Polish-Studies.Interdisciplinary (Pol-Int): Innovative Online Platform for Polish Studies
by Katarzyna Jez, European University Viadrina
This post originally appeared in the June 2015 NewsNet.
Polish-Studies.Interdisciplinary (Pol-Int), links the worldwide Polish studies scholarly community and promotes content exchange among scholars. It is the first community-based online platform offered for students, lecturers, researchers and specialised journalists from all over the world seeking information on a trans-border level across different fields, and an exchange academic information. In May 2015, Pol-Int celebrated its first anniversary. Pol-Int offers information related to Polish Studies in Polish, English and German. This resource contains the newest publications, reviews, job offers and funding possibilities, announcements about conferences, conference reports as well as Calls for Papers.
The platform enables users to present current research projects, discuss scholarship with one another, and find project partners. Institutions from across the world, previously working independently from one another in their pursuit of interdisciplinary Polish Studies, are now able to introduce themselves on Pol-Int pages and to dialogue with one another. Currently, there is no comparable platform or mailing list that informs and connects the work of so many researchers from around the world working on Poland.
Pol-Int offers its users a high degree of interactivity. Thanks to the considerable involvement of its users, Pol-Int supports community building and serves as a source of information directly from users for users. Currently, over 720 international scholars are part of Pol-Int. The engagement of numerous postgraduate students and junior researchers, who submit ideas and contributions, is particularly noteworthy. The new concept and implementation of the platform serves as an exceptionally user-friendly tool for researchers who concern themselves with history, current events, the Polish language, society, economy, culture, literature, art as well as many more research fields.
Pol-Int received a high degree of support during its research and development phase; numerous institutions from Poland and Germany, many more European, Asian and American research facilities offered their cooperation. The Pol-Int project is hosted by the Center for Interdisciplinary Polish Studies at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt/Oder (Germany) and the Collegium Polonicum in Słubice (Poland). The platform is supported by twenty international partner institutions and represents a link that was previously lacking. Thanks to the platform, current and future projects can be communicated worldwide to a wide audience. This enables new synergies to occur and facilitates scholarly cooperation.
The editing team of Pol-Int is comprised of three full-time editors, and works with more than thirty volunteer subject editors as well as over one hundred reviewers from different academic areas. Additionally, Pol-Int cooperates with dozens of publishers from across the whole world. A renowned board of advisers insures a high scholastic standard of the published contributions.
Pol-Int’s success is due to the engagement of its users. Please visit www.pol-int.org and register in a few easy steps. Users can announce new conferences, suggest new books and become involved in the Pol-Int community. The editing team is always open for cooperation with new editors and reviewers. Should anyone wish to support our editorial work, please write to redakcja@pol-int.org.
Since October 2013, Ms. Jez (at far right in image) has worked as a Project Officer in the online platform Polish-Studies.Interdisciplinary at the Center for Interdisciplinary Polish Studies at the European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder) and is responsible for communications and public relations.