At the celebration of its 40th anniversary on October 31, the Polish Studies Center (PSC) was awarded a prestigious honorable mention award for 2017 from the University of Warsaw’s Polonicum Centre of Polish Language and Culture for Foreigners. The Polonicum award and honorable mentions are granted annually to scholars and institutions outside of Poland for achievement in the promotion of Polish language, literature, culture, history, and art. On November 20, the University of Warsaw's rector formally bestowed this honor upon PSC director and REEI adjunct faculty member Joanna Niżyńska (Slavic), accepting on behalf of the PSC. As the oldest center for Polish as a foreign language and the foremost institution of its kind, the award demonstrates both the significance of the PSC and Indiana University's School of Global and International Studies.
Closer to home, the PSC additionally received the 2017 Joseph Jachimczyk Polonia Award from the National Advocates Society, a national association of Polish-American attorneys, for its contribution to the enhancement of Polish cultural life abroad. REEI affiliate faculty member Łukasz Siciński (Slavic) accepted the award on behalf of the PSC at a ceremony that took place on July 28 during the annual convention of the National Advocates Society.
The Polish Studies Center has continued to develop Indiana University's long-standing tradition of quality scholarship on Polish art, culture, history, literature, music, politics, society, and related humanities and social science areas. As one of many centers overlapping with the REEI, including many overlapping faculty members, its success is testament to both the broader relevance of area studies and to the more specific aims of IU's School of Global and International Studies. On behalf of all of REEI, we would like to congratulate the Polish Studies Center and to wish it continued success!
For more information, please visit the Polish Studies Center website: http://www.indiana.edu/~polishst/academic/polish.shtml
Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies