PAHA Presents its 2016 Awards at the 74th Annual Meeting, in Denver, Colorado, January 5-7, 2017

AWARDS

 At the 74^th Annual Meeting at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, CO (January 5-7, 2017), the Polish American Historical Association will announce the winners of its Annual Awards. The PAHA Annual Meeting will also include many scholarly presentations held in conjunction with the 131^st annual Meeting of the American Historical Association.

The Oskar Halecki Prize recognizes an important book or monograph on the Polish experience in the United States.  Eligibility  is  limited  to  works  of  historical  and/or  cultural  interest,  including  those  in  the  social sciences or humanities, published in the two years prior to the award.  The 2017 Halecki Prize will be presented to Prof. Mieczysław B. Biskupski, for his book The Most Dangerous German Agent in America (NIU Press, 2015).

The Amicus Poloniae Award recognizes significant contributions enhancing knowledge of Polish and Polish-American heritage by individuals not belonging to the Polish-American community. It will be presented to Dr. Alvin Mark Fountain II and Brenda Bruce who co-founded the Paderewski Festival in Raleigh, North Carolina in 2014 (paderewski-festival.org). Dr. Fountain, the President of the Festival, is a former administrator with the State of North Carolina and for more than 25 years he taught history at North Carolina State University. In 2008, Dr. Fountain was appointed as an Honorary Consul of the Republic of Poland. The Vice-President and Secretary of the Festival, Brenda Bruce is an accomplished pianist, harpsichordist, acclaimed teacher, and accompanist dedicated to the promotion of classical piano performance of the highest quality.

Dr. Stephen Leahy of Shantou University, China, will receive the Distinguished Service Award, given occasionally to a member of PAHA who has rendered valuable and sustained service to the organization.  Dr.  Leahy’s crucial role as the co-founder and moderator of PAHA’s Facebook group is just one of his many achievements as a long-time PAHA Board member, dedicated to the promotion of the association and its research interests world-wide.

The Swastek Prize is awarded annually for the best article published in a given volume of Polish American Studies, the journal of the Polish American Historical Association. This award, established in 1981, is named in honor of Rev. Joseph V. Swastek (1913-1977), the editor of Polish American Studies for many years, and a past president of PAHA. The Editorial Board of Polish American Studies recommended that the Swastek Prize be presented to Prof. Paweł Ziętara of Warsaw, Poland for “Troubles with ‘Mela’: A Polish American Reporter, the Secret Services of People’s Poland, and the FBI” (PAS 72, No 1, Spring 2015). Ziętara’s article assembles massive, painstaking research and presents a portrait of communist activity in the USA in the postwar period that is not well known. It brings to light a subject both significant and fascinating, and is based almost entirely on original archival sources.

The Creative Arts Prize will be bestowed on Dr. Maja Trochimczyk, for her achievements as a poet, especially in her two books dedicated to Polish victims of WWII, Slicing the Bread (Finishing Line Press, 2014), and The Rainy Bread, (Moonrise Press, 2016). Her books of poetry include Rose Always, 2008; Miriam’s Iris, 2008; Into Light, 2016; and two anthologies, Chopin with Cherries, 2010, and Meditations on Divine Names, 2012. Dr. Trochimczyk served as Poet Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga, Los Angeles in 2010-2012 and was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2016.

The Skalny Civic Achievement Awards honor individuals or groups who advance PAHA's goals of promoting research and awareness of the Polish-American experience and/or have made significant contributions to Polish or Polish-American community and culture.  The 2016 Skalny Awards will honor the following individuals:

Marta Alicja Swica of Minneapolis, MN, former Business Manager, Scholarship Program Chair, and member of the Executive Board of the Polanie Club Minneapolis and St. Paul, an important cultural association of Polish women, active since the 1927 and distinguished through their vast publishing activities. After the dissolution of the Club, Ms. Swica led the effort to secure its historical records and successfully negotiated their placement at the Immigration History Research Center, University of Minnesota, and the Polish Museum of America in Chicago. 

Tomasz Skotnicki, Honorary Consul of the Republic of Poland in Denver, CO,  since 2005, is strongly linked to local Polonia communities, first in Santa Barbara where he organized Polish community events to celebrate national holidays. In Colorado, he co-organizes visits of representatives of Polish government including President Lech Walesa, organizes consular events, cooperates with the Polish Club and the Kosciuszko Foundation. Mr. Skotnicki actively promotes Polish culture and history and helps Poles who are in need.

