Mentoring –
this is the most common kind of relationship at the Polish humanities departments.
We are used to it and we can handle it with ease. But conducting a research
project offers sometimes the first opportunity to work in a different way – in
a team of colleagues.
In my
project, both of these relationships are present – this most familiar, between
the junior researchers and their mentor, professor Janusz Stanisław Gruchała,
and this entirely new one – with Iwona Grabska-Gradzińska, who helps me with creating
a database to gather in it information on prints from Oels and whose patience
for my incompetence in the field of digital humanities is just as broad as is
this very incompetence. We both are currently preparing doctoral theses at the
Institute of Editorial Studies, Jagiellonian University. This experience of
co-working with a fellow student, though in a two-person team only, is quite
special and totally valuable. Thanks to it, one can learn, apart from matters strictly
academic, how to talk „business” – what is needed has to be clearly
communicated; one has to plan actions which would be doable, sensible and
beneficial for everybody involved. These seemingly obvious matters are a
novelty indeed for someone who for months is organizing their work according to
totally individualistic rules agreed on with nobody else but himself. Leaving
this comfort zone seems a good idea in every respect. If we think for a brief
moment about the meaning of the word ‘humanities’ then one shall name it a
paradox indeed that the scientists outstrip humanists in undertaking teamwork,
which actually means ‘work with another human being’.
But
generally, the humanities couldn’t prosper properly, as could probably no other
human activity, without even more broadly understood, simple and selfless
kindness of others. ‘The acknowledgements’, probably the most omitted part of
scholarly publications, mean more than sheer courtesy – this knows anybody who
tried to do anything of academic quality. One just can’t make it on their own.
It became fully clear to me already in the first two weeks of conducting my
project. During this short time, I talked to Dr. Jacek Partyka, Dr. Klaudia
Socha, Kasia Płaszczyńska-Herman and Tomek Nastulczyk about searching library
catalogues, catologuing old printed books and preparing a database. My project
wouldn’t have properly started without these conversations, or, in the best-case
scenario, it would have been a misfire. And the very writing of a grant application?
The number of people to whom I am deeply indebted is great indeed. Professor
Janusz Gruchała advised me on preparing a project estimate and structuring work
plan. Professor Andrzej Borowski expressed his warm encouragement when I first
mentioned the idea on his seminar. My dad corrected the English version, my
sister became an advisor with regards to all formal matters. The project was
talked over with my friends – Stijn van Rossem, Kasia Płaszczyńska-Herman,
Andrzej Probulski (please, forgive me, if I forgot to mention anybody
involved). Finally, ms Katarzyna Pilipowicz, who was responsible for submitting
the applications, responded to all inquiries and cared for all formal details with
friendliness, warmth, patience and a smile so rare in similar institutions.
So, Erasmus
of Rotterdam was right when he said:
Adeo nihil est in rebus humanis,
quod ipsum sibi sufficiat. In ipsis statim vitae primordiis perisset hominum
genus, nisi conditum propagasset coniugalis concordia; nec enim nasceretur homo
et mox natus interiret atque in ipso vitae limine vitam amitteret, nisi
obstetricum amica manus, nisi nutricum amica pietas succurreret infantulo.
Atque in hunc vsum vehementissimos illos pietatis igniculos inseuit, vt
parentes etiam illud ament, quod nondum viderunt. Adiecit mutuam liberorum erga
parentes pietatem, vt illorum imbecillitas horum praesidiis vicissim
subleuaretur, fieretque illa cunctis quidem ex aequo plausibilis, sed Graecis
aptissime dicta ἀντιπελάργωσις. Accedunt huc cognationum et affinitatum
vincula, accedit in nonnullis ingeniorum, studiorum formaeque similitudo,
certissima beneuolentiae conciliatrix, in multis arcanus quidam animorum sensus
ac mirus ad mutuum amorem stimulus, quem veteres admirati numini ascribebant (Erasmus Roterodamus, Querela pacis, ed. O. Herding, in: Opera omnia, Ord. 4, T. 2, Amsterdam
1977, s. 64.).
My translation to
English would give such injustice to this passage that I am forced to refer
dear reader to the text in Collected Works
of Erasmus edition. But the first sentence is most important here: ‘So,
there is nothing in human affairs which would be self-sufficient’.
