Anna Cichopek-Gajraj
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Arizona State University Coor Hall 4558 SHPRS Tempe, AZ 85287-4302
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Mail code: 4302Campus: Tempe
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Anna Cichopek-Gajraj, a native of Kraków, Poland, joined School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies at ASU in 2011. She is also affiliated with ASU Jewish Studies and the Melikian Center: Russian, Eurasian, and East European Studies. Her research focuses on Polish-Jewish relations, antisemitism, violence, and migrations in Poland and its diasporas in the twentieth century. She teaches courses on historical methods, modern Polish-Jewish history and Poland in WWII, the Holocaust, European and East European history, and history of antisemitism, among others.
She is an author of two books on postwar Polish-Jewish history. Her last book Beyond Violence: Jewish Survivors in Poland and Slovakia in 1944-1948 (Cambridge University Press, 2014) is a comparative study of the non-Jewish/Jewish relations in Poland and Slovakia after the Second World War. The book was the 2016 Jordan Schnitzer Book Award Finalist (2nd place) and a recipient of the 2015 Barbara Heldt Prize Honorable Mention. Her first book Pogrom Żydów w Krakowie 11 sierpnia 1945 r., a case study of the pogrom in Kraków in August 1945, was based on her awarded MA thesis and published by the Jewish Historical Institute in Polish in 2000.
She is currently working on two projects: a comparative history of Polish-Jewish relations in two counties (Myślenice i Jędrzejów) in Poland during WWII and a social history of the global postwar displacement of Polish Catholics and Jews in the first twenty years after WWII (1945-1965). She is also involved in larger projects on documentary history of pogroms and sexual violence after liberation of Eastern Europe.
She is a recipient of the 2016 Shofar Zakhor Award from the Phoenix Holocaust Survivors' Association for “exhibiting and carrying the work of Holocaust education, Holocaust remembrance, and community interaction.” She has served as director for Poland for John J. Hartman's non-profit Foundation of Remembrance and Reconciliation for the restoration of Jewish heritage in Poland. She has also received numerous grants and fellowships from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC, the YIVO Institute, and the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture in New York, among others.
In the media:
https://polishamericanstudies.org/en/blog/22/anna-cichopek-gajraj.html
https://migrantknowledge.org/2021/03/29/knowledge-as-strategy-on-migratory-routes/
https://news.asu.edu/20210319-asu-faculty-affiliate-awarded-us-holocaust-memorial-museum-fellowship
- Ph.D. History, University of Michigan 2008
- M.A. History, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland 1998
Key research interests: Polish Jewish/non-Jewish relations in 20th century Poland and the US, postwar ethnic violence (pogroms) and antisemitism, and postwar "rebuilding" of individual and communal lives.
Current new research: wartime Polish-Jewish relations, postwar social history of displacement and global migrations of Polish Jews and ethnic Poles (1940s-1950s): family, identity, and memories of Poland.
Previous research: postwar comparative and social history of Jewish survivors in Poland and Slovakia (including everyday life and return to “normality,” reconstruction and rebuilding, identity and citizenship, property restitution, and violence).
Books:
Beyond Violence: Jewish Survivors in Poland and Slovakia, 1944-1948. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Awarded:The 2016 Jordan Schnitzer Book Award Finalist (2nd place) in the category of Modern Jewish History and Culture: Europe and Israel by Association for Jewish Studies. and 2015 Barbara Heldt Prize Honorable Mention for the best book by a woman in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies by the Association for Women in Slavic Studies.
Pogrom Żydów w Krakowie 11 sierpnia 1945 r [Pogrom of Jews in Kraków, August 11, 1945]. Warsaw: Jewish Historical Institute, 2000.
Peer-Reviewed Articles:
“Pogroms in Kraków in 1918 and 1945: Historical analysis.” Special Issue Conflict Resolution Quarterly (December 2022):1-15.
