Events

• Time and location: 24 May 2024, 12.30-14.00/online
• Contact person: Bartosz Czepil, Ph.D., (e-mail: bczepil@uni.opole.pl)
• Organizer: University of Opole, University American Colleague Skopje, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi
• The basic characteristic: This special session is organized in order to present and debate over the research report prepared by the team of 14 academics from 7 countries integrated within the Border and Regional Studies

  Network established within the CEEPUS. The report is result of the Visegrad + project supported financially by the International Visegrad Fund: Ukrainian refugees in Central Europe and the Balkans – lessons learned and policy recommendations coordinated by the University of Opole, Poland (project ID: 22310070). The report presents a comparison of 7 countries, which experienced, in different forms and degrees, influx of the Ukrainian refugees after the full scale Russian aggression on February 24, 2022. The main research problem addressed is a situation of Ukrainian refugees in the following countries: Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Montenegro and the North Macedonia. The aim of this study is to compare how does this situation look like and how has it evolved in the first two years after February 24, 2022? The concept of a ‘refugee situation’ should be understood as including two basic components: reaction of receiving country towards the refugees and characteristics of the refugees community in terms of its legal and socio-economic position. Therefore, the report covers different dimensions like the immigration policies, Ukrainian diaspora characteristics, reactions of political institutions and civil society in the receiving countries. During the session the main findings from the comparative analysis will be discussed and policy recommendations will be proposed.

• Time and location: Wrocław and Opole, 16–18 September 2024

• Contact person: dr Wojciech Opioła (wopiola@uni.opole.pl)

• Organizer: The Centre for Regional and Borderlands Studies, University of Wrocław; Department of the Sociology of Borderlands, Institute of Sociology, University of Wrocław; Institute of Political Science and Public Administration, University of Opole; The Terra Diversa Lab, University of Białystok; Faculty of Political Science and Journalism, the Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznań; Research Lab for Memory Narratives of Borderlands, University of Gdańsk;

• The basic characteristic: Borders and borderlands have focused the attention of a wide, and ever expanding, range of people, and there is no indication that these issues will become obsolete in the years to come. There is no shortage of valuable references in Polish social sciences on borders and borderlands. Theoretical and empirical reflections on the diversity of social phenomena occurring in borderlands have been developed since the end of the 1980s, in a way referring to the tradition dating back to the interwar period, and these differences have been inscribed in a number of categories, such as ‘social borderland’ (‘transborderland’), ‘administrative borderland’ (‘borderland area’), ‘transnational borderlander’ (‘borderland man’), ‘borderland effect’, ‘social borderland area’, ‘ethnically diverse area’ and others. Over time, the findings of Polish border(lands) studies have entered into a fruitful dialogue with the output of the border studies conceived in an interdisciplinary and international way, yet it would take a lot of space to list even a selective set of undertakings (national and international) which have taken place in this respect only in the last decade or so. Yes, Polish studies have much to offer the world in this regard. Bearing in mind this good and rich tradition, as well as the challenges of the present and the future, and at the same time sharing the conviction that it is justified (or even necessary) to create a physical space for the presentation of the effects of one’s activities, the integration of the borderlands community – we have the pleasure to invite you to participate in a new project of interdisciplinary, cyclical scientific meetings – the Congress of Border and Borderlands Researchers. We plan that such an event would take place every three years in different centres of Poland and we have scheduled its first edition for 16–18 September 2024 in Wrocław and Opole. It is worth emphasising that our meeting is part of the celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the accession of Poland and a number of other countries to the European Union; a celebration that is scientific in spirit, joyful in form, though also marked with a pinch of perplexity as for the future of Europe.

International seminar on Central and Eastern Europe and its challenges in XXI century organized in Opole

On April 18-19, 2023 the Institute of Political Science and Administration of the University of Opole organized seminar dedicated to Central and Eastern Europe. The seminar gathered academics from Czech Republic (Liberec, Ostrava), Hungary (Pecs), Ukraine (Lviv) and Romania (Cluj-Napoca). The seminar was started with key note lectures delivered by professor Vincenc Kopeček (University of Ostrava) and dr Oksana Krayevska (Ivan Franko National University in Lviv).

Interdisciplinary online lecture series: Border Realities

The Centre for Regional and Borderlands Studies at the University of Wrocław invites  researchers and students interested in border studies to participate in the series of lectures Border Realities. Transformation of the border and new conceptual challenges. The online lecture series aims to discuss the transformation of the border by means of empirical case studies as well as conceptual issues. International border researchers from the social sciences and cultural studies are invited to relate their own research and reflection results to the recent resurgence of borders and to elaborate on their new forms. More >>>

• Time and location: 11th-17th September 2022, Opole, Poland
   
• Contact person: Agnes Eross, Ph.D., (e-mail: agnes.eross@uni.opole.pl )
   
• Organizer: University of Opole (Poland), University of St. Gallen (Switzerland), Geographical Institute, Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences, ELKH, (Hungary), University of Ostrava (Czech Republic), University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava (Slovakia), International Visegrad Fund’s Small grant programme
   

• The basic characteristic: The Summer School’s program offers a strong theoretical basis and practical skills training for university students. The organizers planned activities designed to empower the participants with audiovisual skills, which they can use both as a research method and as a dissemination of their research results. Twelve participants were selected from seven countries with diverse educational backgrounds (Arts, Humanities, Social sciences) and skill sets. They will work in groups and create 5-10 minutes’ long audiovisual etudes in collaboration with the citizens of Opole, and with experts working in local institutions. The short audiovisual etudes will be screened on 17th of September from 18:00 pm in Kino Meduza. The screening will be followed by a friendly conversation with invited lecturers and filmmakers. The closing event is open to the public

International Summer School: Cross-border Co-operation in Central Europe in the Times of Re-bordering: Story of Success (?)

• Time and location: 8 – 19 August 2022, Liberec (with field trips to other 2 European countries), Czech Republic
• Contact person: Hynek Böhm, Ph.D., (e-mail: hynek.bohm@tul.cz )
• Organizer: Technical University of Liberec; University of Opole (with support of the Erasmus + and CEEPUS programmes)

• The basic characteristic: The goal of the program is to provide the students with an intensive interdisciplinary insight into the cross-border co-operation (CBC), which is often labelled as a laboratory of European integration at the micro-scale. The participants will learn, on the basis of geography, political science, and history, how is the CBC conducted in the EU, with special focus on differences in CBC conduct in individual EU countries with the post-communist background. More >>>