Oral history we współczesnej Polsce - badania, projekty, stowarzyszenia
Oral history in Poland today - research, projects and academic societies

Summary/Abstract: This text shows changes in the way oral history has been perceived in the last 10 years in Poland, what projects are being conducted at the moment and where research on this subject is going. Contemporary research in oral history has taken a few directions. First, this method is treated as a source prompted by historians and used in by them in research activity. Second, an interest taken in this method is manifested in methodological and historiographic reflection. The third group is research on archiving audio-visual documents. Another area of interest for oral history is widely understood education and popularization of this method. In Poland there are a few serious institutions/centrers that focus their research and work methods on oral form of information. On the scale of the whole country we have Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe (National Digital Archive) and Centrum Edukacji Obywatelskiej (Center for Civic Education). Widely available are internet sources such as „Uczyć się z historii” (“To Learn from History”) and „Świadkowie Historii” (“Witnesses to History”), which gather oral evidence from people all over Poland. The article discusses also activities of the KARTA Center from Wrocław, “Brama Grodzka –   Teatr NN” (Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre) Center and Studio Historii Mówionej (Oral History Center) from Lublin. The Memory and Future Institute from Wrocław is a thriving institution as well. An analysis has also been made of initiatives taken by circles in Olsztyn, Łódź, and at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum.In 2009 the first in Poland Oral History Society was founded (Towarzystwo Historii Mówionej). This was possible thanks to institutions that are developing and are more and more active, and also thanks to academics who take interest in this kind of research. Every year the Society organizes nationwide conferences. Also other academic centers and societies organize conferences and meetings devoted to the culture of memory and oral history.

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