The New Horizons

Let me begin with what might seem like a rather bleak statement, especially on the pages of Polish American Studies (PAS). Polish American studies as a field is not what it used to be. During the Cold War and following the end of the communist regime in East Central Europe, in the tumultuous period of transition to capitalism and democracy, Poland, Poles, and Polish diaspora, including in North America, were in the center of academic, intellectual, and geopolitical discourses. Interdisciplinary scholarship on Polish Americans flourished, as demonstrated by a steady stream of publications. Universities and other funding organizations supported research that focused on Polish and Polish American themes. Students flocked to courses where Polish and Polish American stories dominated classroom conversations. Quite a few pursued their interests by writing doctoral dissertations and becoming the next generation of accomplished scholars. In 1997, Mark Kulikowski compiled a bibliography on Polish Americans published between 1991 and 1995, listing 402 books, articles, and dissertations. He concluded, “interest in Polish Americans on both sides of the Atlantic remains high.” He also noted already ongoing changes to the larger field of ethnic studies and pointed out the definitive transition of Poles into the realm of “‘old’ rather than the ‘new’ immigration.”1The landscape of Polish American studies looks different today. Few universities in the United States still have designated professorships that include Polish Americans as a research and teaching concentration. As the nestors of our field retire, their academic lines disappear or are turned into new positions with a different focus. It is now almost unheard of that students would take courses in Polish American studies. If they learn about the Polish American experience at all, it is usually in more general courses, like those on ethnicity, migration, or labor. Graduate students writing dissertations on Polish American themes are facing the ever-shrinking academic job market. As most universities face budget cuts, the humanities and social science departments especially reduce in size. And if tenure track positions in ethnic, migration, or diaspora studies open, the scholars of the Polish American experience are competing with scholars representing what in the 1990s Kulikowski alluded to as “new immigration.” In this case, “new” means current, reflecting urgent geopolitical concerns, and, consequently, more sought after as a potential addition to any department.Of course, Polish American studies is not unique in its fate as a field pushed to the margins of academia. As everything in the world, academic research trends respond to changing geopolitical landscapes and, let us be frank, changing intellectual fashions. This is particularly true of the fields that are tied to the geographical regions that have never been the center of the modern world, even as that center has been constantly shifting. Most regions in East Central Europe, and consequently their diasporas, are on the peripheries of academic research in the United States or Canada. Their attractiveness as a subject of study in North American academia diminished as East Central European states became relatively stable democratic and capitalist regimes and as the United States and Canada ceased to function as the promised lands full of economic opportunities and political freedoms for East Central European, including Polish, migrants. It took a horrific war triggered by the 2022 invasion by Russia to spark the current renewed wave of academic interest in Ukraine, including in the United States and Canada. Correspondingly, the geopolitical importance of regions like the Middle East or China overlaps with the willingness of academic institutions to invest in scholarship investigating these regions. It is not a coincidence that universities still have positions with concentration in Russian studies, often noting particular interest in candidates specializing in the world east and south rather than west of Russia.But let me clear, I am not here to mourn or complain. Polish American studies is not the first nor the last interdisciplinary field to be caught in these predictable patterns. In fact, we should all be so lucky to live in, come from, or study regions so stable that academia is paying less and less attention to them; regions safe and predictable enough not to be producing massive migration waves, diasporas, or political crises leading to repressions and displacement. Boring can be good.There is another reason not to mourn or complain. Polish American studies is not going anywhere. How does that make sense considering everything I have written thus far? The answer is quite simple. Polish American studies as an interdisciplinary field of research is constantly adapting. And I would like to argue that hardly anything proves the resilience of an academic field more than the ability to respond to changes.As I am writing these words in late January 2025, we are merely weeks away from the PAHA 81st Annual Meeting in New York City, organized, as usual, in affiliation with the American Historical Association. It is remarkable to think that PAHA-affiliated scholars have been meeting to present their ongoing research for eighty-one years. And there does not seem to be any signs of slowing down. The conference planning committee, chaired by the current PAHA President Karen Majewski, faced multiple challenges to make sure the event was no longer than the scheduled three days. That forced us to reject some proposals and plan days packed with panels and accompanying events from the early hours of the morning through late evenings. We hosted presenters and audience members from the United States, Europe, and Canada. We welcomed back old friends and were thrilled to see new faces. Over forty professional academics, independent scholars, and community activists working tirelessly to preserve the Polish American legacy at the local level shared their projects and exchanged experiences.It was particularly exciting to learn about the work of junior scholars. It has been the constant of our conferences to open space for graduate students from both sides of the Atlantic. 