“Agency and Displacement of Ethnic Polish and Jewish Families After World War II.” Special Issue Polish American Studies 78, no 1 (Spring 2021): 60-82. “At the Intersection of Political Science and Social History.” Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies 36 (2018): 214-219
“Limits to ‘Jewish Power’: How Slovak Jewish Leaders Negotiated Restitution of Property after the War.” East European Jewish Affairs 44 (2014): 51-69.
“Negotiating Jewish Belonging in Postwar Slovakia (1945-1948).” Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies 30 (2012): 41-60.
Peer-Reviewed Chapters in Edited Volumes:
[Forthcoming] Chapter 5 “Rebuilding the Remnants (1945-2022),” in Edited Volume The Jews of Poland: A Documentary History from the Middle Ages to the Present (University of Wisconsin Press), edited by Joshua Zimmerman.
“Polish and German Jewish Survivors in the ‘Recovered Territories’ in Postwar Poland.” In Terrortimes, Terrorscapes? Temporal, Spatial, and Memory Continuities of War and Genocide in 20th Century Europe, edited by Michael Mayer and Volker Benkert. Purdue University Press, 2022.
Co-authored with Glenn Dynner: “Pogroms in Post-1918 Poland.” In Pogroms: A Documentary History of Anti-Jewish Violence, edited by Elissa Bemporad and Eugene Avrutin, 193-218. Oxford University Press, 2021.
"Przemoc antyżydowska w Krakowie po pierwszej i drugiej wojnie światowej: analiza porównawcza.” [Anti-Jewish Violence in Kraków at the End of the First and Second World War: Temporal Comparison]. In Pytać mądrze. Studia z dziejów społecznych i kulturowych XIX i XX wieku. Księga jubileuszowa dedykowana prof. dr. hab. Andrzejowi Chwalbie, edited by Anna Czocher and Barbara Klich-Kluczewska, 373-89. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, 2021.
“Pogromy w Krakowie (Polska) i Topoľčanach (Słowacja) w 1945 r: Analiza Porównawcza” [Pogroms in Kraków and Topoľčany in 1945: Comparative Analysis]. In Pogromy Żydów na ziemiach polskich w czasie drugiej wojny światowej i w okresie powojennym [Pogroms of Jews in the Polish Lands during and after World War II], Vol. IV, edited by August Grabski, 183-214. Instytut Historii Polskiej Akademii Nauk, 2019.
“The Cracow Pogrom of August 1945: A Narrative Reconstruction.” In Contested Memories: Poles and Jews during the Holocaust and Its Aftermath, edited by Joshua D. Zimmerman, 221-238. Rutgers University Press, 2003.
Book Essays/Forum:
“Antisemitism and Pogroms,” Essay on Goldberg, Sol, Scott Ury, and Keith Ian Weiser. Key Concepts in the Study of Antisemitism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies Volume 40, Issue 3 (2022): 174-81.
“At the Intersection of Political Science and Social History,” Essay on Finkel, Evgeny. Ordinary Jews: Choice and Survival During the Holocaust (Princeton University Press, 2017), Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies 36 (2018): 214-19.
Book Reviews (selected):
Review of Jewish Childhood in Kraków: A Microhistory of the Holocaust (Rutgers University Press, 2021), byJoanna Sliwa, for The Polish Review, Volume 69, Number 3, Fall 2024, 147-149.
Review of The AugustTrials: The Holocaust and Postwar Justice in Poland for Antisemitism Studies (Harvard University Press, 2021), by Andrew Kornbluth, for Antisemitism Studies, Volume 7, Number 2, Fall 2023, 449-454.
Review of Survival on the Margins: Polish Jewish Refugees in the Wartime Soviet Union, (Harvard University Press, 2020) by Eliyana R. Adler, for H-Judaic, Fall 2023.
Review of Borderland Generation: Soviet and Polish Jews under Hitler? Syracuse University Press, 2020), by Jeffrey Koerber, for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Volume 36, Issue 1, Spring 2022, 110–112.
