Scholarship at the University of Notre Dame

From January to May 2022, dr hab. Magdalena Smoleń-Wawrzusiszyn, Professor at the Department of Polish Language of the Catholic University of Lublin, stayed at the University of Notre Dame (U.S.A., Indiana), where she conducted an introductory Polish Studies semester course offered to students of various majors by the Nanovic Institute of European Studies. The course entitled "Freedom and Authority: the Case of Poland", with a predominantly cross-cultural approach, focused on presenting various issues concerning Poland's role as a Catholic-based country in the center of Europe, where the process of decommunization of the former Soviet bloc countries had begun.  One of the students taking the course undertook to prepare his graduate dissertation on current church-state relations in Poland. As part of the research for this thesis, and with the support of his American home department, the Nanovic Institute of European Studies, the student came to Lublin, where he conducted interviews with priests and students of our university during the last week of May.

In addition to the above course, dr hab. Smoleń-Wawrzusiszyn also organized and taught classes in Polish culture and Polish as a foreign language, which was last taught at Notre Dame in the 1950s.

The five-month stay at the University of Notre Dame was made possible by the Kosciuszko Foundation Exchange Program to the United States.  Dr hab. Smoleń-Wawrzusiszyn received the scholarship in March 2020, but it was implemented with nearly a two-year delay due to the Covid-19 pandemic.