2025 was no exception. This year, however, for the first time in many years, an undergraduate student presented her work too. Seeing scholars who are still in training share their work in front of international audiences that includes the giants of the field is what every intellectual community needs to make sure its work continues. The future is here, and we could not be more excited about it.If you have attended more than one PAHA annual conference, you know that presenters return year after year to share their recent work. It is a community—and I am using this often-overused word very intentionally—where colleagues become trusted mentors, reviewers, and friends. Creating a welcoming space for academic and community scholars alike is what I consider one of the most important aspects of our mission. In the end, there is no PAHA without its members. And I am proud to report that PAHA's individual membership numbers have been steadily on the rise since 2020. This means that what seemed like an unavoidable crisis of membership and research opportunities caused by the COVID-19 pandemic did not reverse the growth trend. In fact, we have added another cohort of scholars who regularly return to our annual meetings.These steady annual additions overlap with exciting developments in the field. I was still PAHA's 2nd VP when we met in New York in January 2020. Under the presidency of Anna Müller, we faced a similar problem to PAHA 2025: How could we possibly accommodate all the proposals in only three days? And then the COVID-19 pandemic shut the world down. We were forced to cancel the 2021 meeting and in 2022, when we met in New Orleans, many still hesitated to join. But as we slowly emerged out of the global public health crisis, something truly exciting revealed itself: new research horizons in Polish American studies that had been rarely addressed before. Of course, it is not the first time something like that has happened. The defining feature of a healthy research field is its constant development. I would argue, however, that the current developments reveal a fascinating breadth in terms of content but also methods employed by both academics and community scholars.Scholars like Benjamin Bax, Kathleen Callum, or Robert Sloma investigate the Polish diaspora in the West in the context of settler colonialism. Their work aims to include Polish diaspora in the larger rewriting of the US history from the perspective of the Indigenous displacement in the aftermath of the arrival of Europeans, including Poles. Kazimierz Bem is developing a captivating project about Polish Protestant communities in the United States, a topic that has long been pushed to the margins of the scholarship focusing largely on the role of Catholicism among Polish Americans. Another important trend are scholars who include Polish American studies in the developing discussions on how the local and the personal connect with the global and how biographies can help us understand the place and role of individuals in sweeping transnational processes. The works of such scholars as Magdalena Blackmore, Iwona Flis, Beata Halicka, and Kristina Kwacz all contribute to this development. Note that the four scholars are women who focus on the stories of women. In 2021, Anna Müller and I wrote in the special issue of PAS on gender and sexuality that gender as a category of analysis had not historically received the attention it deserved in Polish American studies. The landscape of the field looks different in 2025. To this list of predominantly historical studies (although Callum and Sloma are archeologists who combine historical and archeological methods), let me add only some developments from across other disciplines. Izabella Kimak is breaking new grounds in Polish American literary studies. Agata Zborowska explores Polish American communities from the perspective of media/cultural/visual studies. Aleksandra Halat and Terry Palasz preserve the legacies of Polish American influences in music. These are just some of the current research trends in our field.Although we are a predominantly scholarly and academic organization, research is not our only focus. In the last two years, PAHA intensified its efforts to bring Polish American stories to wide audiences. In late 2022, we published Footprints of Polonia: Polish Historical Sites Across North America, a unique guide to Polish American sites in North America. It is not an exaggeration to say that Ewa Barczyk, PAHA's 2nd VP from 2020 to 2024 and the book's editor and moving force, spent the last two years tirelessly promoting the book across the United States and beyond. As of early 2025, the first edition is almost out of print. Also in 2022, the PAHA Board of Directors initiated PAHA Books, an imprint series that promotes the publication of works in Polish diaspora studies. Thanks to the works of the Imprint Series Board (ISB) consisting of Neal Pease (editor in chief), Joshua Blank, John Bukowczyk, Anna Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann, Grażyna Kozaczka, and James Pula, in 2024 John Guzlowski's Who I Am: Lives Told in Kitchen Polish, a collection of essays reflecting on what it means to be Polish American, was the first volume published in the series. The publication contributes to promoting Polish American storytelling that PAHA's outreach activities highlighted in the last two years. Among other activities in this realm