News

On 23–27 March, the University of Zielona Góra hosted an international, interdisciplinary school Interference Patterns: Science and Culture in Dialogue. The event was attended by about 50 students and employees of partner universities from eight countries: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania, Turkey and Vietnam.

The school's program was interdisciplinary. It included lectures, workshops, project classes and meetings aimed at enabling students to learn about different ways of thinking and gain knowledge even in those areas in which they are not specialists. Thanks to this, the participants could exchange experiences and look at science, culture and art from different perspectives.

Employees of the following institutes of Astronomy, Polish Philology, Philosophy, Physics, History, Mathematics, Music, Sociology and the Institute of Sport, Tourism and Human Nutrition were involved in the implementation of the program. Such a wide participation of various academic circles made it possible to create a program combining the exact sciences, social sciences, humanities and arts.

An important element of the program was also the continuity of experiences between subsequent schools. In the first days of the event, students who had previously participated in the Polish-Romanian school organized in March this year by Dr. Magdalena Pokrzyńska (Institute of Sociology) and Dr. Sylwia Kondej (Institute of Physics) presented their speeches popularizing science. On the last day, the participants of the Interference Patterns school presented the effects of their work. Thanks to this, the program gained natural continuity — some participants passed on their experience to others, creating a symbolic relay of knowledge and commitment.

One of the elements of the school was a concert that took place on Wednesday, March 25, in the Silent Woman Bakery. Students and graduates of the Institute of Music performed. This event was an important part of the program and fit well into the idea of the whole school, combining various fields and forms of activity.

The whole event was part of the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the University of Zielona Góra.

The project coordinators would like to thank the Głogów Borderland Education Association for their cooperation, whose technical and logistical assistance was very important during the implementation of the event and allowed for the efficient resolution of many current issues.

We would also like to thank the employees of the International Relations Department: Krzysztof Pikul, Kamila Rabiko, Dr. Paweł Truszkiewicz and Katarzyna Krystek.

The project coordinators would also like to thank the students who were involved in helping to organize the event: Julia Jankowiak and Jakub Glapiński from Social Design of the second cycle, Joao Silva — a student doing an Erasmus+ internship in physics — and Justyna Bondaronok from Sociology of the second degree, who prepared the graphics.

Special thanks are also due to Wojciech Pruszyński, the concert coordinator, as well as Jakub Osypiński and Seweryn Graniasty, who were responsible for its artistic preparation.

The International School of Interference Patterns: Science and Culture in Dialogue was an important meeting of students, lecturers and partners from different countries and backgrounds. She showed that cooperation between disciplines can be not only scientifically valuable, but also very necessary in building relationships and mutual understanding. Student and staff mobilities were carried out as part of the short-term mobilities of the Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme and the PROM project.

Project coordinators: Sylwia Kondej and Magdalena Pokrzyńska