The Socialist Project for a New Intelligentsia and Its Limits. Academic Careers in the Polish Post-War University: A Biographical Perspective

Agata Zysiak

doi:10.18778/1733-8069.11.3.06

Authors

Agata Zysiak University of Lodz, Poland; University of Michigan, U.S.A.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8069.11.3.06

Keywords:

university, intelligentsia, post-war Poland, biography, socialist modernization

Abstract

The paper examines the post-war period of reconstruction of the Polish academic system from the perspective of young academicians and students of that time. The generation born in the 1920s and early 1930s witnessed a profound change in Polish society, when its intelligentsia and universities had to face the dramatic events of post-WWII. The forthcoming reform of science and the higher education system was an attempt to build a socialist university and an egalitarian society. Those processes are often viewed as the political domination of academia, the captivity of professors, and seduction of students. It is a part of the story. On the contrary, it is argued herein that the academic field and its associated processes shaped the biographical paths of erstwhile scientists/academics as strongly, if not stronger, than the political factors which usually are brought to the forefront by researchers. Three chosen academic biographies present the complexity of those processes, and at the same time they reveal different patterns of the interplay between political changes, the university, the academic habitus and higher education reform.

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Author Biography

Agata Zysiak, University of Lodz, Poland; University of Michigan, U.S.A.

Agata Zysiak, a sociologist of culture, is writing her PhD thesis at University of Lodz (Poland), focused on the post-war modernization of higher education. She is currently a visiting scholar at University of Michigan (USA). Her main areas of interests are urban studies, social memory, and historical sociology. She is involved in several research projects concerning the biographical method, local debates about modernity, and the social history of Lodz.

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