Archival Scroll: Polish Studies at Rutgers University-New Brunswick

• Formerly Offered Courses
• Visiting Professors
• Former Faculty

Formerly Offered Courses

POL 470 The Other in Poland and Central Europe @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Central Europe has been invented in political practices and discourses that are constituted around the binary 'the West' and 'the Other.' By studying the historical development of this idea and its political determinants, we are able to contextualize and deconstruct the very process of 'constructing the other' as such. Some ethnographic characteristics will be studied in terms of how they have been used and abused in the process of (national) identity making. The social processes of stigmatization and the open or hidden concerns of such groups as ethnic and religious minorities, women, homosexuals, peasants, immigrants, workers, former state farm workers, the unemployed and the poor will be considered. The socio-economic and the ethnic modes of creating 'the Other' have important and often tragic consequences for these communities.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Buchowski, M.

RUS 455 Contemporary Russia, Central and Eastern Europe: Cultural globalization and the dynamics of post-communist societies @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: The main purpose of this course is to examine the claim that global cultural factors influence the direction and pace of societial change in post-communist societies. We will discuss and evaluate the main theories and concepts of globalization. This rethinking of the theoretical framework will go hand in hand with attempts at understanding post-communist reality in contemporary Poland.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Kempny, M.

POL 370 Film and Culture @

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course will study aspects of Polish history, cultural myths and society as they are presented in film. Films by Wajda, Kieslowski, Polanski, and other contemporary directors. We will also analyze various elements of film and editorial techniques. Conducted in Polish.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: Mirga, H.

Former Visiting Professors

Buchowski Michal Visiting Professor, Center of Russian, Central and East European Studies, Rutgers University

Ph.D.
Phone: (48 61) 829-4701 x 4717 / Fax: . . . / E-Mail: dhist@amu.edu.pl
MAJOR INTERESTS: Anthropology of Central European societies and culture, rural anthropology, and modes of thought and systems of beliefs.
POLAND/AMERICA TRANSATLANTIC SCHOLARSHIP:
VISITING PROFESSORSHIPS:

• Rutgers University/New Brunswick 2001-2002

COURSES TAUGHT IN ENGLISH

• The Other in Poland and Central Europe

BOOKS

• Rethinking Transformation. An Anthropological Perspective on Postsocialism, Humaniora, Poznan 2001 (pp.217)

AFFILIATION IN POLAND:
Professor of Social Anthropology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan.

Kempny, Marian Visiting Professor, Center for Russian and East European Studies, Rutgers University @ @

Ph.D., Institute of Philosophy & Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, 1983
D. hab., Institute of Philosophy & Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, 1995
Phone: 4822-8267181 / Fax: ..... / E-Mail: mkempny@ifispan.waw.pl
MAJOR INTERESTS:
Cultural theory; interplay of tradition and social change under globalized conditions. POLAND/AMERICA TRANSATLANTIC SCHOLARSHIP:
VISITING PROFESSORSHIPS:

• Visiting professor at Rutgers University, 2001

COURSES TAUGHT IN ENGLISH

• Contemporary Russia, Central and Eastern Europe: Cultural globalization and the dynamics of post-communist societies

BOOKS

• Identity in Transformation: Postmodernity, Postcommunism, and Globalization, Greenwood Publishing Group, Incorporated, 2000

PUBLICATIONS

• "Managing Locality among Cieszyn Silesians in Poland', in Roots and Rituals: Managing ethnicity, (Eds.) T. Decker, J. Helsloot, C. Wijers, Amsterdam: Het Spinhuis 2000, 67-78;
• "Local identities as an issue under the conditions of globalization", in Globalization and Identities, ed. by Paul Kennedy and Nadeem Hai, vol.I, The Manchester Metropolitan University 1999, 1-13

UNPUBLISHED PAPERS

• Globalization of Democracy and Conditions for Democratic Community in the Glocalized World

AFFILIATION IN POLAND:

Institute of Philosophy & Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw

Former Faculty

Mirga, Helena @ @

Phone: (732)932-7604 / Fax: . . . / E-Mail: mirga@rci.rutgers.edu
MAJOR INTERESTS: . . .
POLAND RELATED SCHOLARSHIP:
COURSES

• Film and Culture
• Second Year Polish