Two Jagiellonian University researchers, Prof. Małgorzata Sugiera from the Faculty of Polish Studies and Dr Marcin Bukowski from the Faculty of Philosophy, have received grants within the framework of the Beethoven competition

The results of the first bilateral competition of the National Science Centre (NCN) carried out in collaboration with the German Research Foundation (DFG) have been announced. Two JU staff members: Prof. Małgorzata Sugiera of the Faculty of Polish Studies and Dr Marcin Bukowski of the Faculty of Philosophy will receive grants to carry out research with their colleagues from Potsdam and Leipzig.

The grants have been awarded within the framework of the Beethoven competition. The grant applications included research projects from the area of humanities and social sciences, to be carried out jointly by Polish-German Research groups.  

The contest was announced in September last year. The head of the Polish research team is required to hold at least a PhD degree. The project duration must be no shorter than one year and no longer than three years. The lowest possible cost of the Polish part of the research project is 150 thousand zlotys, whereas the highest possible cost has not been defined.

16 best projects have been selected from among 96 applications submitted. Prof. Małgorzata Sugiera, the head of the Chair in Performance Studies at the Faculty of Polish Studies will receive 395,280.00 PLN to run the project Performances of Memory: Testimonial, Reconstructive and Counterfactual Strategies in Literature and Performative Arts of the 20th and 21st Centuries. Prof. Magdaleda Marszałek from the Institute of Slavonic Studies at the University of Potsdam will be responsible for the German part of the project. The academic consortium will also include the Institute of Polish Culture at the University of Warsaw.

The project will take three years to complete. The research will be aimed at critical assessment of the state of memory studies, which will, in turn, provide a basis for the (re-) conceptualisation of the theory of artistic documentary and paradocumentary practices resulting from the analysis of literary and artistic testimonial, reconstructive and counterfactual  strategies referring to the most important historical experiences of the 20th century that have shaped them.

The second Jagiellonian University project: Threat to control and social norms: Conformity, Change or Formation will be coordinated by Dr Marcin Bukowski from the Department of Social Psychology at the Faculty of Philosophy. The grant value is 445,140.00 PLN. The three-year studies will focus on various aspects of group norms, analysed from social-cognitive perspective. The researchers will test an original theoretical model concerning the conditions in which the threat to the motive to control the environment influences the occurrence of behaviour either conforming to the existing social norms or rebelling against them. The project will be run in cooperation with researchers from the University of Leipzig.

The German Research Foundation is a grant organisation that funds basic research in all disciplines. It is an association consisting of German research universities, research institutions and research societies. Its is mainly funded from the budgets of federated states and the federal government.