Dear Sir/Madam
dr hab. prof. UR Szczepan Kozak
A need to publish a scientific journal devoted to the history of Galicia was already indicated in the spring of 2009, when the International Research Team ‘Galicia 1772-1918’ began its work in the Institute of History at the University of Rzeszów. The team gathering historians from Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine and Hungary organized six international scientific conferences in Rzeszów, Przemyśl, Poznań and Lviv. Conferences were followed by publications: ‘Galicia 1772-1918. Methodological difficulties, current state and needs of research’ by A. Kawalec, W. Wierzbieniec and L. Zaszkilniak (eds.), volume 1-3; ‘Galicia and January Uprising’ (2013) by M. Hoszowska, A. Kawalec and L. Zaszkilniak (eds.) published in Warsaw-Rzeszów; ‘Galician roads and roadless tracts: a study of infrastructure, organization and culture of travelling’ (2013) by J. Kamińska-Kwak (ed.) published in Rzeszów; ‘Everyday life, economy, culture and Polish society in 1772-1918. Dissertations about the history of Polish lands in the period of partitions’ (2015) by W. Łazuga and D. Szymczak published in Poznań; ‘Between politics, history and historical memory. Studies of Polish history in the post-partition period’ (2015) by W. Łazuga and S. Paczos (eds.) published in Poznań; ‘Woman in Galicia. Modernity and Tradition’ (2016) in book series: ‘Galicia and its heritage’ by J. Kamińska-Kwak, S. Kozak and D. Opaliński (eds.) published in Rzeszów.
Resoults of research conducted by the team encompass analytic and synthetic studies. Among latter ones it is worth to mention such works by: M. Hoszowska - ‘Ludwik Finkel and Academy of Learning. The history of scientific cooperation of Lviv and Cracow in the turn of 19 and 20 century’ (2011) published in Rzeszów, ‘Szymon Askenazy and his correspondence with Ludwik Finkel’ (2013) published in Rzeszów; J. Maternicki – ‘Walerian Kalinka (1826-1886) and his studies of post-partition period’ (2013) publish in Rzeszów in book series: ‘Galicia and its heritage’, vol. 23; S. Kozak – ‘Woman in Galician provinces in 1871-1914. Historical and source studies’ (2013) published in Rzeszów; J. Dybiec, J. Krawczyk, A. Meissner, K. Szmyd (eds.) – ‘Education and educational system in Galicia 1772-1918’ (2015) published in Rzeszów in book series ‘Galicia and its heritage’, vol. 22.
Extensive program of team’s principles, worked out by Professor Jerzy Maternicki, underlines the need of ‘hammering of comprehensive and integral depiction of Galicia history in the period of 1772-1918, with special emphasis on multicultural character of Galicia, mutual relationships of its nations and ethnic groups, Wien politics involving the province, political, economic, social and educational changes, development of education system, science, art, literature, formation of modern national consciousness of Poles and Ukrainians, transformation of Jewish communities’.
After the emergence ‘Galicia. Studies and materials’ we would like to continue undertaken works, broaden the scope of research and open it for new disciplines. We deeply care about the interdisciplinary nature of the journal, to make it a platform which would facilitate communication and enhance exchange of ideas. Already published journals are divided into sections: Dissertations and papers, Sources and materials, Reviews and write-ups, Chronicle. The scheme will be continued in subsequent volumes. Integral part of each volume will be devoted to the selection of references concerning the history of Galicia. The idea of creation of Galician references has been present from the very beginning of our team. The proposed selection begins in 2010 and it includes works published in Poland, Austria and Ukraine. In the following volumes we wish to successively fill in the references encompassing subsequent years.
The journal will be available in both, a traditional and online version. We hope this strategy will popularize the history of Galicia to a wider public. Additionally, we are counting on cooperation with researches and circles which have not yet been involved in the work of our team.
| Rzeszów, October 2015 |