At the 74th Annual Meeting
at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver,
CO (January 5-7, 2017), the Polish
American Historical Association will announce the winners of its Annual Awards. The
PAHA Annual Meeting will also include many scholarly presentations held in conjunction with the 131st
annual Meeting of the American Historical Association.
The Oskar Halecki
Prize
recognizes an important book or monograph on the
Polish experience in the United
States. Eligibility is
limited to works of historical and/or
cultural
interest,
including
those in the social sciences or humanities, published in the two years prior to the award.
The 2017 Halecki Prize will
be presented to Prof. Mieczysław B. Biskupski,
for his book The Most Dangerous German Agent
in America (NIU Press, 2015).
The Amicus Poloniae Award recognizes significant contributions enhancing knowledge of Polish and Polish-American heritage by individuals not belonging to the Polish-American community. It will be presented to Dr. Alvin Mark Fountain II and Brenda Bruce
who co-founded the Paderewski Festival in Raleigh, North Carolina in 2014
(paderewski-festival.org). Dr. Fountain, the President of the Festival, is a
former administrator with the State of North Carolina and for more than 25 years
he taught history at North Carolina State University. In 2008, Dr. Fountain was
appointed as an Honorary Consul of the Republic of Poland. The Vice-President
and Secretary of the Festival, Brenda Bruce is an accomplished pianist, harpsichordist,
acclaimed teacher, and accompanist dedicated to the promotion of classical
piano performance of the highest quality.
Dr. Stephen Leahy of Shantou University, China, will receive the Distinguished Service Award, given
occasionally to
a member of PAHA who has rendered
valuable and sustained service to the organization. Dr. Leahy’s crucial role as the co-founder and
moderator of PAHA’s Facebook group is just one of his many achievements as a
long-time PAHA Board member, dedicated to the promotion of the association and
its research interests world-wide.
The Swastek Prize
is awarded annually for the best article published in
a given volume of Polish American
Studies, the journal of the
Polish American Historical Association.
This award, established in 1981, is named in
honor of Rev. Joseph V. Swastek (1913-1977), the editor of Polish American Studies for many years, and a past
president of PAHA. The Editorial Board of Polish American Studies recommended that the Swastek Prize be presented
to Prof. Paweł Ziętara of
Warsaw, Poland for “Troubles with ‘Mela’: A Polish American Reporter, the
Secret Services of People’s Poland, and the FBI” (PAS 72, No 1, Spring 2015).
Ziętara’s article assembles massive, painstaking research and presents a
portrait of communist activity in the USA in the postwar period that is not
well known. It brings to light a subject both significant and fascinating, and
is based almost entirely on original archival sources.
The Creative Arts Prize will be
bestowed on Dr. Maja Trochimczyk,
for her achievements as a poet, especially in her two books dedicated to Polish
victims of WWII, Slicing the Bread
(Finishing Line Press, 2014), and The
Rainy Bread, (Moonrise Press, 2016). Her books of poetry include Rose Always, 2008; Miriam’s Iris, 2008; Into
Light, 2016; and two anthologies, Chopin
with Cherries, 2010, and Meditations
on Divine Names, 2012. Dr. Trochimczyk served as Poet Laureate of
Sunland-Tujunga, Los Angeles in 2010-2012 and was nominated for the Pushcart
Prize in 2016.
The Skalny Civic Achievement
Awards honor individuals or groups who advance PAHA's goals of
promoting research and awareness of the Polish-American experience and/or have
made significant contributions to Polish or Polish-American community and
culture. The 2016 Skalny Awards will
honor the following individuals:
Marta Alicja Swica of Minneapolis, MN, former Business Manager, Scholarship Program Chair, and member of the Executive Board of the Polanie Club Minneapolis and St. Paul, an important cultural association of Polish women, active since the 1927 and distinguished through their vast publishing activities. After the dissolution of the Club, Ms. Swica led the effort to secure its historical records and successfully negotiated their placement at the Immigration History Research Center, University of Minnesota, and the Polish Museum of America in Chicago.
Tomasz Skotnicki, Honorary Consul of the Republic of Poland in Denver, CO, since 2005, is strongly linked to local
Polonia communities, first in Santa Barbara where he organized Polish community
events to celebrate national holidays. In Colorado, he co-organizes visits of
representatives of Polish government including President Lech Walesa, organizes
consular events, cooperates with the Polish Club and the Kosciuszko Foundation.
