Haiman Award

MIECISLAUS HAIMAN AWARD

The Miecislaus Haiman Award of the Polish American Historical Association is "offered annually to an American scholar for sustained contribution to the study of Polish Americans."  These Awards commemorate a historian, writer, journalist, translator and Polonia activist, Mieczyslaw Haiman (1888-1949), who was the first director of the Polish Museum of America, and the first historian of American Polonia. 

2018: Anna Mazurkiewicz

The 2018 Award was presented to Dr. Anna Mazurkiewicz of the University of Gdańsk, the first Poland-based president of PAHA and an outstanding scholar who advances the field and is recognized on both sides of the Atlantic by various prizes and prestigious fellowships. Her research is particularly significant for its comparative aspect that helps us better understand the complexities of the era and issues she studies. Her scholarly reputation will no doubt be enhanced by her forthcoming book East Central European Migrations During the Cold War: A Handbook. According to Ulf Brunnbauer from the Leipzig Institute for East and Southeast European Studies: “Eastern Europe is an emblematic space of mobility; also its Cold War history cannot be told without considering migration from and into the countries of the region; presently, migration is again one of the defining political and economic issues. This volume comes timely and provides a uniquely comprehensive account, full of useful information for further research. It will be a must-read both for migration studies scholars and for area specialists.” In the words of her colleague: she is an “exemplary scholar who is determined to hunt down the last archival scrap of paper for her project.” Additionally, this award recognizes her energetic leadership of PAHA, her generosity, and her unwavering commitment to bring together scholars from both sides of the Atlantic.



2017:  Joanna Wojdon

The Miecislaus Haiman Award of the Polish American Historical Association is "offered annually to an American scholar for sustained contribution to the study of Polish Americans."  These Awards commemorate a historian, writer, journalist, translator and Polonia activist, Mieczyslaw Haiman (1888-1949), who was the first director of the Polish Museum of America, and the first historian of American Polonia. (For the list of past winners visit this page of PAHANews blog).


The Haiman Award Joanna Wojdon's seminal works on the Polish American Congress ["W imieniu sześciu milionów..." Kongres Polonii Amerykańskiej w latach 1944-1968 (Toruń: Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek, 2005) and "W jedności siła!" Kongres Polonii Amerykańskiej w latach 1968-1988 (Toruń: Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek, 2008)] have both been reviewed positively and are major contributions to the understanding of that organization. In addition, some of her other works over the years have also addressed with excellently documented research issues essential to understanding the Polish American experience. Not the least of these is “Polish Americans in the Press of the People's Republic of Poland (1952-1989) [Polish American Studies, Vol. LIX (2002), No. 2] which reverses the usual view of studying the Polonia press in order to see how Polonia was actually portrayed abroad, and “The Image of Tadeusz Kościuszko in Postwar Polish Education” (The Polish Review, 2014).

2016: No Award

2015: Dorota Praszalowicz


Prof. Dorota Praszalowicz’s contributions to the field of Polonia studies are broad and have had considerable influence not only in the U.S. but also in Europe. The biannual migration conferences she organizes gather eminent scholars from the United States and Europe. Also, her editorship of the journal, Studia Migracyjne – Przegląd Polonijny, provides a significant contributions to the development and dissemination of new knowledge about Polonia and provides a valuable forum for comparative studies. She is an independent researcher at the Institute of American Studies and Polish Diaspora of the Jagiellonian University and an author of numerous articles, conference presentations and two monographs: Polacy w Berlinie: strumienie migracyjne i spolecznosci imigracyjne and Mechanizmy zamorskich migracji lancuchowych w XIX wieku: Polacy, Niemcy, Zydzi, Rusini. Zarys problemu, coauthored with Krzysztof Makowski, Andrzej Zięba. Her work has focused not only on Poles in the USA but also in Europe.


