About us

Center for Research and Practice in Cultural Continuity
Faculty of “Artes Liberales” University of Warsaw

The Center for Research and Practice in Cultural Continuity, located in the University of Warsaw’s Faculty of “Artes Liberales” carries out transdisciplinary research on culture and language (with a special focus on cultural-linguistic continuity and survival) with on-going development and evaluation of the theories, methods, goals and strategies governing its purpose, operation and activities.

A fundamental premise for the creation of the Center is the need to carry out cutting-edge international team-based projects that transcend the boundaries of disciplines and foster creative collaboration between academia, society and non-academic partners. Therefore, the Center focuses on expanding, strengthening, and building new forms of cooperation between academic and non-academic institutions within the following spheres of activity:

• creating and developing cutting-edge research in the revitalization of cultures and languages, with special focus on regional uniqueness, linguistic and cultural heritage and languages threatened with extinction in Europe and beyond
• departing from the mainstream research paradigm by taking into consideration local/traditional knowledge, pursuing fully interdisciplinary collaboration, the democratization of science and the construction of a knowledge-based society, and promoting free and public access to research results such that they may be used for the benefit of society through education and revitalization programs, as well as cultural and artistic activities
• implementation of methodologies, such as participatory action research and participatory community-based research, that include the communities under study in the design and execution of research projects
• connecting academic interests and expertise with local community developments oriented toward the conservation of linguistic-cultural heritage and fostering positive social transformations; bridging collaboration and gaps in knowledge-transfer between academics, members of local communities/ethnic minorities and non-academic organizations
• disseminating and applying research results within the broader society (“science with and for society”), with special focus on the humanities and on cooperation with non-academic partners and entities
• supporting academic projects that contribute to the cultivation of the humanities, broadly understood, and interdisciplinary research (e.g., inclusion of bio-cultural diversity)
• developing and jointly administering projects involving a significant number of early-stage researchers
• collaborating and supporting international graduate study programs

All the broad goals outlined above are embraced within more specifically defined main areas of research, which are being developed within concrete international projects carried out between specific parties/academic partners constituting the centre.

In terms of trans/inter-disciplinary collaboration, research activities aim to embrace expertise, experience and specific tools from the following disciplines:

• ethnohistory, cultural history, cultural anthropology
• linguistics (contact linguistics, sociolinguistics, anthropological linguistics, historical linguistics, ethnolinguistics, psycholinguistics)
• minority philologies
• literary studies
• collaboration/support from sociology, psychology, studies on public health, biology, medicine