Programme

IDEA:

A 4-year PhD programme in English for foreigners and Polish students is an innovative offer aimed at young humanists from around the world, who are interested in gaining a doctoral degree (from the Jagiellonian University) based on integrating the research on the most current trends of contemporary cultural studies with interests in Polish and Central European literature, interpreted in the widest historical, philosophical, psychological or gender context.

AIM:

The aim of the PhD programme is raising a challenge to the existing methods and ways of running courses on the tertiary level of education. Contemporary PhD programmes usually concentrate on studying a selected discipline. CASH places an emphasis on studying certain themes and problems. The formula of the 4-year cycle was planned in such a manner that students might freely develop in the international, multicultural and multilingual environment, which will enlarge their intellectual and life experience.

STRUCTURE OF THE PROGRAM:

The CASH PhD programme is connected with changing the relationship between existing disciplines in the humanities, and consequently with the change of structure of university teaching aimed at the youngest researchers in literature and culture. Our presupposition is that literature – as one of the most significant instruments in human self-reflection – can form the centre of the university education in the humanities. We understand, however, that there is no single, obligatory definition of literature, hence the limits of the study of literature are flexible and surrender to the constant work of definition. Thus the thematic structure of study and the curriculum of the PhD programme will adhere to the following modules:

  • Literature
  • Media
  • Philosophy
  • Politics
  •  

Human being defines himself incessantly by referring to the past, by constant renewal of attempts to represent the world and by participation in the public sphere. By making a literary text the point of departure for humanistic reflection we open literature not only to other disciplines – history, art history, philosophy, psychology – but also to existence and politics. For literature is not a set of texts detached from reality, but a dynamic instrument of cultural community formation, which draws on various experiences and is expressed in different languages.

TEACHING GUIDELINES:

We are interested in researching literature in its two basic aspects: as a single creative act and in institutional involvement. The approach turns university teaching into the space of emotional and intellectual engagement of students, who can discover their own academic and existential dilemmas in the discussion on literature.

The idea of introducing a tripartite module of interpretation of literature in the place of a traditional curriculum based on particular disciplines (or subdisciplines) is connected with the need to depart from the traditional university model based on a rigid division of faculties and the construction of a new open model preparing young humanists for a competent research and forming a modern formula of "humanitas".

Opening date: September 2018.