PAHA's New Officers, Council, and the Call for Papers for 2016 Conference

PAHA OFFICERS AND COUNCIL

The new leadership of the Polish American Historical Association was announced after the 72nd Annual Meeting, when the new President, Dr. Grazyna Kozaczka was presented. The leadership will lead PAHA through 2015 and 2016.

THE OFFICERS: Dr. Grażyna Kozaczka of Cazenovia College was  elected the President, Dr. Anna Mazurkiewicz of the University of Gdańsk – the First Vice President, Dr. John Radzilowski of the University of Alaska-Southeast – the Second Vice President; and Dr. Maja Trochimczyk of Moonrise Press – the Secretary. She will continue serving as PAHA Newsletter Editor and Online Communications Director.  Dr. Jim Pula of Purdue University North Central will continue in his role as Treasurer and Dr. Pien Versteegh of Avans University, The Netherlands, as Executive Director. Dr. Anna Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann of Eastern Connecticut State University will be the new Editor of Polish American Studies.

THE COUNCIL MEMBERS will include: Dr. M. B. Biskupski, Central Connecticut State University; Dr. John Bukowczyk, Wayne State University; Dr. Mary Erdmans, Case Western Reserve University; Dr. Ann Gunkel, Columbia College-Chicago; Dr. Iwona Korga, Józef Piłsudski Institute; Dr. Dorota Praszałowicz, Jagiellonian University, Kraków; Dr. Marta Cieślak, Independent Scholar; Dr. CzesławKarkowski, Hunter College and Mercy College; Dr. Stephen Leahy, Shantou University, Shantou; Dr. Thomas Napierkowski, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs (Past President, 2013-2014); Dr. Neal Pease, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee; and Mr. Robert Synakowski, Syracuse Polish Home.

Detailed information about our Officers and Council is below the Call for Papers.

PAHA Officers and Council in Warsaw, June 2014. L to R (front): Iwona Korga, Pien Versteegh, Grazyna Kozaczka, Maja Trochimczyk, and Jim Pula. L to R (back): Angela Pienkos (guest), Tom Napierkowski, Stephen Leahy, Don Pienkos (guest), Anna Jaroszynska-Kirchmann, Ann Hetzel Gunkel, Anna Mazurkiewicz, Tom Dusiak, Mieczyslaw B.B. Biskupski.

_______________________________________________

CALL FOR PAPERS FOR PAHA'S 73RD ANNUAL MEETING IN JANUARY 2016

PAHA's 73rd Annual Meeting will be held on January 7-10, 2016 in Atlanta as part of the 130th American Historical Association's Annual Conference. The theme for the 2016 AHA conference is “Global Migrations: Empires, Nations, and Neighbors.” It provides an excellent opportunity for the Polish American Historical Association to showcase research carried out by its members, as well as to present it in a comparative perspective. Therefore we invite scholars who work on the Polish American experience as well as those who deal either with migration, ethnic, or regional studies and would like to present their findings within the forum presented by the PAHA. We invite session proposals that foster international, comparative perspectives which include the Polish American experience, as well as individual papers dealing with the above mentioned themes. 

 This year, we specifically look for proposals in the following areas: 

- Polish American experience – all aspects (history, sociology, literature, art, music, etc.) 

 - Migration patterns, ethnic experience – comparative perspective 

 - Immigrant women - Labor activism among the ethnics 

- Experiences of foreigners in the American Civil War 

- International activism of the anti-communist groups in the U.S. during the Cold War 

The deadline for submissions is April 15, 2015. Abstracts for papers and panel proposals are now being accepted and should be submitted to the Chair of the Program Committee: Dr. Anna Mazurkiewicz Faculty of History University of Gdansk, Poland ul. Wita Stwosza 55, 80-952 Gdansk email: anna.m@polishamericanstudies.org 

Electronic proposals in email and word format are strongly preferred. Individuals and session organizers should include the following information when submitting a proposal: 

• Paper/Session title(s) (of no more than 20 words) 

• Paper/Session abstract(s) (up to 300/500 words, respectively) 

• Biographical paragraph or c.v. summary (up to 250 words) for each participant 

• Correct mailing and e-mail address for each participant 

• Chair (required) and commentator (optional) for the session 

• Audiovisual needs, if any. 

