The four-day event includes 30 panel discussions on a wide range of topics including multiculturalism in interwar Poland, Polish emigration, the role of Polish museums in the dissemination of national culture abroad, and Jews in Polish culture.
The general topic of the conference is "Cultural Encounters."
Polish upper-house Speaker Tomasz Grodzki, who opened the event, said that it is important to offer an external, balanced and distanced look at the history of Poland at a time when historians wrangle over past events.
Poland's upper-house Speaker Tomasz Grodzki addresses the 4th Congress of International Researchers of Polish History in Kraków on Wednesday. Photo: PAP/Art Service 2
British historian and political analyst Timothy Garton Ash gave an inaugural lecture entitled "From Post-War Europe to Post-Wall Europe - and Back."
Another British historian, Prof. Richard Butterwick-Pawlikowski of University College London, was presented with the Pro Historia Polonorum Award for his study The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, 1733-1795: Light and Flame.
American historian Patrice M. Dabrowski received an honourable mention for her book The Carpathians: Discovering the Highlands of Poland and Ukraine.
The Pro Historia Polonorum Award is given for best foreign book on Polish history.
Conference participants include Robert Frost of Aberdeen University, James Collins of Georgetown University in Washington, and Bill Caughlan from the Kosciuszko National Memorial in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
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