Review of Legacy of Blood: Jews, Pogroms, and Ritual Murder in the Lands of the Soviets (Oxford University Press, 2019), by Elissa Bemporad, for The English Historical Review (2021), ceab227,
Review of Intimate Violence: Anti-Jewish Pogroms on the Eve of the Holocaust (Cornell University Press, 2018), by Jeffrey S. Kopstein and Jason Wittenberg. The Polish Review 66:1 (2021): 111–13.
Review of „What! Still Alive?!” Jewish Survivors in Poland and Israel Remember Homecoming (Syracuse University Press, 2017), by Monika Rice. AJS Review 43:1 (April 2019): 42-44.
Review of Dom, którego nie było: Powroty ocalałych do powojennego miasta (Wydawnictwo Czarne, 2016), by Łukasz Krzyżanowski. Yad Vashem Studies 46:1 (2018):199-205.
Review of Nepokradeš!: nálady a postoje slovenské společnosti k židovské otázce, 1938-1945 (Akademia, 2013), by Hana Kubatová. East European Jewish Affairs 48:2 (2018): 253-255.
Review of Jewish Presence in Absence: The Aftermath of the Holocaust in Poland, 1944-2010 (Yad Vashem, 2014), by Felix Tych and Monika Grabowska. The Polish Review 62 (2017): 100-103.
Review of Primed for Violence: Murder, Antisemitism and Democratic Politics in Interwar Poland (The University of Wisconsin Press, 2016), by Paul Brykczynski. The Slavic Review 76 (2017): 807-808.
Currently working on two projects: a comparative history of Polish-Jewish relations in two counties (Myślenice i Jędrzejów) in Poland during WWII and a social history of the global postwar displacement of Polish Catholics and Jews in the first twenty years after WWII (1945-1965). She is also involved in larger projects on documentary history of pogroms and sexual violence after liberation of Eastern Europe.
WORK FORTHCOMING OR IN PROGRESS:
[Submitted] Edited Book, The Grey Zone of Soviet Liberation: History and Memory of Sexual Violence (Purdue University Press), co-edited with Nina Paulovicova and Joanna Michlic.
[Submitted] Chapter in Edited Book “Separation and Reunification of a Jewish Family from Kraków/Zaleszczyki during WWII,” in Practices of Reunification (Routledge, Studies for the International Society for Cultural History), edited by Philipp Strobl and Susanne Korbel.
[Submitted] Chapter in Edited Book “Reflections on the Field- Polish-Jewish Relations in Postwar Poland,” in Contested Memories Still? (Rutgers University Press), edited by Joshua Zimmerman.
[Submitted] Chapter in Edited Book “Anti-Jewish violence in post-WWII Slovakia and Poland in comparative perspective” in Slovakia and the Holocaust. Histories and Legacies of a Model Nazi Ally, edited by Hana Kubatova and Jan Hlavinka.
[Submitted] Book Review of Borderlands Biography: Z. Anthony Kruszewski in Wartime Europe and Postwar America (Brill Schoningh, 2021), by Beata Halicka for The Polish Review.
[Submitted] Book Review of Kocia muzyka: historia chóralna pogromu krakowskiego (Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Czarna Owca, 2024) by Joanna Tokarska-Bakir for Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały.
CONFERENCES/WORKSHOPS/SYMPOSIUM (selected):
Organized/Co-Organized Conferences/Symposia/Panels:
Workshop (co-organized with Hava Samuelson, Anna Holian, Laurie Manchester) “Jews and Their Neighbors: 20th Century East/Central Europe in Times of War and Beyond" In Memory of Professor Mark Von Hagen,” Center for Jewish Studies, Arizona State University (October 22-23, 2023).
Workshop (co-organized with Anna Holian) “New Approaches to the Study of Jewish Migration,” Presentation: “How Polish-Jewish Survivors Narrate Their Lives in the United States after the War: Case in Oral History,” SHPRS, Arizona State University, (April 8-10, 2018).
International Conference (co-organized with Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and Michał Galas) “From Galicia to New York: Salo Baron and His Legacy,” Arizona State University and Jagiellonian University, Kraków-Tarnów, Poland (May 26-29, 2015).
