Department of Cultural and Media Studies

Scope of research

Apart from research and teaching, our staff is also involved in initiatives benefiting local communities and the society, and collaborates with business partners. As a department within the Faculty of Humanities, we offer cultural study programs (including a practical program – School of Ideas) and journalism. Our projects aim to meet the needs of the contemporary world.

We share our knowledge and skills of analyzing and describing the surrounding world with our students. We carry out assessments and forecast directions of change. Furthermore, through our academic and auxiliary activities, we strive to actively and effectively impact the change.

We are united by the mission of social responsibility, engagement of our researchers in their work, and initiatives that support cultural equality in the society, which is diverse with respect to nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, etc..

We stand on the shoulders of our distinguished former colleagues and mentors, including Professor Jolanta Brach-Czaina, Professor Jerzy Bralczyk, Professor Mirosław Duchowski, Professor Roch Sulima, Professor Anna Zeidler-Janiszewska, Professor Wojciech Burszta, Professor Wiesław Godzic, and Professor Maciej Mrozowski.

Education Concept – Our Difference

Our concept of education is rooted in transdisciplinary, critical and engaged attitude towards science and teaching that our researchers represent. It combines the Polish tradition of cultural and media research with the German tradition of Kulturwissenschaften and the Anglo-Saxon tradition of cultural studies. Nevertheless, we believe that the most interesting ideas emerge “between”, also between disciplines, hence our students acquire knowledge and skills derived from various “tool boxes”. For that reason, we enrich the critical tradition with elements of speculation, and we combine the development of assessment and research skills with methods used in design, which are focused on the development, testing, and creation of conceptual, and sometimes material, porotypes.

Many of our students begin their professional careers while still studying. Through experts who lecture at our journalism program students often get employment opportunities at companies these professionals represent. Practical experience also helps our student to learn that through media and communication they can impact the world.

We have also been inspired by study programs offered by other universities, which partnered with us on various projects. Our influences include:

• Comparative Media Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that combine practical projects and media analytics tools
• Critical theory program offered by the School of Criticism and Theory at Cornell University
• Management of social and business initiatives based on humanistic values promoted by the Institute of Social Ethics at the University of Lucerne
• Cross-cultural practices concerning sustainable development, protection of the environment, and democratic values developed by the Baltic University Programme
• Processes and procedures concerning the development of education offer and achieving education outcomes developed by the University College London

This intertwining of theoretical, research and project elements has been inspired by the current leading innovators in project-centered work, such as the Parsons School of Design in New York and Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University.

Key characteristics of our teaching program – our difference:

• Focus on the present – the knowledge and practical skills we teach, equip our students with critical thinking skills, methods, research tools, and knowledge of normative systems that allow them to not only understand the contemporary world in all its complexity and comprehend dynamic changes, but also diagnose these complexities and transformations, forecast the direction of the changes, and gain agency by active participation.
• Interdisciplinary approach – our study programs are based on the body of knowledge derived from several disciplines and various research strategies and practices, which allow scholars to describe and analyze complex contemporary phenomena.
• Toolboxes of researchers and practitioners – the majority of lecturers teaching journalism are practitioners with extensive work experience in the media. Therefore, our program ensures that our graduates gain practical experience, which provides them with an advantage on the job market. During classes, students learn how to use both traditional and innovative methods and tools.
• Networking – during the course of study, students have an opportunity to meet not only their academic teachers, but also many professionals who work in the creative sector, representatives of public and private institutions, and community activists from Poland and around the world.
• Empathy – as academic teachers, we believe in mutual feedback, empathetic approach, building strong bonds with students based on trust, and engagement.
• Experience – the core of the “School of Ideas” program consists of an extensive system of mandatory practicum modules, spread evenly across the years of study. The goal of the practicum, which every semester, is carried out in collaboration with a different entity, e.g., cultural institutions, businesses, NGOs, municipalities, is to immerse our students in actual environments where services and innovations are designed. This allows our graduates to gain practical experience indispensable in the job-search process.
• Courage – our journalism program teaches not only tools of the trade of the broadly understood social communication, but also journalistic ethics and values. We teach our students that pursuit of truth is often difficult and requires courage. We show them the complexity of exposing propaganda, disinformation and fake news.
• Agility – our programs are designed to help students gain team and project management skills and react to a rapidly changing world.

