The 2024 PSA Dissertation Award goes to Ewelina Sikora (Central European University, Vienna/Budapest) for her work “Table set for diplomats: food, drink, and politics in Poland-Lithuania’s diplomatic relations, 1674–1696”. (Comparative History, supervisor: Jan Hennings). Ewelina combined the study of food history with diplomatic history to create a cultural narrative of Polish-Lithuanian foreign relations, analyzing how culinary exchanges influenced political negotiations.
Furthermore, there were two honorable mentions:
– Leah Valtin-Erwin “The Shop Across the Border: Western European Retail and the Making of Post–Communist (Super–)Market Societies in Eastern Europe, 1989—1999” (Indiana University Bloomington, Supervisor: Padraic Kenney)
– Aleksandra Jakubczak “(Sex)Worker, Migrant, Daughter: The Jewish Economics of Sex and Mobility, 1870-1939” (Columbia University, Supervisor: Rebecca Kobrin)
The next call will be in 2026.
From the 2024 call for nominations:
The Polish Studies Association (PSA) holds its first bi-annual competition for the best Polish-themed English-language dissertation.
The prize committee accepts dissertations on Polish topics in the English language and in any discipline or methodology. There are no citizenship requirements for this award, and we invite nominations from academic institutions all over the world. Dissertations defended between April 2023 and August 2024 are eligible. Applicants must be members of the Polish Studies Association at the time of their application. The winner will receive a stipend of $500.
Nominations for the 2024 competition are due by Monday, September 16, and consist of the following materials:
- a nomination by the dissertation advisor consisting either of
a. an e-mail or letter of nomination (ca. 1 page)
b. the supervisor’s official report on the dissertation (typically, this is submitted to the home
university before or after the defense)
The candidate can include the nomination with their application package. If preferred, the advisor
can also submit the nomination separately. - abstract of the dissertation (1 page maximum, single-spaced)
- candidate statement that highlights the main argument, methodology, and contribution of the
dissertation to the field of Polish studies; in the statement, please point to one representative
chapter, explaining why the chapter was chosen (2 pages maximum, single-spaced) - include the entire dissertation (in one single PDF file)
- CV (5 pages maximum)
Please submit application materials to Karolina May-Chu (maychu [at] uwm.edu). Questions can also be directed to the e-mail above as well as the following committee members: Elisa Hiemer (elisa-maria.hiemer [at] herder-institut.de), Anna Müller (anmuller [at] umich.edu), and Jan Musekamp (jan.musekamp [at] pitt.edu).
The award winner will be announced at the upcoming ASEEES annual convention in Boston (Nov. 21-24, 2024). For further information about the Polish Studies Association, please visit https://polishstudiesassociation.org/). Here you can also renew your membership or become a member.
Polish Studies Association 