Katarzyna Zak, President of the Polish Club in Denver, has made numerous contributions to the promotion of Polish culture and activities of local Polish society, including numerous events, support for the Polish library, and more. She is a member of the Polonia Council convened by the Consul General of Poland in Los Angeles. 

President of the Polish American Film Society, Elizabeth Kanski and Artistic Director of the Polish Film Festival in Los Angeles, Vladek Juszkiewicz are recognized by the 2016 Skalny Award for their work as organizers of the Film Festival, held in Los Angeles for the past 16 years and promoting Polish cinema and international film collaborations (www.polishfilmla.org) through hundreds of screenings, lectures, and panel presentations in Los Angeles and Orange County, in collaboration with CSUN, USC, UCLA and other partners.

The Graduate Student Research Paper Award will be presented to Joanna Kulpińska from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland for her paper “Multigenerational Migration Chains of Families from Babica: An Attempt at Typology.” Established in 2008, the Graduate Student Research Paper Award recognizes outstanding research into Polish-American history and culture by a young scholar in the humanities or social sciences and consists of a travel grant and presentation at the Annual Meeting.

The newly instituted Graduate Student/ Young Scholar Travel Grant will be presented to Aleksandra Kurowska-Susdorf from the University of Gdańsk, Poland, for her paper “Creating Identity: Discussion around Kashubian and Polish Identity in Canada and Poland.”

Dr. Iwona Drag Korga, Executive Director of the Pilsudski Institute in New York City, has served as the Chair of the Awards Committee for 2017. The Awards Reception will be held on Saturday, January 7, 2017, starting at 7 p.m., at the Polish Club of Denver (3121 West Alameda Ave. Denver, CO 80219). Award winners are invited to attend free of charge, all other guests and conference participants should register, $50.00 per person.

The Program of PAHA’s 74th Annual Meeting includes eight sessions on diverse aspects of Polonia’s culture, presented from historical, sociological, anthropological, and literary perspectives with a focus on immigration issues. Sessions include: immigrant and Ethnic Identity, Constructing Ethnicity in Polish American Literature, Narrating Migration: Subjectivities and Communities in Poland and the United States; Prominent Poles in America; Between Europe and North America: (Im)migration and Social Justice; East Central Europe: What's in the Name? The View from Exile. An “Author Meets Critic Session” will explore The Polish Hearst: Ameryka-Echo and the Public Role of the Immigrant Press by Anna Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann. Papers on architect Thomas Lewinski, pianist-composer-statesman Ignacy Jan Paderewski, and writer Anthony Bukoski will study eminent individuals and the meeting will conclude with a Roundtable Discussion on “Progressive: Polish-Americans for Social Progress, Jamestown through the 21st Century.” See the attached full program for further details.

 PROGRAM

OF THE 74th ANNUAL MEETING, JANUARY 5-7, 2017

COLORADO CONVENTION CENTER, DENVER

THURSDAY, JANUARY 5, 2017, 1:30 PM-5:00 PM

PAHA Annual Board Meeting, Colorado Convention Center, Room 204

FRIDAY, JANUARY 6, 2017, 8:30 AM-10:00 AM

Session 1: Immigrant and Ethnic Identity, CCC, Room 304

Chair: Thomas Napierkowski, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs

·        Creating Identity: Discussion around Kashubian and Polish Identity in Canada and Poland - Aleksandra Kurowska-Susdorf, University of Gdańsk

·        The "Other" Patriot: The Gothic Nature of the Polish Catholic Immigrant Other in the Mid-19th-Century United States - Jill Noel Walker Gonzalez, La Sierra University

FRIDAY, JANUARY 6, 2017, 10:30 AM-12:00 PM

Session 2: Constructing Ethnicity in Polish American Literature, Colorado Convention Center, Room 304

Chair: BożenaNowicka McLees, Loyola University Chicago

·        Our Little Polish Cousin and the Stara Imigracja - Thomas Napierkowski, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs

·        "What Are Little (Polish) Girls Made Of?" Performing Gender in World War II Novels for Young Adults By Immigrant and Ethnic Writers - Grażyna Kozaczka, Cazenovia College

