PSA Dissertation Award

2024 Recipients

• Award Winner: Ewelina Sikora (Central European University, Vienna/Budapest) for “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.
• Honorable Mention: Leah Valtin-Erwin for “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)
• Honorable Mention: Aleksandra Jakubczak for “(Sex)Worker, Migrant, Daughter: The Jewish Economics of Sex and Mobility, 1870-1939” (Columbia University, Supervisor: Rebecca Kobrin)

Call for Nominations

2026 PSA Dissertation Award (deadline Sept. 7, 2026)

The Polish Studies Association (PSA) holds its second 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 September 2024 and August 2026 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 2026 competition are due by Monday, September 7, and consist of the following materials: 

1. 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.
2. abstract of the dissertation (1 page maximum, single-spaced)
3. 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)
4. the entire dissertation (in one single PDF file)
5. CV (5 pages maximum)

Please submit your application materials to Natalia Jarska (njarska@ihpan.edu.pl) and Jan Musekamp (jan.musekamp@dhi.waw.pl). You may also send questions to these addresses.

The award winner will be announced at the upcoming ASEEES annual convention in Chicago (Nov. 12-15, 2026).