Program of PAHA's 77th Annual Meeting in New York, January 3-6, 2020

Painting by Julian Stanczak

PAHA’s 77th annual meeting will be held in New York as part of the 134th meeting of the American Historical Association on January 3–5, 2020 (Friday to Sunday).

https://aha.confex.com/aha/2020/webprogram/Symposium2620.html

PAHA Chair of the Program Committee: Anna Muller, Ph.D.; anmuller@umich.edu, University of Michigan-Dearborn

Painting by Julian Stanczak

2020 Annual Meeting Program 
77th Annual Meeting of Polish American Historical Association

Friday, January 3, 2020: 1:30 PM-3:00 PM Harlem Room (New York Hilton, Fourth Floor)
SESSION 1: BOOK PANEL: AMERICAN WARSAW: THE RISE, FALL, AND REBIRTH OF POLISH CHICAGO BY DOMINIC A. PACYGA
Chair: Neal Pease, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee

Panel:
⨀ Ewa Barczyk, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee;
⨀ David A. Gerber, State University of New York at Buffalo;
⨀ James Pula, Purdue University Northwest

_______________________________________________________________________

Friday, January 3, 2020: 3:30 PM-6:30 .
Midtown Room (New York Hilton, Fourth Floor)
PAHA BOARD MEETING. Chair: Anna Müller, President
_______________________________________________________________________

Saturday, January 4, 2020: 8:30 AM-10:00 AM
Hudson Room (New York Hilton, Fourth Floor)

SESSION 2: SEARCHING FOR A VOICE, SEARCHING FOR A PLACE
Chair: Marta Cieślak, University of Arkansas at Little Rock

Papers:
⨀ The Polish Rifle: Connie Wisniewski and the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League - Neal Pease, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee;

⨀ Helena Modjeska’s Bilingual Morality Tale of 1896 - Maja Trochimczyk, Moonrise Press;

⨀ "There Are No Capitalists among Our Kind”: State, Nation, and Class in Dymytry Vyslotsky’s Interwar Lemkovyna - Nicolas K. Kupensky, Bowdoin College;

⨀ Stanisław Gutowski: America’s Secret Weapon in World War I - James Pula, Purdue University Northwest

Comment: Marta Cieślak, University of Arkansas at Little Rock

______________________________________________________________________

Saturday, January 4, 2020: 10:30 AM-12:00 PM
Hudson Room (New York Hilton, Fourth Floor)

SESSION 3: GRASSROOTS DEMOCRACY
Chair: Piotr Puchalski, Assistant Professor, Pedagogical University, Kraków

Papers:

⨀ The Polish Democratic Society and the Enthusiasts: Conflict and Cooperation in 1840s Poznań - Natalie Cornett, Brandeis University;

⨀ Education in Exile: The Committee for the Education of Poles in Great Britain, 1947–54: The Importance of Education as the Route to Civic Integration - Agata Błaszczyk, Polish University Abroad (PUNO);

⨀ An Immigrant Voice in Canada: Czas Polish Press Ltd - Magda Blackmore, University of Manitoba;

⨀ Zygmunt Haupta's Broadcasting Work at "Voice of America," 1951–60 - Barbara Krupa, Stanford University. Comment: Piotr Puchalski, Pedagogical University, Kraków

______________________________________________________________________

Saturday, January 4, 2020: 10:30 AM-12:00 PM
Midtown Room (New York Hilton, Fourth Floor)

SESSION 4: NEW AND OLD HOME: MOBILITY AND IDENTITY
Chair: Wiktor Marzec, R. Zajonc Institute for Social Studies, UW

Papers:

⨀ Looking at Both Sides of the Pond: Kashubian Fishermen Families from the Hel Peninsula, Poland and Jones Island, Milwaukee, Wisconsin - Anne Gurnack, University of Wisconsin–Parkside;

⨀ Mobility Patterns of Polish Migrants in the US, 1900–40: A Comparison between Pennsylvania and Illinois - Pien Versteegh, Maastricht University;

⨀ Going Home? Poles’ Return Migrations from Chicago to Poland - Hubert Izienicki, Purdue University Northwest;

⨀ Explaining Serfdom: Post-1945 Historians on Eastern Europe - Anna Sosnowska, University of Warsaw

⨀ Comment: Wiktor Marzec, Robert Zajonc Institute for Social Studies, University of Warsaw

_________________________________________________________________

Saturday, January 4, 2020: 1:30 PM-3:00 PM
Hudson Room (New York Hilton, Fourth Floor)

SESSION 5: POWER AND DISEMPOWERMENT IN THE LIVES OF POLISH AMERICAN WOMEN
Chair: Anna Sosnowska, University of Warsaw

Papers:

⨀ The Dangerous Intersection of Ethnicity and Sexuality in Migrant Fiction - Grażyna Kozaczka, Cazenovia College;

⨀ Between Assimilation and Resistance: The Transatlantic Modernity of Polish Rural Women - Marta Cieślak, University of Arkansas at Little Rock;

⨀ Mining “The Twenty” via Memory Work: Reinterpreting Story, Rewriting Identity - Kristina Kwacz, Empire State College, State University of New York.

⨀ Comment: Anna Sosnowska, University of Warsaw
__________________________________________________________________

Saturday, January 4, 2020: 1:30 PM-3:00 PM
Midtown Room (New York Hilton, Fourth Floor)

SESSION 6: IS THERE A HISTORY OF POLAND BEYOND THE HOLOCAUST?
Chair: John Bukowczyk, Wayne State University

Panel:

⨀ Natalia Aleksiun, Touro College, Graduate School of Jewish Studies ;
⨀ Anna Müller, University of Michigan–Dearborn;
⨀ Wiktor Marzec, Robert Zajonc Institute for Social Studies, University of Warsaw;
⨀ Janine P. Holc, Loyola University Maryland
__________________________________________________________________

Saturday, January 4, 2020: 3:30 PM-5:00 PM
Hudson Room (New York Hilton, Fourth Floor)

SESSION 7: HAMTRAMCK
Chair: Anna Müller, University of Michigan–Dearborn

Papers:

⨀ Interconnections and Parallels between Muslims and Polish Catholics in Hamtramck - Alisa Perkins, Western Michigan University;

⨀ Moving Out, Moving Back, Moving Over: 21st-Century Polonia in Hamtramck - Karen Majewski, University of Michigan;

⨀ Hamtramck, Poletown, and Bangladesh Avenue: Exploring the Intersection of Communal Autonomies in the Formation of Diaspora Identities - Sunanda Summadar, Wayne County Community College

Comment: Anna Müller, University of Michigan–Dearborn

__________________________________________________________________

Sunday, January 5, 2020: 8:30 AM-10:00 AM
Hudson Room (New York Hilton, Fourth Floor)

