Please note that this program reflects changes resulting from last-minute cancellations and is the most up to date version as of September 30, 2024. Consequently, this program may differ from the original program published on the official website of the conference maintained by the American Historical Association.
10:00-11:30 Tour of New York City East Village Polonia
12:00-1:00 Celebrating the Centennial of the Kosciuszko Foundation
Marek Skulimowski, President and Executive Director of the Kosciuszko Foundation
Tomasz Pudłocki (Jagellonian University)
Michał J. Wilczewski (Northwestern University)
Moderator: Marta Cieslak (University of Arkansas at Little Rock)
1:30-3:00 SESSION ONE
Chronicling Polish America: A Panel Discussion of Three Recent Publications
Chair: Marta Cieslak (University of Arkansas at Little Rock)
Mary Patrice Erdmans (Case Western Reserve University)
Dominic Pacyga (Emeritus, Columbia College Chicago)
Anna Mazurkiewicz (University of Gdańsk)
3:30-5:00 SESSION TWO
Poland, Polish America, and U.S. Policy
Chair: John Bukowczyk (Emeritus, Wayne State University)
Benjamin J. Bax (Swansea University/University of Central Oklahoma), LBJ, Gronouski, Yastrzemski, and the 1965 Immigration Act: Exploring the Impact of Polish Surnames and Patrilineal Naming Traditions on Assimilation and Expression of Polish American Identity
Anna Mazurkiewicz (University of Gdańsk)
Working for President Kennedy – a Polish American in the White House
Marek Skurski (University of Gdańsk)
PAHA’s Past President Jerzy Lerski in Japan (1954-1958). The Untold Story
Vivian Reed (Independent Scholar)
Albert Peter Dewey: How the First American Killed in Vietnam Was of Service to Poland
5:30-7:00 PAHA Board Meeting & General Membership Meeting
8:30-10:00 SESSION THREE
War and Displacement
Chair: Mark Dillon (Independent Scholar)
Agata Blaszczyk (University College London/Northumbria University)
Syberia Obozową w Anglii—The Siberian Encampment in England
Ewa Blackburn (University of Louisiana, Monroe)
Poland’s Refugee Children in India: Education that Became the Foundation for Immigrant Survival in Canada
Paul Wojdak (Independent Scholar)
The Forgotten Polish Siberian Children in America 1920
Anna Domaradzka (Independent Scholar)
Polish Siberian Children: From Siberia to Poland via Japan and United States
10:30-12:00 SESSION FOUR
Polish Writers and Publishers in the Diaspora
Chair: Beth Holmgren (Emeritus, Duke University)
Beata Halicka (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań)
“I Was Born a Writer”: On the Challenges of Working on the Biography of Danuta Mostwin
Silvia Dapia (City University of New York)
The Politics of Humiliation, Shame, and Embarrassment in Gombrowicz’s Pamiętnik z okresu dojrzewania (Memoirs from the Time of Immaturity,1933)
Grażyna J. Kozaczka (Emeritus, Cazenovia College)
Domesticating the City: New York in Polish (Im)migrant Writing
Barbara Krupa (Stanford University)
The Story of Roy Publishers: The Journey from Warsaw to New York
1:30-3:00 SESSION FIVE
The Family Story Told and Retold
Chair: Barbara Krupa (Stanford University)
Beth Holmgren (Emeritus, Duke University)
Rapid Current, Hidden Reefs: Writing the Postwar American Life of a Polish Jewish Immigrant
Kristina Kwacz (Independent Scholar)
Partition, Pennsylvania, Polska: FindIng Home and Heritage in the Paths of Our Predecessors
Peter J. Obst (Poles in America Foundation)
An Immigrant Lifetime in a Book: Anna Obst’s Journal
Agata Zborowska (University of Chicago/University of Warsaw)
Familiar Records? Home Movies as a Research Source on the Transformation of Diaspora Identity