Conference in Honor of Rachel Fuchs (co-organized with Laurie Manchester and Hava Tirosh-Samuelson) “France in the Long Nineteenth Century: In the Honor of Rachel Fuchs,” Arizona State University (April 12, 2014).
Panel “Jewish Studies in Contemporary Eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine),” Association for Jewish Studies (AJS) 45th Annual Convention in Boston (December 15, 2013).
International Conference (co-organized with Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, Robert Elias, Bret Werb, Sabine Feisst, and Anna Holian) “The Musical Worlds of Polish Jews, 1920s-1960s: Politics, Identity, and Culture,” Arizona State University (November 17-18, 2013).
Symposium “Revival of Jewish Studies in Eastern Europe,” Arizona State University (November 8-9, 2012).
Invited Workshops/Conferences (selected):
Presentation "Difficult Returns: Jews and Poles After the Holocaust," Summer Program: “Lublin: Site and Symbol of Jewish Presence,” Lublin, Poland (July 9, 2024).
Discussant at Workshop on “Domestic Violence in Eastern Europe under Communism: Reflections,” Jagiellonian University and the Charles University in Prague, Kraków, Poland (June 21, 2024).
Manuscript workshop, Edited Volume The Jews of Poland: A Documentary History from the Middle Ages to the Present, “Recovering Forgotten History: The Image of East-Central Europe in Anglo-Saxon Textbooks,” Warsaw, Poland (9-16 June, 2024).
Roundtable Participant “Polish Studies, Then and Now”, 50th Anniversary Symposium, Copernicus Center for Polish Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (October 9, 2023).
Presentation “The Jewish Community in Poland: Contemporary Jewish-Polish Relations," 14th Annual Powell-Heller Conference for Holocaust Education, Pacific Lutheran University, Takoma, WA (October 28, 2022).
Chair and Discussant: Conference: “Bridging Divides. Rupture and Continuity in Polish Jewish History on the 80th anniversary of the “Aktion Reinhard” and the 75th anniversary of the Jewish Historical Institute, Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw, Poland (May 23-26, 2022).
Speaker: “Jewish Displacement and Migrations After WWII,” Seminar HEFNU’s Regional Institute at Arizona State University (April 3, 2022).
Presentation “Pogroms in Context: Poland,” Conference/Workshop “100th Anniversary of Pogroms in Ukraine,” Center for Jewish History, New York (May 19, 2019).
Presentation “Displaced Polish Jews and Polish Catholics in Postwar Europe (1945-1960),” Conference “War’s End: Germany, the US, and the Displacement of Peoples in the 1918-2018 Era,” University of Madison-Wisconsin (November 8-11, 2018).
Presentation “Global Postwar Displacement of Polish Jews and Catholics: Samuel and Marek in Buenos Aires,” Conference "The Aftermath of the Second World War: A Global Jewish Perspective,” the Center for Jewish Studies, University of Toronto (October 15-16, 2018).
Presentation “Examining the Postwar,” Workshop “Studying the History of National Socialism and the Holocaust: Toward an Agenda for the 21st Century,” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and German Historical Institute, Washington DC (January 23-24, 2014).
Conference Presentations (selected International):
Presentation ”Postwar Journeys of Jewish and Polish Refugees from Poland (1940s-1950s), Conference “Practices of Reunification: The Continuation of Refugee Life after 1945,” Stiftung Universität Hildesheim, Germany (June 29, 2022).
Presentation “Living Together and Apart: Polish Jews and ethnic Poles after the Holocaust (1944-1948)”, Conference “Living Together, Apart? Neighbors in East Central Europe across the Twentieth Century,” Universite Libre Bruxelles, Belgium (June 12-13, 2019).
“Comparative Approach in Studies of Post-1945 Pogroms in Eastern Europe,” Conference “Pogroms of Jews in the Polish Lands in the 19th and 20th Centuries,” Institute of History, University of Warsaw, Poland (June 11, 2015).