SESSION 8: POLISH RESPONSES TO GLOBAL MODERNITY
Chair: Neal Pease, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee

Papers:

⨀ Poland’s Colonial Aspirations as a Diplomatic Instrument, 1932–39 - Piotr Puchalski, Pedagogical University, Kraków;

⨀ From Revolution to Nation: Popular Unrest in Russian Poland, 1907–18 - Wiktor Marzec, Robert Zajonc Institute for Social Studies, University of Warsaw;

⨀ Reconsidering the Christian View of the Jews in the Reality of the Holocaust - Rachel Brenner, University of Wisconsin–Madison;

⨀ A Patriot, a Soldier, a Confederate: The Life of Gaspard Tochman, 1799–1880 - Piotr Derengowski, University of Gdańsk

Comment: Neal Pease, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee

_____________________________________________________________________

Sunday, January 5, 2020: 10:30 AM-12:00 PM
Hudson Room (New York Hilton, Fourth Floor)

SESSION 9: (POPULAR) CULTURE AS A POWERHOUSE OF IDENTITY BUILDING
Chair: Nicolas K. Kupensky, Bowdoin College

Papers:

⨀ Martha, Anna, and Pierogi: Mainstreaming Polish Identity through Polish Food - Anna D. Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann, Eastern Connecticut State University; With Illustrations by Zygmunt Iwanowski:

⨀ Recovering a Polish American Artist of America’s Golden Age of Illustration - Jill Noel Walker Gonzalez, La Sierra University;

⨀ Polish Emigrant Composer Karol Rathaus and His Work in Europe and in the USA - Mateusz Strzelecki, Academy of Music in Łódź

Comment: Nicolas K. Kupensky, Bowdoin College

_____________________________________________________________________

Sunday, January 5, 2020: 1:30 PM-3:00 PM

Hudson Room (New York Hilton, Fourth Floor)

SESSION 10: POLAND/POLONIA: GREENPOINT AND BEYOND. Chair: Pien Versteegh, Maastricht University

Papers:

⨀ Relational and Material Aspects of Transnational Home Making by Migrants from Poland to the US: A Cross-Generational Context - Karolina Nikielska-Sekula, University of South-Eastern Norway;

⨀ Seeing Greenpoint Change - Judith DeSena, St. John’s University;

⨀ Teaching How Krakow Changed, Visually - Jerome Krase, Brooklyn College, City University of New York.

Comment: Pien Versteegh, Maastricht University

_________________________________________________________________

Sunday, January 5, 2020: 3:30 PM-5:00 PM
Hudson Room (New York Hilton, Fourth Floor)

SESSION 11: IN THE SHADOW OF YALTA: POLISH ÉMIGRÉS AND THE SHAPING OF THE “INTELLECTUAL COLD WAR,” 1945–89
Chair: Anna D. Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann, Eastern Connecticut State University

Papers:

⨀ Polish Cold War Émigrés as a Part of Institutionalized American Sovietology: The State of Research - Sławomir Łukasiewicz, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin and IPN;

⨀ Émigré “Scholarly Offensive”: Polish Historians, Ukrainian Studies, and the Making of the “Intellectual Cold War” - Oleksandr Avramchuk, University of Warsaw;

⨀ My Stormy Life Has Shaped It for Me: Jan Sawka—His Life and Work as a Record of Perturbations of History - Anna Rudek-Śmiechowska, Polish Institute of World Art Studies.

Comment: Jonathan W. Daly, U. of Illinois at Chicago

Painting by Julian Stanczak

Little Elephant - by Donna Urbikas. A Story from "Object that Speak" Project

This little elephant traveled with me from England where I was born to America in the early 1950's and has remained with me ever since as a reminder of the ordeals that my parents and sister endured during World War II.  Its origin began in the early 1940's in the Middle East where my father had been stationed with the newly formed Polish Army under General Władysław Anders.  In England, my mother sewed it by hand from my father's woolen army coat that the British had supplied to the newly forming Polish army.

After getting out of the USSR--the labor camp, the tortuous back and forth journey across the southern USSR, my mother and sister found temporary refuge in Tehran.  They had met my Polish Army officer father during that whole turmoil, first at the Polish Army camp in Tatishchevo in 1941, then in Dzhalal-Abad, and eventually in England.

My mother, Janina Ślarzyńska Zimmerman Solecka, and my sister, Mira Zimmerman, spent the remainder of the war in India so elephants were a daily presence in their lives.  In 1947, they left India for England as going back to Poland was not a good option for them.  Life in England was difficult for Poles like us with few material resources, but my mother was very resourceful and a talented seamstress, so she took my father's old army wool coat and a toy elephant pattern published in the local newspaper and made this toy elephant for me.  My father mounted it on a wooden platform with wooden wheels that he had made and tied a straw basket to the top, which he filled with colorful M&M candy.  I remember strolling with the elephant pulling it along and sneaking candy when I visited my mother in the hospital where she was recovering from pneumonia, shortly before we came to America.  The elephant was packed up for me but without the wheels.  

I didn't really like it at first since the material was very course so the elephant was mostly on display in my bedroom, but it survived all these years and it has been on display in my home ever since.  It reminds me of my mother and her frugality and all the sacrifices she made for me after surviving such a brutal journey and having been forced to leave her home in Poland, which today is Belarus.

A Story from our Website - A Portrait of Marszalek by Barbara Rylko Bauer

   

PAHA Website includes a fascinating project, curated by Dr. Anna Muller, PAHA President. The site, entitled, "Object that speak..." recounts first-hand stories of immigration experience of Polish Americans as told through objects that have acquired deep significance for their owners - symbolizing lost home, or new  hope for life in America. 

Anna Muller writes: "In the collection of objects included on this site, PAHA hopes to engage with the history of Polish Americans, but also to reflect on the phenomenology of objects. The objects tell the stories of people who traveled across the Atlantic. Most of the objects were to help them fulfill their dreams of remaking their lives anew far away from home. While they symbolize the importance of the home left behind, they also testify to the Polish immigrants’/people’s efforts to imbue a new home with significance. One of the first stories that grabbed our hearts – the story that is included on the website – was the story of a photo from a grandfather’s passport – a terrific example of how some objects, with time, take on a separate life from the one that served their creation; and how many of them now play a role in the lives of future generations. The relationship between us and objects is fluid – they affect our lives, but we also change their purpose. The passport was a tool that helped the grandfather’s transition, but with time, for the younger generations, it became the symbol of that transition, and also a link to the past. Photos of objects send a message of the power of human agency, but also of an individual’s daily life – daily gestures of care that nourish the connection with the past for the future."

