Institute management:

Prof. Wojciech Hübner, PhD – Director of the Institute
Magdalena Rybicka, MA – 1. Deputy Director, Organizational matters
Wioletta Wieszczycka, PhD, Eng – Deputy Director, Information and Communication
Zygmunt Janiec, PhD – Deputy Director, Cooperation with foreign countries

The Asia Research Institute – due to the topicality of its research topics and the high commitment of its leading activists – recognized experts in this field, is a dynamically developing research centre of the Vistula University. The Institute aims to conduct scientific research showing the new role of Asia and the Far East in economic, political and cultural changes in the world. China has a special prominent place here – both its history and contemporary place in a globalizing world.

Institute’s research priorities.

As for today, the Institute’s research priorities also include the Belt and Road Initiative – the latest Chinese megaproject, which is and – in the foreseeable future – will be the guiding premise for all of the 21st century China’s foreign policy. The initiative refers to the idea and mechanism of the historical Silk Road, one of the greatest achievements of all humanity and a universal symbol of peaceful cooperation. The Institute conducts research on the historical-cultural context of the Trail, and in the research of the modern Initiative, which emerges from these ideas, analyzes the national and regional aspects of its functioning. At the theoretical level and by supporting the dialogue of practitioners, the Institute strives to develop an awareness of both emerging new opportunities for Initiative partners and cooperation dilemmas. Through its activities as a new dialogue platform and its publications – the Institute strives to help create vectors of Polish strategy in the discussed areas.

By creating an original foundation of knowledge about the Far East and China based on its research, the Institute is trying to co-create and develop the entire segment of didactics related to these issues. The Institute’s employees offer students of the Vistula University regular lectures (in Polish and English) devoted to both modern and historical China, Asia and the Silk Road, whose heir is the current Chinese Belt and Road Initiative. The Institute’s employees conduct innovative classes in a multidisciplinary and multicultural spirit. Tailor-made postgraduate classes are planned for representatives of various specialities that could help in establishing business cooperation with the Far East countries, including an approximation of selected aspects of cultural and economic specificity as well as legal and organizational issues related to the local business environment. The theoretical knowledge gains are to be properly combined with the experience of business and diplomacy practitioners. The Institute also deals in the preparation of new research initiatives, development of research results, their publication and dissemination; also looks after the student research club.

The Institute’s employees undertake supervising care for doctoral dissertations and provide care to domestic and international students in the field of bachelor’s and master’s theses. The Institute has numerous, own international contacts and further develops them by organizing conferences and creating various discussion platforms. The Institute has started a series of international conferences devoted to the Far East. In 2018, the international conference ‘Chinese Belt and Road Initiative – inspirations from the historical past, present and future scenarios’ took place, and at the turn of 2020/2021, another such event is planned. The Institute’s scientific seminars are regularly conducted – with the participation of the most outstanding national specialists: among the planned meetings there is, for example, a seminar discussing the current stage of a trade war in the world and the role of the WTO in contemporary economic relations, as well as another seminar on the historical interaction between the Amber and Silk Roads and the subsequent business opportunities for Polish handicrafts and new initiatives of the Polish artistic community.

National and international cooperation.

The Institute cooperates with its counterparts at Warsaw universities – regularly participates in discussions and seminars organized at the Kozminski University and the Warsaw Management University. On a national scale, such partners include the University of Economics in Kraków, Wrocław and Szczecin, the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń and the University of Jan Kochanowski in Kielce. The Institute has recently established promising contacts with the PRC Embassy in Warsaw and has excellent ongoing working contacts with the management of the Confucian Class operating at the Vistula. Chinese TUT (Technical University Tianjin) is a permanent foreign cooperation partner, and universities in Beijing, Fuzhou, Chengdu and Xi’an. Vistula University and the Institute are often visited by representatives of leading Chinese universities.

An interesting form of international cooperation was a joint scientific workshop (September 2018), which was attended by a group of students and professors of the University of Fukuyama in Hiroshima and students and employees of the Vistula University and Vistula School of Hospitality. The workshops included lectures and discussions on topics related to the contemporary development of the Far East, Poland and Japan as well as the Belt and Road Initiative and its impact on the region. Seminars of this type, which are an innovative form of dialogue, exchange of views and didactics activating students, are also planned in the future.

Institute’s scientific achievements.

The Institute’s team research work has been completed, among others, the following publications:

Hübner, M. Rybicka and W. Wieszczycka:

(2018) Chinese Belt and Road Initiative: parameters for Poland’s strategy, an article in the Kwartalnik Nauk o Przedsiębiorczości (SGH), No. 49 (4): 34-47; ISSN: 1896-656X, DOI: 10.5604 / 01.3001.0012.8115;

(2017) The New Silk Road – different national perspectives and different goals to reconcile, Poland’s economic policy in integrating Europe 2016-2018, Warsaw, Institute for Market, Consumption and Business Cycles; The New Silk Road – historical conditions and the present day [in :] Poland’s economic policy in the integrating Europe 2016-2018, Institute for Market, Consumption and Business Cycles, Warsaw.

Rybicka M., Wieszczycka W. (2018), The Impact of Technology Transfer on the Innovativeness of the Chinese Economy, [in:] Kwartalnik Naukowy Uczelni Vistula, Warsaw, pp. 154-168, ISSN: 2084-4689.

Monographs published under the patronage of the Institute:

An important element of the Institute’s scientific achievement is the comprehensive monograph of W. Hübner: The Silk Road and China. History and today, Vistula Publishing House, Warsaw 2018, and at the turn of 2016/2017 a bilingual monograph (Polish and English) was published by W. Hübner: Asia of the 21st Century and the Silk Road, which contains articles from the entire leading team of the Institute (Vistula Group of Universities and cooperating domestic and foreign institutions).

Individual articles and conference papers (selected items) of the Institute’s employees:

M. Rybicka:

(2019) Scenarios for the development of the New Silk Road – strategies and prospects for the future [in:] Entrepreneurship and Management, Łódź, pp. 97-111, ISSN 2543-8190;

(2018) FDI and innovation: a smart city as a convenience for man? [in:] Kwartalnik Naukowy Uczelni Vistula, Warsaw, pp. 109-122, ISSN 2084-4689;

Kukuła E., Rybicka M., Humanities at the crossroads – a man in a torn world, [in:] Future. World-Europe-Poland, Warsaw 2018, pp. 91-95, YADDA bwmeta1.element.ekon-element-000171568627

(2017) Does Asia have a chance to become a leader in building smart cities? Scientific Works of the Wrocław University of Economics, ISSN 1899-3192;

W. Hübner:

(2019) The Chinese Belt and Road Initiative – the contemporary vectors of a global system and inspiration by tradition for individuals, paper for the international conference in Tbilisi, Georgia: 14th International Silk Road Conference on Globalization: Trends and Perspectives (October 2019);

(2019) Patterns of cultural interaction on the historic Silk Road as an inspiration for modern times, [in:] The Riddle of Chinese Success (2019), edited by W. Pomykało, ed. L. Krzyżanowski, Warsaw Management University;

(2018), Tradition of the historical Silk Road and the present day, Kwartalnik Naukowy Uczelni Vistula, Warsaw, 4 (58) / 2018, ISSN 2084-4689;

(2017) China’s new role in the world – how to accept it? Scientific Works of the Wrocław University of Economics, ISSN 1899-3192.