Knowledge Bridges Poland - Britain - Europe.

Zygmunt Bauman as a Polish and Global Thinker: How Solid is ‘Liquid Modernity’?

The departure of Professor Zygmunt Bauman in 2017 provoked a wave of serious discussions on his intellectual legacy. Opinions were mainly focused around Bauman`s approach to concept of liquid modernity and its consequences. In Poland, however, large part of a discussion turned rather to biographical issues, in particular different aspects of Bauman`s engagement in communism.

The seminar ”Zygmunt Bauman as a Polish and Global Thinker: How Solid is ‘Liquid Modernity’?” will discuss the heritage of Bauman as one of the most widely known Global and Polish intellectuals. Without avoiding controversial aspects of Bauman`s biography, the seminar will be devoted mainly to evaluate his intellectual oeuvre. 

Richard Sennett OBE is the Centennial Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and University Professor of the Humanities at New York University. He has been awarded the 39th European Essay Prize by the Charles Veillon Foundation for his book "Together: The Rituals, Pleasures, and Politics of Cooperation."

He is now a Distinguished Visiting Scholar in the Department of Sociology at Cambridge University.

Richard Sennett is the co-chair of Habitat III's "New Charter of Athens" project. In 1933, Le Corbusier, Siegfried Giedion, and others wrote a Charter of Athens to guide urban development in the 20th century. For the events occurring in 2016-17, under the auspices of UN-Habitat, Richard Sennett, Richard Burdett, Joan Clos, and Saskia Sassen chair a group writing a new charter of Athens for the 21st century.

Richard Sennett is a member of the Social Science Research Council's "The Decent City" project.

He is currently writing "Building and Dwelling", a book about open systems and urban design.
He chairs Theatrum Mundi, a network of artists, critics and scholars engaging urban culture in London, New York, Edinburgh, Venice, and Berlin.

Dr. Katarzyna Kasia is a philosopher and a graduate of the University of Warsaw Faculty of Philosophy and Sociology, a scholarship recipient from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Her works include Rzemiosło formowania. Luigiego Pareysona estetyka formatywności [The Craft of Formation: Luigi Pareyson’s Aesthetic of Formativity] and translations of Italian philosophers (Pareyson, Vattimo etc.). She has published in Intertekst, Kultura Liberalna, and Sztuka i Filozofia. She is a member of the editorial board of Przegląd Filozoficzno – Literacki. She works with Radio Poland, and is head of the Chair of Art History and Cultural Theory.

Jarosław Kuisz, PhD is an Assistant Professor (adiunkt) at the Faculty of Law and Administration, University of Warsaw. He is co-Director of the project "Knowledge Bridges Between Poland, Britain and Europe" at St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford, and editor-in-chief of the Polish political and cultural weekly Kultura Liberalna. A former visiting scholar at the University of Chicago Law School and Columbia Law School, he is currently a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at SAXO Institute, University of Copenhagen (2016-2018).

With support of the Antonian Fund

Illustration: Joanna Witek