There are almost 20 stories on the site. https://polishamericanstudies.org/text/38/objects-that-speak.html

We selected a story about Marshall Pilsudski to coincide with the anniversary of the Miracle on the Vistula, the famous battle defending Warsaw from the invading Soviet troops. Polish soldiers won the battle in August 1920 and preserved the independence of the newly restored country that was, partly, under Russian control since 1795 to 1918.

A photo-portrait of Marszałek Józef Piłsudski

Barbara Rylko-Bauer

I remember this photograph of Marszałek Józef Piłsudski from my earliest childhood, although I can’t recall where it sat in our first home, on Chopin Avenue in southwest Detroit.

The photograph I’ve attached is from our second home on Detroit’s northeast side, on Rogge Street.  It sat in the spare room, on a bookcase that was filled with books from Poland (see below). And after my mother moved to Grand Rapids in 1984, she brought the bookcase and the photograph with her.  While I never asked her about the significance of it for her, I think that it represented both a symbolic connection to the Poland of her past and a tangible reminder of her husband/my father, who died in 1969 at the age of 74.

I do not know the origin of the photograph, although the frame has $1.50 penciled on the back, so it was clearly bought in the U.S. The photograph itself could have come with my parents when they emigrated from Germany to the U.S. in 1950, but it’s more likely that it was acquired once they arrived here. 

My parents were both deported forcibly from Poland during WWII. My mother, as a political prisoner, spent 15 months in various Nazi concentration and slave labor camps. My father, as a Colonel in the Polish army, spent the entire war as a German POW, in Oflag VIIA in Murnau. Thus, at the time of liberation from their respective camps, they had nothing from their former life in Poland. And since they emigrated from Germany without first returning to Poland, there were no objects accompanying them from that past life.

This photo-portrait must have been an important reminder of that Polish past, especially for my father. He had enlisted as a young man at the start of WWI with the Polish Legions of Józef Piłsudski, and after finishing his officer’s training in 1918, he served in the artillery during the Polish-Soviet war of 1919-1920.  Piłsudski was an important figure in his life, and his vision for a more pluralistic Poland was supported by both of my parents.

This history took on much greater significance for me, as I worked on a memoir/biography of my mother, which eventually became the book, A Polish Doctor in the Nazi Camps: My Mother’s Memories of Imprisonment, Immigration, and a Life Remade (U. of Oklahoma Press, 2014). In the process of researching the historical context of her narrative, I gained a greater understanding of Polish history and a better appreciation of my father's past, which I knew very little about because I was just 19 years old when he died.

Call for Submissions to PAHA Newsletter, Orzeszkowa's "Marta" and Bukowczyk on PAHA

Chicago Polish Parade, May 2019, Photo by Andrzej Mikolajczyk

PAHA members and friends are invited to submit ideas for short articles, book blurbs and reviews, conference announcements and reports, memoirs and interviews (all items up to 500 words with two photos), for publication in the PAHA Newsletter (ISSN 0739-9766). Send your ideas and submissions  the Newsletter Editor, Dr. Maja Trochimczyk, maja@polishamericanstudies.org add any questions and suggestions regarding the newsletters, as well as any information you would like to have included there. The deadline for the Fall 2019 issue is August 31.

Maja Trochimczyk at the Huntington Library, Photo by Susan Rogers

The PAHA Newsletter appears twice a year. It serves the membership as an official and informational bulletin. It is free with any PAHA membership. The newsletter brings up-to-date information on the activities of the PAHA Council as well as the association's individual members, and on the PAHA conferences, projects, and publications. We also publish short articles about the history of Polish diaspora, including family history of emigrants scattered around the world.  The newsletter is archived by the National Library in Warsaw, Poland, as one of the many documents about the cultural life of American Polonia.

You may read newsletters published since 2000 online on PAHA Website:
https://polishamericanstudies.org/text/78/newsletter-free.html

Below there are sample stories from PAHA Newsletter Fall 2018 issue.

Dr. John J. Bukowczyk with PAHA President, Dr. Anna Mazurkiewicz. Photo by Marcin Szerle.

PAHA’s Value to Polonia and to Its Members 

By John J. Bukowczyk 

Revised excerpts from “The Polish American Historical Association—Its Place, Role, and Legacy within the Field of U.S. Ethnic History,” keynote address given at the 75th Anniversary Conference of the Polish American Historical Association at Loyola University in Chicago, September 7, 2018.

First, PAHA, with its long history, has been an essential structural element in the organizational life of Polonia as an American ethnic group.  Sociologists would tell us that such “institutional  completeness” is important for the vitality of ethnic groups and their survival; and a historical society, encouraging the preservation of historical memory, is a vital part of that “completeness.”  Second, for a segment of Polish-American society (many of us I am sure would attest), PAHA has promoted a version of Polish ethnic identity, the alternative to which might have been (for many of us—scholars, teachers, intellectuals, professionals) marginality within or more complete and ethnically anonymous assimilation and absorption into our respective professions, institutions, disciplines, and neighborhoods and into the larger American society.  Third, through its efforts at partaking in the organizational, institutional, and intellectual activities of the historical profession in the United States, PAHA has advanced that perennial quest by members of one of America’s historically more marginalized and maligned white ethnic groups for respect and recognition.  In this sense, the lay Polish-American scholars who steered PAHA in recent decades have shared much in common with the nuns and priests who went before them; all have been, in a sense, emissaries, missionaries, and flag-bearers.

The Polish American Historical Association of recent decades has been especially significant within Polish America, I would argue, for modeling ways to “be Polish” in modern and post-modern American society and the globalizing contemporary world.  In practice it has erected a proverbial “big tent” of Polishness, welcoming members of all political opinions and ethno-cultural or ethno-religious backgrounds and affiliations.  The vision of Polishness that in recent years I think it has promoted has revolved around a belief that Polish Americans are united not by what they do, or how they think, or how they “perform” ethnicity—and especially not by any (racialist) belief that they share some fictive common “blood”—but by their shared commitment to advancing the study of one of America’s major ethnic groups and by their—by our—common history.

For us, Polonized has not meant polarized.  While no less honoring Polish cultural heritage, PAHA in recent decades has promoted a pluralist, secular, civic vision of Polishness, one, I might say, which evokes Jagiellonian and Enlightenment ideas about who may be a Pole.  Although the bulk of PAHA’s membership shares a Polish ethnic background, PAHA has not been an “ethnic” organization per se, but has welcomed a diversity of persons to membership and officer positions and has published and recognized scholarship on Polish-American topics regardless of the ethno-religious or ethno-cultural background of its authors.  Its conferences and other programs, meanwhile, have included—indeed, invited—participation by non-Poles.  PAHA’s established practices in this regard, conducted in a pluralist American society, could—should—become a model for Polish-American organizations and groups throughout America and throughout the Polish diaspora.  Indeed, they could be a model for other ethnic groups and even for nations throughout the world.

