LETTER FRoM ThE DiRECToR

CENTER FoR RuSSiAN, EAST EuRopEAN & EuRASiAN STuDiES

CREES Newsletter

CoNTENTSO��� W����: E������������ S�������������2

S��� CREES T��� A�����!3

F������ I��������: R������������4

F��� T����:I������� ��� C�������� A���� ��� C��� W�� E��8

O������� H���������10

B������� H���������12

F������ � S���� N��� 14

A����� N���15

S������ N���16

I������� REES G������� S�������17

C������� �� E�����18

FALL 2011

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

As I welcome you back from sum-mers full of travel, study, reading, writing, and research, I start by let-ting you know that there is good news and bad news. We’ll get through the bad news fi rst.

As you may already know, the National Resource Center budgets for 2011-12 were sliced 46.5%. What that means for CREES is that, with the help of the dean of CLAS and the provost, CREES will be able to fulfi ll its teaching contracts but not much else. CREES has been forced to cut all Title VI funded programs, including: foreign language and area study curriculum development; library development for Slavic and Eurasian collections, which are used by all of us and by fac-ulty and students far beyond the walls of KU; CREES’s web development expert, who works on the Slavic Great Plains website, as well as archiving all CREES talks, conferences, and pedagogical materials, making them universally available; sup-port for the Russia’s Great War and Revolution web project; the visiting lecturer position in Russian Military History; fac-ulty travel and other support to disseminate new research; visiting lecturers; K-12 teacher conferences and curriculum development support; research conferences for the dissemi-nation of cutting-edge area- and language-relevant research; the CREES Fellows program, which supports researchers from regional two- and four-year colleges and universities to conduct research using KU’s Slavic and Eurasian collections ...not to mention offi ce supplies of any kind.

On behalf of the whole CREES community, I express my deepest gratitude to Dean Anderson and Provost Vitter for support from the KU side, so that we were able, in the end, to secure all our instructional lines for 2011-12. Without their generous help, we would have had to cut instructor salaries. It means a great deal that our higher administration came to our aid. That expression of confi dence in our pro-grams bodes well, when and if KU area studies centers have the chance to apply for another Title VI grant.

In the meantime, we need your help! Please visit our “Save CREES, Take Action!” (page 3) and join our letter writing campaign. Let your representatives in Washington know why CREES is important to you, and why it is vital they restore Title VI funding for 2012-13.

In other news, as always, we have had various faculty and staff comings and goings. We bid farewell to Professor Afshin Marashi, who is leaving KU for a professorship in Middle East history at the University of Oklahoma. We wish him well and hope to see him here at future events. In April Lisa Guilian, CREES Program Assistant, left to have her baby, Christian. Congratulations Lisa and Jon! In May Bill London, CREES’s intrepid offi ce manager of 6 years, took a new, and much bigger, job as the director of internal operations at

the Spencer Museum of Art. We say “good-bye” but not “farewell” to Bill and look forward to seeing him from time to time in the halls of Bailey.

It is a great pleasure to welcome several new faculty and staff joining the CREES community. Professor Ani Kokobobo (PhD Columbia University) comes to the Slavic Department as an assistant professor in nineteenth-century Russian litera-ture. Professor Alex Diener (PhD University of Wisconsin) will join the Geography Department fall, 2012, after a year of Fulbright-funded research in Kazakhstan and elsewhere in Central Asia. In March Adrienne Landry (MA, REES, Co-lumbia University) joined the CREES team as both outreach coordinator and program assistant. In May Cathy Swenson-Tucker became our new CREES accountant and offi ce man-ager after many years working in the Offi ce of Study Abroad.

The good news from last spring includes CREES’s new three-year grant from the Institute of Turkish Studies to expand the lectureship in Turkish language from an 0.5 FTE position to a 0.75 FTE position. The goal is to expand Turkish language enrollments and to create a 3rd-year language course and a junior-senior level course in Turkish literature and culture.

This past spring and summer saw a number of notably suc-cessful programs. April 1 CREES and Ft. Leavenworth’s For-eign Military Studies Offi ce spearheaded the second annual security conference on “Migration, Shadow Economies, and Security Issues on the World’s Borders.” All the internation-al and area studies centers participated, and the attendance was nearly double that of the fi rst security conference.

Another high point of the spring was the Slavic Department-CREES partnership with the School of Music on a two-day Russian Culture Festival in conjunction with the Tariverdiev Organ Competition at KU’s Bales Organ Recital Hall.

The Alash Ensemble music residency in April was an excit-ing three-day fl urry of events around throat singing. CREES collaborated with the Lawrence Arts Center, the School of Music, CEAS, LASC, CGIS, KASC, and the Offi ce of In-ternational Programs to bring the ensemble of four throat singers and their American manager from Tuva in South-Central Siberia. The fi rst evening, Alash collaborated with the Lawrence Arts Center’s 940 Dance Company for a special concert featuring “Whispering River.” 940 Dance Company Director Susan Rieger had heard Alash Ensemble during their March, 2010, visit to KU. Inspired by their music, she choreographed two dances from two of their songs. The theme of the joint performance was environment and nature in Central Asia.

The second evening, Alash gave a standing room only con-cert at the Lawrence Arts Center. Rumor has it that directly after the concert the Alash Ensemble’s CD was already playing at the popular Lawrence café, The Bourgeois Pig. Read more about their activities on page 11.

