The specialisation “Historical Heritage and Source Editing” aims to prepare students for work in academic and cultural institutions which protect and promote historical heritage and conduct regional studies as well as in publishing houses and editorial offices. As such, it is an attractive option to supplement the education which students receive during first-cycle and second-cycle studies and offers them an opportunity to find future employment (sometimes even before defending their MA thesis) in other fields and makes them even more attractive on the job market, which all of them will have to enter soon after graduation.

At present, heritage is one of the most important subjects of global humanistic studies and the related research receives a lot of funding (grants), as shown e.g. by the fact that the Faculty of History of the Jagiellonian University is currently implementing the “Heritage” research programme, which is part of the state-subsidised Research University Initiative. Courses offered in this specialisation are interdisciplinary and explore the borderlands of history, art history and material culture. They will enable course participants to learn how to read a work of art as a historical source, how to analyse its functions and ideological content. The courses will enhance the traditional methodology used by historians to include other techniques, such as knowledge about the visualisation of the past, which has been very popular recently, as well as historical reconstruction.

After an unexpected period of interruption, when classes could only be held online, we are returning not only to in-person teaching but also to field classes. A large number of courses offered in the “Historical heritage and source editing” specialisation will return to the form of field classes. We plan to conduct them in Kraków’s largest religious and secular buildings as well as museums, archives and libraries. The religious buildings include: the Wawel Cathedral, St Mary’s Basilica, the Dominican church and monastery, the Franciscan church and monastery, the Corpus Christi Church in the Kazimierz historical district, St Michael the Archangel and St Stanislaus the Bishop and Martyr Basilica (Skałka), the Augustinian church and monastery in the Kazimierz district, the Cistercian church and monastery in Mogiła, the Benedictine church and monastery in Tyniec. The secular buildings include: forts of the Kraków Fortress and nuclear fallout shelters from the times of the Polish People’s Republic in Nowa Huta. Students of this specialisation will also attend laboratory classes in the Wawel Castle, the Cathedral Museum on the Wawel Hill, various branches of the National Museum in Kraków, the Jagiellonian University Museum, the Museum of Kraków, the Polish Aviation Museum in Kraków, the Museum of the Polish Army and the Museum of Nowa Huta. Field classes are also planned in the National Archive in Kraków, the Cathedral Chapter Archive and Library on the Wawel Hill, the Jagiellonian Library, the Princes Czartoryski Library, and the Carmelite library and archive.

Combining classes on historical heritage with classes and lectures on practical editing and historical editing in the programme of the specialisation not only diversifies the courses but, most importantly, offers students of history another (very concrete and real) way of preparing for professional life.

The forms of apprenticeships offered in this specialisation are also very interesting and attractive. We are hopeful that the lifting of Covid restrictions which have affected studies for the last year and a half will enable us to reintroduce many forms of apprenticeships: students will be able to complete them 1) in an editorial office or another institution of science or culture involved in publishing or 2) by participating in an epigraphic-heraldic camp or an academic training tour in the field. Students can be exempted from their apprenticeship if they successfully complete a Kraków guide course independently (i.e. outside their studies at the University). Apprenticeships can be completed at a time chosen by the student, no later than by the end of the second year of studies.

We invite you to participate in the classes offered in the “Historical Heritage and Source Editing” specialisation.