____________

John J. Bukowczyk is Professor of History at Wayne State University in Detroit and past president (1990-92) of the Polish American Historical Association. Author of A History of the Polish Americans (1987; New York: Routledge, 2017) and editor of Polish Americans and Their History: Community, Culture, and Politics (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1996), Bukowczyk also is the editor of the Polish and Polish-American Studies Series published by Ohio University Press. 

Translation of Orzeszkowa’s Marta 

Issued by Ohio University Press    

Ohio University Press has just published Marta, a pioneering feminist novel by 1905 NobelPrize finalist Eliza Orzeszkowa, as part of its Polish and Polish-American Studies Series. The book is translated by Anna Gąsienica Byrcyn and Stephanie Kraft, with an introduction by Grażyna J. Kozaczka. We think it has excellent potential for classroom use in women’s studies, Polish studies, and women’s writing, labor history, and nineteenth-century literature courses.  Of Orzeszkowa’s many works of social realism, Marta (1873) is among the best known, but until now it has not been available in English. Easily a peer of The Awakening and A Doll’s House, the novel was well ahead of the English literature of its time in attacking the ways the labor market failed women. An excerpt and Grażyna J. Kozaczka’s introduction, including discussion questions, are available here:

https://ohioswallow.com/extras/Marta_Excerpt.pdf. If you are an editor who is interested in a review copy for your journal or website, you can request one here: https://ohioswallow.com/request/review/OUP71G904J381 (for international requests, the press will hard copies at their discretion). If you are interested in assigning the book to a class, you can request a free pdf exam copy here:  ohioswallow.com/request/exam/OUP71G904J381

Prof. Grażyna Kozaczka commented about the book: “Orzeszkowa wrote Marta early in her career and the novel reflects her interest in the women’s issues. The novel focuses on a young sheltered genteel woman who has recently lost her husband and discovers how difficult it is to support herself and her small daughter. Without a safety net of a family, without education that could secure her a job, Marta learns quickly that the world can be quite hostile to a single woman. In her novel, Orzeszkowa offers a brilliant picture of Warsaw society during the second half of the 19th century as she follows her unfortunate heroine.”  The beautiful book cover features a reproduction of “Macierzyństwo,” a lovely painting by Olga Boznańska.

Nominate a Scholar, Community Activist, or Artist for a PAHA Award! Deadline on July 30, 2019

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR PAHA AWARDS AND PRIZES

Nominations are sought for the following awards that will be presented by PAHA at its 77th Annual Meeting, in January 2020. The following award nominations must be received by July 30, 2019, via email to Chair of the Awards Committee, PAHA's Second Vice President, Dr. Marta Cieslak, at mxcieslak@ualr.edu.

• Mieczyslaw Haiman Award is offered annually to an American scholar for sustained contribution to the study of Polish Americans.

• 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 year of the award.

• Skalny Civic Achievement Award honors 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.

• Amicus Poloniae Award recognizes significant contributions enhancing knowledge of Polish and Polish-American heritage by individuals not belonging to the Polish-American community.

• James Pula Distinguished Service Award is given occasionally to a member of PAHA who has rendered valuable and sustained service to the organization. Since 2017, this award honors Prof. James Pula, PAHA's past president, current treasurer, and a long-time editor of the Polish American Studies.

• Creative Arts Prize recognizes the contributions in the field of creative arts by individuals or groups who have promoted an awareness of the Polish experience in the Americas.

• Established in 2018, the Joseph W. Zurawski Prize will be awarded for the best article or book published on the topic of Polish American screen images in films or television presented to audiences in the United States and released by American companies. To be eligible, works must have been published within the past three years. Nominations should be sent to the Awards Committee, Polish American Historical Association. Although there is no deadline, for the fullest annual consideration nominations should be made by June 1 each year. Awards will be presented at the awards ceremony during the annual PAHA conference in January.

JOSEPH W. ZURAWSKI PRIZE FOR STUDIES OF POLISH AMERICANS IN FILM OR TELEVISION IN THE U.S.

The Polish American Historical Association is pleased to announce creation of the Joseph W. Zurawski Prize. Consisting of a $500 award and a plaque, the  prize will be awarded for the best article or book published  on the topic of Polish American screen images in films or  television presented to audiences in the  United States  and released by American companies. To be eligible, works  must have been published within the past three years. Nominations should be sent to the Awards Committee, Polish  American Historical Association, Chair, Dr. Marta Cieslak, at mxcieslak@ualr.edu. Although there is no deadline, for the fullest  annual consideration nominations should be made by June 1  each year. Awards will be presented at the awards ceremony  during the annual PAHA conference in  January.

Joseph W. Zurawski has remained active in the Polish American community since writing his graduate thesis on Poland in 1960. He reviewed books on the Polish American community for several newspapers, was editor for Narod Polski, president of the Polish Museum of America, member of the Boards of the Polish Roman Catholic Union of America and the Polish Museum of America, and taught Polish American history and culture at Wright and Triton Colleges. He was an archivist of historical records for Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital (known as "The Polish Hospital”), wrote several books including Polish American History and Culture: An Annotated Bibliography and, most recently, The Polish Presence in American Screen Images. Among the awards he received are: Outstanding Young Man of America, Chamber of Commerce (1963); Distinguished Service Certificate, Copernicus Quincentennial Commission (1973); the American Catholic Who’s Who (1976), Kosciuszko Medal, Kosciuszko Foundation (1977); Civic Achievement Award, Polish American Historical  Association (2002); “Wybitny Polak” (Outstanding Pole, culture category), Foundation of Polish Promotion, Chicago presentation a Chicago’s Polish Consulate, Warsaw culmination at Grand Theater and Polish National Opera (2017). He has been a proud member of the Polish American Historical Association for over 50 years.

GRADUATE STUDENT/YOUNG SCHOLAR TRAVEL GRANT, DUE JULY 30, 2019

PAHA encourages graduate students and emerging scholars (up to three years after graduation) to apply for a Travel Grant. Two such grants of $500.00 each will be awarded to offset travel costs to attend the 2020 PAHA Annual Meeting in New York. The grants will be awarded by the Program Committee for two best conference proposals dealing with the Polish American experience in any historical epoch, scholarly field, or aspect submitted by junior scholars.

