Abstract:
In Eastern Europe, postwar changes paved the way for the building of a socialistic university, something seen as one of many possible solutions to a rising need for university reform
and education for the working classes. My research does not only address how we think about a particular university, or even universities in general in communist-ruled Poland within their
historical and sociological contexts. It contributes to our broader sense of the place of universities in social change – especially in the 20th century – and how we understand intellectuals and academics
in their own fields of power and competition. My argument challenges the totalitarian interpretation of postwar history. In general, it disagrees with the Sovietization notion and claims that the postwar
reforms did not solely mean a ruthless convergence of Eastern Europe with the USSR model. I examine university reforms as a try to open higher education for working classes and trace its
results, that is upward mobility and educational trajectories in postwar Poland. Finally, I claim that the narrative about the political field’s domination of the research and science field is challenged by
tracing the reproduction of prewar traditions and structures. If one considers state socialism as a modernizing system, with all contradictions and difficulties, then one might also gain a better understanding of the intended aims of the postwar reality.
Short bio: Agata Zysiak is a historical sociologist working on postwar Poland, modernization, and industrial cities. Her recent prize-winning book "Point of social origin" examines project of a socialist university.