Leaving Poland: The Reconstruction of Nations Abroad

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

Although today’s Poland is increasingly becoming a country of immigration, especially for hundreds of thousands of East Europeans, it was for the past two centuries a place that people left for many reasons, economic and political being the primary ones. In line with the newest trends in historiography, this panel features scholars interested in post-colonial, refugee ,and émigré studies, suggesting that for many leaving Poland not only became an attempt to find modernity - defined as greater wealth, industrial development, cosmopolitanism, or else - but was also a process that reshaped their national identities (Polish, Ukrainian, Jewish). Marta Cieślak and Piotr Puchalski will discuss the ways in which Cameroon and South America served as projection screens for Polish nation-building efforts, whereas Mikołaj Murkociński and Oleksandr Avramchuk will examine Polish and Ukrainian struggles against communism and ethnic nationalism in East Africa, the Middle East, and the United States. In the course of the panel, both top-down and grassroots policies toward emigrants, émigrés, and refugees will be tackled. It is our hope to stimulate a lively discussion about Eastern European national identities generated abroad.

Sub Unit

• History: Central and Southeast Europe, Since 1918

Chair

• Patrice M. Dabrowski, Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute

Papers

• Understanding Modernity: The First Polish Expedition to Africa, 1882-1884 - Marta Cieslak, U of Arkansas at Little Rock

• Emigrants into Settlers: Managing Poland’s Peasants in South America (until 1945) - Piotr Puchalski, Pedagogical U of Krakow (Poland)

• Establishing a New Great Emigration: National anti-Communist Ideology among Polish Refugees in Africa and the Middle East, 1945-1950 - Mikolaj Karol Murkocinski, Jagiellonian U (Poland)

• Rethinking History and Nation: Polish-born Émigré Intellectuals in Search of a 'New' Ukrainian Nation - Oleksandr Avramchuk, U of Warsaw (Poland)

Discussant

• Patrice M. Dabrowski, Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute

Session Manager

• Kimberly Elman Zarecor, Iowa State U