On Thursday, October 10, the University of Michigan’s Copernicus Center for Polish Studies (CCPS) hosted a reception in Warsaw to celebrate 50 years of Polish Studies at U-M and to connect with Poland-based friends. In attendance were academics, artists, alumni, institutional partners, and prominent public figures, including Mayor of Warsaw Rafał Trzaskowski and Poland’s Minister of Development Funds and Regional Policy, Katarzyna Pełczynska-Nałęcz. Trzaskowski thanked CCPS Director Geneviève Zubrzycki for the center’s continued engagement with Poland and recognized CCPS as a leader in Polish studies in North America.
The CCPS team was also delighted to welcome artist Zbigniew Libera and award-winning author Agata Tuszyńska, who both previously delivered Annual Copernicus Lectures at U-M, as well as many institutional partners—Professors Tomasz Zarycki and Renata Siemieńska (University of Warsaw’s Robert Zajonc Institute for Social Studies); Professor Iwona Kurz (Dean, University of Warsaw); Joanna Andrysiak (Polin Museum); Dr. Malgorzata Bonikowska (co-founder and president, THINKTANK); Anna Kertyczak (Fulbright Poland); Przemysław Balcerzyk (Kosciuszko Foundation); and Paweł Potoroczyn, Szymon Wróblewski, and Agnieszka Rudzińska (Adam Mickiewicz Institute).
Also in attendance were past CCPS Dianne Widzinski Visiting Fellows Jowita Baran and Małgorzata Łukianow and three incoming Widzinski Fellows—Paweł Baginski, Agnieszka Mrozik, and Emilia Sieczka—who will arrive in Ann Arbor in Winter 2025.
U-M alumni from a range of departments and schools also joined the evening’s festivities, including Stanley Urban (BA ’72), Andrzej Krajewski (Fulbright Fellow, 1986-1987), Elizabeth Divis (MFA ’08), Justyna Grudzinska (A.Mus.D. 2014), Jessica Zychowich (PhD ’15), Anna Topolska (MA ’15), and Patryk Roczon (BA ’17).
Additionally, the occasion presented a unique opportunity to bring together friends of CCPS with Ukrainian civil society activists, who were participating in the NGO Leadership Workshop that week in Warsaw, sponsored by the Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia (WCEE). The CCPS and WCEE team was thrilled to host both groups and create new ties between partners in Poland and Ukraine.
“We could not have asked for a better evening among friends, old and new,” commented Geneviève Zubrzycki, CCPS and WCEE Director, Weiser Family Professor in European and Eurasian Studies, and William H. Sewell Jr. Collegiate Professor of Sociology. “The breadth of professional fields and expertise among our guests demonstrates the extensive network that CCPS has developed over the last several decades through multi-faceted engagement with Poland. We look forward to hosting another reception in the future, as there will surely be much to celebrate.”