“Jewish Survivors in the ‘Recovered Territories’ after World War II in Poland,” Conference “Terrortimes, Terrorscapes? Temporal, Spatial, and Memory Continuities of War and Genocide in 20th Century Europe,” Academy for Civic Education and Arizona State University, Tutzing, Germany (August 4, 2014).
“Społeczność żydowska w Polsce i na Słowacji po Holokauście” [Jewish Population in Poland and Slovakia after the Holocaust], 2nd International Congress of Polish History: Poland in Central Europe, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland (September 12, 2012).
“A Case for Comparative Perspective in Polish-Jewish History: Property Restitution in 1945,” Conference “Between Coexistence and Divorce – 25 Years of Research on the History and Culture of Polish Jewry and Polish-Jewish Relations,” Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel (March 17-19, 2009).
Conference Presentations (selected United States)
Discussant on "Continuities in East European Jewish History" panel, Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) 55th Annual Convention in Chicago (November 11, 2022).
“‘Living Across Border’: Agency and Displacement of Polish Jewish and Ethnic Polish Migrants after the War (1945-1960),” Conference “In Global Transit: Forced Migration of Jews and other Refugees (1940s-1960s),” the University of California, Berkeley (May 20-22, 2019).
“Anti-Jewish Violence in Kraków at the End of the First and Second World War: Temporal Comparison,” Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) 50th Annual Convention in Boston (December 7, 2018).
Discussant on "Contested Justice: Postwar Trials in East-Central Europe" panel, Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) 50th Annual Convention in Boston (December 8, 2018).
“Anti-Jewish Violence in Kraków at the End of the First and Second World War: Temporal Comparison” Association for Jewish Studies (AJS) 49th Annual Convention in Washington DC (December 17, 2017).
“Narrating Migration: Polish-Jewish Survivors Narrating Their Postwar Lives in the United States,” Polish American Historical Association (PAHA) 74th Annual Meeting, American Historical Association (AHA), Denver (January 5-7, 2017).
“Legacy of Post-Holocaust Poland in the United States after the War,” Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) 48th Annual National Convention in Washington DC (November 17-20, 2016).
Roundtable on Primed for Violence: Murder, Antisemitism and Democratic Politics in Interwar Poland by Paul Brykczynski, Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) 48th Annual National Convention in Washington DC (November 17-20, 2016).
“'Take guns and go for the Jews!' Anti-Jewish Violence in Kraków and Topoľčany in August and September 1945,” 14th Lessons and Legacies of the Holocaust Conference, Claremont McKenna College in Claremont (November 3-6, 2016).
“Continuity and Break in Postwar Jewish Communities in Poland and Slovakia,” Western Jewish Studies Association (WJSA) Annual Conference in Tucson (May 4, 2014).
“Postwar Property Restitution in Comparative Perspective: Poland and Slovakia (1944-1948),” Conference “Assessing the Impact of World War II on Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union,” Princeton University in Princeton (April 19-20, 2013).
“Comparative Approach to the Postwar History of Jews in Poland,” 4th International Polish Studies Conference, University of Illinois in Chicago (October 15-17, 2012).
“New Approaches to Postwar Polish-Jewish History,” Polish Studies in the 21st Century, 3rd International Conference on Polish Studies, University of Michigan in Ann Arbor (September 16-18, 2010).
WEBINARS/ZOOM
Invited Speaker at Book Launch: Glenn Dyner, The Light of Learning: Hasidism in Poland on the Eve of the Holocaust, Friends of Jewish Renewal in Poland (April 7, 2024).
Presentation “Postwar Jewish Experience in Poland,” 2024 Jack and Anita Hess Faculty Seminar at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (January 10, 2024) [Invited to Co-Lead an entire seminar but declined due to father’s illness].
Organizer: Book Series II “New Holocaust Research from Poland: Groundbreaking Perspectives” with Joanna Michlic and Joanna Nalewajko-Kulikov, Center for Jewish Studies, ASU (September 7-12, 2023).
