To See the World in a Grain of Sand: The Contemporary Condition across the Scales of City, Region, and Entire Globe 3002-1L3SEM26F4

The BA seminar will be conducted in a mixed format. In the first part of the semester, several introductory meetings will be held for the whole group. Subsequently, work will take place primarily through individual consultations and, where necessary, in smaller subgroups bringing together students whose theses address related topics. The focus of the consultations will be adapted to the BA thesis topics proposed by the participants in the seminar.

The first four or five meetings, intended for the entire seminar group, will be devoted to discussing the basic requirements involved in preparing a BA thesis. We shall address, among other matters, the definition of the thesis’s problem field, the formulation of the topic, the structure of the thesis, the principles of academic writing, and methods for collecting and verifying bibliography. Methodological questions will form an important part of this work: we shall identify research and analytical tools appropriate to urban inquiry, the study of foreign cultures, and cultural approaches to international relations. Due attention will also be given to writing practice, copyright issues, and the use of artificial intelligence. In this part of the seminar, we shall also establish the schedule for subsequent consultations, and students will present their preliminary research projects to the group.

In the later part of the semester, work will proceed through individual consultations and, where appropriate, group consultations. Consultations will be held weekly during the seminar time slot and, in justified cases, also during office hours. Their purpose will be to establish an individual work plan for each student, to discuss the main arguments and bibliography, and subsequently to review successive sections of the BA theses in progress.

During the BA thesis defence, students will be required to give a presentation on a topic agreed with their thesis supervisor and to answer questions from the examination committee.

Course coordinators

Włodzimierz Pessel

Type of course

obligatory courses
B.Sc. seminars

Mode

Classroom

Prerequisites (description)

The seminar is conducted in Polish. The title of the seminar invokes a phrase from Paul Willis’s book, namely the motif of seeing the world in a single grain of sand. The subtitle, which refers to the contemporary condition across multiple scales, is meant to signal that the seminar welcomes a wide range of topics. What should connect them, however, is a shared question: how, starting from a specific place, practice, cultural text, urban phenomenon, regional process, or international issue, one may derive a broader diagnosis of the contemporary condition and of contemporary civilisation, or indeed of the civilisation of the future.

Learning outcomes

Upon completion of the seminar, the student:

knows and understands:

* selected methodologies of cultural studies, cognitive strategies, and applied research methods at an advanced level [to specify which selected methodologies/strategies/methods, and in what scope/on what material],
* the basic terminology of cultural studies [in the scope of ... to be specified],
* methods of analysing and interpreting cultural practices and texts [to specify which methods],
* the principles of copyright law and the protection of intellectual property, as well as their cultural implications, to the extent necessary for the preparation of an academic text.

is able to:

* independently plan and conduct research work under the supervision of an academic advisor,
* organise their own writing practice under the supervision of an academic advisor,
* use their knowledge to independently search for, analyse, assess, select, and integrate information from diverse sources and use it to write an academic text,
* write an academic text, independently selecting sources and relevant literature, and present the results of their research orally, correctly using terminology from the field of cultural studies and appropriate scholarly apparatus,
* take part in discussions of draft sections of BA theses in progress, using appropriate argumentative strategies and logical operations.

Assessment criteria

The requirements for passing the seminar are as follows:

1. Attendance at joint classes. Two absences per semester are permitted. Students with more than five absences in a semester, even if justified, will not receive credit for the course. Only students who have been granted an Individual Organisation of Studies on the basis of an opinion issued by the Office for Persons with Disabilities may have an increased absence limit, but not exceeding 50% in each semester.

2. Participation in at least one individual consultation during the semester.

3. Preparation and delivery of at least one presentation of the BA thesis project to the seminar group.

4. Participation in discussions of BA thesis projects developed within the seminar.

5. Preparation of a BA thesis of between 40,000 and 80,000 characters, including spaces, footnotes, and bibliography, meeting the formal standards of an academic text.

6. Submission in APD of the final version of the BA thesis accepted by the thesis supervisor no later than two weeks before the scheduled date of the BA examination.

The seminar ends with a pass without a grade. Submission of the thesis is a condition for admission to the BA examination. The examination takes place according to the rules in force at the Institute of Polish Culture. These include, among other requirements, obtaining credit for all remaining courses, that is, completing the programme requirements, and settling all formal and financial matters, including the circulation card.

The detailed requirements for diploma theses and the rules governing the diploma process will be discussed during the first class.

Estimated student workload: 9 ECTS credits, 270 hours, including:
2 ECTS credits, 60 hours: participation in classes and individual consultations;
2 ECTS credits, 60 hours: preparation for classes, including preparation and delivery of a presentation of the BA thesis project to the group and participation in discussions of other BA thesis projects;
5 ECTS credits, 150 hours: writing the BA thesis.

The use of artificial intelligence tools is governed by the provisions of Sections 3 and 4 of Resolution No. 98 of the University Council for Education of 8 December 2023. Since one of the fundamental skills acquired in programmes of study organised by the Faculty of Polish Studies is the proficient and professional use of written Polish, in particular academic style, the use of artificial intelligence systems to generate, correct, or edit texts is prohibited.

Bibliography

See the Polish syllabus.