Following the 19th-century language debates on the language of science and higher education, this paper follows three Polish texts from the middle of the century dealing with the Galician school and university system. These dispositives of language discourse, defined here as an outcome of the transformations at the nexus of hegemony, linguistic theories and the remainders of the Republic of Letters ideology, are analysed concerning the positioning of the Polish language as confronted with German and Ruthenian/Ukrainian, as well as the political implications resulting from the perceived misbalance. Given the political context of Habsburg neoabsolutism’s hierarchical understanding of languages and its application, the authors deal with both deconstructing the underlying ideology concerning German, and sustain it regarding Ruthenian

The article deals with the appropriation of postcolonial studies to look at Central Europe and Galicia. Beginning with the concept of“internal colonialism“, we follow the evolution of postcolonial theory from a basically economy-based concept into a poststructuralist cultural theory, presenting the development and uses of its central concepts, such as Orientalism or othering. Based on some examples, we also highlight its previous appropriation to Central Europe and the political implications it carries in this region.

The papers deals with methodological questions of writing a general history of science. We start by defining the scope of general history of science and its relation to general history, followed by a discussion on recent trends in history and philosophy of science. We also examine the impact of the developments in the humanities since the 1970s on disciplines reflecting on science. The second part of the paper focuses on the approach of science and politics as resources for one other, developed by Mitchell Ash, to describing scientific changes in times of radical regime upheavals. We also discuss the intersection between current science and politics framing historians as engaged intellectuals.