Center for Russian, east european & eurasian studiesBailey Hall |1440 Jayhawk Boulevard, Room 320 | lawrence Ks 66045 | (785) 864-4236 | Fax (785) 864-3800 | crees.ku.edu

www.facebook.com/ku.crees

edith cloWes

director

eclowes@ku.edu

Mariya oMelicheva

associate director

omeliche@ku.edu

Bart redFord

assistant director

bredford@ku.edu

cathy sWenson-tucKer

accountant

cathytucker@ku.edu

adrienne landry

outreach coordinator

prograM assistant

alandry@ku.edu

JaKe poterBin

digital coMMunications Manager

student assistant:Ben King

CRees is designated a national Resource Center for the study of Russia, eastern europe and eurasia by the us Department of education, and receives title vi funds for educational and outreach activities. the center is a degree-granting program within the College of liberal arts and sciences at the uni-versity of Kansas. For further information about CRees, please visit our website:

CREES stAFF

www.crees.ku.edu

2 CREES NEWSLETTER

CREES Needs youR help!Save Title Vi international Education programsFederal funding to KU’s International Stud-ies centers has been drastically cut for the 2011-12 fi scal year.

Under the 2011 Full-Year Continuing Resolu-tion (H.R. 1473) enacted April 15, the De-partment of Education’s Title VI/Fulbright-

Hays International Education programs have been cut by a devastating $50 million (or 40%) for the current fi scal year. National Resource Cen-ters, like CREES, were hit with a signifi cantly larger budget reduction of 46.53%. While it is understood that our nation faces diffi cult economic times and austerity measures are necessary, a 46.53% reduction to the CREES grant does more than trim the fat from our budget. It cuts deep into the bone of the resources CREES and other NRCs provide.

If the cuts continue in 2012, CREES will have no option but to re-duce the number of languages currently available at KU. Consider-ing languages like Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian and Tajik, all of which are supported by CREES, are currently listed as “critical” by the US State Department, reducing access to learning these languages is more than just an eductional issue, it is a national security concern. Along with the

reduction in language teaching, it will be necessary for CREES to curtail programmatic activities including guest lectures, conferences, teacher workshops, and reduce the number of staff working for CREES who make all these activities possible. In 2012, it is possible FLAS Fellow-ships will be affected as well. Title VI programs are the portals through which Americans gain expert knowl-edge of critical languages and cultures of the world, thereby becoming less fearful and more pro-active in their interactions with other peoples. These programs are of high importance because they serve as the training ground for future specialists working for US Government, business, and NGOs.

Help save CREES by taking action! Please write your Members of Con-gress now and ask them to restore funding for these programs in the FY 2012 appropriations bill. Please feel free to use the sample letter below, or go to the National Humanities Alliance Online Action Center and sign their petition: http://tinyurl.com/3ptr2ay. On this website, the Alliance has set up a template message for you to customize, including sample bullet points. We strongly encourage you to personalize this message. Tell Congress, in your own words, why CREES along with all the other Title VI/Fulbright Hays programs are important to you.

Save CREES. Take action!

Dear Congressman,

I am writing to ask for your urgent support in restoring funding for the Dept. of Education’s Title VI/Fulbright-Hays programs, funded under the International Education and Foreign Language account. Under the 2011 Full-Year Continuing Resolution (H.R. 1473), these programs have been cut by a devastating $50 million (or 40%). Six of the fourteen grant competitions scheduled for 2011 have been cancelled, four programs are zeroed and other key programs are being cut by over 50%.

Please help save these programs by asking Appropriations Committee and Labor/HHS/Ed Subcommittee leaders to restore funding for existing programs in the Department’s International Education and Foreign Language Studies account in the FY 2012 appropriations bill to the FY 2010 enacted level of $125.9 million - the same amount requested in the President’s FY 2012 Budget.

- The 14 IEFLS programs form the core infrastructure of the federal government’s investment in advancing both broad global literacy for our citizens, and ensuring a pipeline of expertise for government, business, and non-profi t sectors.

- These programs play an important role in supporting our nation’s long-term national security, global leadership, economic competitiveness, as well as mutual understanding and collaboration around the world.

- They support comprehensive language and area study centers, international busi-ness centers, research and curriculum development, opportunities for American students and scholars to study and conduct research abroad, activities to increase the number of underrepresented minorities in international service, and outreach to K-12 schools, higher education institutions, business, government and the public. Instruction is provided in over 130 languages and 10 world areas, with emphasis on the less commonly-taught, strategic languages and areas of the world. Most of these languages would not be regularly taught but for this support.

I urge you to help maintain our nation’s international education capacity, which has taken decades to build, through the IEFLS programs.

Sincerely,

Your Name

SAVECREESTAKEACTION

Contact infoKansas senators:

Jerry MoranRussell Senate Offi ce BuildingRoom 354Washington, D.C. 20510Phone: (202) 224-6521Fax: (202) 228-6966www.moran.senate.gov/public/

Pat Roberts Hart Senate Offi ce BuildingRoom 109Washington, D.C. 20510Phone: (202 224-4774Fax: (202) 224-3514www.roberts.senate.gov/public/

Kansas representative:

Kevin Yoder, 3rd District214 Cannon HOBWashington, DC 20515Phone: (202) 225-2865Fax: (202) 225-2807

For contacting members of congress from other states, visit the congressional directory at:

www.contactingthecongress.org

3FALL 2011

Edith W. Clowes, Director, CREES

June 18-26, 2011, CREES hosted a delegation from Russia as part of the Open World Program. Managed by the independent Open World Leadership Center, Open World is designed to enhance understanding and capabili-ties for cooperation between the United States and the countries of Eurasia by developing a network of leaders in the region who have gained signifi cant, fi rst-hand exposure to America’s democratic, accountable government and free-market system. Funded almost entirely by the US Congress, Open World links Members of Congress to Eurasian leaders and is an instrument for Americans engaged in citizen diplomacy.

