The Centre of East Asian Civilizations,
Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities

Centre of East Asian Civilizations was called into being in 2003 with the task of co-ordination and organization of East Asian courses, seminars, and language teaching, as well as for conducting research in this field. This activity at the School started, however, much earlier. Courses concerning East Asian Civilisations, first of all Confucian, had been offered to the students of our School in 1998. It was the first university-level school in Poland that introduced such subjects for the students of social sciences.

The Centre offers its courses to the students of international relations, political sciences, cross-cultural psychology, and oriental philology. They encompass the essentials of East Asian civilizations, contemporary social and political problems of this region, its ancient and modern history, religions, and languages. Among numerous courses there are, for instance, these devoted to the comparison of the Confucian and Western civilisations, classical Chinese social and political thought, classical Chinese literature, history of East Asia since the 19th century, contemporary politics of East Asian nations, China on the international scene since the 19th century, monastic life in Theravada Buddhism in Burma, Buddhist visions of human life, East Asian religions, Sunzi and the Chinese strategic concepts, dialogue among civilisations, etc. The Centre offers courses of Chinese, Japanese and Burmese. It also organises numerous lectures opened to public.

The Centre organises every year 2-3 scholarly conferences or seminars on various problem of contemporary East Asia, in which numerous scholars and experts from main Polish academic centres and state agencies participate. The most interesting papers and discussions are published, also as separate books. The Centre carries out its own research activity with the participation of scholars of other research centres. It also co-operates with the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Centre publishes a journal Asia-Pacific: Society – Politics – Economy (in Polish, but with English summaries), one volume every year (250-400 pp.). It is the only Polish journal on contemporary East and South Asia published in Poland. The Centre of the Middle East, that also operates in our School, publishes a similar journal.

There are three scholars employed in the Centre. It is headed by Professor Krzysztof Gawlikowski, Ph.D. (a sinologist), and includes Dr. Malgorzata Lawacz (an expert in East and South-east Asian affairs), and Maung Than Htun Aung, M.A. (a Burmese). Numerous scholars of other institutes and universities help us as our permanent collaborators.

On the initiative of the Centre the Oriental Division at the School Library was founded in 2004. Its collection, ca 15.000 books, covers social, cultural and political problems of East Asia. Thanks to the grant of the Japanese Government in the years 2006-2009 the Oriental Division (Room 113) obtained not only several thousands of recent publications but also numerous old ones in Polish, English and Russian (the library possesses also publications in oriental languages, mainly in Chinese), as well as a well-equipped multi-media reading room. It is the best in Poland collection of the books on East Asia, hence it serves not only to the students of our school, but also to students and scholars from other academic centres and cities.

For the first time in Poland, students of humanities and social sciences can avail themselves of the opportunity to dig into the East Asian and Middle East issues and study the region's languages while still being able to pursue their primary specialties. Almost every year several students obtain the Ministry of Education's grants that allow them studies in Asian countries in the framework of intergovernmental exchange programs. In 2009 the professional Oriental studies had been initiated (Arabic philology), and the teaching of a wider range of Asian languages is under preparation. On the other hand, there are numerous foreign students in our School, including several dozens of Chinese students, whose number increases, hence there are possibilities of everyday contacts of Polish and Asian students.

The Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities undoubtedly constitutes one of the main centres of East Asian (and Oriental in general) studies and research in Poland.

Contacts: kgawlikowski@swps.edu.pl, malgorzata.lawacz@swps.edu.pl, mthan@swps.edu.pl.

Address: The Centre of East Asian Civilisations, SWPS, ul. Chodakowska 19/31, 03-815 Warszawa, Poland.

Warsaw, January 2011.

LECTURES