Mr. Skotnicki actively promotes Polish culture and history and helps Poles who
are in need.
Katarzyna Zak, President of the Polish Club in Denver, has made numerous
contributions to the promotion of Polish culture and activities of local Polish
society, including numerous events, support for the Polish library, and more.
She is a member of the Polonia Council convened by the Consul General of Poland
in Los Angeles.
President of the Polish American Film Society, Elizabeth Kanski and Artistic Director of the Polish Film
Festival in Los Angeles, Vladek
Juszkiewicz are recognized by the 2016 Skalny Award for their work as organizers
of the Film Festival, held in Los Angeles for the past 16 years and promoting
Polish cinema and international film collaborations (www.polishfilmla.org) through hundreds of screenings, lectures, and panel presentations in Los
Angeles and Orange County, in collaboration with CSUN, USC, UCLA and other
partners.
The Graduate Student Research Paper
Award will be presented to Joanna
Kulpińska from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland for her
paper “Multigenerational Migration Chains of Families from Babica: An Attempt
at Typology.” Established in 2008, the Graduate Student Research Paper Award
recognizes outstanding research into Polish-American history and culture by a
young scholar in the humanities or social sciences and consists of a travel
grant and presentation at the Annual Meeting.
The newly instituted Graduate
Student/ Young Scholar Travel Grant will be presented to Aleksandra Kurowska-Susdorf from
the University of Gdańsk, Poland, for her paper “Creating Identity: Discussion
around Kashubian and Polish Identity in Canada and Poland.”
Dr. Iwona Drag Korga,
Executive
Director of the Pilsudski Institute in New York
City, has served as the Chair of the Awards Committee for 2017.
The Awards
Reception will be held on Saturday, January 7, 2017, starting at 7 p.m., at
the Polish Club of Denver (3121 West Alameda Ave. Denver, CO 80219). Award
winners are invited to attend free of charge, all other guests and conference
participants should register, $50.00 per person.
The
Program of PAHA’s 74th Annual Meeting includes
eight sessions on diverse aspects of Polonia’s culture, presented from historical, sociological, anthropological, and literary perspectives with a focus on immigration issues. Sessions
include: immigrant and Ethnic Identity, Constructing Ethnicity in Polish American Literature, Narrating
Migration: Subjectivities and Communities in Poland and the United States;
Prominent Poles in America; Between Europe and North America: (Im)migration and
Social Justice; East Central Europe: What's in the Name? The View from Exile.
An “Author Meets Critic Session” will explore The Polish Hearst: Ameryka-Echo and the Public Role of the Immigrant
Press by Anna Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann. Papers on architect Thomas Lewinski,
pianist-composer-statesman Ignacy Jan Paderewski, and writer Anthony Bukoski
will study eminent individuals and the meeting will conclude with a Roundtable
Discussion on “Progressive: Polish-Americans for
Social Progress, Jamestown through the 21st Century.” See the attached full
program for further details.
PROGRAM
OF THE 74th ANNUAL MEETING, JANUARY 5-7, 2017
COLORADO CONVENTION CENTER, DENVER
THURSDAY,
JANUARY 5, 2017, 1:30 PM-5:00 PM
PAHA Annual Board Meeting, Colorado
Convention Center, Room 204
FRIDAY,
JANUARY 6, 2017, 8:30 AM-10:00 AM
Session 1: Immigrant and Ethnic Identity, CCC, Room 304
Chair: Thomas Napierkowski, University of
Colorado at Colorado Springs
·
Creating Identity: Discussion around
Kashubian and Polish Identity in Canada and Poland - Aleksandra Kurowska-Susdorf, University of
Gdańsk
·
The "Other" Patriot: The Gothic
Nature of the Polish Catholic Immigrant Other in the Mid-19th-Century United
States - Jill Noel Walker Gonzalez, La
Sierra University
FRIDAY,
JANUARY 6, 2017, 10:30 AM-12:00 PM
Session 2: Constructing Ethnicity in Polish
American Literature, Colorado
Convention Center, Room 304
Chair: BożenaNowicka McLees, Loyola University Chicago
·
Our Little Polish Cousin and the Stara
Imigracja - Thomas Napierkowski,
University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
·
"What Are Little (Polish) Girls Made
Of?" Performing Gender in World War II Novels for Young Adults By
Immigrant and Ethnic Writers - Grażyna Kozaczka, Cazenovia College