Please be advised that it is unlikely that PAHA will be able to use PowerPoint in its sessions, due to the high cost of rental, or that presenters will be permitted by the hosting conference hotel to bring their own. You may wish to consider distribution of paper handouts as an alternative. The Polish American Historical Association holds its Annual Conference in conjunction with the American Historical Association (AHA). The full information about the AHA conference can be found at www.historians.org. PAHA members who plan to attend PAHA conference only do not need to register for the AHA conference, but are required to register for the PAHA conference by November 15, 2015. Registration may be done on-line at www.polishamericanstudies.org.

_______________________________________

BIOGRAPHIES OF PAHA OFFICERS AND COUNCIL

PAHA OFFICERS

Dr. Grażyna Kozaczka,  President 

Grazyna J. Kozaczka received her Ph.D. in American Literature from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. She is a Professor of English at Cazenovia College and the director of the All-College Honors Program. Her book–length publications include William Dean Howells and John Cheever: Their Views on the Failing of the American Dream (Universitas, Krakow, Poland) and Old World Stitchery (Chilton Book Co. Radnor, PA). Among her research interests are American ethnic literature, women’s literature, literature of the Holocaust as well as traditional Polish folk dress and adornment. She has published scholarly essays as well as short fiction.

Dr. Anna Mazurkiewicz, First Vice President

Dr. Anna Mazurkiewicz works at the Faculty of History at the University of Gdańsk where from she graduated summa cum laude in 1999, and where she defended her Doctoral Dissertation in 2006. She also studied at the California State University, Fresno (1997-1998), was a APRF Fellow at the Notre Dame University (2002-2003), and a Kosciuszko Foundation Fellow at the IHRC at the University of Minnesota (2007-2008), Visegrad Fellow at the Central European University, Open Society Archives in Budapest (2010). She taught at State University of New York (Buffalo, 2012-2013) and gave guest lectures at the University of Primorska, Koper (Slovenia). Her scholarly interests include: the Cold War; the United States after World War II; U.S.-Polish diplomatic relations; media system in the United States; U.S. policy towards the countries of East Central Europe; political activity of refugees from East Central Europe in the United States after World War II; political emigration from East Central Europe in 1945-1989.

She has published two books related to the American response to elections in Poland (1947,1989): Dyplomacja Stanów Zjednoczonych wobec wyborów w Polsce w latach 1947 i 1989, Neriton, Warszawa 2007; Prasa amerykańska wobec wyborów w Polsce w latach 1947 i 1989, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego, Gdańsk 2009. She edited a two-volume publication: East Central Europe in Exile, vol. 1: Transatlantic Migrations and vol. 2: Transatlantic Identities (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013) which won the Oskar Halecki Prize bestowed by the Polish American Historical Association (2015). The most recent volume edited by her has just been printed as part of the series: Od exsilli do exile. Migracje przymusowe w perspektywie historycznej, Studia Historica Gedanensia, Vol.5 (Gdańsk: University of Gdańsk Press, 2014). Member of a number of Polish and foreign scholarly associations, Mazurkiewicz is the First Vice-President of the Polish American Historical Association. She is the recipient of a few awards including: The National Centre for Culture’s award for best doctoral dissertation in history (2007) and Swastek Award for best article printed in the scholarly journal Polish American Studies in 2012, Krzysztof Celestyn Mrongowiusz University of Gdańsk Distinction for Excellence in Teaching (2010), and the Medal of the Commission of National Education (2014). Since 2006 she has been working on the Assembly of Captive European Nations (ACEN) in the context of American foreign policy during the Cold War.

Dr. John Radzilowski, Second Vice President 

Dr. Jim Pula,  Treasurer

James S. Pula is Professor of History at Purdue University North Central. The author and editor of more than a dozen books on the Polish diaspora and the American Civil War, he served as editor-in-chief of The Polish American Encyclopedia and was the editor of the academic journal Polish American Studies for some 33 years. He has for many years been a member of the Boards of Directors of the Polish American Historical Association and the Polish Institute of Arts & Sciences of America. His work has been honored with the Mieczysław Haiman Award for sustained scholarly contributions, the Distinguished Service Award from the American Council for Polish Culture, three Oskar Halecki Prizes for various books, the Rudewicz Medal, and the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.

