Przemyslaw Urbańczyk, Professor

Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology
Polish Academy of Sciences
Warsaw, Poland
e-mail: uprzemek@iaepan.edu.pl

Born in 21 October 1951 in Białystok.
MA in 1974 at the Warsaw University.
PhD in 1980 at the Institute of the History of Material Culture in Warsaw.
Doctor Habil in 1992 at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology in Warsaw.
Since 1993 the position of Professor and the chair of the Prehistory at the Podlaska Academy in Siedlce.
The life title of Professor given by the President of the Polish Republic in 2000.

Main fields of interest:
methods and theory of archaeological studies, Early Medieval Central Europe, history of the North Atlantic region, origins of states, Christianization of Europe, early Polish history, history of archaeology, management of archaeological heritage.

Publications:
4 books published:
- “Medieval Arctic Norway” (1992);
- “Władza I polityka we wczesnym średniowieczu” [Power and politics in the Early Middle Ages] (2000) - German translation is prepared for Peter Lang Verlag;
- “Rok 1000” [Year 1000] (2001) Italian translation is planned , and
- “Zdobywcy Północnego Atlantyku” [The Conquerors of the North Atlantic] (2004) – English translation is prepared;
book submitted in 2006: “Trudne początki Polski” [Difficult origins of Poland]
- over 200 articles (cf. attached list);
- 4 encyclopedic entries in: the „Encyclopedia of the Barbarian World” (USA 2004) and the „Wieser Enzyklopedie des Europaischen Ostens” (Austria 2005).

Editor of 15 volumes including: “Early Christianity in Central and East Europe” (1997), “Origins of Central Europe” (1997), “The neighbours of Poland in the 10th century” (2000), “Europe around the year 1000” (2001), “The neighbours of Poland in the 11th century” (2002), “Polish lands at the turn of the first and the second millennium” (2004).
Collective volumes in preparation: “Giving names to the Medieval states”; “Archaeology of the North Atlantic”; “Between West and East: Four National Narratives in Central Europe”.

Member of the editorial boards of: “Archaeologia Islandica” (since 2002), „Studia Archaeologica Slovaca Mediaevalia” (since 1999 r.), “Sprawozdania Archeologiczne” (since 2004) and the multi-volume series “The Northern World” by the Brill Academic Publishers in Amsterdam (since 2001).

Papers read at more than 40 international conferences, including: Austria (Vienna), Bohemia (Prague), Cyprus (Lefkosia), France (Le Bischenberg), Germany (Greifswald, Leipzig, Marburg, Wismar), Great Britain (Cambridge, York, Glasgow), Iceland (Reykjavik), Italy (Bellagio, Ravenna, Isernia, Venice), Latvia (Riga), Norway (Tromsø, Trondheim, Bergen, Voss), Portugal (Lisbon, Santiago de Compostella), Republic of South Africa (Cape Town), Slovakia (Nitra), Russia (Kaliningrad), Spain (Santiago de Compostella), Sweden, (Umeå, Lund), Switzerland (St Maurice), Ukraine (Lviv), USA (Kalamazoo, New York), and the islands: Spitsbergen (Barentsburg), Faeroes (Torshavn), Shetlands (Lerwick), and Newfoundland (St Johns).

Organization of 9 international conferences.

Active in dissemination of the scholarly knowledge in a more popular form (including over 100 radio and TV programs).

Education of young cadres: tutor of 20 MA dissertations and 5 PhD dissertations

Invited lectures at: University College Dublin, Ireland (1994); University of Tromsø, Norway (1990; 2004); University of St. Andrews, Scotland (1998); Stanford University, USA (2000); Catholic University of Lima, Peru (2002); University of Uppsala, Sweden (2002); City University of New York (2002), University of Bergen (2004), University of Marburg (2005).

Leader of archaeological excavations at numerous sites in north and central Norway (1981-94 and 2002-2004), in north-eastern Poland (1995-98), in Peru (2001-2002) and in Iceland (1999-2006).

Other activities:
- Since 1994 - member of the North Atlantic Bio-cultural Organisation that coordinates international cooperation of scholars dealing with the past of the North Atlantic region.
- In 1995-97 - member of the Steering Committee of the European Science Foundation’s international programme "Transformation of the Roman World" and an active participant in Group 5 dealing with the "Power and Society" problems. Author of a chapter.
- In 2000 - the Rockefeller Foundation residential grant at the Bellagio Study Center in Italy. .
- 2000-2003 - the director of the project “Polska na przełomie tysiącleci” [Poland at the turn of the first and the second millennia] that was launched by the stately Committee of Scientific Research. It involved over 200 people working to prepare 20 volumes dealing with the early history of Poland. Publishing these books in the series “Origines Polonorum” started in 2006.
- Since 2001 co-editor of “The Northern World” series by the Brill Academic Publishers.
- in 2002 - nominated the representative of Poland in the Standing Committee for the Humanities of the European Science Foundation located in Strasbourg
- 2002-2004 – participant of the international project “Christianization of North Europe and formation of states”; results will be published by the Cambridge Academic Press.
- 2004 – three months as a visiting professor at the Centre for Medieval Studies in Bergen.
- 2004-2006 – participant of the German project aiming to write a new “Handbuch der Geschichte Polens” (2 volumes). Author of a chapter.
- 2004-2007 - Member of the Core Group of the Standing Committee for the Humanities of the European Science Foundation.
- 2005 - 6 weeks residence at the Herder Institute in Marburg, Germany.
- 2005-2008 – observer of the international EARTH project;
- 2005-2008 – member of the international jury for the European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage;
- 2006 – co-author of the report of the EU HERA programme’s Work Package 6;
- 2006 – member of the Scientific Committee of the 12th Annual Congress of the European Association of Archaeologists;
- 2006 – member of the External Experts Panel of COST (European COoperation in the Field of Scientific and Technical Research}
- 2006 – visiting professor at the Centre for Medieval Studies in Bergen.
- 2006-2007 – chairman of the jury evaluating applications for the Irish government’s post-doctorate grants;
- 2006-2008 – member of the reviewing panel for the international BOREAS project.