2014: Neal Pease

Neal Pease has an extensive record of valued publications in the field of Polish and Polish American history, including a well-received book on the Roman Catholic Church in interwar Poland: Rome's Most Faithful Daughter: The Catholic Church and Independent Poland, 1914-1939. (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2009). Neal was also an associate editor and major contributor to The Polish American Encyclopedia (2011). His contributions to the study of the Polish-Americans includes research in the area of American sports: “Diamonds Out of the Coal Mines: Slavic Americans in Baseball” (in The American Game: Baseball and Ethnicity, 2002) and “Big Game on the South Side: A Milwaukee Baseball Mystery Decoded."  His article on “The Kosciuszko Reds, 1909-1919: Kings of the Milwaukee Sandlots,” published in the Polish American Studies (2004), won the Swastek Award.


2013: Dominic Pacyga

  

Dr. Pacyga received his PhD in History from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1981. He has published extensively about Polish Americans - especially immigrant and working class Polish Americans and their descendants - and with a focus on Chicago. Dr. Pacyga has lectured and written widely on a variety of topics including  the Polish-Americans whose members worked in the stockyards and steel mills.  His Polish Immigrants and Industrial Chicago (1991) throws real light on their experiences. Dr. Pacyga was the recipient of the Oscar Halecki Award from the Polish American Historical Association and of the Catholic Book Award. In 1999, he received the Columbia College Award for Excellence in Teaching. He has been a visiting Professor at both the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago. In the spring of 2005, he was a Visiting Scholar in Campion Hall at Oxford University.

2012: Richard Lukas

Professor Emeritus Richard Lukas, who earned hisdoctorate in History in 1963 from Florida State University,has published a series of significant books that deal withPoland, Polish-American relations, and Polonia's place inthese matters.His book,The Strange Allies: The United States and Poland, 1941-1945 (1978) was one of the earliest scholarly works to study in depth the World War II relations between the United States and Poland's exile government. In this book, Dr. Lukas brought to light the role of American Polonia and its political action organizations (in particular the National Committee of Americans of Polish Descent, KNAPP, and the Polish American Congress), and their place in Polish-U.S. relations. This book remains as current and relevant today as it was years ago when it first appeared. His second major work, Bitter Legacy: Polish-American Relations in the Wake of World War II (1982) dealt with, among other significant matters in post war Polish history
and Polish-American relations, the little appreciated subject of the humanitarian efforts on Poland's behalf that were organized on behalf of the Polish people.

In addition, Dr. Lukas’s subsequent book,The Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles Under German Occupation, 1939-1944(1986), remains the most complete and fair-minded effort to place what the Nazis did in Poland to all its inhabitants in its proper context.This work is also of special importance for Americans of Polish origin who otherwise would have practically no serious source of information about the Holocaust in occupied Poland except that which has focused on the

tragedy that befell the country's Jewish citizenry. Thisbook has won high praise and a third edition has recently appeared, again with a forward by the eminent historian Norman Davies. In 1994 Prof. Lukas was honored to receive the Janusz Korczak Award from the Anti-Defamation Committee of the B'nai B'rith.

2011: Anna D. Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann

Dr. Anna D. Jaroszyńska--Kirchmann is Professor of History at Eastern Connecticut State University. A past winner of PAHA’s Halecki and Swastek awards, she has been President and First Vice President of PAHA. She has served as an associated editor of The Polish American Encyclopedia (McFarland, 2011) and is member of the editorial board of Polish American Studies.  In 2009, she was the recipient of the Wacław Jędrzejewicz History Award from the Piłsudski Institute. 

In 2004, Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann published The Exile Mission: The Polish Political Diaspora and Polish Americans, 1939-1956 (Ohio University Press, 2004), which was awarded the Polish American Historical Association’s (PAHA) Oskar Halecki Prize for the best book on Polish American topics. She edited a collection of letters to the editor, translated by herself and Theodore L. Zawistowski, Letters from Readers in the Polish American Press, 1902–1969: A Corner for Everybody  (Lexington  Books, 2014).

