The Centre for Polish-Lithuanian Studies is planning its activities for this year. Unless there is a return of COVID restrictions, it is planning to hold a symposium in the spring, and run some online talks, details of which will be published soon.
In the first event, hosted by the Kościuszko Foundation this Thursday (23 September), Robert Frost interviews Norman Davies about his sixty years studying Polish history.
Norman Davies became a historian of Poland by accident but has transformed the way that Polish history is written. An iconoclast by nature, he has challenged stereotypes and comfortable assumptions across six decades, insisting on viewing the past from unusual angles. His restless quest to understand and explain the past has led him to write on many aspects of history, but he has always returned to the history of Poland, its peoples, and their complex and ever-changing relations with the world. In this webinar, Robert Frost, who studied for his doctorate under Norman, explores with him his career as a historian, his inspirations, his enthusiasms, and his views on Poland and the writing of its history.
Norman Davies first visited Poland in March 1962, when he was still a student in his final year at Oxford. Fascinated by what he learned, and by what the authorities did not want him to learn, he made the study of Polish history the starting-point of his academic career. As a successful historian writing in English he rapidly gained a worldwide readership, and devoted himself to informing the world about Poland. His books have been translated into over thirty languages including Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Ukrainian, Spanish, German, Italian, and French.
Robert Frost professor of the University of Aberdeen. Educated at the University of St Andrews, The Jagiellonian University, Cracow, and the School of Slavonic & East European Studies, University of London. He specialises in the history of Poland-Lithuania between the fifteenth and the nineteenth centuries. Principal Publications After the Deluge. Poland-Lithuania and the Second Northern War, 1655-1660 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1993) The Northern Wars. War, State and Society in Northeastern Europe, 1558-1721 (Longmans, Aldershot, 2000) The Oxford History of Poland-Lithuania vol. 1 The Making of the Polish-Lithuanian Union, 1385-1569 (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2015).
The conversation between Prof. Norman Davies and Prof. Robert Frost will be suplemented by introductory remarks and Q&A with an audience by Alex Storozynski.
The online meeting will be held on 23 September 2021 at 11:00 PM (NYC)/ 17:00 (London)/ 18:00 (Warsaw).
