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

Abstract

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.