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Anna Cichopek-Gajraj

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SHPRS History Faculty
Associate Professor
Faculty, TEMPE Campus, Mailcode 4302
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute
Instructor
Faculty, TEMPE Campus, Mailcode 4302
Watts College of Public Service & Community Solutions
Instructor
Faculty, TEMPE Campus, Mailcode 4302
Melikian Center
Faculty Affiliate
Faculty, TEMPE Campus, Mailcode 4302
Biography

Anna Cichopek-Gajraj, a native of Kraków, Poland, joined School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies in 2011. She is also affiliated with the Center for Jewish Studies and the Melikian Center for Russian, Eurasian, and East European Studies. Her research focuses on Polish-Jewish relations, antisemitism, and ethnic violence in Poland and in Polish-Jewish diaspora after the Holocaust. She teaches courses on the Holocaust, Modern Jewish History, East European Jewish History, History of Antisemitism, Poland in WWII, and Western Civilization, among others.

She is an author of two books on postwar Polish-Jewish history. Her recent publication, "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 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.

She currently works on the social history of the global postwar displacement of Polish Catholics and Polish Jews in the first twenty years after World War II (1945-1965). 

CV
Binary Data Curriculum Vitae
Education
  • Ph.D. History, University of Michigan 2008
  • M.A. History, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland 1998 
Research Interests

Key research interests: belonging and identity in modern Polish-Jewish history, Polish Jewish/non-Jewish relations in 20th century Poland and the US, postwar ethnic violence (pogroms), and postwar "rebuilding" of individual and communal lives.

Current new research: postwar comparative and social history of Polish Jewish and Catholic DPs in the US (1940s-1950s): interethnic relations and representations, antisemitism, integration and identity, 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).

Publications

Books:

  1. Beyond Violence: Jewish Survivors in Poland and Slovakia, 1944-1948. Cambridge University Press,
  2. 2014.Pogrom Żydów w Krakowie 11 sierpnia 1945 r [Pogrom of Jews in Kraków, August 11, 1945]. Warsaw: Jewish Historical Institute, 2000.

Articles in Refereed Journals:

  1. “Limits to ‘Jewish Power’: How Slovak Jewish Leaders Negotiated Restitution of Property after the War.” East European Jewish Affairs 44 (2014): 51-69.
  2. Negotiating Jewish Belonging in Postwar Slovakia (1945-1948).” Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies 30 (2012): 41-60.

Invited Articles:

“Introduction: Revival of Jewish Studies in Eastern Europe.” Scripta Judaica Cracoviensia 11 (2013): 9-10.

Book Chapters:

“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.

Working Papers:

“After Liberation: The Journey Home of Jewish Survivors in Poland and Slovakia, 1944-1946.” In EUI Working Papers Max Weber Programme. European University Institute, 2009.

Book Reviews:

