Reaching out to the World: Pomeranian Medical University′s Connections to International Networks of Knowledge Production and Circulation, 1956–1968

This study explores the effects the political “Thaw” of 1956 had on the ability of the Pomeranian Medical University of Szczecin, Poland (PUM) to join and contribute to the international production and circula- tion of medical knowledge in the years 1956–1968. It gives an overview of the challenges PUM had to face in its relationships with the state apparatus that controlled access to foreign networks. It also discusses the cases of three PUM professors, namely: Bolesław Górnicki (1908–1998; head of Paediatrics), Witold Starkiewicz (1906–1978; head of Ophthalmology), and Kazimierz Stojałowski (1903–1995; head of Pathological Anatomy). For the first of them, Szczecin was a nine-year episode in a prosperous academic career closely tied with Warsaw; the latter two were among PUM’s founding staff and stayed in Szczecin till retirement. The study reveals how personality, political and confessional worldview, strength of personal attachment to PUM, and diplomatic skills exhibited by each of the three professors influenced the range, the quality, and the durability of connections they established between PUM and the world

A New Medical History Journal

This is the first issue of the European Journal for the History of Medicine and Health (ehmh), a new platform of scholarly research and exchange in the vibrant, diverse and expanding field of history of medicine and health. The intention of the journal is to offer a platform to scholars interested in all possible aspects of the history of medicine and health. The journal is a joint undertaking of the Swiss Society for the History of Medicine and the European Association for the History of Medicine and Health. It is a continuation of Gesnerus: Swiss Journal for the History of Medicine and Science, which was published between 1943 and 2020

Missed connections: Pomeranian Medical University’s efforts to join circulation- of-knowledge networks in the pre-Thaw cold War times (1948–1956)

The paper presented is a case study discussing the difficulties a newly established medical school had to face when trying to build itself into existing circulation-of-knowledge networks during the Stalinist period, on the example of Pomeranian Medical University of Szczecin (PUM), founded in 1948. Based on the perusal of documents from the years 1948– 1956 preserved in PUM’s Archives, the paper analyses whether and to what degree the school was able to meet a number of criteria essential for becom- ing a relevant node in the network of knowledge, especially in trans- and international contexts. The criteria discussed include: access to appropriate infrastructure and resources; personnel qualified, willing and able to generate and circulate knowledge; sufficient decisional autonomy; sup- port from power centers; and connectedness with the existing networks. Szczecin’s post-1945 status in Poland and Europe is highlighted as a major factor behind the Stalinist state government’s simultaneous reluctance to tackle PUM’s urgent infrastructural and personnel deficits, and willingness to use PUM as an instrument of political propaganda

The place of the Szczecin Princely Pedagogium / Royal Carolingian Gymnasium in the Swedish system of medical education in 1646–1713.

Celem artykułu było scharakteryzowanie kształcenia medycznego prowadzonego w siedemnastowiecznym Szczecinie, w kontekście szwedzkiej sieci akademickiej z tego okresu, obejmującej pięć uczelni z wydziałami lekarskimi (Uppsala, Dorpat/Tartu, Åbo/Turku, Greifswald, Lund). Analizie porównawczej poddane zostały: liczba i ciągłość obsadzenia katedr medycyny, dostępność i jakość infrastruktury wykorzystywanej w dydaktyce i badaniach naukowych prowadzonych przez profesorów medycyny, liczba i tematyka dysput i dysertacji medycznych przeprowadzanych z udziałem studentów oraz aktywność naukowa profesorów medycyny z poszczególnych ośrodków. Jedynym analizowanym ośrodkiem, któremu gimnazjalna katedra medycyny w Szczecinie nie mogła dorównać w żadnym z analizowanych aspektów, był wydział lekarski w Uppsali. Najistotniejszą różnicą między Szczecinem i Greifswaldem było to, że greifswaldzki wydział lekarski posiadał uprawnienia do nadawania tytułów doktorskich. Natomiast nowym ośrodkom, założonym w omawianym okresie (Dorpat, Åbo, Lund), Szczecin nie tylko dotrzymywał kroku, ale dzięki zaangażowaniu i aktywności działających tu profesorów, niejednokrotnie je wyprzedzał.The purpose of the present study is to describe the medical education provided in the 17th century Szczecin in the context of the Swedish academic network of the time, comprising five universities with the medical faculties (Uppsala, Dorpat/Tartu, Åbo/Turku, Greifswald, Lund). Subject to comparative analysis were: the number and continuity of the personnel of the chairs of medicine, the availability and quality of the infrastructure used in didactics and the scientific research carried out by the professors of medicine, the number and topics of the medical discussions and dissertations presented with the participation of students, and the scientific activity of the professors of medicine from various centres. One of the analyzed centres with which the Gymnasium chair of medicine couldn’t be on a par in neither of the analyzed aspects was the faculty of medicine in Uppsala. The most significant difference between Szczecin and Greifswald was the Greifswald faculty’s of medicine right to grant the Ph.D. degree. However, Szczecin could not only equal with the new centres, established in the discussed period (Dorpat, Åbo, Lund), but often surpassed them thanks to the commitment and activity of the professors working there