Co-Organizer (with Nina Paulovicova and Joanna Michlic) Workshop “The Grey Zone of the Soviet Liberation: History and Memory of Sexual Violence“ (January 9-10, 2023).
Organizer: Book Series I “New Holocaust Research from Poland: Groundbreaking Perspectives” with Łukasz Krzyżanowski, Joanna Śliwa, and Katarzyna Person, Center for Jewish Studies, ASU (September 7-22, 2022).
Presentation “Acquiring Knowledge: Polish Jewish Survivors in Post-World War II Displacement,” 18th World Jewish Congress in Jerusalem, Israel (August 8, 2022).
Roundtable Participant “Gender and Sexuality in Polish/Polish American Studies: Where Are We and Where Are We Going?” Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) 54th Annual Convention in New Orleans/Virtual (December 3, 2021).
Invited Speaker, “Early Property Restitution in Postwar Slovakia,” World Jewish Restitution Organization (December 2, 2021).
Conversation and Book Launch with Natalia Aleksiun on Conscious History: Polish Jewish Historians before the Holocaust, Center for Jewish Studies, ASU (November 4, 2021).
Presentation “Acquiring Knowledge: Polish Jewish Families in Postwar Displacement”, Panel “Focusing on Families: What does Polish Jewish history have to gain?”, Virtual Conference What’s New, What’s Next?, the POLIN Museum, Warsaw, Poland (October 5, 2021).
Presentation Seminar “Performing Exile: Performance and History of Refugees from Nazi Europe,” 45th Annual Meeting of the German Studies Association (GSA) (October 1, 2021).
Speaker at ASU Jewish Studies Panel: “Postwar Polish-Jewish historiography,” 2021 Jewish studies today series, Center for Jewish Studies, ASU (April 21, 2021).
Invited Speaker at Book Launch: Artur Markowski, Przemoc antyżydowska i wyobrażenia społeczne. Pogrom białostocki 1906 roku, with Jeffrey Kopstein and Antony Polonsky, POLIN Museum in Warsaw (March 4, 2021).
Presentation “Anti-Jewish Violence in Postwar Slovakia and Poland: Comparative Remarks,” International Conference “Slovakia and the Holocaust. Histories and Legacies of a Model Nazi Ally” (September 8, 2020).
Courses
2025 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| HST 597 | Capstone |
| HST 330 | Historical Thinking |
| HST 597 | Capstone |
| HST 330 | Historical Thinking |
2024 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| HST 644 | Area Studies in History |
| WWS 591 | Seminar |
| HST 591 | Seminar |
2023 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| WWS 591 | Seminar |
| HST 130 | The Historian's Craft |
| HST 591 | Seminar |
2023 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| HST 330 | Historical Thinking |
| HST 495 | Methods of Historical Inquiry |
| JST 490 | Methods of Historical Inquiry |
2022 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| HST 130 | The Historian's Craft |
2022 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| HST 493 | Honors Thesis |
| HST 495 | Methods of Historical Inquiry |
| HST 644 | Area Studies in History |
| JST 490 | Methods of Historical Inquiry |
| HST 790 | Reading and Conference |
2021 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| HST 492 | Honors Directed Study |
| HST 591 | Seminar |
| WWS 591 | Seminar |
2020 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| HST 304 | Studies in European History |
| HST 359 | Jewish Hist from 1492 to 1948 |
| JST 304 | Studies in European History |
| HST 590 | Reading and Conference |
| HST 790 | Reading and Conference |
2020 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| HST 642 | European History |
| HST 590 | Reading and Conference |
HONORS:
2023 Nominated for The Zebulon Pearce Distinguished Teaching Award, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Teaching Award, ASU.
2016 Jordan Schnitzer Book Award Finalist (2nd place) in the category of Modern Jewish History and Culture: Europe and Israel by Association for Jewish Studies (2016).
2016 Shofar Zakhor Award by the Phoenix Holocaust Survivors' Association for exhibiting and carrying of the work of Holocaust education, Holocaust remembrance, and community interaction (2016).
