On July 1 PIASA begins a new administrative year corresponding to the annual terms of service of its elected officers and board members. Lynn Lubamersky, a distinguished historian emerita from Boise State University, has long served on PIASA’s Board of Directors and has been a mainstay on its various committees, most recently the New Britain conference program committee. With the expiration of her term, we thank Dr. Lubamersky for her service to PIASA and will miss her presence on the Board.
Fortunately, her place will be taken up by the outstanding sociologist Geneviève Zubrzycki, a past recipient of PIASA’s Bronisław Malinowski Award, member of the Editorial Board of the The Polish Review, and Director of the Copernicus Center in Polish Studies at the University of Michigan. Meanwhile, veteran Board members Bozena Leven and James Pula have been reelected to new threeyear terms and current Board member Anna Müller has been elected to succeed me as President. As PresidentElect, Dr. Müller will shadow me for a year.
Not only is PIASA a changing organization, it also a growing one, with membership up 5% in just the first six months of this year, compared to final year-end membership in 2022. Since April many of you have responded to my invitation to become electronic subscribers of The Polish Review, which will save on print runs while maintaining the quality standards you have come to expect. This spring we hosted our first in-person Casimir Funk Award Lecture featuring recipient Dr. Thomas Wisniewski and a webinar with our Tadeusz Sendzimir Award recipient Dr. Marcin Żukowski, both in collaboration with the Kosciuszko Foundation.
Most recently, our “Migrations” conference in New Britain at Central Connecticut State University was by all accounts a resounding success, in part because we were able to highlight the achievements of several of our 2022 award recipients, as well the inaugural recipient of the 2023 Karol Pilarczyk Foundation Award, Marta Gorczyńska.
Finally, in line with our practice of alternating the site of our annual meetings between the United States and Poland, we have accepted the invitation of Collegium Civitas to host its 9th World Congress of Polish Studies in Warsaw at the Palace of Culture and Science, with a main theme of “Poland in the World.” We will soon be issuing a call for papers, inviting you and the rest of the world of Polish Studies to join us in Poland’s capital city from June 6-9, 2024.
― Robert Blobaum, PIASA President