Scope of research

We draw on various research traditions and are inspired by different areas of research, such as anthropology, social communication, linguistics, and philosophy. This is a result not only of our diverse research interests, but also of our biographies and biographies of key Polish researchers specializing in culture and media, who have laid the foundation of our Department.

Research Centers

The Institute of Humanities oversees the work of the following research centers:

• Creative Economy Research Center led by Professor Dorota Ilczuk
• Center for Cultural Research of Technologies led by Professor Mirosław Filiciak

We are currently working on establishing the Center for Comparative Studies on Cultural Memory, led by Katatrzyna Bojarska, Ph.D..

We also contribute to research projects carried out by other interdisciplinary centers at SWPS University, such as:

• Center for Research on the Economics of Memorial Sites, which researches the economic and cultural aspects of memorial sites
• 4CAST Center for Climate Action and Social Transformations, which studies attitudes towards climate change.

Central European Digital Media Observatory (CEDMO)

The main goal of the project is to increase awareness of fake news and to counteract the ubiquitous disinformation in Central Europe. The project is intended to help media, public institutions, businesses, and non-profit organizations to deal with fake news. Katarzyna Bąkiewicz, Ph.D. represents SWPS University on the international CEDMO team. She has already carried out a quantitative study “Awareness of disinformation among Polish news journalists” and published a study report.
Read more about the CEDMO project

Student Research Clubs

Student Research Clubs bring together students who are interested in cultural and media studies Participation in the clubs provides students with an excellent opportunity to learn how to apply their newly acquired theoretical knowledge in practice. The research clubs also facilitate exchange of ideas and provide a platform for broadening one’s interests. Our students pursue their interests and test their ideas in the following clubs:

• Student Studio [Frame]
• New Journalism Student Research Club
• MyGender Student Research Club
• School of Ideas Student Research Club

Awards for Best Theses

Since 2022, we have been awarding students who have written the best undergraduate and graduate theses in the discipline of cultural studies. This recognition is conducive to the promotion of innovative research in the filed of contemporary culture. We encourage thesis advisors and reviewers to submit their nominations atThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Conferences and Meetings

Since 2009, we have been involved in various projects carried out by an inter-university research center established in collaboration with the Academy of Fine Arts – the Institute of Research on Public Space (IBPP) (formerly the Center for Research on Public Space). Together, we have conducted many interdisciplinary research projects and published numerous articles. For example, Monika Weychert, Ph.D. delivered lectures and organized conferences, symposia and meetings under the auspices of IBPP. She also co-edited a monograph about the founder of IBPP, Professor Mirosław Duchowski “Duch metra” (The Spirit of the Warsaw Metro) [2021].

We also contribute to inter-university research on media. Professor Marek Kochan is a member of the Media Studies Committee of the Polish Academy of Learning (PAU), which provides a platform for exchange of ideas and knowledge sharing between media researchers who work at universities across Poland. Professor Kochan also participates in interdisciplinary Discourse Analysis Workshops that have been exploring a variety of topics concerning public communication for the past several years.

Additionally, we actively participate in top conferences concerned with media studies in Poland, such as the annual conference Współczesne Media (Contemporary Media) in Lublin, Studia i Perspektyw Medioznawcze (Media Studies and Perspectives) in Wrocław, and Ogólnopolska Konferencja Metodologiczna Medioznawców (National Methodological Conference of Media Researchers) in Warsaw, as well as meetings of the Polish Sociological Association (PTS) and the Polish Communication Association (PCA). The conferences result in publications concerning media and public communication.

