Pawel Cholewicki

Profile

I completed my BA and MA in Archaeology, specialising in the Middle ages, at the University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznan, where I come from. During my studies I not only participated in archaeological excavations and practices in the archives of the archaeological museum in Poznan, but I also took part in two student exchanges to Ljubljana and Zadar, where I expanded my interest to South-eastern European Middle ages.

In 2015 I started an MA in Medieval Studies at the Central European University in Budapest with an ambition to defend the thesis about Medieval Bosnia.

In summer 2016, I took part in the Summer school: Demitologizacija Nacija i identiteta – Bosna i Hercegovina u Evropskom srednjem vijeku [Demythologising nations and identities – Bosnia-Hercegovina’s medieval past in European context] organised by University of Zenica/University of Regensburg, where I met with Professor Dubravko Lovrenovic who greatly influenced my understanding of Medieval Bosnia.  I will continue my academic interest in this region at the IMS in Leeds on a PhD level. Besides academia, I published few texts in Polish at histmag.org and I aid during production of a documentary movie „Zolnierz Niezlomny Kosciola” directed by Jolanta Hajdasz.

Research interests

My current research project explores the relation between the progress of the Observant reform movement and the disintegration of the Franciscan Bosnian vicariate. My research will estimate the role of the conflicts between the prominent leaders of Franciscan Observance such as James of the Marches or James Primadizzi with the Franciscans of the Bosnian vicariate defending their missionary adaptations and legal concessions. It will also examine the differences in lifestyle and aspirations of friars of different parts of the Bosnian vicariate, which at its greatest extent had houses in the large part of Southeastern Europe, in vein to understand later separatist tendencies within its ambit. 

Completion of my project will be a contribution to the dynamically developing historiography about the Franciscan Observance by analysing one of its frontier manifestations and therefore challenge the assumption of a ‘normative’ Franciscan identity based on Western European evidence. From a larger perspective, by looking at a frontier region, it contributes to the discussion about the relationship between centre and periphery, and the tensions between 'international' organizations with a claim to universality (the Franciscan order, the papacy) and their local/regional manifestations.

Conference papers
Late medieval Bosnia and Poland: channels, connections, parrarels and individuals, at: International Conference „Bosnia and its neighbors in the Middle Ages", Sarajevo 2018.

Court of King Stjepan Tomaš (1443-61) between the Roman and the Bosnian faith, at: International Conference Heretical Self Defense , Nottingham, 2018.

Rola Sredniowiecznego Kosciola bosniackiego w utworzeniu i podtrzymywaniu wspólczesnej tozsamosci narodowej, at: “Swiateczne spotkanie mediewistyczne”, Lódz 2014.