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I.3.12. Preparation and launching of a research project entitled Non-Anthropocentric Cultural Subjectivity

IDUB Programme Objective(s)

  • Increasing the impact of the scientific activity of the University on the development of world science
  • Strengthening research cooperation with internationally renowned scientific institutions, especially in the priority research areas (POB)
  • Improving the quality of education for students and doctoral candidates in fields related to priority research areas (POB)
  • Increasing the international prestige of the University
  • Other specific objectives: Cooperation with WUM

Name of POB/activity group

Description

Objectives

  1. Creating an interdisciplinary research platform which enables cooperation between researchers employed in different departments of the University, especially from the Faculties of Modern Languages, Polish Studies, Artes Liberales, Philosophy and Sociology, and Psychology.
  2. Establishing cooperation with domestic and foreign research entities operating in similar fields, primarily with RWTH Aachen University and the University of California, Los Angeles.
  3. Creating an interdisciplinary eco-poetological laboratory, with the participation of an international committee of authors/creators and theorists/theorists of contemporary culture.
  4. Creating an optimal publishing base (journal, series of publications) for the dissemination of research results.
  5. Creating a platform for the practical application of research activities.

Justification

The relations between the human world and that of non-human subjects (beings) constitutes a dynamically developing area in the world of contemporary humanities. This field is primarily concerned with overcoming an anthropocentric vision of subjectivity, by taking into account developments in computer science – especially in the context of work on autonomous machines and artificial intelligence. Although UW started research in this area a few years ago, it has not yet acquired the critical mass necessary for internationalisation and recognition. UW’s potential is very high: a large group of researchers employed at the University are working on the above issues (the Department of Artes Liberales also conducts studies in the field of anthrozoology), but they lack an interdisciplinary platform for closer cooperation. The paradigm of cultural subjectivity in philosophical, ethical, post-secular, legal, medical, technological, psychological, anthropological, linguistic, literary, and cultural studies contexts, which is an answer to the real challenges of today’s world, requires extensive interdisciplinary cooperation using a methodology that takes the interdisciplinary nature of the project into account.

Tasks or projects within the tasks

1. The areas of research to be carried out first will be related to linguistic and semiotic communication systems in the non-human world and their correlation with the structures of languages produced by homo sapiens, as well as representations of the non-human world in the cultural creations of mankind, on cognitive and affective levels. Beyond that, there are also plans to analyse the legal and bioethical regulations in the field of animal protection and issues related to biodiversity, ecology and counteracting negative climate change.

The research team is scheduled to be set up in 2020, and by the end of this year it will have the operational capacity to put its cooperation with leading research centres in Europe and the world – primarily with RWTH Aachen University and the University of California, Los Angeles – into practice.

2. By the end of 2020, the scientific journal Transpositions. A Journal for Interdisciplinary Culture Studies, published by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (level II on the Ministry of Science and Higher Education’s list of publications) will begin printing scientific texts in English and German. The first issue of the journal (published semi-annually) will appear in the spring of 2021. Throughout the project, all necessary steps will be taken to ensure that the new periodical has a high impact rate, reflected in a sufficiently high score. Publications in the form of monographs are planned, starting in 2022.

The results of the teams’ work will also be published in other leading high impact scientific journals, including separate thematic special issues (e.g., The Journal of Intercultural Studies, Environmental Humanities, or others). The results of the Panel’s work will be made available in the form of an electronic web platform with a register of issues, summaries, and publication references.

3. In 2021, a publishing series will be established in one of the leading foreign publishers (level II on the Ministry of Science and Higher Education’s list – most likely Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht). The first monograph in the series is expected to be published in 2022.

4. Between 2021 and 2023, international conferences, symposiums, workshops and research laboratories will be organised at the University of Warsaw on areas of inquiry which reflect the nature of this activity. Their results will be published in multi-author volumes by prestigious publishing houses, and (in justified cases) in the form of podcasts, thus ensuring that they reach a wider audience – both within and outside of the academic community.

5. Active participation of research team members in prestigious international conferences and queries at leading research centres abroad is planned.

Coordinating units

  • Faculty of Modern Languages, University of Warsaw
  • Centre for Culture, Language and Mind Research, University of Warsaw

Entities involved in implementation

  • Centre for Culture, Language and Mind Research
  • Department of Modern Languages
  • Faculty of Artes Liberales
  • Faculty of Philosophy and Sociology
  • Faculty of Polish Studies
  • Faculty of Psychology
  • Other departments at the University of Warsaw, depending on the dynamics of partial task development