Kevin Hannan
Encyclopedia
Kevin J. Hannan was American
ethnolinguist and slavicist.
n-Irish
background. Kevin Hannan married Hanna, a Polish American
and had two daughters with her, Marianna and Celeste.
, Nacogdoches, Texas
and a Master of Arts
degree from the University of Texas at Austin
. He was the first student to receive a doctorate in Slavonic Philology from the latter university.
After establishing his family, he earned a living by working for Mills Electrical Contractors in Austin, Texas
. In 2002, in a dramatic move, he left the United States, and resumed his research and academic career at the University of Łódź, Łódź in Poland
.
an settlers, until recently, preserved their local dialects/languages, commonly referred to as Bohemian (Czech), Moravian, and Silesian. This early experience of multiethnicity
and multilingualism
, along with family links to Czech Silesia
, inspired him to embark on the doctoral research to comprehend the shaping and maintenance of ethnolinguistic and religious difference in the borderland region (that borders on Poland and Slovakia
) in the broader context of Central Europe. His wide-ranging findings, he presented in Borders of Language and Identity in Teschen Silesia (1996), which is the most insightful monograph on the ethnolinguistic present of the Cieszyn Silesia
.
After resuming his research at the threshold of the 21st century, Hannan widely travelled in Ukraine
, Poland, Russia
, and the Balkans
. He came to the conclusion that civic cosmopolitanism, divorced from localized ethnic values as embodied in long-lasting ethnic groups (often imagined as nations), failed people, leaving them to the anonymous and dehumanizing economic forces of supply and demand
. An epitome of such a situation he saw in his native United States, which, according to him, explained a constant increase in genealogical research in the country, observed since the 1970s. In this line of thinking, a person can find one’s identity only in one’s ethnolinguistic ancestry, not in the technical rationalism of law and economy. Hence, the United States or any other settler state could never become a ‘real ethnic country’. Hannan propounded this thesis with force in Why I Left America: Reflections on History, Culture and Religion / Dlaczego wyjechałem z Ameryki, which he published under a pseudonym in 2003, fearful of possible backlash that would bar him permanently from obtaining a position at a Western university.
As a positive alternative to the de-ethnicized United States he posed the ethnic values of Poland in his My Poland: Essays on Polish Identity / Moja Polska. Eseje o polskości from 2005. Obviously, this choice did not make him blind to the failings of Polish nationalism and national statehood such as the long-lasting preservation of serfdom and the never-ending quest for ethnolinguistic purity, which led to vast ethnic cleansing in the communist period (1944–1989). He was especially critical of the relentless Polonization
of Belarusians
, Rusyns
(Lemkos
), and Ukrainians
, who, in his eyes, preserved ‘real Slavic spirituality,’ as encapsulated in Greek Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity
, and the liturgical language of Church Slavonic.
Hannan chose Poland
as his adopted homeland in preference to the Czech Republic
, which he perceived as an example of an overexclusive ethnic nationalism, which led to the 1993 breakup of Czechoslovakia, producing this nation-state and another, Slovakia
. However, he always qualified his love of all things Polish by saying that ‘his Poland’ was the southern half of the country skirted by the multilingual, multiethnic, and multiconfessional Carpathians. He wrote lyrically about this area in his collection of poems, Bounties of Collective Memory / Dary zbiorowej pamięci from 2006.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
ethnolinguist and slavicist.
Personal life
He was born in the family of SilesiaSilesia
Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...
n-Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
background. Kevin Hannan married Hanna, a Polish American
Polish American
A Polish American , is a citizen of the United States of Polish descent. There are an estimated 10 million Polish Americans, representing about 3.2% of the population of the United States...
and had two daughters with her, Marianna and Celeste.
Education and Academic Career
Hannan graduated with a BA degree from Stephen F. Austin State UniversityStephen F. Austin State University
Stephen F. Austin State University is a public university located in Nacogdoches, Texas, United States. Founded as a teachers' college in 1923, the university was named after one of Texas' founding fathers, Stephen F. Austin. Its campus resides on part of the homestead of another Texas founding...
, Nacogdoches, Texas
Nacogdoches, Texas
Nacogdoches is a city in Nacogdoches County, Texas, in the United States. The 2010 census recorded the city's population to be 32,996. It is the county seat of Nacogdoches County and is situated in East Texas. Nacogdoches is a sister city of Natchitoches, Louisiana.Nacogdoches is the home of...
and a Master of Arts
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
degree from the University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
. He was the first student to receive a doctorate in Slavonic Philology from the latter university.
After establishing his family, he earned a living by working for Mills Electrical Contractors in Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
. In 2002, in a dramatic move, he left the United States, and resumed his research and academic career at the University of Łódź, Łódź in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
.
