Social anthropologist and sociologist, founder of the Department of Social Anthropology at the Institute of Sociology in the University of Warsaw, a member of the Committee of Migration and Polonia Studies (Polish Academy of Sciences) , member of Committee of Ethnological Sciences (PAoS) and Balkan Studies Commision (PAoS).. The author of handbook of social anthropology “Świat Człowieka – Świat Kultury’and numerous books and articles on issues of familiarity and strangeness, culture contact, the emergence of new nations in Siberia and situation of Polish minority in the areas of the former Soviet Union and minority groups in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe (particularly Roma and Vlach).