Institute of European Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow

31/07/2026

💶 The euro is getting its first major redesign since 2002, and for once, the decision isn't left to officials alone.

The European Central Bank has unveiled 10 shortlisted banknote designs, split between two themes - "European culture" 🎭 (featuring figures like Marie Curie, Leonardo da Vinci, and Maria Callas) and "Rivers and birds" 🐦.

Everyone across Europe - including you - can vote for their favourite in an online survey open until 21 September 2026 🗓️.

This is what European integration looks like in practice: not just decisions made in Brussels or Frankfurt, but a shared say, open to anyone who wants to take part 🇪🇺.

Take five minutes, vote, and pass the link on ⏳.

🗳️ Cast your vote here: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/banknotes/future_banknotes/html/design-proposals.en.html

30/07/2026

📚🌱 Great news - due to popular demand, we’re prolonging the SWAP initiative until 31 August!

🧺 The baskets on the ground floor of Wydział Studiów Międzynarodowych i Politycznych UJ (Reymonta 4) will keep collecting and sharing books, plants, notes, and small items all summer long.

🙏 A huge thank you to everyone who has already brought something to swap - your generosity and eco-awareness is what makes this initiative work.

💚 If you’re in Kraków for the summer, why not use the downtime to sort through your shelves? Bring something. Take something. Pass it on.

29/07/2026

📢 We're glad to share that dr hab. Magdalena Góra and dr Elodie Thevenin from our Institute of European Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow have just published a new open-access article in Globalizations! 🎉

📄 "Hardly a nexus. The Polish frames on humanitarian assistance, peace, and development aid for Ukraine and Ukrainians in 2022"

The article examines how Polish political and media discourse framed the response to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, drawing on official statements, parliamentary debates, and coverage from four major Polish daily newspapers.

The authors show that while humanitarian, development, and peace-related narratives all appeared in Polish responses to the crisis, they largely remained separate rather than being combined into a coherent "triple nexus" approach. Humanitarian framing dominated the early stages, followed by growing attention to military support and, later, reconstruction and EU integration.

💡 A great contribution to ongoing debates on the humanitarian-development-peace nexus in the European context.

👏 Congratulations to our colleagues - we encourage everyone to give it a read! 🇵🇱🇺🇦

🔗 Read the full article (open access): https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2026.2690881

07/07/2026

🎉 We are delighted to announce that our Institute's staff member Svetlana Baranova has been selected for the prestigious Europaeum Scholars' Programme (Cohort 5)! 🌍🎓

📚 Svetlana combines her work at our Institute with doctoral studies at the Doctoral School of Humanities at Jagiellonian University Szkoła Doktorska Nauk Humanistycznych UJ, in the field of cultural studies. Her research brings together environmental humanities, literary studies, and cultural theory to examine how climate fiction shapes public imagination and emotional responses to the ecological crisis. 🌱📖

🤝 The Europaeum Scholars Programme brings together outstanding doctoral students from seventeen leading European universities, giving them direct engagement with institutions shaping Europe's future. This week, Svetlana will take part in the programme's first module, held in Oxford. 🇬🇧

✨ We would also like to take this opportunity to note that our Institute has been represented in previous editions of the programme by Dr. Daniel Gołębiowski (Cohort 1) and Dr. Elodie Thevenin (Cohort 2). We are glad that ISE UJ already has an established place in this exceptional community.

🎊 Warmest congratulations! 👏

🔗 More about the programme: europaeum.org/programmes/scholars

03/07/2026

📚 We are delighted to share that Dr. Maciej Stępka's article, "Rethinking Fieldwork and Surveillance in Carceral Spaces: Reflections from Research in Polish Guarded Detention Centres for Immigrants," has been published in Theoretical Criminology. 👏

The article explores the challenges of conducting ethnographic research in highly surveilled environments. Drawing on research carried out in Polish guarded detention centres for immigrants, it examines how surveillance, direct observation, and institutional forms of control shape researchers' positions, influence access to data, and affect their ability to build trust with participants.

