1. Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus
Mosaic of Ethnic and Religious Communities in the 21st Century Eastern Poland
Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus

2. Family history Vilnus, Vil’nius, Wilno, Vil’nia, Vilne, Wilna, Vilnius
Lviv, L’viv, Lwów, L’vou, L’vov, Lemberik, Lemberg
Husakow (Mościska), Galizien, Austria; later Hussakow (Mościska), Lwow, Poland; now Husakiv, Mostys′ka, L′viv, Ukraine

3. Introduction Sentimentalism, roots and roots of sentimentalism
Critical approach to family
history
Critical approach to national
‘Que’est-ce qu’une nation?’
(Ernest Renan)
Primordialism and
perennialism
Modernism
Ethno-symbolism

4. Jus Sanguinis vs. Jus Solis
Changes in political influence
Impact of war and regime
resettlements in different periods
Socio-economic factors
Religious tolerance under successive governments
Cultural exchange

5. Where do I begin? Obstacles on the path of each researcher

6. Strategies and Methodology
Choosing theories
“A good theory explains important phenomena: it answers questions that matter to the wider world, or it helps answer such questions” (Stephen Van Evera, 1997; 19)
Case selection
“The more cases or examples that are studied, the more likely that common causes can be found and generalizations made. Political events are often clarified and illuminated by comparison with similar events and processes in other contexts” (Burnham, Gilland, Grant, Leyton-Henry, 2004:55)
Process Tracing
Archival research and interviews with academics from University of Wroclaw, University of Opole, and other national, and local institutions.

7. Where the East meets the West
Language
“For every nation is one people, having its own natural form, as well as its own language (…) and originality of [national] characters extends to families” (Herder, 1968:7).
Role of language in
creating and recreating:
Ukrainian nationalism
Lithuanian nationalism
Belorussian nationalism
“The new intelligentsia of nationalism had to invite masses into history (…), the invitation card had to be written in the language they all understood” (Anderson, 1983:80).

8. Religion & Cultural Heritage
Role of religion and cultural heritage in preservation of identity of the local communities
Lithuanians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Tartars, Germans, Lemkos, and other communities
Religious communities of eastern Poland: Catholics, Eastern rite,
Byzantine rite, Greek Catholic, Sunni Islam

9. Aims for the future research
Establishing what the communities lost and what they gained will give a wider perspective of globalisation in the East
To present multi-religious and multi-ethnic societies within the rural regions of eastern frontier of European Union
to present whether modern developments in the fields of economy, science and philosophy allowed those communities to preserve their traditions or exchange them for modern thought and solutions
To reconstruct multicultural pattern of societies in different periods of history
To preserve family histories and cultural artefacts remaining in the regions of Mazury, Podlasie, Podkarpacie, and other regions on the territories of Poland, Lithuania, Russian Federal District of Kaliningrad, Belarus and Ukraine