On 6th March, in the Golden Hall of the Casimir Palace, a cooperation agreement was signed between the University of Warsaw, the Polish Library in Paris Institute, and the Association of the Polish Library Institute in Paris. Prof. Paweł Rodak was also awarded the UW Medal.

The Polish Library in Paris is the oldest Polish library outside the country. Its collections include prints, magazines, brochures, ephemera, manuscripts, cartography, graphics, paintings, sculptures, and photographs, including the richest collections of materials on Mickiewicz and Chopin. It stores old Polish prints from the 16th and 17th centuries, archives of Polish national uprisings and the Great Emigration, as well as the legacies of émigré activists.

“Many of our students and professors who fought in the November Uprising went to Paris to emigrate. Devoting themselves to Polish science and culture on the Seine, they became particularly involved in the work of the Historical and Literary Society and the associated Polish Library in Paris. Our cooperation therefore dates back to the 19th century,” said Prof. Zygmunt Lalak, the UW Vice-Rector for Research, during the signing ceremony of the agreement between the UW, the Polish Library in Paris Institute and the Association of the Polish Library in Paris Institute.

The Vice-Rector also drew attention to the Polish Cultural Centre at the Sorbonne, which has been operating since 1962 and represents the University of Warsaw in the French capital.

“The most important cultural and educational centre in Paris, without which it would be impossible to imagine all the important meetings, conferences and scientific seminars, was and undoubtedly still is the Polish Library on the Seine – the first partner of the Polish Cultural Centre at the Sorbonne, and thus also of the University of Warsaw,” said Prof. Lalak.

The characteristics of the oldest Polish library outside the country as an international research and educational centre in exile were presented by its director, Prof. Maciej Forycki.

The cooperation agreement was signed by Prof. Zygmunt Lalak, the UW Vice-Rector for Research, Prof. Maciej Forycki, Director of the Polish Library in Paris Institute, Beata Skrzypek, president of the Association of the Polish Library in Paris Institute, and Prof. Iwona Pugacewicz from the UW’s Faculty of Journalism, Information and Book Studies, who also cooperates with the Centre for French Culture and Francophone Studies (OKF) at the UW.

UW Medal

In the second part of the ceremony, Prof. Zygmunt Lalak, on behalf of Prof. Alojzy Z. Nowak, the UW Rector, presented the UW Medal to Prof. Paweł Rodak. The award was granted for the active promotion of Polish science in France and consistent support for Polish-French cooperation in the field of scientific research, international projects, and academic exchange.

Prof. Paweł Rodak works at the Institute of Polish Culture at the UW’s Faculty of Polish Studies. He specialises in the history of modern Polish literature and culture of the 19th and 20th centuries and the anthropology of language in culture. In his research work, he has been closely cooperating with French research groups for many years. His greatest achievements include introducing a new understanding of the personal diary as a writing practice to Polish humanities and recognising the role of materiality in the analysis of autobiographical records.