Introducing the Polish Editors: The Public Sociology Lab
April 28, 2013
In autumn 2011 we founded a student organization called the Public Sociology Lab (in Polish: Koło Naukowe Socjologii Publicznej) affiliated to the Institute of Sociology, University of Warsaw. We are students attending undergraduate, graduate, as well as postgraduate courses, who were joined by a common interest in discovering public issues in private troubles, to use C. Wright Mills’ famous phrase. We want to pursue social inquiry that is engaged in the life of our society.
Our group undertakes many activities, but our flagship activity definitely remains translating Global Dialogue into Polish. In GD 2.4 we published a summary of a debate devoted to the issues raised in the dispute between Sztompka and Burawoy, referring especially to conditions of Polish academic life. This was one of our discussions around different ways of doing public sociology which has so far attracted a significant audience. Apart from that, we have organized a series of seminars with actively engaged sociologists. Currently we are planning to build a network of Polish sociology students. We are more than happy to participate in the GD network, and thereby spread our discussions of public sociology beyond Poland.
You can contact us via e-mail: public.sociology.kn@uw.edu.pl.
Adam Müller. PhD candidate at the Institute of Sociology, University of Warsaw where he received his MA degree in Sociology. Presently, his research interests are focused on cooperative banking institutions and moral economy.
Karolina Mikołajewska. PhD candidate at the Institute of Sociology, University of Warsaw, where she graduated with an MA in Sociology. She works as a teaching and research assistant at the Center for Research on Organizations and Workplaces at the Kozminski University in Warsaw. Her research interests embrace economic anthropology and sociology, labor relations and organization studies.
Krzysztof Gubański. Undergraduate student of sociology and culture studies at the University of Warsaw. He also spent one year at the Ludwig Maximilians-Universtät in Munich. Interested in economic sociology, urban studies, discourse analysis. Active member of the student council. He is writing his Bachelor’s thesis on changes in higher education in Poland.
Mikołaj Mierzejewski. Undergraduate student of sociology at the University of Warsaw. His fields of interest cover such topics as sociology of higher education, sociology of science, economic sociology, class analysis, and public sociology. He is also a member of the “New Opening of the University” initiative and its research organization, which is focused on recent changes in academia.
Jakub Rozenbaum. Graduate student of sociology at the University of Warsaw. He is writing a thesis on the restitution of private property after communism in Warsaw. His main sociological interests cover labor relations, civic (especially youth) participation, and the housing question. He is a strong supporter of the engagement of social sciences in social change.
Tomasz Piątek. PhD candidate at the Robert B. Zajonc Institute for Social Studies at the University of Warsaw. His main fields of interest are sociology of education and educational systems, youth studies, critical pedagogy, and the question of the social responsibility of sociologists. Zofia Włodarczyk. Graduate student of sociology at the University of Warsaw. She is writing a thesis on various manifestations of agency in rural women’s biographies. Her main fields of interest are public sociology, civic participation (especially among youth and in rural areas), and biographical sociology.
Anna Piekutowska. Graduate student of sociology at the University of Warsaw. Among her interests are social movements and social economy, sociology of gender, and sexuality. Her previous research included an analysis of feminist organizations and their influence on the situation of women in Poland. For her Master’s thesis, she is examining social cooperatives as a tool for social inclusion.
Julia Legat. MA student at the Institute of Sociology, University of Warsaw, where she also received her BA degree. Her main fields of interests are social movements, civic participation, and social inequalities.
Emilia Hudzińska. Graduate student of international relations at the University of Warsaw, currently interested in American studies and the issue of decolonization. She also graduated from the Institute of Sociology, University of Warsaw, where she received her MA degree. For her Master’s thesis she examined power relations among Polish celebrities and politicians. You can contact us via e-mail: public.sociology.kn@uw.edu.pl
Karolina Mikołajewska, University of Warsaw and Kozminski University, Poland
