Anna Cienciala was born in the
Free City of Danzig (now
Gdańsk,
Poland) on November 8, 1929. She was educated in Poland and France. Cienciala received a
Bachelor of Arts from
Liverpool University in 1952, a
Master of Arts from
McGill University in 1955, and a
Ph.D. from
Indiana University at Bloomington in 1962, where she wrote her dissertation under the supervision of
Piotr S. Wandycz. She taught courses in Eastern European history, with a focus on modern Polish and Russian history, at the
University of Ottawa and the
University of Toronto in Canada, before landing a long-term career in the U.S. at the
University of Kansas in 1965. As an author, Cienciala published two books, edited four books and wrote around forty academic articles in various American, German, and Polish historical journals. She retired as
Professor Emeritus in June, 2002. In 2007 Cienciala published, together with two other historians,
A Crime without Punishment, which explores the
historiography of the
Katyn massacre. Cienciala was a member of a number of professional associations in Poland, the
United Kingdom, and the
United States. She received awards from the
NEH,
Fulbright,
IREX,
ACLS and the Hall Center at K.U. She was a member of the board of directors of the
Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America, and received the
Polish Cross of Merit. Recipient of the Union of Polish Writers Abroad award (London, 2012). A book published in 2000 by
Gdańsk University and edited by Marek Andrzejewski was dedicated to her honor. Cienciala died on December 24, 2014, in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. == Selected works ==