·
Anthony Bukoski: Writing from an Outpost of
Polishness - John Merchant, Loyola
University Chicago
FRIDAY,
JANUARY 6, 2017, 1:30 PM-3:00 PM
SESSION 3: Narrating Migration:
Subjectivities and Communities in Poland and the United States, Colorado Convention Center, Room 304
Chair: Anna Mazurkiewicz, University of Gdańsk
·
Narrating a New "American": Polish Holocaust
Survivors in the United States in the 1950s
- Anna Cichopek-Gajraj, Arizona State University
·
The People of Hamtramck: What Does It Mean to
be Polish American in a Small Midwestern Town? - Anna Muller, University of
Michigan-Dearborn
·
What Polish Peasants Said about Capitalism:
Narrating Urban Subjectivity in Late 19th- and Early 20th-Century America - Kathleen Wroblewski, University of Michigan
FRIDAY,
JANUARY 6, 2017, 3:30 PM-5:00 PM
SESSION 4: Prominent Poles in America, Colorado Convention Center, Room 304
·
Chair: Pien
Versteegh, Avans University of Applied Sciences
·
Thomas Lewinski: America's Forgotten
Architect - James Pula, Purdue University
Northwest-North Central
·
The Pele of Chicago: Janusz Kowalik and the
Beginnings of Professional Soccer in the United States - Neal Pease, University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee
·
Following Paderewski: An Album of Autographs
and Clippings from Brighton, England, 1890-1914 - Maja Trochimczyk, Moonrise Press, Los
Angeles
·
That Day in Raleigh, January 23, 1917;
Paderewski, Wilson, and a Provincial Capital -
Alvin M. Fountain II, Honorary Consul, Republic of Poland, President,
Paderewski Festival, Raleigh, NC
SATURDAY,
JANUARY 7, 2017, 8:30 AM-10:00 AM
SESSION 5: Between Europe and North America:
(Im)migration and Social Justice, Colorado Convention Center, Room 304
Chair: Grażyna Kozaczka, Cazenovia College
·
Polish Migrants on the Move: Miners in the
Ruhr Area, 1920-30 - Pien
Versteegh, Avans University of Applied Sciences
·
Multigenerational Migration Chains of
Families from Babica: An Attempt at Typology -
Joanna Kulpińska,
Jagiellonian University, Kraków
·
Political Participation of Persons with
Disabilities in the USA and Poland: From History to Modern Trends - Andrey Sergeevich Tikhonov, Kirkland
Scholarship Program, University of Wrocław
SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 2017, 10:30 AM-12:00 PM
SESSION
6: East Central Europe: What's in the Name? The View from Exile; Colorado
Convention Center, Room 304
Chair:
Neal Pease, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
·
Regional
Self-Representation of Polish Political Exiles in the US during the Cold War -
Anna Mazurkiewicz, University of Gdańsk
·
Imagining
a Separate Slovakia: Anti-Communist Slovak Exiles' Hopes and Dreams -
Ellen L. Paul, Fort Lewis College
·
Milan
Kundera's Concept of Central Europe and the Ensuing Discussion Among
Czechoslovak Exiles and Dissidents - Francis D. Raska, Charles University
·
"Not
Real Germans at All": The East-Central "Othering" of
GDR-Refugees during the Revolution of 1989 - Bethany E. Hicks, Ouachita Baptist
University
SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 2017, 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM
SESSION
7: Author Meets Critic Session for The
Polish Hearst: Ameryka-Echo and the Public Role of the Immigrant Press by Anna Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann
Chair:
Mary Patrice Erdmans, Case Western Reserve University
Comments:
David A. Gerber, State University of New York at Buffalo; Jon Bekken, Albright
College; Robert M. Zecker, St. Francis Xavier University; and Anna D.
Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann, Eastern Connecticut State University
SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 2017, 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
SESSION
8. Roundtable Discussion: Progressive: Polish-Americans for Social Progress,
Jamestown through the 21st Century; Colorado Convention Center, Room 304
Chair:
Anna Muller, University of Michigan-Dearborn
Comment:
The Audience
SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 2017, 7:00- 9:00 PM,
AWARDS RECEPTION
The
Awards Reception will be held on Saturday, January 7, 2017, starting at 7 p.m.,
at the Polish Club of Denver (3121 West Alameda Ave. Denver, CO 80219). Award
winners are invited to attend free of charge, all other guests and conference
participants should register, $50.00 per person. www.polishamericanstudies.org/registration.html
