Director of the Center: Prof. Robert Kłosowicz
Head of the Department of International Relations and Foreign Policy
Historian of international relations, an Africanist.
Vice-chairman of the Polish Africanist Society, a Member of the Program Board of the Polish Centre for African Studies, a Member of the Board of the Central European African Studies Network, editor-in-chief of the publishing series “Studia nad rozwojem” (“Development studies”) at the Jagiellonian University Press.
Research interests:
Relations between diplomacy and the armed forces, issues of international security and military conflicts in Sub-Saharan Africa; failed/dysfunctional states; US history and the Napoleonic era. He has conducted fieldwork in Central and East Africa (among others, in the Central African Republic, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya).
Participation in academic research projects:
Research project manager: Eritrea and its destabilizing influence on the international relations in the Horn of Africa (Erytrea i jej destabilizujący wpływ na stosunki międzynarodowe w Rogu Afryki), (2013- ), funded by the National Science Centre (OPUS 4).
Research project manager: Failed states and their destabilizing effects on international relations at the regional and global levels (Państwa upadłe i ich destabilizujący wpływ na stosunki międzynarodowe w wymiarze regionalnym i globalnym), (2010-2014), a research project approved in the 39th competition for research projects funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
Merit coordinator on behalf of the Jagiellonian University: Erasmus-Mundus program – South African Partnership with International Research Universities Network – SAPIENT,
(2010-2014).
Member of the research team Changes in NATO’s strategy (Zmiana strategii NATO), a research project of the Institute for Strategic Studies in Krakow and Warsaw University under the leadership of Prof. Roman Kuźniar (2009-2010).
Prof. Marcin Brocki of the Jagiellonian University
Editor-in-Chief of "Prace Etnograficzne"
Research interests:
"White Africa" and the presence of the representation of its memory in contemporary Zimbabwe, anthropology of communication and intercultural communication.
Secretary of the Centre: Joanna Mormul, Ph.D.
Secretary of the Centre: Joanna Mormul, Ph.D.
PhD in social sciences in the field of political science (doctoral studies at the Institute of Political Science and International Relations at the Jagiellonian University), graduate of international relations and Spanish philology at the Jagiellonian University, Secretary of the Polish Africanist Society, representative of the Jagiellonian University in the North-South Dialogue expert group of The Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities and in the Africa Working Group of the UNA Europa network.
Research interests:
Failed/dysfunctional states, socio-political transformations in post-conflict societies, regional separatisms, de facto states, and civil society in developing countries.
Research areas: Lusophone Africa, Horn of Africa, Maghreb.
As part of the implementation of national or international research projects, she has conducted field research in 15 African countries.
Prof. Krzysztof Kościelniak
Professor of History of the Middle East and North Africa, Islam Studies, History of Religion and Oriental Churches, Roman Catholic priest. He studied at the Pontifical Academy of Theology in Krakow, the Institute of Oriental Studies at the Jagiellonian University, Ruprecht Karls Universität Heidelberg, Pontificio Istituto di Studi Arabi e d'Islamistica (Arabic Study Center Cairo) in Egypt, and the Franciscan Center of Christian Oriental Studies (Cairo).
His research focuses on the history of North Africa and the interactions of Islam and Christianity with African religions. He conducted research in Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, and the western part of North Africa.
African Studies Publications:
Dzieje Afryki od VI do XII wieku, w: Wielka historia Świata, t. IV: Kształtowanie średniowiecza, red. M. Salamon, wyd. FOGRA, Kraków 2005, 230-243
Between Constantinople, the Papacy, and the Caliphate. The Melkite Church in the Islamicate World, 634-969. London: Routledge
Prawa człowieka w kulturze północnej Afryki Bliskiego i Dalekiego Wschodu, red. K. Kościelniak, Kraków 2008.
Change and Stability. State, Religion and Politics in the Middle East and North Africa, red. K. Kościelniak, Kraków 2010.
The Contribution of Prof. Tadeusz Lewicki (1906-1992) to Islamic and West African Studies. In Arabic and Islamic Studies in Europe and Beyond / Etudes arabes et islamiques en Europe et au-dela, ed. M. Reinkowski, M. Winet, S. Yasargil. Leuven: Peeters 2016, 61-83.
Kościół koptyjski od podbojów muzułmańskich do wypraw krzyżowych, w: Starożytność chrześcijańska, red. J.C. Kałużny, Kraków 2007, s. 55—67.
Change of Coptic Identity, w: Change and Stability. State, Religion and Politics in the Middle East and North Africa, ed. K. Kościelniak, Kraków 2010, 77-92.
Przemiany tożsamości koptyjskiej, w: Państwo, religia i wspólnota. Wybrane zagadnienia z procesów modernizacji na Bliskim Wschodzie, red. K. Kościelniak, Kraków 2010, 185-200.
Elementy demonologii staroegipskiej w wierzeniach arabskich, w: „Polonia Sacra” 4/48(1999) 83-92.
Pluralizm Kościoła Katolickiego w Egipcie wczoraj i dziś, w: „Saeculum Christianum” 7(2000) 36-55.
Prof. Paweł Siwiec of the Jagiellonian University
An Arabist, working at the Institute of the Middle and Far East, a former student of Prof. Roman Stopa.
Prof. Maciej Kurcz of the University of Silesia
A Jagiellonian University graduate, at present a Research and Teaching Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Ethnology and Educational Science in Cieszyn and in the Faculty of Ethnology and Non-European Countries at the University of St. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, a member of the Polish Society of African Studies.
Research interests:
He specializes in issues linked to cultural changes in contemporary Africa. In 2003 and 2004, he conducted ethnographic research in North Sudan (with the financial support of the State Committee of Scientific Research). Later, in 2006-2008, he conducted fieldwork in the South Sudanese Juba, linked to the Juba project – a centre for different cultures and conflicts, financed through a grant from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
Prof. Przemysław Turek of the Jagiellonian University
Head of the Department of Israel and the Levant at the Institute of the Near and Far East at the Jagiellonian University, an Arabist, member of the Editorial Board of the “Rocznik Orientalistyczny/Yearbook of Oriental Studies”
Research interests:
The culture, history and languages of North Africa and the countries of the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia and Eritrea).
Prof. Joanna Bar of the Jagiellonian University
A graduate of History and Ethnology at the Jagiellonian University, with a Ph.D. degree and habilitation in the field of social studies and a specialisation in political science (degree awarded by a Council resolution of the Faculty of International and Political Studies at the Jagiellonian University), currently a professor at the Institute of the Middle and Far East of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, a member of the Polish Africanist Society.
Research interests:
History and contemporary political and social transformations in East African countries, with special focus on Rwanda and Tanzania; regional integration processes within the framework of the East African Community (EAC). In 2003-04, she realized a grant connected to the transcription of Jan Czekanowski’s German manuscripts, which were written in Africa in 1907-1909. Her research grant was awarded by the State Committee of Scientific Research to the Scientific Society of the Catholic University of Lublin [“Towarzystwo Naukowe KUL”] publishing house (status as first executor). She is currently conducting research in Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
E-mail: j.bar@uj.edu.pl
Prof. Łukasz Jakubiak of the Jagiellonian University
PhD in the humanities in the field of political science, assistant professor in the Department of Constitutionalism and Political Systems at the Institute of Political Science and International Relations at the Jagiellonian University.
Research interests:
The political system of modern France and systemic issues of Francophone African countries, including, primarily, the reception of institutional arrangements from the former metropolis.
The author of three monographs (Koabitacja w systemie politycznym V Republiki Francuskiej, Kraków 2010 [Cohabitation in the political system in the French Fifth Republic]; Referendum jako narzędzie polityki. Francuskie doświadczenia ustrojowe, Kraków 2012 [The referendum as a political tool. The French political experience]; System ustrojowy Senegalu, Kraków 2014 [Senegal’s political system]), publications in collective works and scientific articles published in the journals “Państwo i Prawo”, “Politeja”, “Przegląd Politologiczny”, “Przegląd Prawa Konstytucyjnego”, “Przegląd Sejmowy”, “Ruch Prawniczy, Ekonomiczny i Socjologiczny”.
Prof. Anna Niedźwiedź of the Jagiellonian University
A cultural anthropologist and ethnographer, working at the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at the Jagiellonian University
Research interests:
Anthropology of religion, visuality and space. Since 2009, she has been working on a research project on contemporary religiosity in West Africa. She will soon publish her book Religia przeżywana. Katolicyzm i jego konteksty we współczesnej Ghanie (Lived Religion. Catholicism and its contexts in contemporary Ghana), presenting the results of nine months of ethnographic field studies carried out in the central part of Ghana.