📖 If you're interested in migration, criminology, ethnography, or qualitative research methods, this is a fascinating read.

🔗 Read the article here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/13624806261449502?fbclid=IwY2xjawS0aVhleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETBPM3JIZnprUHdaUDVQN25vc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHl4zsMltJYqmwWE8OFu69oCRuRH1l6NKneMQGWJB4s1WdMu-9WnslhTBLEi9_aem_gQ3m_B5Ep4fPoPfbk432aQ

03/07/2026

Don't miss your chance to enroll in this excellent programme and receive a scholarship ☺️

📢 Additional Visegrad Scholarships for our programme available!

Thanks to the generous support of the International Visegrad Fund, we are pleased to announce an additional call for scholarships for our programme MA in International Studies: Europe from Visegrad Perspective for 2026–2027.

💰 Scholarship includes:

✅ Tuition fee waiver
✅ €3,500 mobility support per semester
✅ Funding for the entire 2-year programme

👥 Who can apply?

The scholarship is open to admitted students of the programme who are nationals of:
🇨🇿 🇭🇺 🇵🇱 🇸🇰 Visegrad countries
or
🌍 Eastern Partnership & Western Balkans countries (including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Belarus).

Key dates:

🟣 Applications open: 1 July 2026
🔴 Application deadline: 22 July 2026 (12:00 noon)
🎤 Scholarship interviews: by 27 July 2026
📢 Results announced: by 29 July 2026

📧 How to apply
Applications should be sent by email to:
[email protected]

📄 Please read the scholarship regulations and download the required application documents before applying: https://v4.uj.edu.pl/scholarships

02/07/2026

📢 We're Hiring!

Institute of European Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow is looking for an:

🎓 Administrative Officer to support English-language students

📅 Start: September / October 2026
⏳ Contract: 6 months (with the possibility of extension)
🕘 Working hours: Full-time

🌍 What you'll do:

✨ Support international BA & MA students throughout their studies;
📄 Coordinate programme documentation and student administration;
🎓 Help organise recruitment, thesis defences and academic events;
🤝 Work closely with international academic staff and partner universities;
✈️ Support students with mobility opportunities, including Erasmus+.

✅ We're looking for someone with:

🇬🇧 Excellent English (spoken & written);
🇵🇱 Excellent Polish;
🎓 Higher education degree;
🗂️ Strong organisational and communication skills;
💻 Proficiency in Microsoft Office, Zoom & MS Teams;
🤝 Ability to work independently and in an international team.

⭐ Good to have:

✔️ Experience in higher education administration;
✔️ Experience with international programmes or Erasmus+;
✔️ Experience organising academic events or managing project documentation.

🎁 What we offer:

🏛️ Employment at one of Poland's leading universities;
📚 Professional development opportunities;
🎉 Employee social benefits.

📄 How to apply:

Please send:

📄 Your CV;
📝 Personal questionnaire (available on the Jagiellonian University website).

📅 Application deadline: 13 July 2026

📧 Apply to: [email protected]

📌 Email subject: Recruitment – Administrative Officer (ISE)

More info is availbel on our website: https://europeistyka.uj.edu.pl/en_GB/aktualnosci/ogloszenia/-/journal_content/56_INSTANCE_zcb5pWesQU0B/3458728/161200996

We look forward to welcoming a new colleague to our international team! 🌍💙

26/06/2026

🎓 Congratulations to our newest graduates! 💜

This week in Banská Bystrica, our students successfully defended their master's theses, reaching an important milestone in their academic journey.

Over the past two years, they have studied across the Visegrad region, explored international issues from different perspectives, and built friendships that go far beyond the classroom.

We are proud of everything you have achieved and excited to see where your next steps will take you.