The June delegation, which was the second group hosted by CREES in 2011, was composed of Russian environ-mental administrators and activists interested in learning US best practices for environmental sustainability. The fi ve delegates met with representatives of the Lawrence City Waste Reduction and Recycling Division, and toured a number of Lawrence facilities. The delegates also toured Westar’s LEED Silver-Certifi ed Lawrence Service Center. Other meetings included visits with KU units, local environmental NGOs and private fi rms focused on environ-mental management. One day of their visit was spent in Topeka, meeting with the representatives of KU’s Center for Public Management and touring the Kansas Statehouse. They journeyed to Greensburg, Kansas, to tour this small town, rebuilt as a model green community after a devastating tornado in 2007. To see a complete photo album of this visit, check out our gallery at: https://picasaweb.google.com/ku.crees/.

Inspired by the success of this visit, CREES will commit to meeting the standards for KU Sustainability Center’s Green Offi ce Program. The Green Offi ce program recognizes campus departments and offi ces that are making an effort to reduce environmental impacts and create a more sustainable workplace.

As part of this effort, CREES will reduce the number of CREES Newsletters printed and focus primarily on electronic distribu-tion. Not only will this help CREES meet its new limited budget due to Title VI budget cuts, it will also reduce our environmental impact. Reduce! Reuse! Recycle!

opEN WoRLD pRogRAME������������ S�������������

May saw a successful Oral Profi ciency Interview work-shop hosted by CREES and sponsored by KASC and CEAS. Two Open World grants brought to Kansas Russian delegations in higher education administration and in ener-gy and environmental administration. Both were a success.Thanks to Bart’s efforts, we have made many new friends in the Lawrence community who were kind enough to host our Russian visitors in their homes.

Over the summer we worked hard to make the CREES website more user-friendly. Be sure to check out the new for-mat of our video page at: www.crees.ku.edu/news_events/Videos.shtml. Take a look at the new Outreach section and search our curriculum development materials by subject at: www.crees.ku.edu/~crees/outreach/lesson_plans.shtml

We have increased our activity on Facebook. If you “like”

our page, you will receive posts of upcoming CREES events, job announcements, calls for papers, funding op-portunities, and interesting news from the region.

Mark your calendars for the CREES Mixer Friday, Septem-ber 9, at the Lawrence Visitors Center. Inside you will fi nd a calendar of upcoming events. Among them is this fall’s Backus Lecturer, Timothy Snyder, author of the much-ac-claimed Bloodlands, who will be speaking Thursday, Sept. 22.

Despite severe budget cuts we look forward to a lively semester of “Identity and Community After the Cold War Era” fall events tailored toward understanding the world after the fall of communism. August 25-27 all the area and international studies centers will be holding a conference based on this theme. If you would like to attend, please register at: crees@ku.edu. All are welcome!

Open World delegates test the power generation capabilities of a stationary bike at the Bowersock Dam in Lawrence.

I will begin with an important caveat. The mind is a tricky thing when trying to remember events from the distant past, especially when they weren’t refl ected on at the time. The Soviet Union collapsed when I was very young. I not only lacked the intellectual capacity to critically observe these events, but I also had no reference with which to compare my lifestyle. Furthermore, years of reading about and studying the politics of post-Soviet countries has certainly tainted my memories of life in the USSR. Therefore, I recog-nize my inability to completely separate what I have learned in books from what I have learned through my personal experiences.

My fi rst reaction to questions about what it was like to grow up in the Soviet Union is that it was normal. At the time, it felt just fi ne. There was certainty and confi dence about the future. It was a largely worry-free life because I was guaran-teed education and employment, health services, and a place to live.

Of course, it wasn’t a stress-free life as we had to excel in school, clean our houses and streets, col-lect paper scrap, and wait for our tasty milk and freshly-baked bread to be delivered to our gro-cery store. There was some competition, but not for fashionable clothes and up-to-date gadgets, but for academic performance, neatness of one’s apartment, quantity of books read during the

summer. Yes, I had very few choices, but I learned to value what I had and appreciate the opportu-nities I was offered. I enjoyed kid things, like a new school bag or a ticket to summer camp.

As for the Cold War, I don’t think I was even aware about the term until it ended. I was ex-posed to fl owery pro-Soviet propaganda that was helping the government bring us up in a spirit of patriotism and love for country. There was, however, very little fear-mongering about the United States. The name of US President Ronald Reagan had a negative con-notation, but I really did not know why. At school I had to take a manda-tory class called GO, or Grazhdans-kaya Oborona (Civil Defense), where we had to put on gas masks and a special uniform while being timed… I really did not know why we had to do it – it just seemed fun.

