Dr Anna Mazurkiewicz from the Faculty of History of the University of Gdańsk has been appointed chair of the Polish American Historical Association (PAHA) for 2017-2018.
PAHA is an American scientific organisation whose mission is to conduct and promote comparative research into Polish Americans and their history and culture as well as the history of Polish migration and the Polish diaspora. The Polish American Historical Association was established in 1942 by the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America. Since 1948 it has been functioning as an independent organisation with its seat in New Britain, Connecticut. PAHA brings together representatives of many scientific disciplines as well as individuals assisting with research into the Polish diaspora. The organisation is affiliated with the American Historical Association and is involved in co-organising annual conferences. In Poland, the scientific periodical Polish American Studies, published by PAHA, is available via JSTOR, the e-journal base.
Dr Anna Mazurkiewicz, historian at the University of Gdańsk, is author of two books about the reaction of the United States to presidential and parliamentary elections in Poland in 1947 and 1989 (Warsaw 2007, Gdańsk 2009). Her scientific interests revolve around American politics towards Central and Eastern European countries as well as the political activity of migrants from Central and Eastern Europe in the USA following World War II. Dr Mazurkiewicz is the author of articles and chapters of collected works published in Poland and abroad, and editor of a two-volume publication devoted to migration from Central and Eastern Europe and recognised by the Polish American Historical Association (East Central Europe in Exile, vol. 1: Transatlantic Migrations and vol. 2: Transatlantic Identities, Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013) as well as Volume 5 of a series published by the University of Gdańsk’s Faculty of History in cooperation with the Emigration Museum in Gdynia: “Od exsilli do exile. Migracje przymusowe w perspektywie historycznej”, Studia Historica Gedanensia, vol. 5 (Gdańsk 2014). December 2016 saw the publication of her latest book: Uchodźcy polityczni z Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej w amerykańskiej polityce zimnowojennej, 1948─1954 (Central and Eastern European Political Refugees in US Cold War Politics 1948─1954, Warsaw-Gdańsk 2016).
The ceremony took place on 7 January 2017 in Denver (Colorado, USA) during the organisation’s 74th annual meeting.
