Public History PhD student, Criss Beyers, received funding to travel to Poland to study their language and culture. We asked Criss to share his story.
From the end of June until the beginning of August 2024, I spent five weeks in Poland improving my readiness to pursue dissertation research. During this time, I participated in advanced Polish language study, established relationships with new colleagues at universities and museums, and rekindled old ones.
Thanks to the generous support of the History Department, CHASS, and a fellowship from the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange, I participated in a four-week highly intensive Polish language and culture course at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin. Not only did I advance my language proficiency, enabling me to conduct what will be necessary archival research, but I reestablished connections with colleagues at the “Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre” Centre, a cultural institution in Lublin dedicated to preserving the memory of the city’s Jewish past.
While in Kraków, I attended the renowned Jewish Culture Festival, met with long-time friend and colleague, Anna Wencel, an educator at the Galicia Jewish Museum, and discussed my preliminary research with Dr. Edyta Gawron, a historian at the Institute of Jewish Studies at the Jagiellonian University, museum curator, and academic advisor to the Galicia Jewish Museum.
A brief trip to Warsaw allowed me to meet with a historian at the Warsaw Ghetto Museum. Though this museum has yet to open to the public, I was able to learn about the museum’s fascinating permanent exhibition concept, and its future contributions to Poland’s diverse Holocaust museological landscape.
This trip was crucial to the success of my doctoral research and my future as a public historian.
