Pilecki Fellowship | call for application
The fellowship is awarded to both senior and junior researchers, representing disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, especially modern history, sociology, political science, international relations, law studies and political philosophy.
The Pilecki Institute is a research institution based in Warsaw, Poland. It is named after Witold Pilecki (1901–1948), the World War II Polish intelligence agent and officer with the Home Army who volunteered to let himself be caught and sent to the concentration and death camp in Auschwitz in order to organize resistance inside and to report on the atrocities being carried out there by the Germans. After the war he became a victim of the communist regime and was executed in 1948.
The Institute examines 20th-century history with a special focus on totalitarian ideologies and their implementation in Poland and other Central and Eastern European countries. The Institute’s mission is to reinvigorate international scholarly discussion on the German and Soviet occupation of Central and Eastern Europe by initiating interdisciplinary and comparative research projects and scholarship, and by offering grant programs aimed at early-stage, junior, and senior scholars.
The Center for Totalitarian Studies at the Institute gathers researchers who specialize in political science, international relations, sociology, international law, history and Jewish studies. This unique milieu of scholars both initiates and participates in interdisciplinary research projects devoted to totalitarianism and the history of Poland and Central and Eastern Europe in the 20th century. Their studies are concerned primarily with World War II, its consequences, and the cultivation of memory by the second and third postwar generations. They are supported as well by the Institute’s team of archival and bibliographic experts.
The Institute seeks scholars to carry out their own research projects in this vibrant and intellectually stimulating environment who will contribute with their approaches, perspectives and new ideas. We are looking for scholars ready to work in a multidisciplinary and vigorous team and participate in vibrant discussions on political, social, economic, cultural, international and legal aspects and implications of the complex phenomenon of totalitarianism.
OBJECTIVE
Researchers across the humanities and social sciences are encouraged to apply. Preference will be given to projects in some way connected to Polish studies or comparative studies of other Central and Eastern European countries as broadly understood and related to the following research areas:
- Totalitarian systems and ideologies in the 20th century and its consequences.
- The German and Soviet occupations of Central and Eastern Europe – legal, social, philosophical and historical aspects.
- Sovereignty, human rights, genocide and international law in the wake of the catastrophe of the World War II.
- Memory and memorialization of World War II.
- Nationalism and political community in 20th-century Europe.
- Personal experiences of war and totalitarianism in Europe.
- Enslaved societies – resistance and strategies of survival in 20th-century Europe.
The list of research areas is not definitive, and new ideas are also welcomed.