Miecislaus Haiman Award
The Miecislaus Haiman Award is offered annually to a scholar for sustained contribution to the study of Polish Americans. The award was established in 1969 in honor of Miecislau (b. Mieczyslaw) Haiman (1888-1949), a historian, writer, journalist, translator and Polonia activist, who was a co-founder and charter member of the Polish American Historical Association, curator of the Polish Museum of America in Chicago, and a pioneer of Polish American history.
2023 - Ewa Barczyk
Ewa Barczyk has a distinguished career as a scholar and librarian across many decades and has made sustained contributions to the preservation of Polish sources as well as the study of Polish Americans.
Ewa served as the Director of Libraries and Associate Provost at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee and pushed a focus on international librarianship, initiating international exchange programs for interns and scholars. She was invited to give lectures globally, especially in Far East and South Africa, and has authored and co-authored numerous scholarly publications and book chapters. She secured private funding and federal grants to digitize a massive collection of Polish photographs documenting Milwaukee's Polonia. Additionally, she is a board member of Polanki Inc., the Polish Women’s Cultural Club of Wisconsin, and is currently president of Polish American Librarians Association and serves as 2nd Vice President for the Polish American Historical Association. Ewa has also been recognized for her contributions with a Skalny Award, the Pula Distinguished Service award and the Medal Komisji Edukacji from Poland. Further, she was also recognized as the Polish American of the Year in Wisconsin (PAC).
As the editor of the recent publication, Footprints of Polonia, she led one of the most ambitious projects of the Polish American Historical Society successfully to completion. Through the global coronavirus pandemic, Ewa overcame great odds to communicate with hundreds of Polish Americans and scholars across multiple countries to secure entries and photographs for the guidebook, expanding our knowledge of the Polonian built environment and reinvigorating interest in Polish diasporic history in Canada, Mexico, United States, and Haiti. Since it has been printed, Ewa has attended numerous Polish American events to promote the book and interest in the sites. The Polish American Historical Association owes a great debt to Ewa for her decades of commitment to Polish American culture, and especially for her personal investment in Footprints of Polonia.
2022 - Dr. Grazyna Kozaczka
Grazyna Kozaczka holds a Ph.D. in American Literature and an M.A. in English Literature and Teaching English as a Second/Foreign Language from the Jagiellonian University, Institute of English Philology. Professor of English and All-College Honors Program Director, Cazenovia College, Cazenovia, N.Y. She has authored three books: Writing the Polish American fiction and Polish women writers. The Polish American Woman in Postwar Ethnic Fiction, Athens: Ohio University Press, 2019; William Dean Howells and John Cheever: The Failing of the American Dream - An Analogy, UNIVERSITAS, Krakow, Poland, 1993; Old World Stitchery for Today. Chilton Book Company, Radnor, Pennsylvania, 1987.
Her book Writing the Polish American Fiction ... won both the 2020 Oskar Halecki Book Prize given by PAHA as well as the 2020 Waclaw Lednicki Award in the Humanities from PIASA. She also received the James S. Pula Distinguished Service Award from PAHA in 2017 and has served as past president and board member. She is the PIASA Book Review Editor for Literature and the Arts.
2019-2021 Not Awarded
2018 - Dr. 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 - Dr. Joanna Wojdon
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 Given
2015 - Dr. 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 Instytute 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 - Dr. 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 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 his doctorate in History in 1963 from Florida State University, has published a series of significant books that deal with Poland, Polish-American relations, and Polonia's place in these 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. 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. Jaroszynska-Kirchmann
Dr. Anna D. Jaroszynska-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 as a member of the editorial board of Polish American Studies. In 2015 she became the editor of PAHA's peer-reviewed journal. In 2009, she was the recipient of the Waclaw Jedrzejewicz History Award from the Pilsudski Institute. In 2004, Jaroszynska-Kirchmann published The Exile Mission: The Polish Political Diaspora and Polish Americans, 1939-1956 (Ohio University Press, 2004), which was awarded the 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 in Colorado Springs. 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. In 2013-2014, Dr. Napierkowski served as the President of PAHA and he continues his service as a member of PAHA Council for 2015-16.
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 Dariusz Tolczyk] (Charlottesville, VA : Leopolis Press, 2003); and 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 lifeworlds 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
Dr. Erdmans is 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 (1998) and The Grasinski Girls (2005). 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. In this way, Dr. Erdmans has produced work of interest not only to Polonia specialists, but to a broader audience of scholars in the fields of immigration and ethnicity.
2005 - Donald and Angela Pienkos
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. Dr. 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 University 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 Stanow 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 imigrantow. 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 historical dictionary 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 S. Biskupski
The Stanislaus A. Blejwas Endowed Chair in
Polish and Polish American Studies at CCSU, Prof. Dr. 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 the president of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in America (at the time of the award, its Board member), and a past president of PAHA.
WINNERS OF THE HAIMAN AWARDS IN 1966-2002
2002 - Thomas Gladsky
2001 - No award given
2000 - William Galush
1999 - Daniel Buczek
1995-1998 - No award given
1994 - John J. Bukowczyk
1993- Andrzej Brozek
1992- Anthony J. Kuzniewski, S.J.
1991 - No award given
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 Radzialowski
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 - No award given
1971 - Joseph Swastek
1970 - Ludwik Krzyzanowski
1969 - Arthur Waldo
1967 - Marion Moore Coleman
1966 - Oscar Halecki (the first Haiman Award winner)