  1. Review of Czechs, Slovaks and the Jews, 1938-1948: Beyond Idealisation and Condemnation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), by Jan Láníček. Slavic Review 74 (2015): 617-618.
  2. Review of The Ethics of Witnessing: The Holocaust in Polish Writers' Diaries from Warsaw, 1939-1945 (Northwestern University Press, 2014), by Rachel Brenner. The Polish Review 60 (2015): 120-122.
  3. Review of Vanished History: The Holocaust in Czech and Slovak Historical Culture (Berghahn Books, 2014), by Tomas Sniegon. Canadian Slavonic Papers/Revue canadienne des slavistes 57 (2015): 165-166.
  4. Review of The House at Ujazdowskie 16: Jewish Families in Warsaw after the Holocaust (Indiana University Press, 2013), by Karen Auerbach. H-Net Reviews, January 2015. http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=42232.
  5. Review of Priest, Politician, Collaborator: Jozef Tiso and the Making of Fascist Slovakia (Cornell University Press, 2013), by James Ward. History: Reviews of New Books 42 (2014): 135-136.
  6. Review of The Tragedy of a Generation: The Rise and Fall of Jewish Nationalism in Eastern Europe (Harvard University Press, 2013), by Joshua M Karlip. AJS Review 38 (2014): 184-186.
  7. Review of Above the Death Pits, Beneath the Flag: Youth Voyages to Poland and the Performance of Israeli National Identity (Berghahn Books, 2008), by Jackie Feldman. H-Net Reviews, January 2010. http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=26187.
  8. Review of From Assimilation to Antisemitism: The “Jewish Question” in Poland, 1850-1914 (Northern Illinois University Press, 2005), by Theodore R. Weeks. Gal-Ed: On the History and Culture of Polish Jewry 22 (2010): 180-184.
  9. Review of Erased: Vanishing Traces of Jewish Galicia in Present-Day Ukraine (Princeton University Press, 2007), by Omer Bartov. European History Quarterly 39 (2009): 514-515.
  10. Review of Poland’s Threatening Other: The Image of the Jew from 1880 to the Present (University of Nebraska Press, 2006), by Joanna Beata Michlic. Journal of Interdisciplinary History 38 (2008): 464-465.
  11. Review of Od sfałszowanego zwycięstwa do prawdziwej klęski: szkice do portretu PRL [The Spring Will Be Ours: Poland and the Poles from Occupation to Freedom] (Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1999), by Andrzej Paczkowski. Dekada Literacka 3 (1999): 14.
Spring 2020
Course NumberCourse Title
HST 590Reading and Conference
HST 642European History
Fall 2019
Course NumberCourse Title
HST 304Studies in European History
JST 304Studies in European History
HST 369History & Memory of Holocaust
HST 590Reading and Conference
Spring 2019
Course NumberCourse Title
HST 104West Civ: French Rev to EU
HST 304Studies in European History
Fall 2018
Course NumberCourse Title
HST 495Methods of Historical Inquiry
Spring 2017
Course NumberCourse Title
HST 369History & Memory of Holocaust
HST 495Methods of Historical Inquiry
HST 593Applied Project
HST 599Thesis
Fall 2016
Course NumberCourse Title
JST 394Special Topics
HST 394Special Topics
JST 491History of Anti-Semitism
HST 590Reading and Conference
HST 593Applied Project
Summer 2016
Course NumberCourse Title
JST 499Individualized Instruction
Spring 2016
Course NumberCourse Title
HST 359Jewish Hist from 1492 to 1948
HST 590Reading and Conference
HST 598Special Topics
Fall 2015
Course NumberCourse Title
HST 104West Civ: French Rev to EU
REL 312History & Memory of Holocaust
HST 369History & Memory of Holocaust
HST 591Seminar
Honors / Awards

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).

Professional Associations

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

Graduate Faculties / Mentoring History

Regular Courses :

HST 598 Modern European Historiography (Spring 2016)

New Courses Developed:

HST 590 Survivors' Testimonies: Trauma and Memory (Fall 2016)

HST 590 American Jewish Experience (Spring 2016)

HST 590 Oral History (Spring 2015)

HST 591 Poland in World War II (Fall 2015)

Work History

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

SERVICE TO PROFESSION:

Peer Reviews (Articles): Jewish History, Patterns of Prejudice, Studia Judaica: A Biannual, Journal of Modern History, Soudobe dejiny [Contemporary History], The Australian Journal of Politics and History.

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): Jewish Studies Program (Institute of Jewish Studies, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland).

