Polish scholars return to UB for ‘reunion’ conference

Fifteen past participants in a visiting scholar program with the Jagiellonian University (JU) in Krakow, Poland, made a return visit to Buffalo last week to take part in a conference at UB that celebrated the success of the program.

In a series of panel presentations and individual talks April 4-6, the participating scholars discussed their current scholarship and how their work at UB has impacted their careers.

These mid-career scholars, many of whom are faculty at JU, conducted research visits to UB over the past 20 years — from 2004-21 — spending a month to two collaborating with host faculty at UB on their research and in some cases delivering lectures in their host departments. Their return visit has enabled them to reconnect with past collaborators and share updates on their scholarly activities.

These visits were facilitated through the generous ongoing philanthropic support of Katherine Kubala, who retired from UB as an assistant dean for the School of Architecture and Planning.

“Kathy’s far-sighted and strategic support for our visiting scholar program has paid rich dividends not only for the scholars themselves and their work, but for their collaborators at UB and our bilateral exchange with the Jagiellonian,” says Nojin Kwak, professor and vice provost for international education, who conceived of the conference.

“The scholars’ return is a thrill for Kathy and everyone at UB who has worked with JU over the past two decades,” Kwak adds. “I have been impressed by the participants’ contributions to our conference and the ways they have each helped strengthen ties of scholarly affiliation between our universities.”

Kubala says it was “wonderful seeing so many old friends from the Jagiellonian and learning about their current work. It has been a pleasure being involved in a small way to help advance their scholarly endeavors and careers, and to strengthen ties between our universities.”

Kubala was honored for her contributions to the Jagiellonian program during a conference dinner for the returnees that celebrated them and the program. The event brought together past UB faculty mentors, current faculty and students from Poland at UB, as well as leaders from the local Polish-American community.

“We are grateful to the community for their engagement with our Jagiellonian exchange since its early days in the 1990s,” Kwak says. “Community leaders like Kathy and the late Peter Gessner, a faculty member in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, leveraged our partnership for the benefit of both UB and Polonia.”

The Jagiellonian University has been an important institutional partner of UB for more than 30 years. The two universities signed a cooperation agreement around the time Poland was emerging from Soviet dominance at the beginning of the 1990s.

Since that time, JU and UB have maintained a robust program of exchange involving faculty, students and scholars. In addition to the visiting scholar program, the two institutions have cooperated on opportunities for UB faculty to teach at JU, jointly taught courses, study abroad programs for UB students at JU and the exchange of publications and library materials.

In 1996, JU, UB and the Polish government collaborated on the launch of a Polish Academic Information Center website, which was a leading web-based resource for information about Poland.