·        Anthony Bukoski: Writing from an Outpost of Polishness - John Merchant, Loyola University Chicago

FRIDAY, JANUARY 6, 2017, 1:30 PM-3:00 PM

SESSION 3: Narrating Migration: Subjectivities and Communities in Poland and the United States, Colorado Convention Center, Room 304

Chair: Anna Mazurkiewicz, University of Gdańsk

·        Narrating a New "American": Polish Holocaust Survivors in the United States in the 1950s - Anna Cichopek-Gajraj, Arizona State University

·        The People of Hamtramck: What Does It Mean to be Polish American in a Small Midwestern Town? - Anna Muller, University of Michigan-Dearborn

·        What Polish Peasants Said about Capitalism: Narrating Urban Subjectivity in Late 19th- and Early 20th-Century America - Kathleen Wroblewski, University of Michigan

FRIDAY, JANUARY 6, 2017, 3:30 PM-5:00 PM

SESSION 4: Prominent Poles in America, Colorado Convention Center, Room 304

·        Chair: Pien Versteegh, Avans University of Applied Sciences

·        Thomas Lewinski: America's Forgotten Architect - James Pula, Purdue University Northwest-North Central

·        The Pele of Chicago: Janusz Kowalik and the Beginnings of Professional Soccer in the United States - Neal Pease, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

·        Following Paderewski: An Album of Autographs and Clippings from Brighton, England, 1890-1914 - Maja Trochimczyk, Moonrise Press, Los Angeles

·        That Day in Raleigh, January 23, 1917; Paderewski, Wilson, and a Provincial Capital - Alvin M. Fountain II, Honorary Consul, Republic of Poland, President, Paderewski Festival, Raleigh, NC

SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 2017, 8:30 AM-10:00 AM

SESSION 5: Between Europe and North America: (Im)migration and Social Justice,  Colorado Convention Center, Room 304

Chair: Grażyna Kozaczka, Cazenovia College

·        Polish Migrants on the Move: Miners in the Ruhr Area, 1920-30 - Pien Versteegh, Avans University of Applied Sciences

·        Multigenerational Migration Chains of Families from Babica: An Attempt at Typology - Joanna Kulpińska, Jagiellonian University, Kraków

·        Political Participation of Persons with Disabilities in the USA and Poland: From History to Modern Trends - Andrey Sergeevich Tikhonov, Kirkland Scholarship Program, University of Wrocław

SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 2017, 10:30 AM-12:00 PM

SESSION 6: East Central Europe: What's in the Name? The View from Exile; Colorado Convention Center, Room 304

Chair: Neal Pease, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

·        Regional Self-Representation of Polish Political Exiles in the US during the Cold War - Anna Mazurkiewicz, University of Gdańsk

·        Imagining a Separate Slovakia: Anti-Communist Slovak Exiles' Hopes and Dreams - Ellen L. Paul, Fort Lewis College

·        Milan Kundera's Concept of Central Europe and the Ensuing Discussion Among Czechoslovak Exiles and Dissidents - Francis D. Raska, Charles University

·        "Not Real Germans at All": The East-Central "Othering" of GDR-Refugees during the Revolution of 1989 - Bethany E. Hicks, Ouachita Baptist University

SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 2017, 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM

SESSION 7: Author Meets Critic Session for The Polish Hearst: Ameryka-Echo and the Public Role of the Immigrant Press  by Anna Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann

Chair: Mary Patrice Erdmans, Case Western Reserve University

Comments: David A. Gerber, State University of New York at Buffalo; Jon Bekken, Albright College; Robert M. Zecker, St. Francis Xavier University; and Anna D. Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann, Eastern Connecticut State University

SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 2017, 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM

SESSION 8. Roundtable Discussion: Progressive: Polish-Americans for Social Progress, Jamestown through the 21st Century; Colorado Convention Center, Room 304

Chair: Anna Muller, University of Michigan-Dearborn

Comment: The Audience

SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 2017, 7:00- 9:00 PM, AWARDS RECEPTION

The Awards Reception will be held on Saturday, January 7, 2017, starting at 7 p.m., at the Polish Club of Denver (3121 West Alameda Ave. Denver, CO 80219). Award winners are invited to attend free of charge, all other guests and conference participants should register, $50.00 per person. www.polishamericanstudies.org/registration.html