3:30-5:00 SESSION SIX
Polish and Slavic Emigres and the Homeland
Chair: Robert Sloma (Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation)
Mary Patrice Erdmans (Case Western Reserve University)
“Look, the children are grown, what do you think if we move to Poland?” Stories of Return Migration among Political Refugees”
Neal Pease (Emeritus, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)
“Stan the Fran”: The Turbulent Life and Career of Stanislaw Terlecki, Footballer in Poland and America
Aleksandra Halat (University of Silesia)—didn’t return
Jerzy Fitelberg’s Heritage: The Return to Poland after 75 Years
Francis D. Raška (Charles Unversity, Prague)
A Lesser-Known Czech Dissident and Exile: The Story of Jiří Pallas and His Contribution to Independent Czechoslovak Culture
6:30-9:00 PAHA Awards Banquet
8:30-10:00 SESSION SEVEN
Polish American Activism
Chair: Christopher Blackburn (University of Louisiana, Monroe)
James S. Pula (Emeritus, Purdue University Northwest)
Marie Elizabeth Zakrzewską: Champion of Women’s Rights
Matylda Sobczak (Jagiellonian University, Kraków)
Józef Młot-Mróz: The Unusual Story of a Polish American Extremist
Anna Muller (University of Michigan-Dearborn)
Defiance, Radicalism, and Migrations: Detroit and Polish Left-Wing Radicals in the 1920s and ‘30s
Martin J. Hershock (University of Michigan-Dearborn)
“Seems to Me You Have Plenty of Nerve”: Polish American Women, Detroit’s Federal Screw Works Strike of 1938, and the Fate of the UAW
10:30-12:00 SESSION EIGHT
Makers and Movers
Chair: Anne M. Gurnack (Emeritus, University of Wisconsin-Parkside)
Mark G. Dillon (Independent Scholar)
The Polish and Slavic Women Who Helped Build Wall Street
Terry Palasz (Independent Scholar)
Mid-20th Century Pioneer: Marisha Data’s Contributions to Polish American Music, Comedy, and Philanthropy
Pien Versteegh (Independent Scholar)
Intergenerational Mobility Patterns of Polish Migrants in the United States as of 1900
Iwona Flis (University of Gdańsk)
Margaret Louise Super: An American Who Loved Poles and Left Her Heart in Poland
1:30-3:00 SESSION NINE
Creating Community, Creating Identity
Chair: Magdalena Blackmore (University of Manitoba)
Robert A. Sloma ((Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation))
Rev. Leonard Piotr Kwaśniewski (1876-1913) and St. Joseph’s Immigrant Home in Early 20th Century New York City
Anne M. Gurnack (Emeritus, University of Wisconsin-Parkside)
The Vital Role of Kashubian Settlers in the Establishment of Chicago’s St. Josephat Basilica in the late 1880s
Elizabeth Amick (Independent Scholar)
Polonia in Pittsburgh: Why Did Polish Citizens Immigrate to Pittsburgh in the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries?
Christopher Blackburn (University of Louisiana, Monroe)
He Excelleth in Many Sports: Games in the Polish Camp, 1917-1918
3:30-5:00 SESSION TEN
The Polish American Landscape
Chair: Pien Versteegh (Independent Scholar)
Peter T. Alter (Chicago History Museum) and Izabella Kimak (Maria Curie-Skłodowska University)
Ethnic Neighborhood as Murdertown: Chicago’s Immigrant Crime in Historical and Literary Sources
Anna Sosnowska (University of Warsaw)
Polish Americans and the City of Chicago: Economy, Politics, Material Culture. Key Findings from the Sociological Research
Jan Plachta (Independent Scholar)
Recognition of Ralph Modjeski
Jerome Krase (Emeritus, Brooklyn College, City University of New York)
Seeing Polish American Neighborhoods Change Again: Vernacular Landscapes of Ethnicity and Class in Flux