To apply please submit the following documents to Chair of Awards Committee, PAHA's Second Vice President, Dr. Marta Cieslak, via email to mxcieslak@ualr.edu:

• your paper proposal (as required by the general CFP)
• a brief letter of application (no template will be provided)
• a complete CV
• one letter of recommendation from a senior scholar (e.g. thesis advisor).

In order to receive the travel grant it is mandatory to present the paper at the conference in person. Awardees will receive remuneration during the Awards Ceremony at the Annual Meeting. Failure to present the paper in person at the annual meeting shall result in the immediate cancellation of the grant.

The deadline for application, to be submitted with the paper proposal, is JULY 30, 2019.

Please send your application packets by email to chair of the Awards Committee, Dr. Marta Cieslak, at mxcieslak@ualr.edu, with the subject line "Graduate Student Travel Grant."

Objects that Speak - Zither of a Compassionate Dreamer

PAHA Website includes a new section entitled "Objects that Speak" and curated by President Anna Muller.  In the introduction to the site Muller writes:

"In the collection of objects included on this site, PAHA hopes to engage with the history of Polish Americans, but also to reflect on the phenomenology of objects. The objects tell the stories of people who traveled across the Atlantic. Most of the objects were to help them fulfill their dreams of remaking their lives anew far away from home. While they symbolize the importance of the home left behind, they also testify to the Polish immigrants’/people’s efforts to imbue a new home with significance. One of the first stories that grabbed our hearts – the story that is included on the website – was the story of a photo from a grandfather’s passport – a terrific example of how some objects, with time, take on a separate life from the one that served their creation; and how many of them now play a role in the lives of future generations. The relationship between us and objects is fluid – they affect our lives, but we also change their purpose. The passport was a tool that helped the grandfather’s transition, but with time, for the younger generations, it became the symbol of that transition, and also a link to the past. Photos of objects send a message of the power of human agency, but also of an individual’s daily life – daily gestures of care that nourish the connection with the past for the future."

More information: 
http://polishamericanstudies.org/text/38/objects-that-speak.html

Below we reprint one of the posts from the site.

Zither of a Compassionate Dreamer

Taylor Lenze (with the help of Henrietta Nowakowski and Anna Muller)

The strummed notes of a zither are striking and clear, overlapping one another in harmony and vibrating in the wooden hollow of the soundbox. The curved, wooden, string instrument, somewhat like a gentler-sounding harpsichord with additional guitar strings, and the ability to play music on it has been vastly forgotten today. For Henrietta Nowakowski, however, the zither (cytra, she calls it) was always a touchstone of her life.

For Nowakowski, the zither was a part of her mother (Aniela Zapytowski’s) identity, a symbol of her dreams. It’s story began earlier though, tracing back beyond Nowakowski’s memory to her maternal grandparents, Aniela’s parents.

Nowakowski never met her grandparents. She knows that her mother’s father took care of horses on an estate. Being a younger son in a family of multiple children, he hadn't inherited land from his own father and instead had to travel with his trade. His wife, [Nowakowski's grandmother], who passed away when little Aniela was 10 or 11 years old, must have been a strong, knowledgeable woman because professionally she was a herbalist. People came from all over her region to be cured by her.

After Aniela’s mother’s death, her father remarried. Aniela’s youngest sister was most impacted by the changing circumstances and was mistreated by her new stepmother. Eventually she couldn’t bear it, and at 16, set out for on a journey in hopes of a new life in America, a monumental decision for a young person without question, but one which would have ripple effects throughout the entire family and future generations.

This determination and courage, shared by late mother and youngest daughter is also apparent in Aniela’s story. Aniela, a middle daughter in the five children, was also a strong professional woman, matriarchal, determined and independent. Trained in sewing, Aniela worked in Lwów for an Austrian family as a seamstress and governess. Her hard work and practicality didn’t signify a brevity of imagination, however. Aniela was a dreamer, always thinking of other places and possibilities. In 1913, she and her older sister decided to make a short visit to the youngest sister, traveling by ship in second-class from Bremerhaven to the US where the young woman now lived in Philadelphia. Traveling second (rather than third) class on the ship was a big deal, and only possible because of Aniela’s own efforts and work as a seamstress (Zakład Krawcowy in Lwów). Nowakowski recounts with pride that they paid their own way and must have saved for their passage. 

        

Aniela herself was only 26. The beautiful wooden zither was clearly one of her cherished possessions because she included it among her necessities. Apart from the instrument and some pictures, Nowakowski has just a few other momentos her from her mother's European life. "I also have a picture of dried edelweiss flowers, a souvenir of my mother’s visit to Austria, where she accompanied her Austrian employer," Nowakowski recalls. Aniela once recounted seeing the operetta “The Merry Widow” in the Burg Theatre in Vienna during this trip. Her daughter now deduces that "judging by the time period, it must have been just at the time that this work by Franz Lehar premiered. The card with the dried ‘szarotki’ had to have been important to my mother since I remember that in the late 1940’s, about 30 years later, she went to a lot of effort to have the card beautifully framed. It’s now in my living room." Slowly, by looking at the objects and by going deeper in her memories, Nowakowski begins to piece together the story.

In Philadelphia, Nowakowski knows that the three sisters met up just as the war broke out. Though unexpected and probably not in line with Aniela’s plans for her life, she made the best of the compulsion to stay in the US and fell back on her sewing skills to support herself, finding work as a seamstress. A single woman forced to survive in a foreign country, Aniela could have become hardened and rough by the stress and work, but perhaps it was the zither and her music which allowed her to stay “soft hearted and tender” as Nowakowski remembers. Eventually Aniela moved to Pittsburg, becoming active in the Polish Falcons, a Polish paramilitary organization.

It was here that love struck. At the Pittsburgh Falcon Nest, Aniela met her husband and Henrietta's father, Ignacy Zapytowski. Also from the Lwów area, he had served in the Austrian army and first at age 24 immigrated to America (in 1907). In Pittsburg, he enlisted to go back to Europe and fight with the Polish Army in WWI. This decision stirred turmoil in his family because there was the potential the family would be fighting against itsself.

After his safe return to the US at the conclusion of the war, he and Aniela were married. Both remained very active in Polish military organizations, however. Ignacy’s work brought him to Detroit (where he could use his cabinetmaker skills as a wood model maker for future cars), Aniela assumed directorship of a woman’s group, headquartered in Detroit, which worked to help returning Polish veterans.

The couple had four children, two sons and two daughters. Though busy as a working mother, Aniela still tried to play the zither, actively seeking out sheet music for it, in addition to the ones she brought from Poland. Probably because it was such an uncommon, specific instrument, the only music she had was that which a piano tuner gave her. Assumedly she could not play by ear but relied on written notes.

