If you want to discuss politics… go to Magdalenka

Magdalenka is a small town in Poland, very well-known to all researchers of social sciences and humanities. For over a decade now, it is also the name of the seminar room no. 113 at the Institute of Political Science.

Why Magdalenka? The room’s interior was designed in May 2012 by students of political science supervised by dr hab. Marzena Cichosz. The walls are covered with copies of posters from the 1980s and 1990s – the originals are stored at the Institute of Political Science. Besides, the room holds also many souvenirs of the communist times and early 1990s in Poland, and on the pillars, there are signatures of politicians who were guests at the Faculty of Social Sciences, including the former President of Poland Bronisław Komorowski, leader of the Civic Platform Donald Tusk, former Prime Minister Leszek Miller and Janusz Korwin-Mikke. Although the former President of Poland Lech Wałęsa and former Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki never actually visited the Magdalenka room, they left their signatures on Styrofoam blocs which are now glued to the pillars in Magdalenka.

Magdalenka is the favourite meeting place of members of the Young Political Scientists Science Club, but not only theirs – a fragment of a commercial for the University of Wrocław was filmed here. Magdalenka is much liked by students, and the Faculty’s guests, too. This year, the room gained another signature – from the former Minister of Finance and Head of the National Bank of Poland, prof. Leszek Balcerowicz, who held a lecture at the Faculty on 17 January, while promoting his book “Odkrywając wolność. W obronie rozumu”.