Dr. Maja Trochimczyk, Secretary and Communications Director  

Maja Trochimczyk is a Californian poet, scholar, translator, photographer, and non-profit director from Poland. She studied musicology at the University of Warsaw, Poland (M.A. 1986) and sound engineering at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw (M.A. 1987). In 1988 she emigrated to Canada and in 1994 she earned her Ph.D. in musicology from McGill University in Montreal. She held Postdoctoral Fellowships from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (1994-1996),and the American Council of Learned Societies (2001-2002). She published six books of music studies, including: Frederic Chopin: A Reserch and Information Guide (Routledge, 2015, co-edited with William Smialek), The Lutoslawski Legacy (Polish Institute of Art and Sciences in Canada, 2014, co-edited with Stanislaw Latek), and Polish Dance in Southern California (East European Monographs, Columbia University Press, 2008). Her articles appeared in American Music, Contemporary Music Review, Musical Quarterly, Computer Music Journal, Muzyka, Studia Musicologica, Leonardo, Polish American Studies, Polish Review, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians II (Macmillan), Women Composers: Music Through the Ages (G.K. Hall), Lutoslawski Studies (Oxford University Press), and The Age of Chopin (Indiana University Press). Her musicology work was translated into Polish, German, French, Swedish, Chinese and and Japanese.

She published three books of poetry (Rose Always - A Court Love Story, rev. 2011; Miriam's Iris, or Angels in the Garden, 2008, both from Moonrise Press; and Slicing the Bread, Finishing Line Press 2014). She also edited two anthologies of poetry: Chopin with Cherries: A Tribute in Verse (Moonrise Press, 2010) and Meditations on Divine Names (2012) and published poetry and photographs in numerous journals. Dr. Trochimczyk is a recipient of PAHA's Distinguished Service Award for 2014 and of the 2007 Swastek Prize for her article about Polish Dance in Southern California. In 2012 she was presented with a medal for the promotion of Polish culture "Zasluzony dla Kultury Polskiej" from the Minister of Cultural Heritage of the Republic of Poland and received numerous city and county honors celebrating her 15 years of volunteering for the Polish-American community.

Dr. Pien Versteegh, Executive Director 

Pien Versteegh has written her thesis on Polish miners in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands studying their position on the labor market and in the society in the period of 1920-1930. Her postdoctoral work compares Polish migrants in Germany and the United States focusing on mobility, migrants’ coping strategies, gender, and the second generation. She has received grants from the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and the Dutch Research Council. She has had several positions at Dutch universities and will be Dean of Avans School of International Studies at the Avans University of Applied Sciences in Breda, the Netherlands as of March 2015. Her involvement with PAHA has started in 2001 and she is the executive director since 2008. 

Dr. Anna Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann, Editor of Polish American Studies

PAHA's former President (2007-2009), and first Vice President (2004-2007), a former member of Awards Committee, Associate Editor of the Polish American Encyclopedia (ed. by James Pula), serves on the editorial board of Polish American Studies. Dr. Jaroszynska-Kirchmann teaches at the Eastern Connecticut State University, continuously rendering excellent service to PAHA; PAHA board member for many years she has been instrumental in developing new strategies, alert in PAHA's PR activities. Recipient of many prestigious awards, Dr. Jaroszynska-Kirchmann has devoted her time and her skill to the organization caring for the study and promotion of the Polish- American history and culture with visible, positive results.

PAHA COUNCIL

Dr. John Bukowczyk

John Bukowczyk (B.A., Northwestern University; A.M., Ph.D., Harvard University) is Professor of History at Wayne State University in Detroit. Bukowczyk's publications include And My Children Did Not Know Me: A History of the Polish Americans (Indian University Press, 1987); A History of the Polish Americans (Transaction, 2008); and, as editor, Polish Americans and Their History: Community, Culture, and Politics (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1996). Bukowczyk is the editor of the Journal of American Ethnic History and the Ohio University Press Polish and Polish-American Studies Series. He also is the recipient of the Gold Cross of Merit of Republic, several PAHA awards, and a number of publication prizes.

Dr. Mieczyslaw B. B. Biskupski

The Stanislaus A. Blejwas Endowed Chair in Polish and Polish American Studies at CCSU, Prof. Biskupski is the author of nine books, numerous journal articles, and a specialist in modern Central Europe. Before his appointment at CCSU, Dr. Biskupski was Professor of History and Graduate Professor of International Studies at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, NY. He earned his doctorate at Yale, where he was a student of Piotr Wandycz, and he has held Visiting Professorships at the University of Rochester, served as Fulbright Research Professor at the University of Warsaw, and, in 1997, he was a Fellow of the Central European University of Budapest. Bolek is the recipient of many academic and national awards, including the Honor Roll of Polish Science by the Polish Ministry of Education and the Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences, and a past president of PAHA. Since 2013, Prof. Biskupski has served as the President of PIASA. 