Radio ZET’s Journalism Forum

Our lecturers and students actively co-create the Journalism Forum founded by Radio ZET, a Polish commercial radio station. The Forum is part of the annual Andrzej Woyciechowski Awards Gala. The award recognizes journalists who break stereotypes and dare to read between the lines and look beyond the obvious. The Forum provides a platform for meetings of experienced journalists, media experts and researchers with students of journalism, and for discussions about challenges that media face nowadays. The conversations focus on reliability, trust, objectivism, and responsibility, which are expected from the journalistic profession. They also touch on conscious participation in communication via the new media as well as opportunities and threats resulting from the development of new technologies. One of our academics, Marcin Zaborski, Ph.D., represents SWPS University at the Program Committee of the Andrzej Woyciechowski Award.
Read more   

Our Publications

We publish in key scientific journals devoted to culture and religion studies and media and social communication studies, including Polish publications such as: Teksty drugie, Przegląd kulturoznawczy, Kultura współczesna, Czas kultury, Kwartalnik filmowy, Pamiętnik teatralny, Rocznik Historii Prasy Polskiej, Zeszyty Prasoznawcze, Konteksty. Polska Sztuka Ludowa, Politeja. Pismo Wydziału Studiów Międzynarodowych i Politycznych Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, Studia Medioznawcze, Studia Slavica, Poradnik Językowy, Kultura Media Teologia, Studia Politologiczne, Studia Migracyjne – Przegląd Polonijny, Estetyka i Krytyka, Prace Kulturoznawcze, Elementy. Sztuka i design, Narracje o Zagładzie, Kultura i Społeczeństwo, Athenaeum, Polskie Studia Politologiczne, and international journals, such as: Arts, Memory Studies, Game Studies, Critical Studies in Television, Images. The International Journal of European Film, Performing Arts and Audiovisual Communication, European Journal of Cultural Studies, and Critical Romani Studies. We also contribute chapters to books that are published by prestigious publishing houses listed on the ministerial list II, such as Bloombsbury, MIT Press, and Routledge.

OSWPS University Press: Since 2022, a journal focused on visual culture studies Widok. Teorie i praktyki kultury wizualnej has been affiliated with SWPS University.

Knowledge Sharing

A belief in the social mission of our department translates to our commitment to popularization of knowledge about cultural studies. We are present in traditional and social media, including dailies (such as the national daily Gazeta Wyboracza and local dailies), weekly opinion magazines (e.g., Polityka, Newsweek, Tygodnik Powszechny, and Wprost) as well as radio and television programs and online platforms.

Our numerous initiatives also carry a huge educational potential. For example, the report on the notion of “sisterhood” developed by Sandra Frydrysiak, Ph.D. and Marta Majchrzak, provided a foundation for activism concerning women’s rights. The report suggests that practicing “sisterhood”, understood as women’s solidarity, helps to reveal systemic nature of women’s issues, which are often treated as taboo subjects by the society.

As part of the strategic program “Inicjatywa doskonałości – uczelnia badawcza” (Excellence Initiative – Research University), Monika Weychert, Ph.D. participated in an international research and artistic project carried out by the Pedagogical University of Krakow. Together with Rafał Kosewski, she was a curator of an exhibition “Nostalgia za człowiekiem” (Nostalgic about humanity), which summarized the project and aimed to popularize different Art and Science approaches (October-November 2022).

We should also mention the collaboration of Karol Jachymek, Ph.D. with numerous cultural and education intuitions, such as the National Film Archive – Audiovisual Institute, the Center for Citizenship Education, Filmoteka Szkolna – a resource of selected films from the national archive addressed to teachers and students, the School with Class Foundation, and the New Horizons Association, which aim to popularize knowledge concerning adolescent (pop)culture, digital media, and communication practices common among members of the Generations Z and Alpha. For this purpose, Dr. Karol Jachymek, develops scripts for lessons and lectures, e-learning courses and runs workshops for teachers, educators and parents on these topics.