Student field trips

Objazd po Białorusi, Głębokie, na schodach przed Kościołem Karmelitów, 2013 r.
Trip to Belarus, Glubokoye, entry steps to the Carmelites Church, 2013

An integral part of the Eastern Studies M.A. program is the obligatory academic field trip for first-year students. Each year, Polish students visit a different region related to their studies.

During these field trips, students come into direct contact with the realities of life in Eastern European countries. During the two week tour, normal classes are suspended. The students generally cover nearly 2000 km of ground and get the opportunity to visit many cultural heritage sites, as well as meet with local elites. These contacts serve as platforms for academic exchanges of ideas, literature or information concerning upcoming conferences and other events. The students also get to know each other better and overcome different barriers. We hope that these experiences also serve them well in the future, as each trip holds new organizational challenges and different academic goals.

Scholarship students always go on a field trip around Poland, following a historical or cultural roadmap. They visit many of the most interesting sites in Poland and present papers related to them.

Eastern Studies student field trips have increasingly become an integral part of the Centre’s long list of activities. The spring dates, organizational planning, participation of professors and student commitment have all been clearly laid out. The students are responsible for presenting a historical or cultural site and writing a paper about the history or contemporaneity of the region. Looking back after a number of years, many students will say that the field trip experience seems to be governed by a different set of rules than the time spent in Warsaw. The experience is multiplied by various factors, including the time difference, liturgical calendar and distance to the communist past. Memories from various field trips overlap with each other and it is sometimes difficult to put them in chronological order. Nonetheless, the experiences remain forever deeply ingrained in the memory of each participant.

Objazd naukowy Ukraina-Rumunia-Mołdawia-Naddniestrze, rejs statkiem po Dniestrze, 2011 r.
Trip to Ukraine-Romania-Moldova-Transnistria, ship cruise on Dniester river, 2011