His books include: The United States and the rebirth of Poland, 1914-1918 (Yale University Press, 1981); American Polonia and the resurrection of independent Poland, 1914-1918 (Polish Studies Program, Central Connecticut State University, 1989); Re-creating Central Europe: the United States "inquiry" into the future of Poland in 1918 (Simon Fraser University Press, 1990); Poland and Europe: historical dimensions (Columbia Univ. Press, 1993); The history of Poland (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000), and Hollywood’s War with Poland, 1939-1945 (Knoxville: University of Kentucky Press, 2010; winner of the Halecki Prize). He has also shared editorial credits with other eminent scholars; with James S. Pula he co-edited the Polish democratic thought from the Renaissance to the great emigration: essays and documents (East European Monographs, 1990); with Piotr Wandycz he edited Ideology, politics, and diplomacy in East Central Europe (University Rochester Press, 2003); and with Antony Polonsky he co-edited a special issue of Polin, vol. 19, Polish-Jewish relations in North America (Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2007).

Dr. Marta Cieslak

Marta Cieślak received Master’s Degrees in Polish Literature and Language and in American Studies from the University of Warsaw, Poland. In September 2014, she completed her doctoral degree at the Department of Transnational Studies at the University at Buffalo. Her dissertation titled “From Peasants to Workers: Class, Nation and Progress in the United States and Poland, 1865-1914” investigates the transnational transition of Polish rural migrants into the American industrial working class in the aftermath of the simultaneous abolition of serfdom in partitioned Poland-Lithuania and slavery in the United States. Her research interests focus on the questions of transnationalism, nationalism, and nation building. 

Dr. Mary Patrice Erdmans 

Mary Patrice Erdmans received her PhD in sociology from Northwestern University in 1992. Her areas of interest include immigration and ethnicity (with research on Poles and Polish Americans), the intersection of gender, class, and race (with research on Polish immigrant home health care workers, Polish American working-class women, adolescent mothers, and, currently, aged auto workers), and narrative research methods (e.g., life stories and oral histories). Her research has been published as book-length manuscripts -- On Becoming A Teen Mom: Life Before Pregnancy with Tim Black, (University of California Press, 2015); The Grasinski Girls: The Choices They Had and the Choices They Made  (Ohio University Press, 2004); and Opposite Poles: Immigrants and Ethnics in Chicago, 1976-1990 (Penn State Press, 1998). Her articles have appeared in The Sociological Quarterly, Journal of American Ethnic History, Sociological Inquiry, Qualitative Health Research, Polish American Studies, Humanity and Society, and North American Review.

Dr. Ann Hetzel Gunkel
Dr. Ann Hetzel Gunkel (Ph.D., Philosophy, DePaul University) is Associate Professor of Cultural Studies & Humanities at Columbia College Chicago where she is a founding member and past Director of the innovative program in Cultural Studies, a leading center for undergraduate research and pedagogy in the field. A winner of multiple major grants, she is a two-time Fulbright recipient for both Research (Germany 1992) and Teaching (Poland 2012) and the Harmonia Research Grant from the Polish National Science Center. She was Visiting Professor of American Cultural Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow in 2011-12. Dr. Gunkel has lectured widely in North America, Russia, Western and Eastern Europe; she is an Editorial Board Member of the journals Ad Americam (Poland); Polish American Studies (US) and Cultural Landscapes (US). She is a native Chicagoan, active in Cultural Studies and Polish/American Studies; winner of the PAHA's Joseph V. Swastek and Creative Arts Prizes in the latter field. An award-winning designer of educational multimedia, Dr. Gunkel is a public intellectual who has appeared frequently in national and local media. She is also a published documentary photographer and award-winning graphic designer; her photos and digital artworks have been widely published and exhibited. Formerly Director of Online Communications and Vice President for PAHA, Dr. Gunkel has served on the PAHA Board since 2001.