By the mid 30s Aniela had stopped both working and playing the Zither. It was badly in need of tuning and fixing but there was no one with the necessary knowledge and skills to do the work. This may have been heartbreaking, a tangible severing of Aniela’s connection to her past, home and dreams of returning. But if so, she didn’t express this to her children nor allow it to break her soft spirit and love of music. Even though, from the earliest Nowakowski can remember, the Zither was hidden away out of sight, the house remained full of music and dreams. Nowakowski and her older sister both took piano lessons and practiced on the piano at home, continuing their mother’s tradition.

By this time, Aniela's dreams of returning to Poland were also lovingly put aside like her instrument. Though she and Ignacy had always wished to return home, the depression had wiped out their savings. Based on a copious amount of postcards and letters, it's assumed that Ignacy traveled frequently with work before marriage, but the family was never able to permanently relocate to Poland. Despite this too, Nowakowski recalls how her mother always remained a "very compassionate dreamer," full of softness and hope. Over and over again, Aniela’s strength and grace showed through as she adjusted to circumstances beyond her control and continued on ungrudgingly.

Unfortunately, the instrument hasn't held up as well to hardship. After being stored 15 years in a humid basement, the instrument's wood split beyond repair. Nowakowski recovered the instrument in the 90s when her sister moved to Alaska and has preserved and protected it ever since. Not able to play the Zither herself, she nevertheless cherishes the link it represents for her to her mother’s dreams and desires to learn.

Polish American Studies, Vol. 76, No. 1, Spring 2019

The Spring 2019 issue of the Polish American Studies has been published!  The Editor, Anna Jaroszynska-Kirchmann writes:

"We are glad to present to you the new issue of Polish American Studies (vol. 76, no. 1: Spring 2019)! This issue highlights two distinct themes in the research on Polonia in the Western Hemisphere.

The first theme pertains to the transformations within contemporary Polonia in one specific location: Greenpoint, NY. A group of distinguished sociologists and urban anthropologists share their research on this topic. Jerry Krase discusses how the media coverage coming both from print and internet sources created a changing image of the Polish Greenpoint. Judith DeSena comments on how economic changes and gentrification affected the housing market in Greenpoint. A group of researchers from NYU and CUNY (Karolina Lukasiewicz, Ewa Dzurak, Ewa Maliga, Izabela J. Barry, and Marta Pawlaczek) present a sociological study of the aging population of Polish residents in Greenpoint.

The second theme focuses on the history of the Kashubs, a regional ethno-linguistic group originating from the northern part of Poland. In his article, Joshua C. Blank offers an insightful look into the culture of Kashub settlers in Ontario, Canada, and especially the traditions of imbibing. In "Varia" Anne Gurnack, Aleksandra Kurowska-Susdorf, and Janina Kurowska recall a forgotten story of the Kashub fishermen from Jones Island, WI, who became an object of the travelling exhibit on both sides of the ocean.

In Memoriam includes a tribute to Professor Thaddeus C. Radzilowski. Book Review section brings reviews of publications authored by Anna Mazurkiewicz, Sheldon Anderson, Waldemar Glinski, Thaddeus Gromada, and Katrina Shawver.

Last but not least, please note the cover: it is an image of a mural on the walls of the Polish National Home in Greenpoint, NY, commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw uprising of 1944. It had been unveiled in 2014. The mural was painted by artist Rafal pisarczyk and sponsored by the Pangea Network/Gram-X Promotions and by the Polish American Veterans Association Chapter 2 in New York City."

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Polish American Studies, vol. 76, no. 1 (Spring 2019)

IN MEMORIAM
Thaddeus C. Radzilowski

EDITORIAL NOTE
by Anna D. Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann

FORUM

• Seeing Greenpoint Virtually and Actually Change: Polish Americans and Gentrification in
• Brooklyn - By Jerome Krase

• The Polish Community of Greenpoint, Brooklyn Then and Now: A View from the Street -  By Judith N. DeSena

• Getting by or Making it? Polish Immigrants Aging in an Ethnic Enclave of Greenpoint - By Karolina Łukasiewicz, Ewa Dżurak, Ewa Maliga, Izabela J. Barry, and Marta Pawlaczek

ARTICLES

• Stills in the Hills: Moonshine Memories from Around Canada’s First Polish Kashub Community -  By Joshua C. Blank

VARIA

• The Saga of the Jones Island’s Kaszube Fishermen Returns Home to Poland in 2017 - By Anne M. Gurnack, Aleksandra Kurowska- Susdorf, Janina Kurowska

REVIEWS

• Anna Mazurkiewicz, Uchodźcy polityczni z Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej w amerykańskiej polityce zimnowojennej, 1948-1954 (Anna D. Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann)
• Sheldon Anderson, The Forgotten Legacy of Stella Walsh: The Greatest Athlete of Her Time (Mary Patrice Erdmans)
• Waldemar Gliński, ed. Polonia kanadyjska. Przeszłość i teraźniejszość (John M. Grondelski) 
• Thaddeus V. Gromada, Tatra Highlander Folk Culture in Poland and America. Collected Essays from “The Tatra Eagle” (Marek Liszka)
• Katrina Shawver. Henry: A Polish Swimmer’s True Story of Friendship from Auschwitz to America (Sheldon Anderson)

POLISH AMERICAN STUDIES

Polish American Studies is the Polish American Historical Association's interdisciplinary double-blind refereed scholarly journal (ISSN 0032-2806; eISSN 2330-0833), which has been published continuously since 1944.  It appears biannually and is available world-wide through JSTOR, a database of full-text research journals. PAS is indexed in America: History and Life; American Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies; ATLA Catholic Periodical and Literature Index; Bibliographic Index; Current Abstracts; Historical Abstracts; MLA International Bibliography; PIO - Periodical Index Online; PubMed; TOC Premier and EBSCO.

To subscribe and for more information please go to http://www.press.uillinois.edu/journals/pas.html

The editors welcome scholarship including articles, edited documents, bibliographies and related materials dealing with all aspects of the history and culture of Poles in the Western Hemisphere. They particularly welcome contributions that place the Polish experience in historical and comparative perspective as part of the larger Polish Diaspora, and by examining its relationship to other ethnic groups. Contributions from any discipline in the humanities and social sciences are welcome. The Swastek Prize is awarded annually for the best article published in a given volume of Polish American Studies.

SUBMISSION OF ARTICLES

Manuscripts or inquiries should be submitted in Microsoft Word via e-mail attachment to the Editor, Anna D. Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann, at anna.k@polishamericanstudies.org or KIRCHMANNA@easternct.edu.  Manuscripts should be no longer than 8,000 to 10,000 words plus notes, tables, etc. They should include an abstract of about 200 words, and a brief author’s biographical information, their affiliation, and email address. It is the author’s responsibility to obtain all copyright permissions for illustrations and images. Editors will not review works previously published in any form or ghost-written. Authors should follow The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition. Contributors whose first language is not English should have their work reviewed for clarity and style prior to submission.