Research
Hannan stemmed from the milieu of pre-television-era small Texan localities, where the descendants of the original Central EuropeCentral Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
an settlers, until recently, preserved their local dialects/languages, commonly referred to as Bohemian (Czech), Moravian, and Silesian. This early experience of multiethnicity
Multiethnic society
A multiethnic society is one with members belonging to more than one ethnic group, in contrast to societies which are ethnically homogenous. In practice, virtually all contemporary national societies are multiethnic...
and multilingualism
Multilingualism
Multilingualism is the act of using, or promoting the use of, multiple languages, either by an individual speaker or by a community of speakers. Multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. Multilingualism is becoming a social phenomenon governed by the needs of...
, along with family links to Czech Silesia
Czech Silesia
Czech Silesia is an unofficial name of one of the three Czech lands and a section of the Silesian historical region. It is located in the north-east of the Czech Republic, predominantly in the Moravian-Silesian Region, with a section in the northern Olomouc Region...
, inspired him to embark on the doctoral research to comprehend the shaping and maintenance of ethnolinguistic and religious difference in the borderland region (that borders on Poland and Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
) in the broader context of Central Europe. His wide-ranging findings, he presented in Borders of Language and Identity in Teschen Silesia (1996), which is the most insightful monograph on the ethnolinguistic present of the Cieszyn Silesia
Cieszyn Silesia
Cieszyn Silesia or Těšín Silesia or Teschen Silesia is a historical region in south-eastern Silesia, centered around the towns of Cieszyn and Český Těšín and bisected by the Olza River. Since 1920 it has been divided between Poland and Czechoslovakia, and later the Czech Republic...
.
After resuming his research at the threshold of the 21st century, Hannan widely travelled in Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, Poland, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, and the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
. He came to the conclusion that civic cosmopolitanism, divorced from localized ethnic values as embodied in long-lasting ethnic groups (often imagined as nations), failed people, leaving them to the anonymous and dehumanizing economic forces of supply and demand
Supply and demand
Supply and demand is an economic model of price determination in a market. It concludes that in a competitive market, the unit price for a particular good will vary until it settles at a point where the quantity demanded by consumers will equal the quantity supplied by producers , resulting in an...
. An epitome of such a situation he saw in his native United States, which, according to him, explained a constant increase in genealogical research in the country, observed since the 1970s. In this line of thinking, a person can find one’s identity only in one’s ethnolinguistic ancestry, not in the technical rationalism of law and economy. Hence, the United States or any other settler state could never become a ‘real ethnic country’. Hannan propounded this thesis with force in Why I Left America: Reflections on History, Culture and Religion / Dlaczego wyjechałem z Ameryki, which he published under a pseudonym in 2003, fearful of possible backlash that would bar him permanently from obtaining a position at a Western university.
As a positive alternative to the de-ethnicized United States he posed the ethnic values of Poland in his My Poland: Essays on Polish Identity / Moja Polska. Eseje o polskości from 2005. Obviously, this choice did not make him blind to the failings of Polish nationalism and national statehood such as the long-lasting preservation of serfdom and the never-ending quest for ethnolinguistic purity, which led to vast ethnic cleansing in the communist period (1944–1989). He was especially critical of the relentless Polonization
Polonization
Polonization was the acquisition or imposition of elements of Polish culture, in particular, Polish language, as experienced in some historic periods by non-Polish populations of territories controlled or substantially influenced by Poland...
of Belarusians
Belarusians
Belarusians ; are an East Slavic ethnic group who populate the majority of the Republic of Belarus. Introduced to the world as a new state in the early 1990s, the Republic of Belarus brought with it the notion of a re-emerging Belarusian ethnicity, drawn upon the lines of the Old Belarusian...
, Rusyns
Rusyns
Carpatho-Rusyns are a primarily diasporic ethnic group who speak an Eastern Slavic language, or Ukrainian dialect, known as Rusyn. Carpatho-Rusyns descend from a minority of Ruthenians who did not adopt the use of the ethnonym "Ukrainian" in the early twentieth century...
(Lemkos
Lemkos
Lemkos , one of several quantitatively and territorially small ethnic groups who also call themselves Rusyns , are one of the ethnic groups inhabiting the Carpathian Mountains...
), and Ukrainians
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
, who, in his eyes, preserved ‘real Slavic spirituality,’ as encapsulated in Greek Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity
Orthodox Christianity
The term Orthodox Christianity may refer to:* the Eastern Orthodox Church and its various geographical subdivisions...
, and the liturgical language of Church Slavonic.
Hannan chose Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
as his adopted homeland in preference to the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
, which he perceived as an example of an overexclusive ethnic nationalism, which led to the 1993 breakup of Czechoslovakia, producing this nation-state and another, Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
. However, he always qualified his love of all things Polish by saying that ‘his Poland’ was the southern half of the country skirted by the multilingual, multiethnic, and multiconfessional Carpathians. He wrote lyrically about this area in his collection of poems, Bounties of Collective Memory / Dary zbiorowej pamięci from 2006.
Books
- [O'Donnell, Stojgniev, pseudonym] Why I Left America: Reflections on History, Culture and Religion / Dlaczego wyjechałem z Ameryki. Refleksje nad historią, kulturą i religią (translated into Polish by Anna and Jarosław Fejdych). 2003. MarklowiceMarklowiceMarklowice is a village in Wodzisław County, Silesian Voivodeship, in southern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina called Gmina Marklowice. It lies approximately east of Wodzisław Śląski and south-west of the regional capital Katowice.In 2005 the village had a population of 5,180...
: The Celto-Slavic Fellowship of Apiarists and Bielsko-Biała: Prasa Beskidzka. ISBN 83-87237-25-6. - My Poland: Essays on Polish Identity / Moja Polska. Eseje o polskości (translated by Jacek Serwański et al.). 2005. Poznań: Wydawnictwo Poznańskie. ISBN 83-7177-204-1.
- Bounties of Collective Memory / Dary zbiorowej pamięci (Series: Rzecz Poetycka). 2006. Łódź: biblioteka. ISBN 978-83-88529-18-4 [collection of poems].
Articles and Book Chapters
- Analogical Change in West Slavic Be (pp 306–324). 1993. Journal of Slavic Linguistics. No 2, Summer-Fall.
- The Language Question in Nineteenth Century Moravia (pp 116–125). 1993. Czechoslovak and Central European Journal (formerly Kosmas). No 2, Winter.
- Some Unpublished Poems of Óndra Łysohorsky (pp 98–123). 1995. Oxford Slavonic Papers. Vol XXVIII (New Series).
- Identity and Assimilation among the Poles of Zaolzie. 1996. The Sarmatian Review. No 1, Jan. http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~sarmatia/196/Hannan.html
- Ethnic Identity Among the Czechs and Moravians of Texas (pp 3–31). 1996. Journal of American Ethnic History. No 4, Summer.
- K lingvistickému přehodnocení Łysohorského literární laštiny (pp 39–47). In: K Jánasová, ed. 1996. Óndra Łysohorský, 1905-1989. Kolokvium uskutečněné ve dnech 8.-10. červena 1995 u příležitosti nedožitých 90. narozenin básníka. Frýdek-Místek: Muzeum Beskyd. ISBN 90-901843-6-7.
- Ethnic Identities in Austrian and Czech Silesia before the Second World War (pp 225–243). In: Kai Struve and Philipp Ther, eds. 2002. Die Grenzen der Nationen. Identitätenwandel in Oberschlesien in der Neuzeit (Series: Tagungen zur Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung, vol 15). Marburg: Herder-Institut. ISBN 3-87969-298-X.
- Reflections on Assimilation and Language Death in Czech-Moravian Texas (pp 110–132). 2003. Kosmas: Czechoslovak and Central European Journal. No 2, Spring.
- O urokach i stereotypach polskości (pp 135–148). 2003. Sprawy Narodowościowe. No 22.
- Polish Catholicism: A Historical Outline (pp 1008–1015). 2004. The Sarmatian Review. No 1, Jan.
- Lech kocha Głupią Ludmiłę. Polacy i stereotypy słowiańskości a "Malowany ptak" Jerzego Kosińskiego (pp 67–84). 2005. Er(r)go. No 2.
- Experiencing the Divine Conversation: Liturgical Languages of Eastern Christians in Contemporary Poland (pp 263–294). 2005. The Polish ReviewThe Polish ReviewThe Polish Review is an English-language scholarly journal published quarterly in New York City by the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America.The Polish Review has been appearing since 1956.-Editors in Chief:*Stanisław Skrzypek...
. No 3. - Polishness in the Borderlands (pp 205–226). In: Wojciech J. Burszta, Tomasz Kamusella and Sebastian Wojciechowski, eds. 2005. Nationalisms Across the Globe (Vol I: Europe). Poznań: School of Humanities and Journalism. ISBN 83-87653-51-9.
- The Historical and Linguistic Background of Lachian Regionalism and "Separatism" (pp 471–496). In: Wojciech J. Burszta, Tomasz Kamusella and Sebastian Wojciechowski, eds. 2005. Nationalisms Across the Globe (Vol I: Europe). Poznań: School of Humanities and Journalism. ISBN 83-87653-51-9.