Dr. Czeslaw Karkowski

Czeslaw Karkowski, Ph. D – born in Wroclaw, Poland, received his Ph. D. in philosophy from the University of Poznan, Poland. Living in the U.S. since 1986, he worked for "Nowy Dziennik" (Polish-language newspaper based in New York City) for more than 20 years  Since 1995, Dr. Karkowski has taught at Mercy College, Dobbs Ferry, NY, and since 2011 – at Hunter College, New York. He published seven scholarly books : Bruno Schulz i krytyka inteligencji /Bruno Schulz and the Critique of Intelligentsia (Wroclaw: Ossolineum, 1980); Neo-Kantyzm. Wybór tekstów /Neo-Kantianism. Selected articles (The Wroclaw University Press, 1982); Boleslaw Wierzbianski. Wybor pism / Boleslaw Wierzbianski. Selected papers  (Nowy Jork-Opole, 2007). Ze wszystkich śmiertelnych najokrutniejsi. Iliada dzis /The Cruellest From All Mortals. The Iliad Today (Wroclaw: DSWE, 2007); Iliada współczesna (New York 2013);  Iliada na nowo opowiedziana (New York, 2014);   Ethics and the Family (Cognella Academic Publishing, 2015). He also wrote two novels: Drugi w sztuce (Torun: Adam Marszalek, 2006) and Kamienna drabina (Lublin: Norbertinum, 2007). Other works include translations of Richart Rorty, Andrew Nagorski and Walt Whitman (into Polish), as well as chapters in volumes of collected studies  on various topics from sociology philosophy and political sciences to journalism and literature.

 Dr. Iwona Drąg Korga

Born in Poland, came to New York in 1991 after graduating in MA in History from Pedagogical University of Krakow. From 1994 associated with the Pilsudski Institute of America, a research center for East-Central Europe, first as a volunteer, than from 1998 part time librarian, assistant to the President and since 2005 Executive Director. From 1996-2001 she served as a teacher and volunteer in  the Polish Saturday School in Maspeth, NY In 2004 she received her Ph.D. from Pedagogical University  of Krakow. Korga specializes in Polish-American relations during World War II, especially in propaganda and information policies. She takes part in international conferences, as well as gives lectures on Polish history for children, high school students and college students. In 2008 she graduated from Queens College (CUNY) with Masters of Library Science degree. She wrote many articles for Polish-American newspapers, periodicals in Poland and USA and is the author of the book: Poland fights! Propaganda activities of the Polish Government in Exile towards American society 1939-1945 ( 2011). Dr. Korga is the recipient of the scholarship from the Kosciuszko Foundation in NY and Polonia Aid Foundation Trust in London. She is active in professional organizations: Pilsudski Institute, Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences and Polish American Historical Association.

Dr. Stephen Leahy

Stephen M. Leahy is an Associate Professor of History in the Center for Global Studies at Shantou University. He has written on Polish Americans in Milwaukee. He won the Halecki Award for his biography of Clement J. Zablocki in 2002. He is currently writing a book about Polish Americans and Civil Rights in Milwaukee from 1958 to 1968.

Dr. Thomas Napierkowski

Professor of English at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, Dr. Napierkowski is the Past President of PAHA (2012-14) and member of the organization's Council. His research interests and areas of specialization include: medieval literature, especially the works of Geoffrey Chaucer, scholastic theories of authorship, and the fifteenth century; minority and immigrant American literature, especially Polish American literature and Black American literature, Slavic literature; and the grammar and history of the English language. He has taught courses on Chaucer, The History of the English Language, British Survey, Part I, Introduction to Literature and other classes. He is a Fulbright Scholar and holds a M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Colorado at Boulder, as well as a B.A. University of Wisconsin.  In 2014, he  was presented with the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland. The Order of Merit is a Polish order awarded to those who have rendered great service to the Polish nation and is granted to foreigners or Poles resident abroad. It is a traditional diplomatic order created in 1974.

Dr. Neal Pease

Neal Pease is Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.  He is a past president of the Polish American Historical Association, and a member of the editorial board of its journal Polish American Studies.  He has received the PAHA Haiman and Swastek prizes.  He serves as editor in chief of The Polish Review. He wrote a prize-winning book on the Roman Catholic Church in interwar Poland: Rome's Most Faithful Daughter: The Catholic Church and Independent Poland, 1914-1939 (Ohio University Press, 2009). 

Dr. Dorota Praszalowicz


Mr. Robert Synakowski

Robert Synakowski, of Syracuse, New York, a teacher of English Language Learners in the Syracuse City Schools, is active in Polonia as President of the Syracuse Polish Community, Inc., a Board Member of the Polish Scholarship Fund, Inc., and the American Council for Polish Culture. He has received degrees from Westminster Choir College and Le Moyne College and has studied at the Jagiellonian University and taught English in Poland for several years. He is a church organist at two Syracuse churches and he is actively researching the history of Syracuse Polonia and travels frequently to Poland.