Prof. Adrian Tyszkiewicz, Ph.D.
Head of the Institute of Political Science and International Relations of the JUEwa Szczepankiewicz-Rudzka, Ph.D.
PhD in the Humanities in the field of political science, assistant professor in the Chair of Strategy of International Relations at the Institute of Political Science and International Relations at the Jagiellonian University. She has received scholarships from Erasmus, participated in French government scholarship programs and the SET program. A visiting lecturer at the University of Paris VIII Vincennes Saint-Denis. A coordinator at the Jagiellonian University and a member of the international consortium of the Social Movements and Mobilisation Typologies in the Arab Spring research program (FP7 / PEOPLE / Marie Curie / IRSES 2013-2016). She has conducted fieldwork in France, Italy, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.
Research interests:
Social and political transformation processes in the Maghreb; migration policies in Southern European countries; issues of the integration and adaptation of ethnic and religious minorities with special emphasis on France; relations between Islam and the West: relationship dilemmas; integration processes in the modern world.
Author of the monograph Region Maghrebu w polityce Unii Europejskiej: założenia, uwarunkowania i efekty współpracy, Oficyna Wydawnicza Abrys, Kraków 2010 [The Maghreb region in the politics of the European Union: assumptions, circumstances and the effects of cooperation]; Arabska wiosna w Afryce Północnej. Przyczyny, przebieg, skutki, (scientific editor, co-author) [The Arab Spring in North Africa. Its causes, course and consequences.], Księgarnia Akademicka, Kraków 2014, and several academic articles on African issues.
Agnieszka Czubik, Ph.D.
Doctor of law, attorney at law, graduate of the Faculty of Law and Administration at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. She specializes in issues related to the international protection of human rights and international public law. Scholarship holder, among others Institute of North American Studies John F. Kennedy in Berlin, the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Hague Academy, and the Ryoichi Sasakawa Scholarship. In 2005–2009, she was a case – lawyer at the Registry of the European Court of Human Rights in the Council of Europe. Currently, assistant professor at the Department of International Relations and Foreign Policy at the Faculty of International and Political Studies of the Jagiellonian University.
Author of a number of scientific publications dealing with human rights issues from a comparative and international perspective. Her research interests include contemporary human rights challenges emerging on the African continent.
Monika Różalska, Ph.D.
PhD in social sciences in the field of political science (doctoral studies at the Institute of Political Science and International Relations at the Jagiellonian University). She holds an MA degree in international relations from the University of Łódź, Poland. She completed postgraduate studies in Global Development and Public International Law at the University of Warsaw and the ISP Academy of Postgraduate Studies in the field of political science. Since 2014, she has been running her own research project on the development paths of select African countries on the example of Rwanda and Ghana, financed by the National Science Centre (PRELUDE 5).
Research interests:
The socio-economic development of Sub-Saharan Africa, US foreign policy towards the region, China’s foreign policy towards the region, the issue of leadership in African countries, the problem of climate change and environmental protection vs. food security and development in African countries, tradition and local solutions in development strategi
Klaudia Wilk-Mhagama, Ph.D.
With a PhD degree in cultural studies, a graduate of doctoral studies in the Institute of Intercultural Studies at the Jagiellonian University. She has conducted many months of fieldwork in Tanzania and actively participated as an analyst in the Polish Centre for African Research. A member of the Polish Society of African Studies. Her focus is on social and cultural changes in Africa, as well as the sociology of religion.
Research interests:
Intercultural and interreligious relations in East Africa, the activities of religious organisations in Tanzania, the social activities of the Khoja Shia Ithna-Asheri in Tanzania, inculturation of the Catholic Church in East Africa.
Elżbieta Binczycka-Gacek, Ph.D.
Graduate in comparative literature and religious studies (MA and BA in both disciplines), Ph.D. in literary studies, member of the African Literature Association and the Comparative Literature Association, representative of the JU in the Una.Resin project of the Una Europa network funded under Horizon 2020 program. Author of a dissertation on the presence of the Flying Africans myth in Afro-Caribbean and African-American culture, orature, and literature.
Research interests:
Black studies, Black Atlantic culture and literature, West African literature, culture and religions, postcolonial studies, myth studies, LGBT issues, and queer movements in Africa, Afrofuturism in literature and culture. Research areas: USA, Caribbean, Nigeria, Angola.