2015 Barbara Heldt Prize Honorable Mention for the best book by a woman in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies by the Association for Women in Slavic Studies (2015).
1998 Jan Józef Lipski Prize (2nd place) for the Best Master’s Thesis in Poland (1999).
1998 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Special Prize for the Best Master’s Thesis in Jewish Studies in Poland (1999).
SELECTED GRANTS/FELLOWSHIPS:
2020-2021 Ben and Zelda Cohen Fellowship, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DC (January-April 2021)
The IHR (Institute for Humanities Research) Faculty Fellowship for the 2019-2020 academic year, Arizona State University
The Immigration History Research Center Archives Grant In Aid Award, University of Minnesota Libraries (2018-2019)
Melikian Research Support Fund, Melikian Center for Russian, Eurasian, and East European Studies, Arizona State University
Baron Faculty Fellowship, ASU Jewish Studies, Arizona State University
Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture Doctoral Scholarship, New York (Fall 2007-Winter 2008)
Samuel and Flora Weiss Research Fellowship at YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York (Spring-Summer 2006)
Charles H. Revson Foundation Fellowship for Archival Research, Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington DC (August-October 2005)
Marshall Weinberg Endowed Fund for Graduate Students, Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, University of Michigan (Summer 2007)
Ronald and Eileen Weiser Award for Student Research and Internship in Slovakia, Center for Russian and East European Studies (CREES), University of Michigan (Summer 2006)
Brandt Fund for Judaic Studies for Citizens of Formerly Communist Countries, Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, University of Michigan (Spring-Summer 2005)
CREES Research, Internship and Fellowship (CRIF) Award, Center for Russian and East European Studies (CREES), University of Michigan (Summer 2005)
Sheldon Hamburger and Eva Jankelowitz Fellowship, Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, University of Michigan (Spring 2004).
Esther and Louis LaMed Fund for Yiddish Studies, Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, University of Michigan (Spring 2003)
Nicolaus Copernicus Endowment Scholarship, University of Michigan (2001-2005).
Republic of Poland Committee for Scientific Research (Komitet Badań Naukowych, KBN), Fellowship for Doctoral Research, Kraków, Poland. Granted but discontinued due to relocation to the United States and admission to the graduate program at the University of Michigan in August 2001 (1999-2001)
Declined: The Polish Review Book Review Editor 2022 invitation
American Historical Association (AHA)
Association for Jewish Studies (AJS)
Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES)
Association for Women in Slavic Studies (AWSS)
European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS)
Polish American Historical Association (PAHA)
Polish Jewish Heritage Foundation of Canada (PJHF)
Polish Studies Association (PSA)
Polskie Towarzystwo Studiów Żydowskich (Polish Association for Jewish Studies in Poland)
Society for the History of Czechoslovak Jews in New York
Regular Courses :
HST 591: Genocide, War, Memory (online)
HST 642-644: Modern Europe (Core)
HST 598 Modern European Historiography
New Courses Developed:
HST 590 Survivors' Testimonies: Trauma and Memory
HST 590 American Jewish Experience
HST 590 Oral History
HST 591 Poland in World War II
Associate Professor, SHPRS, Arizona State University (2017-present)
Assistant Professor, SHPRS, Arizona State University (2011-2017)
Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada (2010-2011)
Adjunct Professor, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada (2009-2010)
Max Weber Postdoctoral Fellow, European University Institute, Florence, Italy (2008-2009)
SERVICE TO HISTORICAL PROFESSION:
Kulczycki Book Prize in Polish Studies Committee Member (2025-2027)
Peer Reviews (Articles): Slavic Review, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Jewish History, The Journal of Holocaust Research, Journal of Modern History, International Migration Review, Journal of Genocide Research, Eastern European Holocaust Studies, S.I.M.O.N. Shoah, European Review of History, Judaica Bohemiae, Judaica Librarianship, Patterns of Prejudice, Studia Judaica: A Biannual, Soudobe dejiny, Australian Journal of Politics and History
Peer Reviews (Manuscripts): Toronto University Press (declined: Oxford University Press, Syracuse University Press, and Indiana University Press).
