Rzeczywistości współczesnej humanistyki

Abstract

The article analyzes the broadly understood humanities from the perspective of their characteristic features and the functions they perform within the field of academic activities as such. The author emphasizes the humanities’ strong bonds with culture, and their constant priority of keeping up with the ever-changing cultural reality. The article considers the status of the university, taking into account the humanities, scientific research, and pedagogy in a historical perspective, both in Poland and in Europe. Specifically, it concentrates on the phenomena observable at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries: the ones occurring outside the university, such as digitalization, the development of media, mobility, commercialization, and the ones occurring within the university, such as the university becoming part of a market exchange, memory studies, trauma studies, gender studies, and post-colonial studies. The author of the article ponders upon the present situation of academia, its perspectives and its future. He emphasizes that fact that these days a scholar should be characterized by audacity and independence of thinking.