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Dominic A. Pacyga Dominic A. Pacyga ( May 1, 1949) is an American urban historian. He was a [[professor of History]] at Columbia College in Chicago from 1984 until 2017. Previous to his appointment to the faculty he served as [[Associate Director of Columbia College’s Southeast Chicago Historical Project in Chicago’s Steel District]]. He has worked in urban, ethnic and immigration history with a particular emphasis on the Polish diaspora in the United States. He is the author of Chicago: a Biography, Slaughterhouse, and American Warsaw, all published by the University of Chicago Press. https: //www.press.uchicago.edu. ‘’’Biography’’’ Pacyga was born on May Day, 1949, in Chicago. His parents were Joseph B. Pacyga and Pauline Walkosz. Pacyga grew up in the Back of the Yards neighborhood of the city and was educated at Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish Parochial School in Chicago. During college, he worked in the Union Stock Yard as a drover and as a security guard. When the Union Stock Yard closed in 1971, he recovered some of the records of the Union Stock Yard and Transit Company and donated them to the Daley Library at the [[University of Illinois at Chicago]]. Pacyga matriculated at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and earned a BA in 1971, an MA in 1973, and a PhD in 1981 fromtheUniversity of Illinois, Chicago (UIC). His dissertation, Villages of Packinghouses and Steel Mills: The Polish Worker on Chicago’s Southside, 1880-1921, (1981), was supervised by Professor Leo Schelbert. He became Associate Director of Columbia College-Chicago’s Southeast Chicago Historical Project (1981-1984), a large-scale public history project in the city’s Steel District. He then joined the faculty of [[Columbia College/Chicago]] as an unranked professor and became a full professor once rank was finally granted to Columbia College faculty in 2005. At Columbia he served as chairperson of the[[ history department]], 2002-2003, interim Dean of humanities 2006-2007, and retired in 2017. Pacyga was a visiting professor at UIC in the History Department in 1992 and a visiting professor in the College at the University of Chicago (Public Policy Program) in 1990-1991. Pacyga is currently an Affiliated Faculty Member in the History Department at UIC. He was a visiting fellow at ]]Campion Hall, Oxford University]], in 2005, and a Fulbright Scholar at the [[Institute for American Studies and the Polish Diaspora, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland]], 2013-2014. Over the years Pacyga has been active in presenting public lectures and tours, and appearing on local and national media and in various documentaries, including [[‘’Chicago: City of the Century’’]] and several episodes of [[‘’Chicago Stories’’]]. Since 1976 Pacyga has presented bus tours of Chicago's neighborhoods focusing on the historical, economic, and demographic trends that created the city. https://www.Chicago1871.org>bus tour. He has also worked on museum exhibits for the Chicago Architecture Foundation, Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago Historical Museum, https://www.chicagohistory.orgSoutheast Chicago Historical Project, https://www.swchicagohistory.org ,</ref>[[Polish Museum of America]],https://www.polishmuseumofamerica.org</ref> and the [[Maritz Communications Company]]. https://www.maritz.com </ref> In June 2015, Pacyga was a lecturer in the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar on [[Immigration from Eastern Europe]] at [[Columbia University’’ in New York City. In 2021, he lectured in the [[4th International Conference Studying Public History – Methods, Difficulties, Perspectives held at the University of Wrocław in Poland.]] Pacyga is a Board member of the Society of Midland authorsand the [[Lira Ensemble]]; has been a Board member of the Urban History Society, He was head researcher from 2017 to 2024 for the “Back Home: Polish Chicago” exhibit at the Chicago History Museum. Currently he is Curator of [[Exhibits at the Packingtown Museum in Chicago]]. ‘’’Honors’’’ Pacyga won the Oscar Halecki Award from the [[Polish American Historical Association (PAHA)]] for Polish Immigrants and Industrial Chicago (1991) http://www.polishamericanstudies,org </ref> and the Catholic Book Award for Chicago: City of Neighborhoods (1986). In 2014, he received the Miecislaus Haiman Award from the Polish American Historical Association for his contribution to Polonia Studies. In both 1999 and 2012 he received the [[Columbia College Award for Excellence in Teaching]]. In 2015 Pacyga won the [[Illinois State Historical Society’s, Russell P. Strange Memorial Book of the Year Award]] for Slaughterhouse. In 2019 he again received the PAHA Halecki Award for American Warsaw. And in 2020 he also was awarded the similarly named Oscar Halecki Polish History Award from the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in America for American Warsaw. ‘’’Books:’’’ Chicago: