica, which features original work devoted to questions of the archaeology of mountain regions – especially the Carpathians. It first appeared in 1958. Since volume 54 (2019), it has appeared under the PAU imprint.

https://www.ejournals.eu/AAC/

Commission Members

Commission on Economic Sciences

The commission, whose task is to create a forum for discussion and the formulation of independent scientific opinions on the economic problems of Poland and the contemporary world, as well as to inspire research into improving methods for analysing and forecasting the economic situation, was formed in 2004. Its activities focus on organising lectures, seminars, and talks on current socio-economic issues. Its members are actively involved in research supported by grants and also offer expert advice to public and local government administrations to assist them in solving economic and social problems.

Commission on Ethnography

The Ethnography Commission was formed in 1926 as a result of the metamorphosis of an older organisational unit – the Anthropology Commission of the Academy of Arts and Sciences – which had functioned since 1874, and whose name reflected the broad understanding that then prevailed of anthropology as a science of man as a participant in the world of nature and culture. Under the common anthropological banner, it brought together representatives of very different disciplines, including geology, geography, physics, mathematics, zoology, anatomy and medicine, archaeology, history, ethnography, and the fine arts. Three sections, concerned with archaeology and anthropology, anthropology (physical), and ethnology, existed within its structure. The establishment of the Ethnography Commission of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences as a separate body in 1926 was the result of the dynamic growth of ethnography/ethnology as an independent academic discipline and of the recognition of this branch of knowledge as valuable. The new commission lost little time in embarking on intensive research work, whose results were published in 17 volumes of proceedings in 1927–1938 and in other, condensed publications.  After 1952 the commission found itself a part of the Kraków branch of PAN before, in 2011, with the great majority of its members in favour, returning to its mother institution: PAU.
Retaining its former name, the Ethnography Commission has a wide range of topics on its agenda, reflecting the diverse research fields of contemporary ethnography, ethnology, and cultural anthropology. External scholars affiliated to various academic institutions often give presentations on the theoretical and methodological, as well as the empirical, dimensions of current research into culture under the auspices of the commission. Seminars, talks, and lectures take place monthly and, in addition, the commission occasionally organises or co-organises conferences on specific themes. Extended summaries of the commission's talks, presentations, and lectures are published in the PAU Yearbook. A new series, which features the most outstanding studies, was launched in 2014 under the title, Monografie Komisji Etnograficznej PAU [Monographs of the PAU Ethnography Commission]. Dr hab. Róża Godula-Węcławowicz, professor of the Polish Academy of Sciences, is the chair of its academic committee. In February 2021, the PAU Ethnography Commission, the Polish Folklore Society, the Polish Institute of Anthropology, and the Ethnology Committee of PAN together established the Zofia Sokolowicz Prize for the most engaging – from the perspective of interest, substance, and methodology – doctoral and master’s theses in ethnology and socio-cultural anthropology. One of the prizes is an invitation to give a lecture at a meeting of the commission.

Go to links: spis referatów

Commission Members

Read more: Commission on Ethnography

Commission on the History of Wars and Military Science

The original name of the commission, which was established in 2002 as the Commission for the History of World War II, is connected with a conference held in Kraków on the Polish intelligence services during that war. Indeed, that its activities had begun was signalled by the publication of the proceedings of this conference under the title, The Contribution of Polish Intelligence to the Allied Victory in World War II (2004). In 2005, its name was changed to the Commission on the History of Wars and Military Science, which was a better match with the profile of its activities. Its publications include eight volumes of proceedings: six on single themes and two on various ones. Marian Zgórniak, who passed away in 2007, was the founder and first chair of the commission.  It is composed of historians whose research interests centre on the history of Polish – and general – military science from the early modern age to the present – with special emphasis on matters associated with World War I and World War II.  The papers and talks at its seminars and meetings are given both by its members and by non-member researchers from various Polish universities. The research results the commission presents are solidly grounded in the sources and in a thorough review of the research literature. Hence its talks, seminars, and conferences are of great interest to postgraduates and undergraduates alike.
The scholarship of the commission is recorded in twelve volumes of proceedings published by PAU.

Commission Members

Commission on Archaeology of Mediterranean Countries

The aim of the commission, which was established in 2016, is to integrate the community of Polish archaeologists and other specialists, such as architects and conservators, conducting research in the Mediterranean region – as that area is broadly understood. In its research, it deals with the period from the Paleolithic age to the early Byzantine period. Prof. dr hab. Ewdoksia Papuci-Władyka was responsible for launching the commission. Its activities focus on organising scientific meetings and sessions, as well as panel discussions, during which members and invited guests share their research results and their experiences of fieldwork in the countries surrounding the Mediterranean.
See the commission’s Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/KomAKS.PAU

Commission Members

Commission on Media Studies

The commission was established in 2017 as a manifestation of scholarly reflection on the vibrant growth of digital technologies, new methods of communicating and transmitting information, and the way the media function in society. Its work concentrates on the immanent and holistic study of the media, including theories of the media, media history, and how the media creates, processes, and transmits knowledge in the process of communication. Without overlooking the sources and roots of media studies as a discipline, it prioritises its substantive and methodological homogeneity. 

See Media Studies Yearbook
See List of Papers given at Meetings of the Media Studies Commission

Commission Members

Read more: Commission on Media Studies

Commission on Biography

The Biography Commission was brought into being on 1 June 2021 by a decision of the Board of Faculty II (History and Philosophy) of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences. It aims to consolidate the community of researchers working on biography and life writing understood in broad terms as a genre in the field of the history of historiography.
The editors of the Dictionary of Polish Biography and their associates are responsible for establishing the Biography Commission. The appearance of this monumental work of Polish historiography, which occurred in 1935, was thanks to PAU.
Indeed, its editorial board remains to this day in the PAU building at ul. Sławkowska 17 in Kraków, which has become something of a mecca for biography and life writing pursued as an academic discipline.  

Tasks of the Biography Commission
1. To conduct open didactic and scientific meetings on life writing and biography in its broadest sense, including in the fields of historical biography, encyclopaedic and dictionary biography, genealogy, and the theory of biographical research and its place in the discipline of history. The commission is also committed to developing and improving research tools and methods, including in the area of genealogy).
2. To organise meetings of the members of the Biography Commission that serve to develop a scholarly discussion on the needs and challenges of contemporary historical biography and life writing and to promote the research potential of these disciplines in the context of contemporary historiography (e.g. micro-history, her-story, life history, oral history, psychohistory, and genealogy).
3. To organise open discussion panels (interdisciplinary) in connection with newly-published biographical work and with biographical projects that are in progress. To present complex biographical issues.
4. To discuss entries in the Dictionary of Polish Biography. To act as a forum in which shortcomings, omissions, and over-representation (e.g. in respect of Kraków or Galicia) in biographies can be expressed.
5. To organise conferences on topics such as the history of families, and biography and life writing, as sub-disciplines of history that act as a forum for discussion and an opinion-forming platform for practitioners and researchers.
6.To forge links with international centres and institutes of biography and life writing.
7. To initiate research into biography capable of laying solid foundations for full research projects.
8. To organise biography and life writing workshops that are also open to non-professionals (perhaps within the framework of a summer school).

Commission Members