In 2022, together with Dr. Natalia Zawiejska, Prof Rhuy Blanes, Prof. Cesaltina Abreu, and Prof. Catalina Antunes Gomes, she received funding for an international research group under a grant Mapping the Public Space of Gender and LGBTQ+ Mobilisations in Angola. A Research Agenda. From 2021, with Prof. Katarzyna Mroczkowska-Brand and Agata Mrowinska, she is working on a research project Third Space in the Novels of African and Black Diasporic Authors - a Comparative Perspective.
Jakub Kościółek, Ph.D.
Dr Jakub Kościółek is an Adjunct Professor in the Institute of Intercultural Studies at the Jagiellonian University and President of the INTERKULTURALNI PL Association. He graduated from three different field of studies: Ukrainian Studies, Middle East Studies and International Cultural Studies and gained his PhD in the field of Cultural Studies. His academic achievements include numerous papers published in the renowned Polish and international journals. He is author of two books exploring the contemporary genocide issues: “The Conflict in Darfur” (2010) and “The USA in face of Genocide in Africa” (2019), and co-author and editor of “The Africa Contemporary Issues. Future Chances and Challenges.” (2012). He is an expert on intercultural relations and conflicts and explores problems of contemporary migration and integration policy, particularly in the local environment concentrating on access to education. His academic interest mostly refers to African and Middle East cultures. He is alumni of the Fulbright Foundation scholarship at The George Washington University in Washington D.C. 2013/2014. Currently he is a research chief of the Polish MiCREATE (2019-2022) (Migrant Children and Communities in the Transforming Europe) and New ABC (2021-2024) (Networking the Educational Worlds - Across Boundaries for Community Building) teams - projects implemented under Horizon 2020 programs. Both projects focus on analysing the needs of children with migration background and methodologically founded in the child-centred approach in the research. Within the framework of Jagiellonian University’s Inicjatywa Doskonałości program (Excellence Initiative) he supervises the project "Exclusion Culture - infertility and impotence in African societies" (2023/2024) and participates in project "The remembrance of slavery in Gullah and Geechee communities" under the same program.
Wojciech Tycholiz, Ph.D.
Dr. Tycholiz is a graduate of the University of Economics in Wrocław (MA in finance) and the University of Wrocław (MA in international relations), holding a doctorate in social sciences with a focus on economics and finance. He is the author of a doctoral dissertation on the determinants of the development of financial markets in Sub-Saharan Africa. He has served as a co-investigator on several research projects financed by external sources. From 2023 to 2026, Dr. Tycholiz is the principal investigator ine the research project titled 'Wealth Gap and the New Middle Class in South Africa' (NCN, OPUS 24, UMO-2022/47/B/HS4/0120).
Research interests:
Development issues in Sub-Saharan African countries, including structural transformation, capital flows, income and property inequalities, resource rents, and the structural dependencies between the Global North and the Global South.
Izabela Cywa, M.A.
A graduate of Management Studies at the Jagiellonian University and Political Science at the University of Rzeszów. Membear of the Polish Africanist Society. She has been working in the Central African Republic (CAR) since 2012. First, as a director of the hospital in Bagandou (CAR), actively promoting healthcare among the Pygmy peoples (2012-2017); then moving on to close collaboration with the non-governmental organization Water for Good (2017-2019) where she dutifully supervised a research project "l’étude de base" in Mambéré-Kadéï prefecture (CAR).
Research interests:
Activity of rebel and military groups, socio-political transformations during rebellions, insurgency development stages, mapping conflict areas. Research area: Central African Republic.
Mgr Agata Markowska
Absolwentka Wydziału Nauk o Polityce i Stosunków Międzynarodowych Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego na kierunku Stosunki Międzynarodowe.
Stypendystka programu Erasmus + dzięki któremu miała możliwość studiowania na SciencesPo Grenoble oraz stypendystka programu Erasmus Praktyki, który pozwolił na staż w Ambasadzie RP w Reykjaviku.
Aktualnie doktorantka w Szkole Doktorskiej Nauk Społecznych Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego.
Zainteresowania badawcze:
dysfunkcyjność państw, systemy polityczne państw afrykańskich, przemiany społeczno-polityczne w Rogu Afryki ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem Dżibuti, działalność Unii Afrykańskiej