I don’t remember much about the 1991 August Coup. I remember Swan Lake on television. I think we only had two TV channels at the time and they were both off or played Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake ballet non-stop for a couple of days. My parents always kept me very busy and away from the TV. As a result, I did not even notice too much of a difference in my daily routine.

There were many challenges that appeared in our lives following the collapse of the Soviet Union. First and foremost, there were economic and social problems – high infl ation, people were not paid wages and pensions, there was a defi cit of basic goods in the stores. In my mind, how-

ever, those problems were not linked to the big-ger picture of the existence and, then, dissolution of the Soviet Union. They just suddenly happened and we all had to deal with them.

I think it was several years after the breakup of the Soviet Union that I fi nally realized that I lived in Russia, not in the USSR any more. It’s important to remember that most people in the Soviet Union had very low mobility. We were born and lived in the same place, rarely traveling or moving to different parts of the USSR. My level of knowl-

RUSSIAName: Asst Professor Mariya OmelichevaOccupation: CREES Associate DirectorCity of Birth: Cherepovets, RussiaKU Affi liation: Department of Political Science

P������� P����������� ��� M�������RETRoSpECTiVE: 20 yEARS SiNCE ThE FALL oF ThE uSSR

In a century of momentous events, the collapse of the Soviet Union was the fi nishing bang. 2011 marks twenty years since the dissolution of the USSR, and those of us connected to this area of the world will long be studying the reasons for its demise and wondering why Sovietologists could not see it coming. We in the United States and the 15 Republics of the former Soviet Union continue to search for identity – for who we are and what our role is now that the Cold War is over.” While answers to these questions differ, one observation universally acknowledged is that this event changed the world forever and is inextricably linked to the creation of our contemporary world.

In this edition of the CREES Newsletter, we view the events leading up to the dissolution of the Soviet Union from the perspective of KU affi liates who were born and grew up in various locations throughout the USSR. We asked each of them what it was like to grow up in the Soviet Union and how big a role the Cold War played in their upbringing. We also invited them to refl ect on the August 1991 coup, where they were when they fi rst heard of the collapse of the Soviet Union, what their response was, and what concerns they had for the future. What we discover is that change, even positive change, is fraught with turmoil, and the creation of new identity is by no means an easy feat. And while this event may have been global, it was also uniquely personal. In the following vignettes we hear stories from KU affi liates from Ukraine, Russian, Lithuania and Georgia, each with their unique glimpse of how this event changed lives forever.

UKRAINEName: Alisa MoldavanovaOccupation: PhD CandidateCity of Birth: Odessa, UkraineKU Affi liation: Department of Public Administration

I was 12 years old when the Soviet Union col-lapsed, so as a child I was exposed to certain ideological elements associated with growing up in the USSR. For star ters, I was raised in a family with a Russian Orthodox background – while it was frowned on, religion was not formally prohibited in the Soviet Union and the Church was allowed by the state as an ideological institution. Although I was regularly brought to the church and taught Christianity as a child, my family instructed me to not talk about it with my classmates. Although it was not formally prohibited to attend the Ortho-dox Church, it was considered embarrassing to do so, and people always preferred to re-main silent on the issue in public.

While growing up in the USSR, there were several issues you were supposed to keep quiet about. For example, you weren’t sup-posed to talk about having relatives who lived outside of the USSR, especially if you wanted to keep in contact with them. As much as I tried to fi nd things out about the distant parts of my family who lived in Romania, the adults always avoided the topic.

Another silent topic was the theme of the past – stories of our ancestors who lost their fortunes and even lives in the process of Bol-shevik Revolution and Ukrainian Famine of 1933. I was only told some stories about my ancestors after Ukraine became an indepen-

dent country when it was a common national theme to search for lost identity, but even then we did not talk much about the Famine.

There was a lot of ceremony to growing up in the Soviet Union, and for a child it was not always clear what some things meant. For in-stance, joining the organization of Oktyabryata (grades 1-3 of public school), or joining the Young Pioneers (grade 4) involved ceremonial activities with substantial emotional content and even pathos. Teachers worked hard to try and explain why it was so important to take these groups seriously and be proud of membership. They would teach us ideologi-cal songs and encourage singing them in the school chorus. But in the late 1980s it was pretty clear that most of these things were purely ceremonial – they didn’t have the same signifi cance they used to.

When the August 1991 coup happened, it was a time of fear and anxiety for people. Some-thing unpredictable was happening, but we didn’t know what and everybody was won-dering what was going to happen next. There was not a lot of discussion regarding this event in my family or at school. Overall, I would say in emotional terms people around us were experiencing fear and anxiety about the coup rather than thinking of some sort of demo-cratic transition.

The dissolution of the USSR didn’t happen overnight – it was a fairly long process. For in-stance, the Ukrainian Parliament adopted the Declaration of Independence in August 1991, while the actual popular vote in the form of the National Referendum happened the fol-lowing December. Therefore, when the dis-solution was offi cially proclaimed and recog-nized, we’d had 4 months to accept it as part

of our reality, although acceptance occurred on many different levels for different people.

I remember that my teachers held a very con-servative position regarding Ukraine’s Inde-pendence Referendum. One of my teachers gave a speech in front of the entire class say-ing that it was time for our parents to make a choice, and she hoped that it would be the right choice – that our parents would choose unity and stability over disintegration and mess. I remember coming home and feeling some sort of cognitive dissonance – on the one hand I used to trust my teachers and their opinions regarding political events, but on the other hand I observed my family being happy and hopeful about Ukraine’s independence. For a twelve-year-old child it was really tough to sort things through and fi gure out what was better and what was right.

