We, the Centre
The Centre for Interdisciplinary Research into Health and Illness is the first centre at a Polish university with an explicit aim to do research in health humanities and the social sciences of health and illness. It was created in September 2021 at the University of Wroclaw, under the Polish government’s IDUB (link here) excellence programme (there are seven others such centres at the University).
At the moment, there are six researchers working at the centre. Prof. Dariusz Galasiński is a linguist and the head of the Centre. Dr Eva Duda is a sociologist, while Dr Katja Herges is a literary scholar and a psychiatrist. There are also three research associates working with us. Magdalena Witkowicz is a psychologist, Samuel Maruszewski is a philosopher and Paul Mokrzycki specialises in environmental health and human development. Magda and Samuel are PhD students here at the University of Wroclaw.
Three other people are already associated with the Centre. One is Prof. Justyna Ziółkowska (SWPS University) who has worked with Dariusz Galasiński on many projects. With Konrad Opaliński (University of Zielona Góra), we have started a research project into loneliness in polar expeditions. The third one is Prof. Natalia Letki (University of Warsaw) with whom we shall be starting a project on loneliness and migration soon.
The Centre’s focus is on stories of difficult, traumatic, and extreme experiences, first exploring loneliness, often described as the ‘silent epidemic’ of the 21st century. We aim to combine perspectives from social scientific and other disciplines, hoping not only to create new knowledge, but also to translate it into helping people deal with their difficulties. Alongside the main interest in loneliness, we shall be developing other research, as long as it falls a little bit in the broad field of health and illness.
We want to be a Centre in which we all have a stake and the success of one of us will be the success of us all.
As we want to do excellent research, we also want to be open to people and ideas that come from us and from others. We will be a place where all people will feel welcome and will want to spend a little, a little more or a long time. Please, see also our statement about how we work (link here).