Dr. Anna D. Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann
Editor, Polish American Studies
Eastern Connecticut State University,
Department of History, Webb Hall 333
83 Windham Street, Willimantic, CT 06226
anna.k@polishamericanstudies.org


SUBMISSION OF BOOKS FOR REVIEW

Books for review should be sent to Mary Patrice Erdmans (English language) or Joanna Wojdon (Polish language) at the addresses below. Books may be submitted by publishers or authors. Submission is no guarantee that books will be reviewed and books will not be returned.

Mary Patrice Erdmans
Book Review Editor
Polish American Studies
Department of Sociology
10900 Euclid Avenue
Case Western Reserve University                 
Cleveland, OH 44106                                       

Joanna Wojdon
Book Review Editor for Poland
Polish American Studies
University of Wroclaw
Faculty of History
Szewska 49, 50-139
Wrocław, Poland

EDITORS

Editor: Anna D. Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann, Eastern Connecticut State University, anna.k@polishamericanstudies.org or KIRCHMANNA@easternct.edu

Book Review Editor: Mary Patrice Erdmans, Case Western Reserve University, mary.e@polishamericanstudies.org or mary.erdmans@case.edu

Book Review Editor for Poland: Joanna Wojdon, University of Wroclaw, Poland, joanna.wojdon@uni.wroc.pl


EDITORIAL BOARD

M. B. Biskupski, Central Connecticut State University
Tobias Brinkmann, Pennsylvania State University
John J. Bukowczyk, Wayne State University
Silvia Dapia, John Jay College, CUNY
William J. Galush, Loyola University Chicago
Ann Hetzel Gunkel, Columbia College Chicago
Grażyna Kozaczka, Cazenovia College
Karen Majewski, University of Michigan
Anna Mazurkiewicz, University of Gdansk, Poland
Thomas J. Napierkowski, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
Neal Pease, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Angela Pienkos, Polish Center Wisconsin
James S. Pula, Purdue University
John Radziłowski, University of Alaska - Southeast
Francis D. Raška, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
Suzanne R. Sinke, Florida State University
Dariusz Stola, Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw, Poland
Adam Walaszek, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
__________________________________________________________

Prof. Dominic Pacyga - Vice-Marshall in Chicago's 127th Constitution Day Parade

Dr. Pacyga among officials of  the Parade. Students present the banner

with the motto of the 2019 parade. Photo by Andrew Mikolajczyk. Used by Permission

Dr. Dominic Pacyga, a highly respected historian of Polonia and an expert on the history of Chicago served as Vice-Marshall in the 2019 Constitution Day Parade in Chicago.  He commented: "Being Vice- Marshall of the Polish Constitution Day Parade in Chicago was one of the high points of my professional life. I was surprised and honored to be nominated by the Dziennik Związkowy and grateful for their endorsement of my work. The parade was wonderful. It was a delight to see so many young people and children involved. I was especially happy to see the widespread support of Polonia for the event. It proves the staying power of Polskość and that the Chicago area’s Polonia remains a vital force in the social, economic, cultural, and political life of the city and suburbs."

Dominic Pacyga getting ready for the parade. Photo by George Woznicka

Dominic A. Pacyga is Professor Emeritus of the Columbia College in Chicago. For three decades, he taught  in the Liberal Education Department at the college. He earned his Ph.D. in history from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1981 and has wide ranging interests in urban development, labor history, immigration, and racial and ethnic relations.   He worked with museums including the Chicago Historical Society, the Museum of Science and Industry, and the Field Museum in Chicago on a variety of public history projects. Pacyga has also worked with numerous neighborhood organizations as well as ethnic, labor, and fraternal groups to preserve and exhibit their histories. Pacyga acted as guest curator of a major exhibit, "The Chicago Bungalow" at the Chicago Architecture Foundation, and co-edited The Chicago Bungalow (Arcadia Press 2001), a companion volume to the exhibit.

St. Maksymilian Kolbe Polish School and youth in Lowicz costumes 

at the 2019 Parade. Photo by Andrew Mikolajczyk

Dr. Pacyga won the Oscar Halecki Award from the Polish American Historical Association for his book, Polish Immigrants and Industrial Chicago (1991) and the Catholic Book Award for Chicago: City of Neighborhoods (1986). Dr. Pacyga served on PAHA Board in 2016-2018. During the 75th Anniversary  Conference of PAHA (at Loyola University Chicago, September 2018), Dr. Pacyga took the participants on a tour of Polish Chicago; and a summary was posted on this blog: http://pahanews.blogspot.com/2018/10/tours-of-chicago-with-dominic-pacyga.html

The Parade in 1999. Photo by Belissarius. Wikimedia Commons.

The Polish Constitution Day Parade in Chicago was held for the first time in 1892 in Humboldt Park, and after World War II it was moved to downtown, currently being held in Grant Park, from Buckingham Fountain to the bridge.  The event honors Poland's May 3rd Constitution, the first democratic constitution of Europe, adopted by the Polish Seym in 1791, after four years of debating. It is the second constitution of its kind, following the Constitution of the United States Constitution.

Women in Highlander Costumes. Photo by Andrew Mikolajczyk

The 2019 Parade Marshall was Józef Cikowski, president of Polish Highlanders Alliance of North America, an organization gathering former residents of the Tatra Mountains and their foothills, who emigrated to Chicago in large numbers mostly prior to World War I. The election of the Marshall was held in March, with interviews of the top candidates w ho presented their achievements on behalf of Polonia. http://dziennikzwiazkowy.com/polonia/jozef-cikowski-marszalkiem-parady-3-maja/

St. Urszula Ledochowska Polish School. Photo by Andrew Mikolajczyk

More than 100 Polonia organizations participated in the parade, including schools, culture clubs, Polish student clubs, Polish scouts (Harcerstwo), businesses, and fraternal and social organizations. The parade was watched by about 200,000 viewers. All Polish language schools their students to the parade, and about 10,000 students participated in the parade, marching with their teachers, carrying flags and banners.

 Photo by Andrew Mikolajczyk

Photo by Andrew Mikolajczyk

Casimir Pulaski Polish School. Photo by Andrew Mikolajczyk

Polish American Student Alliance from Northwestern University.

Photo by Andrew Mikolajczyk

Photo by Andrew Mikolajczyk

Nominations for PAHA Awards Due in June and July 2019

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR PAHA AWARDS AND PRIZES

Nominations are sought for the following awards that will be presented by PAHA at its 77th Annual Meeting, in January 2020. The following award nominations must be received by July 30, 2019, via email to Chair of the Awards Committee, PAHA's Second Vice President, Dr. Marta Cieslak, at mxcieslak@ualr.edu.