The biggest worry for many Soviet families at the time was the threat of losing touch with relatives in other parts of Soviet Union. After the collapse of the USSR, many family members ended up being citizens of different countries, and although they still had complete freedom to move within the borders of the former Soviet Union, there was a threaten-ing expectation that ties between countries would fall apart, borders would close, and people would never again be able to commu-nicate with their families.

In terms of my personal memories, I remem-ber being very confused about wearing my pioneer tie (red tie signifying membership in the Young Pioneer organization). One by one public school students stopped wearing the standard school uniforms and red ties, and teachers were reluctant to pass judgment or give instructions regarding the proper ‘code

4 CREES NEWSLETTER 5FALL 2011

of behavior.’ I remember my parents eventually told me that I didn’t have to wear a uniform or a tie, but for some time I was still holding on to it because it was part of my life, part of my everyday routine, and part of what was still important to me.

For an ordinary Ukrainian family, the early 1990’s were a time of change, challenge, and staying together to survive the drastic conse-quences of the economic collapse. The future was uncertain, and many things that seemed important not that long ago, had suddenly and completely lost their signifi cance. As the power of the Soviet Union dissolved, people realized it was time for making their own choices and decisions since there was no strong and sus-tainable state system to rely on anymore.

Not only did the structure of our formal politi-cal institutions dissolve, but also the very aes-thetic of our everyday life changed drastically. People no longer had to follow the same rules, they star ted wearing different clothes, schools no longer required uniforms, kids didn’t look the same anymore, and old foods disappeared from the shelves of grocery stores, replaced by cheap imported goods. Gradually everything just star ted looking different.

In general, I think we wanted the change. We looked forward to enjoying more freedom and having the ability to make individual rather than collective choices. At the same time we were also hit by the realization that the pow-erful Soviet machine wasn’t so powerful, that our factories and industries had been collaps-

ing, everything was out of order, and it was not completely clear when the new system would star t working or if it would even be a good system. We went from being one of the world strongest powers – the country that was set-ting the highest standard for others – to an infant who had to learn how to walk again.

For many people it was a time of searching for new values and new identity, with some people trying to hold on to the past as much as they could, while others changing forever who they were and what they believed in. It’s interesting to me that just as in earlier times of Ukrainian history, ordinary Ukrainian families survived the downfall and crisis of the 1990s by staying together and supporting each other. That is one national identity that has never changed.

Mariya Omelicheva and sister, May Day Demonstration, Cherepovets, Russia, 1989.

I am a product of a world that no longer exists, but I neither know to what extent and why I am such a product, nor do I fully understand how and why that world fell apart.

We buried Chernenko, a Secretary General of the Communist Party, in March of 1985. Along with the funeral processions, the age of old lead-ers waddled out. The spring would bring a thaw in the form of a spunky heir – Gorbachev.

The thaw would turn into a fl ood and bring with it changes in the USSR we had neither predicted nor were prepared for, changes that some of us still haven’t fully understood, internalized, evalu-ated. There I was, one day imagining a stoic death for the Soviet Fatherland, and the next – deliver-ing a recitation of Brazdžionis, an émigré poet. In between – a blur that still feels good.

In that age of changes, then, I lived my child-hood, and did Mother’s bidding to be mindful of everything from her meat-boiling techniques to the execution of the Ceaucescus. Even for a 1,000-word vignette, I’m not able to wake only the memories of regime change. My childhood awakens along with them; personal is historical, historical becomes personal, rational fades to emotional. This predicament is worthy of an ear-nest fuss. I know my stomach growled a lot; we were provincials close to dirt; we often paid the price for Mom’s clear conscience . . . I do not though remember, with my body, the “bads” that I know. Instead, I remember a lot of light, radiance,

explicit trust and implied love within the family, hope and anticipation around us. Even watching the Ceausescus execution brings to mind a sense of family and hopes of justice instead of night-mares. Perhaps my family did something right, or perhaps the transitional times were not alto-gether bad. Either way, beware of the imperfect witness.

Before I ever heard of perestroika and glasnost, I had already encountered the cursing of Gor-bachev’s liquor policies, such as rationing. Liquor, you see, not only had a therapeutic and social value but also became part of the barter sys-tem. While not a particularly thirsty family, we nonetheless were always in need of it. Getting somebody’s help – moonlight work, for the most part – demanded a bottle or “100 grams.” Dad fermented wine to ease the situation, and also made beer. I was his confi dante and apprentice, and that bond has not run its course yet.

Grandma distilled rye and barley. Hers was a brew equally presentable to intelligentsia and folks policing her. Distilling was done in secret, often with the blessing of the liquor patrol. The smell of warm sourdough in dusky evenings was worth the trouble. Unethical distillers bottled questionable substance, some even spiked with insect poison. People went blind, destroyed in-ternal organs; acute poisoning and a quick trip to the morgue were for the lucky, a protracted, hid-eous existence for the unlucky. “To the devil with Gorbachev and the Communists!” was Dad’s ver-dict about the slow death of Lithuania.

