Division of Contemporary Culture and Film Studies

The Department of Contemporary Cultural and Film Studies continues the activities of the Department of Aesthetic Education, established in 1978 at the Faculty of Pedagogy and Psychology when the University of Białystok was a branch of the University of Warsaw.  Stanisław Malewski, PhD, was the first head of the Department. Next this function was held by  professor Jolanta Brach-Czaina. During her term, in 1995, the Department changed its name to the Department of Cultural Studies. Since 2015 the Department has been headed by  professor Katarzyna Citko.  In April 2017 when the Interdepartmental Institute of Cultural Studies and Art was established, the Department of Cultural Studies became part of it, and  professor Katarzyna Citko became the Deputy Director of the Institute (from 1 February 2018 to 30 September 2019). Since 2019 the Department of Contemporary Culture and Film Studies has been part of the Faculty of Cultural Studies.

Members of the Department of Contemporary Culture and Film Studies study  anthropology of culture, theory and history of individual arts (especially film) and new multimedia technologies, as well as changes in the axiological sphere in postmodern societies and autoethnography.

Until 2016 the members of the Department carried out a research project within statutory activity: Therapeutic dimension of contemporary culture and art. Moreover, in  2016 they conducted a research project titled Tradition versus postmodernity. Transformations in culture and art of the 21st century.

Research conducted by the members of the Department of Contemporary Cultural and Film Studies is related to the therapeutic (and self-therapeutic) dimension of contemporary culture and art, as well as changes in culture and art of the 21st century, especially the issues of values and valuation in contemporary culture and autoethnographic research.