The Polish American Historical Association (PAHA), founded in 1942, is a scholarly association dedicated to the study of Polish American history and culture. Originally a section of the larger Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in America, PAHA soon became an independent organization. On September 11, 1942, historian Oskar Halecki proposed an autonomous historical institution and chose Miecislaus Haiman of the Polish Museum of America in Chicago as its founding president. Since 1944, PAHA publishes Polish American Studies, an interdisciplinary journal focused primarily in social science and the humanities relating to American Polonia. It is edited by James S. Pula, who also edited PAHA's recent The Polish American Encyclopedia (McFarland Publishing, 2011).