are PAHA's ongoing digital publications Objects that Speak and Being Polish American. We have also highlighted this theme in our webinars. In 2023, one of the most popular webinars ever organized by PAHA was Polish American Stories and Storytelling with Mary Erdmans, Kristina Kwacz, and Leslie Pietrzyk, followed by the 2024 webinar with Bruce Harkness, a photographer and visual storyteller of Detroit's Poletown.The last two years brought also important institutional transitions. In 2023, the PAHA membership overwhelmingly supported changes to our Constitution that enabled us to move some of our most critical operations to the digital realm. A lot of behind-the-scenes work needed to happen for these changes to take place. Here, I would like to thank our Communications Director Stephen Leahy for initiating the difficult task of rewriting the PAHA bylaws, a particularly taxing process. It is no secret that all long-operating institutions are now facing the challenges of the digital transition, and I am proud to report PAHA passed its first test in 2024, when for the first time we held out biannual Board of Directors election virtually. These changes can be nerve-wracking for an organization that has been operating for over eighty years. Yet, thanks to the work of everyone involved the election ran smoothly and offered our members the efficiency and convenience of voting online. I would like to thank especially Karen Majewski, Anna Müller, Neal Pease, and Pien Versteegh for their help in this process. Correspondingly, in 2024, we transitioned our newsletter to an online format. Many thanks to the newsletter editor Michał Wilczewski for leading those efforts and navigating the not-so-easy process with grace and resilience.As I am departing the PAHA presidency, I would also like to express my gratitude to all who contribute daily to the organization's constant growth. First, thanks to our members for always supporting PAHA. There is no PAHA without you, and we hope you continue your support. My very special thanks go to the leadership of the Central Connecticut State University, where PAHA's administrative headquarters and institutional archive are housed. Here we owe special thanks to Magda Jacques, who provides administrative assistance, and Renata Vickrey, who lends her expertise as the university archivist to make sure the institutional records of PAHA are preserved for future generations. Thank you for your continuous endorsement of our mission.There is no successful academic organization without a committed and engaged board. My special thanks to the PAHA Board of Directors. It is important to keep stressing that PAHA is an entirely volunteer-based organization and that each Board member does the work because they believe in continuing the work of the generations that came before us. Thank you for your work that often happens after the long hours of all the other work you do every day.Anna Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann has been leading the peer-reviewed journal of Polish American Studies for ten years now and it is hardly possible to estimate how much work and commitment it takes to run an academic journal with the intellectual rigor and poise that she has exhibited in this role. I also want to thank Mary Erdmans and Anna Mazurkiewicz for their work as the journal's book editors. Additional thanks to Anna Mazurkiewicz for her work as our website administrator. Responding to countless requests to edit or update the website is a work shift that never ends.I would also like to extend my personal thanks to the PAHA colleagues who have supported me in daily tasks as the organization's president. Anna Müller and Neal Pease served as PAHA's presidents and role models when I served as the 2nd and 1st VP respectively. Anna has become a close collaborator and dear friend, and I am very grateful to PAHA for creating the space where meeting a colleague at a conference means forging meaningful professional and personal relationships. Neal is the goldmine of institutional knowledge about PAHA, and I am grateful for his mentorship and for answering my endless questions. I also want to thank John Bukowczyk, who is an extremely attentive and engaged PAHA Board member. John always means business but also never forgets to share encouraging words. It can make a difference when you hear from one of the most respected scholars in the field and a very kind colleague, “Just keep going. You are doing a good job.” Finally, my thanks to two women, without the support of whom I could not have done the work I did in the last two years, Ewa Barczyk and Pien Versteegh. Ewa served as PAHA's 2nd VP for the last four years. She is one of the hardest working people I have ever met, and I am very grateful for all that she has done to make our conferences successful, awards-granting process smooth, and PAHA visible among wide audiences. I am very grateful I could rely on her support not only as the president but also as the 1st VP in the two years prior. Pien has been serving as PAHA's executive director for over fifteen years. She ensures institutional continuity with each new leadership wave and brings the wealth of knowledge that she never hesitates to share. Being able to rely on her every day allowed me to do my job even when it seemed too overwhelming. Ewa and Pien, thank you for being the colleagues and friends that any organization's leader could only wish for.As we are embarking on a new chapter in PAHA's history, I want to wish the new leadership, President Karen Majewski, 1st Vice-President Anna Jordanovska-Sosnowska, and 2nd Vice-President Iwona Flis, all the best in the upcoming two years. It is thrilling to see PAHA in the capable hands of these three incredible women scholars and leaders and I am looking forward to the new directions that they will take.