The Polish American Historical Association Conference 2014 in Washington DC

07 stycznia, 2014

The Polish American Historical Association Annual Meeting was held in concert with the annual meeting of the American Historical Association in Washington DC. The conference gathered scholars presenting their current research on the social, historical, and cultural aspects of Polish émigré communities in America.

Ambassador Ryszard Schnepf opened the conference on January 3rd, at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington D.C. In his welcoming remarks he underlined the importance of the PAHA mission to promote research and disseminate Polish-American history and culture. He highlighted an improvement in cooperation between US-based researchers and academics from Poland, and encouraged PAHA members to take part in celebrating in the important historical anniversaries in 2014: the 100th birthday of Jan Karski, the legendary Polish resistance emissary who brought the first accounts of the Holocaust to the world, and the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising. Ambassador Schnepf wished participants many fruitful discussions and invited all of them to the Embassy for PAHA’s Annual Awards Ceremony that evening.

The conference consisted of eight panels dedicated to such topics as: Protest and Exile, Polish Immigrant and Ethnic Women, Between the Revolutionary War and World War II, Polish Immigrant and Ethnic Identities, Religious Leaders and Communities, and Stories of World War II.

The annual PAHA Awards for research in the field of Polish American Studies were announced during the Awards Banquet on Friday evening, hosted at the Embassy of the Republic of Poland by Deputy Chief of Mission to the US, Minister-Counselor Maciej Pisarski. PAHA presented the annual Halecki Prize for the best book on a Polish American topic to Dr. Beth Holmgren, Professor of Slavic and Eurasian Studies, Slavic and Eurasian Studies Department Chair at Duke Universityfor her book "Starring Madame Modjeska: On Tour in Poland and America", the annual Haiman Award for sustained scholarly effort in the field of Polish American Studies to Dr. Dominic A. Pacyga, and the annual Swastek Prize for the best article appearing in Polish American Studies to Dr. Anna Mazurkiwicz from the University of Gdańsk, as well as many other awards publicized on PAHA Website: www.polishamericanstudies.org.