While we were rediscovering and bonding over our distiller heritage, Central-Eastern Europe was awakening, and the Voice of America was reporting it. TV news became increasingly more reliable. One weekend in October 1988, I found the adults gasping before the TV; Brazauskas was chosen the First Secretary of the Lithuanian Communist Party. A Lithuanian independence movement, Sajudis, had already been grumbling,

and Brazauskas was sympathetic. That holiday season was fi lled with patriotism, patriotism of both the mortuos voco and vivos voco kind. We were all to become one with the spirit of the pre-USSR Lithuanians.

1988-1991, the blur of events brought yellow-green-red fl ags and the soon-to-become na-tional anthem of Lithuania. That anthem elic-its in me a similar sense of unity, pride, and gravitas as did the anthem of the USSR. I’ve never managed to become resentful of the Soviet anthem. It evokes heroes working for the Fatherland and community, sacrifi cing per-sonal the for the greater good, appreciation for loyalty, friendship, clean conscience, and above all for education and thought. How can I de-spise that? I might have been fi rmly “guided” in those values as a child through literature and cinema and at school, but had to choose them a couple of decades later.

By the time Gorbachev visited Lithuania (Janu-ary 1990), it was too late to prevent Lithuania’s redeclaration of independence in March. Lith-uania was joined by the fellow Baltics. The sub-sequent moratorium and economic blockade foreshadowed the January 1991 events: the Soviet special forces and tanks rolling in and taking over nationally strategic objects, deaths of civilians. Precarious months followed, laden with suspense, fear of treacherous “friends” and acquaintances and full reoccupation by the USSR. In our home, fears were always punc-tuated with hopes and dreams, especially in Mom’s relentless blue-green eyes.

We held our breath till August 1991. The em-pire, we found out, had already been standing on hind paws. During the Putsch, my parents worried that, in case of success, the hard-liners would exact retribution on their adversaries, from Gorbachev to outspoken Lithuanians like Mom. Loss of Lithuania’s independence seemed like a realistic punishment for disobedience. We

with people from other countries. Students now have opportunities to study abroad – this greatly contributes to Georgia’s integration with the rest of the world. Professionals are able to network and make connections with the global business community. I am proud of the big steps Georgia has made towards becoming an honor-able member of the world.

This year’s Roy D. and Betty Laird Essay Con-test winner is Department of Geography MA student, Austin Charron, for his essay titled “The Sibiriak Movement and the Roots of Modern Si-berian Regionalism.”

Now in its 17th year, the annual essay contest is named after the late Dr. Roy D. Laird, a long-time member of the Russian and East European Studies (REES) and Political Science faculties, and Ms. Betty Laird, whose support makes this prize possible. As a recipient of the award, Austin re-ceived $750, a book of his choice, a certifi cate, and his name on a plaque bearing the names of all previous winners of the competition, which is displayed outside the main CREES offi ce.

Austin received his BA cum laude at the Univer-sity of Oregon with majors in Geography and Russian Studies and a minor in History. Before coming to KU, he spent a year in Ukraine on a Fulbright Fellowship. Since then, he has received a number of Foreign Language and Area Study (FLAS) Fellowships to support his study at KU. His MA thesis is on “Ethnic and Regional Factors of Identity Among Crimea’s Russian Population.”

When asked about Austin’s Laird essay, “The Sibiriak Movement and the Roots of Modern Siberian Regionalism,” the selection committee remarked the essay was “immediately engag-ing,” “well-written and well-organized,” and “a pleasure to read.” The committee especially was impressed by Austin’s almost exclusive use of Russian sources and by his perceptive analysis.

Read Austin’s essay on the CREES website:

www.crees.ku.edu/academics/laird_essay.shtml

Betty laird, austin Charron and edith Clowes

6 CREES NEWSLETTER 7FALL 2011

austin CHaRROnroy d. and Betty laird

essay coMpetition2011 Winner

sat at home quietly; the news became alimental to us. Traveling was cautioned against, because soldiers on the streets were unpredictable.

The images of Boris Yeltsin on a tank, to me, symbolize the end of the coup and of the USSR. In my historical memory, this painfully fallible man will always have a shining humani-tarian streak. “The end of history” came to Lithuania that August. On September 1st we went back to school in a free Lithuania, even the Soviet military withdrew. Perhaps that is why I do not fully have my memories of what I was doing when the dissolution of the USSR was announced. The events were taking place in a different country, not in ours. We were celebrating Christmas and getting ready to face problems inspiring speeches were insuffi cient to

address. I certainly recall watching Gorbachev’s videos, but it could have been days, weeks, or even years after December 25, 1991.

The Soviet world vanished along with my child-hood, with dreams I can neither undream nor, unfortunately, forget. I do occasionally roman-ticize the bygones, but it insults me as a human being when my nostalgia and appreciation for some elements of my childhood world are mis-taken as ignorance or denial of the bloody paw prints the Communist regime left in history. I do not wish to waken the empire. Instead, I hope that a thousand years from now, there will still be an independent country called Lithuania, and people there will still speak Lithuanian, and they will know the distinction between the Rus-sian people and the Soviet regime.

