Prof. dr hab. Józef Borzyszkowski (born in 1946 in Karsin) was employed by the University of Gdańsk (Faculty of History) from its inception in 1970 till he retired in 2017. He received the title of Professor of Humanities in 1992.
He is a historian specializing in Kashubian and Pomeranian subjects of the 19th and 20th century in the wider cultural, social, political and economic context. He is the author or co-author of several dozen books and hundreds of academic and popularizing articles, biographical sketches, reviews etc. He is an acknowledged editor of source and literary texts as well as of diary documents and the editor of dozens of collective works including several monographs of Pomeranian villages and towns. He created and edits the series Pro Memoria of which over 20 volumes have appeared, dedicated to scholars and people of culture in Kashubia and Pomerania. He was also the organizer of dozens of academic conferences and symposia.
Apart from academic work his engagement in public affairs is also important. From 1990 to 1996 Prof. Borzyszkowski was the deputy voivode of Gdańsk and from 1991 to 1993 he was also a Senator of the Republic of Poland, representing the Kashubian-Pomeranian Association, of which he was president of the Governing Board for two terms of office – from 1986 to 1992. From the beginning of his professional career Prof. Borzyszkowski combined his scholarly work with community service, especially in the Kashubian-Pomeranian movement. Already as a student he became chairman of the Young Intellectuals’ Club “Pomerania” which was part of the Kashubian-Pomeranian Association and in time also chairman of the Gdańsk Branch and a member of the Governing Board of the Association – today the largest NGO in Pomerania. In 1996 he initiated the creation of the Kashubian Institute – an association of scholars engaged in Kashubian-Pomeranian subjects. He held the post of President of the Institute till 2015 after which he was appointed Honorary President. Since 1999, without a break, he has been editor in chief of the annual scholarly journal Acta Cassubiana.
Prof. Borzyszkowski has been a corresponding member of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2013. He is also a member of numerous scholarly societies, including the Polish Historical Society, the Gdańsk Scientific Society, the Toruń Scientific Society and the Wojciech Kętrzyński Scientific Society in Olsztyn. For many years he was a member of the Scientific Board of the Gdańsk Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
In 2005 J. Borzyszkowski received the Gdańsk City Jan Heweliusz Scientific Award in Humanities and Social Sciences, in 2017 in the field of humanities and social sciences and in 2016 the President of Gdańsk Award in the field of culture. In addition, he has received several awards of the Rector of the University of Gdańsk and Minister of Education. He received the Polityka award (1986), the Stolem Medal (1976), the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1989), the Z. Gloger Award and Medal (2000), the Pro Meritis Medal of the Polish-Scandinavian Institute in Copenhagen (2004), the Książę Mściwoj Medal of the Gdańsk City Council (2005). Also noteworthy are his honorary memberships of the Union of Poles in Germany and the honorary citizenship of Karsin and Brusy communes in his family’s home area of Ziemia Zaborska.
In addition, Prof. Borzyszkowski was president of the board of the voivodship’s Volunteer Fire Service from 1992 to 1999, first in the Gdańsk and then in the Pomeranian voivodeship. He was also a founding member of the Gdańsk Club of Catholic Intelligentsia and a member of the Program Board of the Pelplin Diocese publishing house Bernardinum.
