Every five years since 2007, Kraków has hosted the International Congress of Polish History, and each of these remarkable events has brought together hundreds of scholars from all over the world to share their interests in Poland's history, culture, and language. From its beginnings, the main aim of the congress has been to provide a forum for developing dialogue, exchanging experiences and inspiration, and popularizing research into Polish history. We are now starting our planning for the continuation of this project, and we invite you warmly to be part of this, the fourth International Congress of Polish History. In spite of the uncertainty and unpredictability that the pandemic has brought, we are going ahead with the organization of the congress, firm in the belief that it will be possible for us all to meet safely in Kraków in October 2022. The theme of our congress this time will be "Cultural Encounters". We set out to look at the history of the Polish lands through the lens of the mutual relations and interactions of the many cultural currents and models that have been present here for decades and even centuries. Ideas and assets, customs and models, identities and languages, have come together here as if in a crucible, a laboratory, or a transshipment port. Cultural, ethnic, linguistic, religious, economic, demographic, and social diversity has always been the dominant note in Poland's past, and has left lasting traces in our cultural legacy and collective identity. As we invite our fellow scholars with research interests in Poland to Kraków, we hope to explore the dynamics, scale, and complexity of these interactions, probe the main channels of transmission and retransmission, and consider the outcomes for Poland of these cultural encounters. We have pledged to adopt the broadest possible definition of culture, to take account of both its elevated and popular registers. We hope that in defining our subject in this way we will attract interest from a broad base, and provide a forum for lively dialogue on Polish history in the global context. As in previous years, we therefore extend our invitation to our sessions, discussions, and lectures to proponents of a range of disciplines, from historians, archaeologists, art historians, and anthropologists, to sociologists, linguists, and literature and cultural studies scholars. Alongside our preparations for the congress itself, we are also launching the fourth edition of our competition 'Pro Historia Polonorum', for the best foreign book on Polish history published in recent years, and there will be several other related events. With this invitation to support and be part of our fourth congress, we venture to share our fervent hope that, as in previous years, our meetings in Kraków will foster the discovery and development of new research perspectives, vibrant debate, and above all authentic togetherness and dialogue. Looking forward to seeing you,