SERVICE TO ASU:

SHPRS Committees:

  • 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:

  • Search Committee Lecturer in Jewish Studies (Fall 2015-Spring 2016)
  • Jewish Studies Scholarship Committee (Fall 2012-present)
  • Joan Frazer Memorial Award in Judaism and the Arts Committee (Fall 2013)
  • Sonia Minuskin Award Committee (Fall 2012)
  • Baron Dissertation Awards Committee (Fall 2012, Spring 2015-Fall 2015)
  • Curriculum Committee for Jewish Studies (Fall 2011)

SERVICE TO COMMUNITY:

  • Lecture: “Anti-Jewish Violence in Postwar Poland, 1945-46,” Genocide Awareness Week “Not on Our Watch,” Scottsdale Community College, Scottsdale (April 20, 2017).
  • Lecture: “History of Anti-Judaism and Antisemitism (12/19th centuries),” The Pulaski Club of Arizona, Phoenix (October 13, 2016).
  • Lecture: “History of Anti-Judaism and Antisemitism in Poland,” Karski Exhibition, Arizona Jewish Historical Society Cutler-Plotkin Jewish Heritage Center, Phoenix (March 20, 2016).
  • Book Presentation: Special Program for “Generations After,” Ina Levine’s Jewish Community Campus, Scottsdale (March 16, 2016).
  • Lecture: “Antisemitism: Historical Roots and Resurgence,” Temple Solel, Scottsdale (April 12, 2015).
  • Panel chair: “Rising Global Antisemitism: Responses and Reflection,” Temple Kol Ami, Scottsdale (March 1, 2015).
  • With Melikian Center for Russian, Eurasian, and East European Studies, Consulate General of Poland in Los Angeles, Honorary Consulate of Poland in Phoenix, and Maricopa Community College: co-organized a visit of Adam Michnik, legendary dissident, former Solidarity member, and editor-in-chief of Gazeta Wyborcza in Poland, Maricopa Community College, Phoenix (October 24, 2014).
  • With Volker Benkert, Jason Bruner, Don Fixico, Katherine Osburn, and others: committee on planning of the Holocaust and Tolerance Museum in Chandler (2013-2014).
  • Lecture: “Poland after Genocide,” Genocide Awareness Week “Not on Our Watch,” Scottsdale Community College, Scottsdale (April 9, 2014).
  • With Daniel Gilfillan, Volker Benkert, Anna Holian, and Steven Luckert (USHMM): panel presentation “Deceptive Images: Nazi Propaganda, World War II, and the Holocaust,” USHMM exhibition “State of Deception: The Power of Nazi Propaganda,” Burton Barr Central Library, Phoenix (March 20, 2014).
  • Lecture: “Poles and Jews after the Second World War in Poland,” 2014 Carolyn & Dr. Herb Nathan Educators’ Conference on the Holocaust: Lessons and Legacies, Ina Levine’s Jewish Community Campus, Scottsdale (March 3, 2014).
  • Lecture: “Geography and Demographics of Jewish Life in Eastern Europe,” Chavura group (Gerard Webner, private), Phoenix (February 23, 2014).
  • Participant: 2013 Regional Education Summit, “Exploring the Future of Holocaust Education,” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Flinn Foundation Educational Conference Center, Phoenix (November 13-14, 2013).
  • Lecture: “The Warsaw Uprising, April-May 1943,” 2013 Carolyn & Dr. Herb Nathan Educators’ Conference on the Holocaust: Lessons and Legacies, Ina Levine’s Jewish Community Campus, Scottsdale (March 4, 2013).
  • Lecture: “The Jewish Community in Poland after the War,” Temple Solel, Scottsdale (March 3, 2013).
  • Lecture: “In the Aftermath of the Holocaust: Poles and Jews in Postwar Poland,” 2012 Carolyn & Dr. Herb Nathan Educators’ Conference on the Holocaust: Lessons and Legacies, Ina Levine’s Jewish Community Campus, Scottsdale (March 5, 2012).
  • With Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and Stephen Batalden: panel presentation “The Jews in Postwar Poland” at exhibition “Pope John Paul II and the Jewish People in Historical Context,” George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center, Phoenix (November 3, 2011).
  • Lecture: “Beyond Violence: Postwar Return of Jewish Survivors to Poland and Slovakia, 1944-1948,” London Jewish Community Centre, London, Canada (January 17, 2011).
Expertise Areas
Modern East European History
Jewish Studies
Holocaust Studies