A Historical Guide to the Neighborhood [Loop and South Side] (Chicago: Chicago Historical Society, 1979), with Glen E. Holt. Chicago: City of Neighborhoods (Chicago: Loyola University Press,1986), with Ellen Skerrett. “Has many virtues, and much to tell”. Chicago’s Southeast Side (Charleston S.C. Arcadia Publishing, 1996) with Rod Sellers. The Chicago Bungalow (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2001), edited with Charles Shanabruch. Polish Immigrants and Industrial Chicago: Workers on the South Side, 1880- 1922 (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1991). (2nd Edition, University of Chicago Press, 2003, with a new introduction). “A well organized and thoughtful work that is extremely well documented creating a sense of humanity through anecdotes and personal testimony.” Chicago: A Biography (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009) (Chinese edition 2023). “At last there is a book for all of us, whatever we choose to call Chicago. This is a magisterial biography.” Slaughterhouse: Chicago’s Union Stock Yard and the World it Made (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015). ” A very readable book that contributes significantly to a greater understanding of the history of Chicago”. American Warsaw: The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of Polish Chicago (Chicago University of Chicago Press, 2019). (Polish edition 2024) “ A credible, solid, and well researched history of Polish Chicago”. ‘’’Significant Articles and Book Chapters’’’ “The Russell Square Community Committee: An Ethnic Response to Urban Problems”, [[Journal of Urban History]] (February 1989), 159-184. “To Live Among Others: Poles and their Neighbors in Industrial Chicago” [[Journal of American Ethnic History]] (Fall 1996), 55-74. “Responding to the Second City: Chicago’s Joe Smith and Sin Corner,”[[ Journal of Urban History]] (Jan 2011), 73-80. “From Back of the Yards to the College Classroom”, in David Gerber and Alan Kraut eds.[[Ethnic Historians and the Mainstream: Shaping America's Immigrant Story]] (Rutgers University Press, 2013). “Philip D. Armour and Chicago’s Union Stock Yard: Facilitating Innovation and the Modern”, in Kevin Harrington and Michelangelo Sabatini, eds. [[Mies and More: Building the IIT Campus on Chicago’s South Side]] (University of Minnesota Press, 2025). “Roman C. Pucinski: Chicago Alderman and Polonia Leader,” Polish American Studies, (Spring 2022) “Chicago and the Development of History in the Public Sphere”, in Joanna Wojdon and Dorota Wieniewska, eds,History in Public Space (Routledge, 2025) ‘’’Public History’’’ Researcher and Writer, Polish American Charitable Foundation, 1976. Research Associate, Chicago Historical Society, 1977-79. Principal Researcher,Chicago Neighborhood Program, Chicago Metro History Fair, Newberry Library, 1980-81. Associate Director,Southeast Chicago Project, Columbia, College, Chicago, 1981-84. Guest Curator, Chicago Architecture Foundation, the Chicago Bungalow Exhibit. 2001-02. Lead Scholar Polish Chicago Exhibit, Chicago History Museum, 2017.’ Curator “Union Stock/Chicago Packingtown Exhibit,” [[Packingtown Museum, the Plant, Union Stock Yard, Chicago]], 2017- present. From March 2018 to March 2019 Pacyga had a weekly podcast about Chicago’s history on the WPNA-FM website They were translated into Polish and appeared in the weekend edition of the‘’ Dziennik Związkowy’’. ‘’’Films”’ Consultant, “The Killing Floor”, Public Forum Productions, American Playhouse, PBS, 1982-83. Co-Writer with James R. Martin, “Wrapped in Steel”, Cineventure Inc, for PBS, 1984. Writer, “The Great Migration” and the “The Slum and the Ghetto: Working Class Chicago in the 1920s”, Chicago: Biography of a City Project, Loyola, University, Chicago, 1984. Writer, “God Bless America and Poland Too” The American Experience, ]]PBS]], 1990. Consultant on “Race and Space, The Freeway in America.” The impact of highway development on inner city neighborhoods, First Light Films, 1992-94.

References

Sidebar Dominic A. Pacyga Born: Dominic Anthony Pacyga May 1, 1949 (Age 75) Chicago, Illinois Spouse: Kathleen Alaimo (m.1983) Children: Johanna A. Pacyga (1984) Beatrice M. Pacyga (1993) Acadesmic Background: Alma Mater: University of Illinois at Chicago B.A. 1971, M.A. 1973, Ph.D. 1981 Academic Work: Major Field: Major Field: United States History with specialization in urban and ethnic history. Minor Fields: Polish History, Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Transatlantic Migration, Contemporary United States History. Institutions: Columbia College/Chicago (1984-2018) Notable Work: Polish Immigrants and Industrial Chicago: Workers on the South Side, 1880-1922 (1991, Reissued 2003) Chicago: A Biography (2009) Slaughterhouse: The Chicago Union Stock Yard and the World It Made (2015) American Warsaw; The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of Polish Chicago (2019) Clout City: The Rise and Fall of the Chicago Political Machine (Forthcoming 2025)