JOSEPH W. ZURAWSKI PRIZE FOR STUDIES OF POLISH AMERICANS IN FILM OR TELEVISION IN THE U.S.

Established by the Polish American Historical Association in 2018, the Joseph W. Zurawski Prize consists of a $500 award and a plaque, and will be awarded for the best article or book published on the topic of Polish American screen images in films or  television presented to audiences in the  United States  and released by American companies. To be eligible, scholarly works must have been published within the past three years. Nominations should be sent to the Awards Committee, Polish  American Historical Association, Chair, Dr. Marta Cieslak, at mxcieslak@ualr.edu. Although there is no deadline, for the fullest  annual consideration nominations should be made by June 1  each year. Awards will be presented at the awards ceremony  during the annual PAHA conference in January.

Joseph W. Zurawski has remained active in the Polish American community since writing his graduate thesis on Poland in 1960. He reviewed books on the Polish American community for several newspapers, was editor for Narod Polski, president of the Polish Museum of America, member of the Boards of the Polish Roman Catholic Union of America and the Polish Museum of America, and taught Polish American history and culture at Wright and Triton Colleges. He was an archivist of historical records for Saint Mary of Nazareth Hospital (known as "The Polish Hospital”), wrote several books including Polish American History and Culture: An Annotated Bibliography and, most recently, The Polish Presence in American Screen Images. Among the awards he received are: Outstanding Young Man of America, Chamber of Commerce (1963); Distinguished Service Certificate, Copernicus Quincentennial Commission (1973); the American Catholic Who’s Who (1976), Kosciuszko Medal, Kosciuszko Foundation (1977); Civic Achievement Award, Polish American Historical  Association (2002); “Wybitny Polak” (Outstanding Pole, culture category), Foundation of Polish Promotion, Chicago presentation a Chicago’s Polish Consulate, Warsaw culmination at Grand Theater and Polish National Opera (2017). He has been a proud member of the Polish American Historical Association for over 50 years.

2019: SONIA CAPUTA

At PAHA's 77th Annual Meeting in New York (4 January 2020) the first Zurawski Prize was presented to Sonia Caputa for "Stereotypes of Polish American Women in American TV Series" from the volume Histories of Laughter and Laughter in History (ed. by Rafał Borysławski, Justyna Jajszczok, Jakub Wolff, Alicja Bemben), Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016.