Katedra i Zakład Historii Kultury i Oświaty Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego (1920–2020)

The centenary of the establishment of the Department for the History of Polish Culture at the Jagiellonian University is a good opportunity to recall the scientific achievements in this discipline. In Galicia, in the second half of the 19th century, research on the history of education, literature and culture was conducted at the Academy of Arts and Sciences, founded in 1872, and the Jagiellonian University, where Stanisław Tarnowski, Ignacy Chrzanowski, Kazimierz Morawski, Józef Szujski, Wacław Szujski, Antoni Karbowiak, Jan Ptaśnik, Jan Leniek and others delivered lectures. However, it was not until Stanisław Kot’s scientific activity that he was appointed associate professor at the Department for the History of Polish Culture at the Jagiellonian University in 1920. His seminar on the history of culture has enjoyed significant popularity and was attended by students of various political orientations and national identities. Between 1925 and 1939, Kot promoted 22 doctors and four of his students obtained habilitation. Due to his political involvement, the Sanation authorities, introducing a new law on academic schools in 1933, decided to abolish his chair. After the Second World War and a short diplomatic episode as an ambassador in Rome from 1945 to 1947, Kot remained in exile. In Kraków, research on the history of culture and education was continued by his students, Henryk Barycz and Jan Hulewicz. The administrative and human resources structure of their teams was changed several times. In 1971, the Department for the History of Education and Culture was established. After Barycz’s retirement, it was consecutively managed by Jan Hulewicz, Kamilla Mrozowska, Renata Dutkowa, Julian Dybiec, Andrzej Banach and Krzysztof Stopka. Currently, the entity bears the name of the Department for the History of Culture and Education. Its six employees carry out extensive research in the fields of cultural history, the history of science and education as well as the history of Polish Armenians.