Peer Reviews (International Report): Holocaust Era Assets Conference Report: “Overview of Immovable Property Restitution/Compensation Regime – Slovakia,” European Shoah Legacy Institute (ESLI) in Prague, Czech Republic.
Peer Reviews (Postdoctoral Programs): POINT Postdoctoral Fellowships (Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany), Max Weber Postdoctoral Programme (European University Institute, Florence, Italy).
External Peer Reviews (Institutions): Partial assessment of Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů (The Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes in Prague), Prague, Czech Republic; Academic Program Review Committee for the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies in the University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ; Jewish Studies Program, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland.
Peer Reviews (Grants and Conference Submissions): ASEEES Convention Panel Submissions and Convention Opportunity Travel Grants Applications; The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO, the Dutch Research Council)
Organizing Committee Member and Consultant for Conference and Exhibition: „Życie żydowskie w Polsce w latach 1945-1950” [Jewish life in Poland in 1945-50], POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, Poland.
SERVICE TO ASU:
- IHR Advisory Board (Fall 2019-Fall 2020)
SHPRS Service:
- Associate History Head of Undergraduate Studies (Fall 2021-Summer 2023)
- History Personnel Committee (Fall 2018-Fall 2021)
- Graduate Studies Committee (Fall 2020)
- FAR Review Committee (Spring 2015, 2016, 2017)
- Search Committee Director of the Melikian Center (Fall 2015-Spring 2016)
- Graduate Committee (Fall 2014-Spring 2015)
- Speakers’ Committee (Fall 2013)
- History Awards Committee (Fall 2011-Spring 2012)
Jewish Studies Committees:
- Curriculum Committee for Jewish Studies (Fall 2011, Fall 2022)
- Baron Dissertation Awards Committee (Fall 2012, Spring 2015-Fall 2015, Summer 2018)
- Jewish Studies Scholarship Committee (Fall 2012-Spring 2017)
- Search Committee Lecturer in Jewish Studies (Fall 2015-Spring 2016)
- Joan Frazer Memorial Award in Judaism and the Arts Committee (Fall 2013)
- Sonia Minuskin Award Committee (Fall 2012)
Melikian Center Service:
-
FLAS Fulbright Evaluation Committee
SERVICE TO COMMUNITY (selected):
- Panel Moderator: “Writing on the Holocaust,” Genocide Awareness Week “Not on Our Watch,” ASU (April 8, 2022).
- Lecture: “Polish Jewish Relations During WWII,“ Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at ASU, Ina Levine’s Jewish Community Campus, Scottsdale (February 23, 2022).
- Zoom Lecture: “Holocaust in Poland,“ Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at ASU, Ina Levine’s Jewish Community Campus, Scottsdale (September 23, 2020).
- Lecture: “History of Antisemitism,“ at Retirement Community Vi at Grayhawk (February 27, 2020).
- Commentary to a movie “My name is Sara,” Greater Phoenix Jewish Film Festival, Tempe Marketplace (February 19, 2020).
- Lecture: “History of Antisemitism in Poland,“ Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at ASU, Ina Levine’s Jewish Community Campus, Scottsdale (February 10, 2020).
- Translator for Bogdan Białek’s talks at Arizona Jewish Historical Society Cutler-Plotkin Jewish Heritage Center, Phoenix and Scottsdale Waterfront Residence, Scottsdale (November 12-13, 2019).
- Panel Presentation: “Filming the Camps: John Ford, Samuel Fuller, George Stevens, From Hollywood to Nuremberg,” Genocide Awareness Week “Not on Our Watch,” Scottsdale Community College, Scottsdale (April 10, 2019).
- Inaugural Professor F. Scott Christopher Memorial Lecture “The Roots of Antisemitism,” Temple Emanuel, Tempe (March 15, 2019).
- Lecture: “A Brief History of Antisemitism in Poland,“ Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at ASU, Maravilla, Scottsdale (November 28, 2018).