• Mieczyslaw Haiman Award is offered annually to an American scholar for sustained contribution to the study of Polish Americans.

• 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 year of the award.

• Skalny Civic Achievement Award honors 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.

• Amicus Poloniae Award recognizes significant contributions enhancing knowledge of Polish and Polish-American heritage by individuals not belonging to the Polish-American community.

• James Pula Distinguished Service Award is given occasionally to a member of PAHA who has rendered valuable and sustained service to the organization. Since 2017, this award honors Prof. James Pula, PAHA's past president, current treasurer, and a long-time editor of the Polish American Studies.

• Creative Arts Prize recognizes the contributions in the field of creative arts by individuals or groups who have promoted an awareness of the Polish experience in the Americas.

• Established in 2018, the Joseph W. Zurawski Prize will be awarded for the best article or book published on the topic of Polish American screen images in films or television presented to audiences in the United States and released by American companies. To be eligible, works must have been published within the past three years. Nominations should be sent to the Awards Committee, Polish American Historical Association. Although there is no deadline, for the fullest annual consideration nominations should be made by June 1 each year. Awards will be presented at the awards ceremony during the annual PAHA conference in January.

JOSEPH W. ZURAWSKI PRIZE FOR STUDIES OF POLISH AMERICANS IN FILM OR TELEVISION IN THE U.S.

The Polish American Historical Association is pleased to announce creation of the Joseph W. Zurawski Prize. Consisting of a $500 award and a plaque, the  prize will be awarded for the best article or book published  on the topic of Polish American screen images in films or  television presented to audiences in the  United States  and released by American companies. To be eligible, works  must have been published within the past three years. Nominations should be sent to the Awards Committee, Polish  American Historical Association, Chair, Dr. Marta Cieslak, at mxcieslak@ualr.edu. Although there is no deadline, for the fullest  annual consideration nominations should be made by June 1  each year. Awards will be presented at the awards ceremony  during the annual PAHA conference in  January.

Joseph W. Zurawski has remained active in the Polish American community since writing his graduate thesis on Poland in 1960. He reviewed books on the Polish American community for several newspapers, was editor for Narod Polski, president of the Polish Museum of America, member of the Boards of the Polish Roman Catholic Union of America and the Polish Museum of America, and taught Polish American history and culture at Wright and Triton Colleges. He was an archivist of historical records for Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital (known as "The Polish Hospital”), wrote several books including Polish American History and Culture: An Annotated Bibliography and, most recently, The Polish Presence in American Screen Images. Among the awards he received are: Outstanding Young Man of America, Chamber of Commerce (1963); Distinguished Service Certificate, Copernicus Quincentennial Commission (1973); the American Catholic Who’s Who (1976), Kosciuszko Medal, Kosciuszko Foundation (1977); Civic Achievement Award, Polish American Historical  Association (2002); “Wybitny Polak” (Outstanding Pole, culture category), Foundation of Polish Promotion, Chicago presentation a Chicago’s Polish Consulate, Warsaw culmination at Grand Theater and Polish National Opera (2017). He has been a proud member of the Polish American Historical Association for over 50 years.

GRADUATE STUDENT/YOUNG SCHOLAR TRAVEL GRANT, DUE JULY 30, 2019

PAHA encourages graduate students and emerging scholars (up to three years after graduation) to apply for a Travel Grant. Two such grants of $500.00 each will be awarded to offset travel costs to attend the 2020 PAHA Annual Meeting in New York. The grants will be awarded by the Program Committee for two best conference proposals dealing with the Polish American experience in any historical epoch, scholarly field, or aspect submitted by junior scholars.

To apply please submit the following documents to Chair of Awards Committee, PAHA's Second Vice President, Dr. Marta Cieslak, via email to mxcieslak@ualr.edu:

• your paper proposal (as required by the general CFP)
• a brief letter of application (no template will be provided)
• a complete CV
• one letter of recommendation from a senior scholar (e.g. thesis advisor).

In order to receive the travel grant it is mandatory to present the paper at the conference in person. Awardees will receive remuneration during the Awards Ceremony at the Annual Meeting. Failure to present the paper in person at the annual meeting shall result in the immediate cancellation of the grant.

The deadline for application, to be submitted with the paper proposal, is JULY 30, 2019.

Please send your application packets by email to chair of the Awards Committee, Dr. Marta Cieslak, at mxcieslak@ualr.edu, with the subject line "Graduate Student Travel Grant."

Anna Mazurkiewicz Receives OAH'S 2019 Willi Paul Adams Award for her Book

Barbara Kalabińska, author of index, and Prof. Mazurkiewicz with her award

During its annual meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the Organization of American Historians (OAH) presented Prof. Anna Mazurkiewicz, University of Gdańsk, with their prestigious 2019 Willi Paul Adams Award, which is given every two years for the best book on American history published in a language other than English.

The book, Uchodźcy polityczni z Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej w amerykańskiej polityce zimnowojennej, 1948–1954 [Political Exiles from East Central Europe in American Cold War Politics, 1948–1954] was published by the Institute of National Remembrance and University of Gdańsk. This is an impressively detailed study of the origins and dynamics of U.S. involvement on behalf of East Central European exiles in the early years of the Cold War. Based on transatlantic archival work and covering exile groups such as Albanians, Romanians, Hungarians, Poles, and Slovaks, the book’s signal contribution is to join the literature of U.S. Cold War policy and propaganda formation with the literature on exile politics in these important but understudied regions of the Soviet bloc.

Prof. Earl Lewis, OAH President presents the award to Prof. Anna Mazurkiewicz

Mazurkiewicz presents a nuanced analysis of the two-way relationship between East Central European exiles and U.S. Cold War policy makers, especially through formation of the Free Europe Committee, an anticommunist Central Intelligence Agency–supported organization that established Radio Free Europe and served American propaganda interests. Documents from exiles and interviews with them demonstrate the compromises involved in becoming tethered to the U.S. propaganda mission and give voice to their complex and often-equivocal response to the partnership. The author concludes that the East Central Europeans’ integration in the Free Europe Committee became a model for U.S. relations with anticommunist exile groups from other regions of the world. Because exile and refugee politics are often tied to U.S. policy makers’ interest in regime change elsewhere, Mazurkiewicz’s history will remain a meaningful reference point for the present.

The award was presented on April 5 by OAH’s 2018–19 President Earl Lewis and 2019–20 President Joanne Meyerowitz. For more information, visit oah.org or call 812.855.7311.