17. Books in Action: Action and Reaction!

The book is an essential area of our work with students. They develop their own publishing proposals, write reviews, debate books, analyse strategies for their promotion and market positioning, and learn how to communicate effectively about their own and others’ published work to diverse audiences. Additionally, they undertake projects in which the book, as a physical object, serves as a pretext, theme and medium for human interaction.

 

We support students at every stage of preparing books: from conceptualizing and developing the narrative to refining the language, shaping the graphic design and monetization of creativity and promotion strategies. Among graduates of the Art of Writing programme we offer, there are those who can boast successfully completed book projects, and students who majored in media studies (a specialty offered within the Polish Philology programme) as well as participants of the postgraduate Szkoła Mistrzów (Szkoła Mistrzów) programme at the Institute of Polish Literature have had their share in similar achievements.

Those studying Social Arts at the Institute of Polish Culture receive training in artistic and social activities through collaborative projects. As part of the Niezwrócone książki (Unreturned Books) campaign led by J. Byszewski, which lasted several weeks, these students recovered the books the users of the University Library had been failing to return over the years. t In the performative finale in front of the Old University Library at the University’s main campus these volumes were used to create an installation depicting various sorts of readers’ emotional engagement with unreturned books. In the field game titled Od deski do deski (From Cover to Cover), played in Warsaw’s notorious Różycki Bazaar, a book chosen at the beginning of the game became a guide to the historic marketplace, while subsequent stages encouraged reflection on the transformation of the city.

Our students also cooperate with foreign academic institutions. Such undertakings include the project Picturesque Bulgaria, carried out with eight other European universities, or the project titled Bliżej Siebie: Polska – Słowacja (Closer to Each Other: Poland – Slovakia) in Warsaw and Banská Bystrica.

 

(Photos from the action titled Unreturned Books in front of the old University Library (2016); photo by B. Górka)