2010: Piotr Wandycz

Dr. Piotr Wandycz is Professor Emeritus of History at Yale University, past President of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America, and author of many works of Polish history,some that touch on Polonia's experience. Most notable among these is his outstanding book,the Lands of Partitioned Poland (1975) and even more significant, his excellent and influential study, the United States and Poland (1980).  
His books also include France and Her Eastern Allies, 1919-1925 (winner of the American Historical Association's George Louis Beer Prize); The Twilight of French Eastern Alliances, 1926-1936 (winner of the Wayne S. Vucinich Prize of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies); and The Price of Freedom: A History of East Central Europe from the Middle Ages to the Present (a 1992 History Book Club selection).

2009: Thomas Napierkowski

Dr. Thomas Napierkowski is Professor of English at the  University of Colorado. Among his many research interests are: medieval literature and the works of Geoffrey Chaucer, minority and immigrant American literature, especially Polish American literature and Black American literature; Slavic literature; and the grammar and history of the English language. Tom has also contributed extensive time and effort to supporting PAHA and its activities. He served as PAHA president in 1982‐83 and 1992‐94. He has made numerous contributions to Polish American Studies on subjects relating to Polish American literature, music, and the intersection of history and culture.

Since 2013, Dr. Thomas Napierkowski has served as the President of PAHA. 

2008: John Radzilowski

Dr. Radzilowski has contributed substantially to the study of Polish-Americans and to understanding, exploring and documenting the life worlds of American Polonia. His recent works include: Poles in Minnesota (St. Paul, MN : Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2005);The Eagle & the Cross: A History of the Polish Roman Catholic Union of America, 1873-2000 (Boulder: East European Monographs; New York : Distributed by Columbia University Press, 2003); Out on the Wind : Poles and Danes in Lincoln County, Minnesota, 1880-1905 [with Jennifer Mahal] (Marshall, Minn.: Crossings Press, 1992); Poland's Transformation: A Work in Progress [compiled and edited with Marek Jan Chodakiewicz and DariuszTołczyk] (Charlottesville, VA : Leopolis Press, 2003); Spanish Carlism and Polish Nationalism: The Borderlands of Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries [compiled and edited with Marek Jan Chodakiewicz] (Charlottesville, VA: Leopolis Press, 2003).

Dr. Radzilowski currently serves as Assistant Professor of History at the University of Alaska Southeast. 

2007: Eugene Obidinski

Dr. Obidinski is Professor Emeritus in Sociology at the State University of New York at Oneonta. He has made extensive contributions to understanding, exploring and documenting the life worlds of American Polonia and some of his important works include: Ethnic to Status Group: A Study of Polish Americans in Buffalo (New York: 1980) and Polish Folkways in America: Community and Family (Lanham, MD: 1987), written with Helen Stankiewicz. In addition to a distinguished academic career, Dr. Obidinski is active in Polish-American community life and contributing editor to the Polish American Journal.

2006: Mary Patrice Erdmans

           

At the time of receiving her award, Dr. Erdmans was Professor of Sociology at Central Connecticut State University, with specialties in race and ethnic relations, social movements, field studies, and Polish and Polish American studies. She is a two-time recipient of the PAHA Halecki Prize for her books Opposite Poles: Immigrants and Ethnics in Polish Chicago, 1976-1990 (Pennsylvania State University Press,  1998) and The Grasinski Girls: The Choices They Had and the Choices They Made (Ohio University Press, 2004). She served as PAHA President 2003-2007. She is cited for the extent, quality, and influence of her scholarship, largely on significant issues having received little attention from previous researchers. These topics include the newest solidarity migration, undocumented polish workers, and fourth-generation Polish American women. Her articles have been published in journals of sociology, history, and literature.

Dr. Erdmans currently serves as Professor of Sociology at the Case Western Reserve University. 

