FACULTY OF POLISH STUDIES

HISTORY

The beginnings of Polish studies in Warsaw are closely linked to the earliest history of University of Warsaw because its first Rector (in 1818-1822), the Revd. Prof. Anzelm Szweykowski, was a Polish scholar, and the group of people who contributed to establishing the University included Kazimierz Brodziński - a poet, literary theorist and critic (Secretary of University of Warsaw in 1823-1830); Samuel Bogumił Linde - the author of the first dictionary of the Polish language, bibliographer and educationalist (one of the candidates for the first Rector of the University); Ludwik Osiński - literary critic, poet, publicist, translator (since 1818, lecturer in comparative literature at University of Warsaw). The first thirty years of the twentieth century are especially important as regards the shaping of today's Polish studies. In that period, the philological disciplines were grouped at the Historical-Philological Faculty. The following outstanding philologists lectured at that time: Polish scholars - Józef Ulejski, Wacław Borowy, Julian Krzyżanowski, Kazimierz Budzyk, Zofia Szmydtowa (literary scholars), Jan Baudouin de Courtenay, Adam Antoni Kryński, Stanisław Szober, Witold Doroszewski (linguists); classical philologists - Ryszard Ganszyniec, Gustaw Przychodzki, Adam Krokiewicz, Tadeusz Zieliński, Kazimierz Kumaniecki.

In the last fifty years, apart from those mentioned above, the following scholars have been associated with the Faculty of Polish Studies: Maria Renata Mayenowa, Maria Janion, Janina Kulczycka-Saloni, Maria Straszewska, Eugeniusz Sawrymowicz, Stefan Żółkiewski, Zdzisław Libera (Polish scholars specialising in literature); Halina Koneczna, Halina Kurkowska, Danuta Buttler, Barbara Bartnicka, Renata Grzegorczykowa, Jadwiga Puzynina, Halina Satkiewicz, Mieczysław Szymczak (Polish scholars specialising in linguistics); Lidia Winniczuk, Oktawiusz Jurewicz (classical philologists); Józef Magnuszewski, Zbigniew Rysiewicz, Zdzisław Stieber, Adam Weinsberg-Wayda, Przemysław Zwoliński, Janusz Siatkowski (Slavists and Indo-Europeanists).

Until the mid-sixties, departments conducting research in the fields of Polish, Slavonic and Classical philology functioned as parts of the Philological Faculty of University of Warsaw. In the next decade, they formed the Faculty of Polish and Slavic Philology. The Faculty of Polish Studies has taken its present organisational shape in 1975.