❤️ Welcome to the MA in International Studies: Europe from Visegrad Perspective Alumni Family. Once part of the programme, always part of our community.

Congratulations, graduates - we wish you every success in what comes next! 🎉

25/06/2026

📅 On 24 June 2026, the international scientific conference The Topos of “Victim” in the Politics of Historical Memory, National Memory (including Memory Politics) of Central and Eastern European and Balkan Countries took place.

🤝 Organized by Professor Kinga Anna Gajda and Professor Tadeusz Kopyś, the conference was held as part of an IDUJ project led by Professor Tadeusz Kopyś.

🎯 The conference aimed to provide an interdisciplinary reflection on the concept of the "victim" within the contexts of historical and national memory, with particular emphasis on the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Discussions explored legal, political, and cultural dimensions, as well as the role of victim narratives in memory politics, identity formation, and contemporary geopolitical discourse.

🗂️ The programme featured four thematic panels: Legal and Political Dimensions of Victimhood, Memory Politics and Competing Narratives, War, Trauma, and Institutional Memory, and Memory, Trauma, and Representation. Scholars from Ukraine, Finland, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Slovenia, Serbia, Albania, Armenia, and Poland presented research on topics including historical trauma, constitutional memory narratives, wartime experiences of victims, museum representations, and processes of historical revisionism.

💬 The conference provided a forum for discussing the ways in which narratives of victimhood are constructed, instrumentalized, and transformed across different national and political contexts. Participants also emphasized the ethical and political implications of memory politics in contemporary Europe.

🎓 The event was funded under the Strategic Programme Excellence Initiative – Research University (IDUB) at the Jagiellonian University, Faculty of International and Political Studies.

25/06/2026

📚🌱 SWAP – Leave it. Someone needs it. / Zostaw. Komuś się przyda.

Finished your exams? Moving out for the summer?

Before you pack everything away, take a look around. That book you've already read, the plant that no longer fits on your windowsill, or some small things you won't need anymore might be exactly what someone else is looking for.

📚🌱 From 25 June to 10 July join the SWAP initiative, organised by the Institute of European Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow/ Studiów Europejskich UJ and help give everyday items a second life.

Specially designated SWAP baskets will be waiting for you on the ground floor of our Faculty Wydział Studiów Międzynarodowych i Politycznych UJ at Reymonta 4. Simply leave something you no longer need and feel free to take something that might be useful to you.

Please bring items that are clean and in good condition, so they can be useful to someone else.

Bring something. Take something. Pass it on.

The initiative is open to everyone - students, staff, and visitors.
Let's show how small acts of sharing can help build a more sustainable community, one item at a time. 💚♻️

📚🌱 SWAP – Zostaw. Komuś się przyda.

Skończyłeś(-aś) już sesję? Wyprowadzasz się na wakacje?
Zanim spakujesz wszystko do pudeł, rozejrzyj się wokół. Książka, którą już przeczytałeś(-aś), roślina, na którą nie masz już miejsca na parapecie, albo drobiazgi, których już nie potrzebujesz, mogą okazać się dokładnie tym, czego szuka ktoś inny.

📚🌱 Od 25 czerwca do 10 lipca weź udział w akcji SWAP organizowanej przez Instytut Studiów Europejskich i pomóż nadać codziennym przedmiotom drugie życie.

Na parterze naszego Wydziału przy ul. Reymonta 4 będą czekały specjalnie oznaczone kosze SWAP. Wystarczy zostawić coś, czego już nie potrzebujesz, i zabrać coś, co może przydać się Tobie.
Prosimy o przynoszenie rzeczy czystych i w dobrym stanie, tak aby mogły jeszcze długo służyć innym.

Przynieś coś. Weź coś. Podaj dalej.

Akcja jest otwarta dla wszystkich – studentów, pracowników i gości.

Pokażmy, że nawet drobne gesty dzielenia się mogą pomóc
budować bardziej zrównoważoną społeczność 💚♻️