History
The Faculty of Social Sciences was founded on 1 October 1973 in Katowice at 17/17a, Wita Stwosza Street. The Faculty encompassed organisational units that had existed earlier within the Faculty of Humanities: the Institute of Pedagogy and Psychology, the Institute of History, and the Institute of Philosophy, Sociology, and Political Science. The latter institute was created on the basis of the Institute of Social Sciences, which had existed since 1970.
The structure of the Faculty was subject to further changes: in 1974, two separate institutes were established: the Institute of Pedagogy and the Institute of Psychology; in 1975, the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology and the Institute of Political Science were created; in 1976, the Institute of Philosophy and the Institute of Sociology separated. Apart from that, in the same year the Faculty of Pedagogy and Psychology was founded at 53, Tyszki Street (nowadays it is Grażyńskiego Street) in Katowice. Also, in the structure of the Faculty there were the Department of Economics and the Department of Art History. Both Faculties developed quickly, and in 1978, the Faculty of Pedagogy and Psychology received the right to grant the PhD degree. In the following year, the same right was given to the Faculty of Social Sciences in the fields of Political Science and Sociology.
In 1979, the Faculties received new buildings: the Faculty of Social Sciences obtained the building at 11, Bankowa Street, and the Faculty of Pedagogy and Psychology obtained part of the building at Zawadzkiego Street (nowadays it is Sokolska Street).
In November 1981, the university experienced a wave of student protests. Rev. Dr. Stanisław Puchała celebrated the first mass for the strikers in the Hall of the Faculty Council at the Faculty of Social Sciences. The student sit-in protest ended on 11 December 1981.
On 20 April 1993, the University Senate accepted the statute of the International School of Political Science, a new didactic unit within the University of Silesia. The functioning of the School was inspired by the French Institute of Political Studies in Bordeaux. Apart from Bordeaux, the initiative was also supported by the Catholic University of Louvain in Louvain-la-Neuve in Belgium.
In October 1997, a new lecture hall was opened. The hall was the most representative one at the university for many years. In 2001, in the Library of the Faculty of Social Sciences, the Computer Laboratory for Applied Social Sciences was founded.
On the basis of Act 75 of the Senate of the University of Silesia in Katowice from 25 September 2001, the Didactic Centre in Rybnik was founded in order to run study programmes of the Faculty of Social Sciences and the Faculty of Philology. On 28 May 2013, the Senate decided to close the Didactic Centre in Rybnik.
As a result of the reorganisation of the University of Silesia, on 1 October 2019, the Faculty of Social Sciences was combined with the institutes of the former Faculty of Pedagogy and Psychology, while the Institute of Philosophy and the Institute of History were built into the newly created Faculty of Humanities.
The organiser and first dean of the Faculty was Docent Dr. Janusz Kolczyński. In the following terms, the function of the Dean was held by: 1st term: 1.10.1973–31.08.1975 – Docent Dr. Janusz Kolczyński; 2nd term: 1.09.1975–31.12.1976 – Docent Dr. Janusz Kolczyński; 1.01.1977–31.08.1978 – Docent Assoc. Prof. Bohdan Jałowiecki; 3rd term: 1.09.1978–30.04.1979 – Docent Assoc. Prof. Jan Kantyka; 1.05.1979–31.12.1980 – Docent Assoc. Prof. Jan Przewłocki; 1.01.1981–31.08.1981 – Docent Assoc. Prof. Jerzy Szydłowski; 4th and 5th terms: 1.09.1981–31.08.1987 – Prof. Jan Kantyka; 6th and 7th terms: 1.09.1987–31.08.1993 – Prof. Adam Hrebenda; 8th and 9th terms: 1.09.1993–31.08.1999 – Prof. Jan Iwanek; 10th and 11th terms: 1.09.1999–31.08.2005 – Prof. Józef Bańka; 12th term: 1.09.2005–31.08.2008 – Prof. Bogdan Łomiński; 13th and 14th terms: 1.09.2008–31.08.2016 – Prof. Wiesław Kaczanowicz; 15th term: 31.08.2016–30.09.2019 – Prof. Kazimierz Miroszewski.
Since 1 October 2019 the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences has been Prof. Zenon Gajdzica.