Interdisciplinary Studies on Social Change: Mediterranean and Other European Borderlands

The Interdisciplinary Studies on Social Change: Mediterranean and Other European Borderlands (ISSC) is a second-cycle, full-time program offered by the University of Warsaw's "Artes Liberales" Faculty and the University of Warsaw Centre of Migration Research. The program aims to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of sociocultural issues, including the challenges and problems faced by modern society, with a focus on Poland, the borderlands, and the Mediterranean. The program is conducted by experts from both faculties who have extensive experience and knowledge in the areas of interest covered by the ISSC program.

The program is designed to equip students with critical thinking skills, extensive knowledge of the sociocultural sciences, and in-depth interdisciplinary expertise that will prepare them for future academic careers and allow them to excel in a competitive and dynamic job market. The program also emphasizes the importance of methodological discipline and provides students with training in both qualitative and quantitative research methods typical of cultural science, sociological science, political science, and economics.

ISSC also provides students with the opportunity to participate in the research process and develop cultural awareness and language skills. The program includes a compulsory linguistic-cultural module that offers language courses in Italian, Spanish, and English. The program is highly individualized, and students can choose from seminars, lectures, monographic discussion sessions, workshops, and cultural-linguistic classes. This allows students to tailor their learning experience according to their individual needs and expectations.

The program offers three main thematic pathways and two linguistic pathways - Italian and Spanish. The main themes of the program cover issues such as the issue of mobility, liquidity, variability, and various dimensions of contemporary and future crises, country sovereignty and institutions, social change and identity, and risks and crises. The program covers historical and contemporary crises, the idea and dimensions of risk, and the perspectives of managing and authority relations, institutions, and individuals such as migrants or other mobile persons.

In addition, the program covers other relevant topics such as fluid life, security, risk, crisis, state of emergency, disaster, climate catastrophe, mass global and local migrations, authority of science in the culture of post-truth, democracy quality, new social movements, hybrid wars, global threats to public health (pandemics), precarity, work automation, digitization, global economic crises, demographic aging, and inequalities and social mobility. Students also learn about ancient and modern standards of politics, society, entity, revolutions, social changes, and the role of knowledge and philosophy.

Upon graduation, students will have extensive humanistic knowledge and basic social knowledge, high-level skills in interdisciplinary approaches to cultural and social issues, and an understanding of the meaning and challenges of intercultural communication. Graduates will also acquire many soft skills such as teamwork, creativity, ability to learn efficiently, ability to present one’s ideas and views in speech and in writing, ability to collect, categorize, and synthesize data, especially digital data. Moreover, students will also acquire practical skills such as the ability to plan, prepare, and carry out the research process, process and visualize data innovatively, and link knowledge regarding social processes with evidence-based policies.

Graduates equipped with these competencies will be prepared to work for state cultural and social institutions, non-governmental organizations of similar profiles, companies and institutions dealing with culture animation and introducing the culture of other countries, as well as for companies and institutions seeking intercultural contact specialists. Overall, the ISSC program provides an excellent opportunity for students to gain extensive knowledge, skills, and practical experience in social change studies and develop a highly competitive profile for their future academic and professional careers.