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).
https://news.asu.edu/20210319-asu-faculty-affiliate-awarded-us-holocaust-memorial-museum-fellowship
https://polishamericanstudies.org/en/blog/22/anna-cichopek-gajraj.html
Key research interests: Polish Jewish/non-Jewish relations in 20th century Poland and the US, postwar ethnic violence (pogroms) and antisemitism, and postwar "rebuilding" of individual and communal lives.
Current new research: postwar comparative and social history of displacement and global migrations of Polish Jews and ethnic Poles (1940s-1950s): family, identity, and 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).
Books:
1. Beyond Violence: Jewish Survivors in Poland and Slovakia, 1944-1948. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Awarded:The 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. and 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.
2. Pogrom Żydów w Krakowie 11 sierpnia 1945 r [Pogrom of Jews in Kraków, August 11, 1945]. Warsaw: Jewish Historical Institute, 2000.
Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals:
Chapters in Edited Volumes:
Book Reviews:
Spring 2022 | |
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Course Number | Course Title |
JST 490 | Methods of Historical Inquiry |
HST 493 | Honors Thesis |
HST 495 | Methods of Historical Inquiry |
HST 644 | Area Studies in History |
HST 790 | Reading and Conference |
Fall 2021 | |
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Course Number | Course Title |
HST 492 | Honors Directed Study |
WWS 591 | Seminar |
HST 591 | Seminar |
Fall 2020 | |
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Course Number | Course Title |
JST 304 | Studies in European History |
HST 304 | Studies in European History |
HST 359 | Jewish Hist from 1492 to 1948 |
HST 590 | Reading and Conference |
HST 790 | Reading and Conference |
Spring 2020 | |
---|---|
Course Number | Course Title |
HST 590 | Reading and Conference |
HST 642 | European History |
Fall 2019 | |
---|---|
Course Number | Course Title |
HST 304 | Studies in European History |
JST 304 | Studies in European History |
HST 369 | History & Memory of Holocaust |
HST 590 | Reading and Conference |
Spring 2019 | |
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Course Number | Course Title |
HST 104 | West Civ: French Rev to EU |
HST 304 | Studies in European History |
Fall 2018 | |
---|---|
Course Number | Course Title |
HST 495 | Methods of Historical Inquiry |
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).
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
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)
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 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:
Jewish Studies Committees:
SERVICE TO COMMUNITY: