Slovak Immigration to the U.S. and Canada: Similarities and Differences

October 31, 2015
Embassy of the Slovak Republic
2:00 – 4:00 PM

How does Slovak immigration to the U.S. compare to Slovak immigration to Canada? Professor Mark Stolarik, who has been studying Slovak communities in North America for the past 50 years, will compare and contrast Slovak immigration to these two countries from the 1870s to the present. He will look at when the immigrants came to the two countries, why, where they settled, what institutions they created, what united and divided them, and what contributions they made to the Old Country and to the New World.

Mark Stolarik is Professor of History and holder of the Chair in Slovak History and Culture at the University of Ottawa. From 1979 to 1991, he was president and CEO of the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies in Philadelphia, and director of its press. Prof. Stolarik is a specialist in the history of immigration and ethnic groups in North America, with emphasis on the Slovak experience. He has published nine books and over 60 articles in the field, including Immigration and Urbanization: The Slovak Experience, 1870-1918 (1989) and Where is my Home? Slovak Immigration to North America (2012). He was a consultant and contributor to the Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups (1980) and to the Encyclopedia of Canada’s Peoples (1999). He edits the scholarly annual Slovakia (since 1982), and also serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of American Ethnic History (Detroit) and Historický časopis (Bratislava).