Name: Raminta StockuteOccupation: PhD candidate in Political ScienceCity of Birth: Siauliaim, LithuaniaKU Affi liation: Department of Political Science

GEORGIAName: Natia KaladzeOccupation: Dean, School of Social Sciences, University of TbilisiCity of Birth: Tbilisi, GeorgiaKU Affi liation: Visiting Scholar

In Georgia it was not at all easy to live dur-ing Soviet times. We were not able to travel around the world, and the United States was seen as our number one enemy. The media was controlled by the government and there were a lot of ar ticles and TV programs spout-ing propaganda about how wonderful it was to live in Soviet Union. Most of the movies we watched were about communists and the communist regime. In my recollection, what most Georgian kids liked the least was the “red tie.” The tie meant that you were a Young Pioneer, or member of the USSR youth or-ganization, and it was a part of our school uniform.

Even though Georgia was very much a part of the Soviet Union, we managed to keep some of our independence. For example, while other Republics adopted Russian as their state language, we kept Georgian. As a result, many of the other Republics lost their native language and it’s only been recently that they’ve tried to reclaim them by teaching them in schools – we in Georgia, don’t have that problem. We’ve been speaking Georgian all our lives, and its very much a part of our national identity.

That said, like the other Republics we share many of the legacies that are a result of be-ing a part of the Soviet Union. In many ways, Georgia does not know what is it to be dem-ocratic – we are still trying to fi gure out what democracy means and how to implement it. I have a lot of faith in the new generation of Georgians born after the collapse of Soviet Union – they are lucky, because they are en-tirely free from a communist mentality.

Georgia’s path to independence was diffi cult and long, and I think perhaps that’s why we celebrate it so much – the day we became in-dependent from the Soviet Union is the most celebrated holiday in Georgia. A lot of people fi x on August 1991 as the beginning of the end for the Soviet Union, but from my perspec-tive in Georgia, the Soviet Union collapsed on April 9, 1989 when Russian troops killed anti-communist, Georgian protestors in Tbilisi.

During our fi ght for independence, the big-gest worry for Georgians was what would happen in Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) and Ab-khazia, the two zones of confl ict with Russia. As soon as the Soviet Union collapsed, Russia began a fi ght to occupy these regions – fi ght-ing which still occurs to this day, the most recent outbreak of violence occurring in the 2008 Georgian-Russian war.

Because of Russia’s aggression, it has been the Georgian government’s priority to fi nd part-ners among western countries and the United States. We hope that greater involvement of the US and Europe will check Russia’s behav-ior in our region. We have quickly recognized that integration with western institutions is the only way for us to truly become an inde-pendent and democratic country.

The collapse of the Soviet Union not only changed my life, but it changed the lives of all Georgians. We truly feel that we are fi nally becoming a part of the civilized world, where human rights and democracy are valued in the development of society and country.

Unlike in Soviet times, we can travel, ex-change ideas and opinions, and make friends

edge and awareness about other members of the Soviet Union was very limited. I knew about their existence, but in my mind, they were so distant and, please forgive me for saying so, but at the time just seemed so unimportant. The latter comment is sad and I refl ect on it with embarrassment, but it is also true. Many Russians shared a sort of con-descending and disinterested attitude toward the “brethren in Communist spirit,” especially those from Central Asia and South Caucasus.

In the early 1990s, it really wasn’t possible to think in the long term. We had to deal with day-

to-day problems and my vision of the future was limited by the following day or week. There was still confi dence that there would be milk and bread on the table, even if I would have to stand in line to get them.

For me, the greatest shock and disillusionment with the Soviet system and the Russian govern-ment came later, in 1998, during the major fi nan-cial crisis that hit the Russian Federation. It was then – when I was studying in law school, work-ing, and trying to save some money – that I fully understood what default means, what causes it, and what the consequences of it are.

How did these events change my life? For one thing, I received an opportunity to take part in a Freedom Support Act-sponsored program that brought me as an exchange student to the US in 1994. That year was a revelation not only about life in the US, but also about my experiences in the USSR and Russia. It brought forth many of the questions that hadn’t even occurred to me before. If it hadn’t been for that fi rst trip imme-diately after the fall of the “iron curtain,” I would not have had the opportunity to go to graduate school at Indiana and thus wouldn’t have been able to come to KU as a Professor.

LITHUANIA

Identity Community&

UNIVERSITY OF KANSASCENTER FOR RUSSIAN, EAST EUROPEAN & EURASIAN STUDIES

After the Cold War Era

www.crees.ku.edu

TEACHING GALLERY EXHIBITIdentity and Community in the Contemporary WorldAugust 23 - September 4Spencer Museum of Art

INTERNATIONAL STUDIES CONFERENCEIdentity & Community After the Cold War EraAugust 25-27 Kansas Union

SPECIAL FILM VIEWING“My Perestroika”Followed by Q&A with Director Robin HessmanAugust 25, 7:00 pm Kansas Union, Woodruff Auditorium

BACKUS MEMORIAL LECTUREBloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin Prof. Timothy Snyder, Yale UniversitySeptember 22, 7:00 pm Kansas Union, Malott Room

JERKOVICH LECTUREEthnic Identity and Communityin the Post-Conflict Balkans: Flashpoint KosovoAlex Grigorev, Council for Inclusive GovernanceOctober 24, 7:00 pmKansas Union, Centennial Room

BOOK TALK“Environmental Politics: Scale and Power”Shannon O’Lear, KU Geography DepartmentOctober 27, 4:00 pm Kansas Union, Jayhawk Inc.

FILM SERIESFriday Night at the Kino318 Bailey Hall, 7:00 pm

These events are made possible by a Title VI Department of Education Na-tional Resource Center Grant, US Army Research Laboratories, and the generous support of KU students, faculty and staff.