2005: Angela and Donald Pienkos

Dr. Donald Pienkos, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Polish National Alliance, the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America, and as a national director of the Polish American Congress. He was president of PAHA (2001-2003). His spouse, Angela, taught European history at Ripon College and Alverno College, was a high school administrator for 24 years, and served as executive director of the Polish Center of Wisconsin. She was president of PAHA in 1980 and its executive director in 1986. Donald authored the histories of the Polish National Alliance (1984, awarded the Halecki prize from PAHA in 1985), the Polish Falcons of America (1987), and the Polish American Congress and its predecessor organizations (1991). He and Angela co-authored the history of the Polish Women's Alliance (2003). Each has published extensively on Polish and Polish American political and historical topics. In 1978 Angela edited one of the first PAHA-sponsored books, Ethnic Politics in Urban America: The Polish Experience in Four Cities.

2004: Adam Walaszek

Over the past twenty years, Prof. Adam Walaszek helped to re-invent the study of Polish Americans with his original work on return-migration, labor, local community studies and the family. Mentored by prominent historians of the first generation of scholars in Poland to seriously investigate Polish American culture -- including Andrzej Brozek and Miroslaw Francic -- Adam Walaszek was one of the first Polish historians to be equally at home with cutting-edge American scholarship as well as the newest work by young Polish scholars. He is currently a full professor of history and chair of the History Department at the Institute of Polish Diaspora and Ethnic Studies of the Jagiellonian Univerrsity where he teaches courses on the history of international migrations, world diasporas, the history of the Polish ethnic group in the United States, and United States social history. He is a member of the editorial board of Przeglad Polonijny and editor-in-chief of the Prace Polonijne series published by the Jagiellonian University. He is the author of three ground-breaking monographs on Polish American history: Reemigracja ze Stanów Zjednoczonych do Polski po I wojnie swiatowej, 1919 1924 [Return Migration from the United States to Poland after the First World War, 1919-1924 ] (1983); Polscy robotnicy, praca i zwiazki zawodowe w Stanach Zjednoczonych Ameryki, 1880 1922 [Polish workers, work and the labor movement in the USA, 1880-1922] (1988), and Swiaty imigrantów. Tworzenie polonijnego Cleveland, 1880-1930 [Immigrant Worlds: The Making of Polish-American Cleveland 1880-1929] (Nomos, 1994). He co-edited (with T. Gladsky, and M. Wawrykiewicz) the anthology: Ethnicity, Culture and City: Polish Americans in the USA. Cultural Aspects of Urban Life, 1870-1950 (1998); and he is sole editor of the anthology Polska diaspora. Leksykon historyczny, (2001). He has published over eighty articles in scholarly journals and anthologies in both Polish and English and nearly ninety book reviews.

2003: 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). 

WINNERS OF THE HAIMAN AWARDS IN 1966-2002

2002: Thomas Gladsky

2000: William Galush

1999: Daniel Buczek

1994: John J. Bukowczyk

1993: Andrzej Brozek

1992: Anthony J. Kuzniewski, S.J.

1990: Stanislaus Blejwas

1989: Edward Pinkowski      

1988: James S. Pula

1987: Helena Znaniecki Lopata

1986: Edward Rozanski

1985: Thaddeus Gromada

1984: Eugene Kusielewicz      

1983: Thaddeus Radzilowski

1982: Ellen Marie Kuznicki

1981: Victor Greene

1980: Joseph Wieczerzak

1979: Metchie Budka

1978: Frank Renkiewicz

1977: No Award Given

1976: Jacek Przygoda

1975: Waclaw Jedrzejewicz

1974: No Award Given

1973: M.J. Madaj

1972: Probably No Award Given

1971: Joseph Swastek

1970: Ludwik Krzyzanowski

1969: Arthur Waldo

1967/68  Marion Moore Coleman

1966: Oscar Halecki (first Haiman Award winner)