In collaboration with:Office of the Chancellor

Office of the ProvostCollege of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Department of FilmDepartment of Slavic Languages and Literatures

Dole Institute of PoliticsHall Center for the Humanities

Spencer Museum of ArtSchool of Music

Sept. 23KOROWODTwist of FateIn Polish with English subtitles

Oct. 219TH COMPANYIn Russian with English subtitles

Nov. 18THOSE THREEIn Tajik with English subtitles

Dec. 2POLETJASummer HitIn Slovene with English subtitles

Fall Events 2011

CREES

9FALL 2011

The last two decades have witnessed the conflu-ence of many different kinds of radical change – the demise of communism as a force in politics, the resurgence of religious community, the emer-gence of global warming as a major challenge to traditional economies and communities, and the innovative growth of technology. Concepts of communtity have radically altered. Maps, bor-ders, governments, and alliances have shifted. The World Wide Web came into being, bringing with it major changes in cultural ritural, self-perception, and community-building. The universalist ideolo-gies characteristic of modernity have retreated, replaced in part by older concepts of identity and community. In many parts of the world new versions of traditional religions have emerged as mass forces. The arts and architecture have ex-perienced a shift in focus and form.

In light of this monumental shift, CREES dedicates the Fall 2011 Semester to “Identity and Commu-nity After the Cold War Era.”

The semester will begin with a KU Area and In-ternational Studies Con-ference which will cover a wide range of topics that seek to describe, exam-ine, and understand the various areas and kinds of shifts that have happened since the late 1980s, and attempt a complex model of the world humanity now inhabits. The confer-ence will take place August 25- 27, 2011, and will be held in the Kansas Union. Participation is free, but registration is required. To register, please go to the CREES website.

The Spencer Museum of Art, in collaboration with CREES, will host a Teaching Gallery exhibit displaying art depicting various inter-pretations of identity and community after the Cold War era from the Spencer Museum’s collections.

This semester’s Backus Memorial Lecture will feature Professor Timothy Snyder of Yale University. During his career, Profes-

sor Snyder has authored a biography of the Marx-ist revolutionary and sociologist, Kazimierz Kelles-Krauz, a study of the reconstruction of Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, and Belarus as modern East European nations, a history of interwar espionage, and a life-and-times portrait of Habsburg Arch-duke Wilhelm of Austria. At this year’s Backus Memorial Lecture, Professor Snyder will discuss his new book Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin and how the mass murders of the 20th Century shaped the modern era.

On October 11-12, 2011 we celebrate the 350th Anniversary of our partner university, Ivan Franko University in Lviv, Ukraine. We look forward to many more years of collaboration and exchange.

On October 24, 2011, this year’s Jerkovich Lecture will be Council for Inclusive Governance President and founder, Alex Grigorev. Mr. Grigorev will share his personal observations and experiences work-ing with ethnic minority politicians and community

leaders in Kosovo before and since the 1999 war. Emphasizing the case of ethnic Serbs as they recon-struct identity and political community in Kosovo’s post-conflict environment, Mr. Grigorev will draw comparisons with other minority groups in the Bal-kans, specifically Roma, Turks, and Bosnjaks in Koso-vo, Albanians in Macedonia, and Serbs in Croatia.

On October 27, 2011, KU Geography Professor, Shannon O’Lear, will present her book, Environ-mental Politics: Scale and Power, at a CREES hosted booktalk in the Kansas Union’s Jayhawk Inc. Book-store. Professor O’Lear’s book considers issues of climate change, energy, food security, toxins, waste, and resource conflict to explore how political, eco-nomic, ideological and military power have con-tributed to present day environmental issues.

As the semester progresses, check out the CREES website for event information as well as announce-ments about additional activities. We encourage you to join our facebook page for weekly reminders!

Identity Community&

After the Cold War Era

Fall 2011: IdentIty and CommunIty CurrICulum

8 CREES NEWSLETTER

CREES EventsFall 2011

REESUnderstanding Russia and Eastern EuropeInstructor: Bart Redford

Eastern Europe At the Turn of the Millenium: The Meaning of RevolutionInstructor: Alex Tsiovkh

Understanding Central Asia Instructor: Cristin Burke

Borderland Between Russia and EuropeInstructor: Alex Tsiovkh

HISTORY

Colloquium in Russian HistoryInstructor: Eve Levin

POLITICAL SCIENCE

Contemporary Issues in International PoliticsInstructor: TBA

Eurasian Security and GeopoliticsInstructor: Mariya Omelicheva

GEOGRAPHY

Environmental GeopoliticsInstructor: Shannon O’Lear

SLAVIC LANGUAGES & LITERATURES

Intro to Russian CultureInstructor: William Comer

Intro to Languages and Peoples of Russia and East Central EuropeInstructor: Marc Greenberg

Intro to East Central European Culture & Society: UkrainianInstructor: Alex Tsiovkh

South Slavic Literature and CivilizationInstructor: Stephen Dickey

Film Adaptation of Polish & Czech in LiteratureInstructor: Svetlana Vassileva-Karagyoza

Language and Identity in East Central Europe & Former Soviet UnionInstructor: Marc Greenberg

SOCIOLOGY

United States in Global ContextInstructor: Ray Pence

LAW

Immigration/Asylum Law Clinic Instructor: David Gottlieb

International Human Rights LawInstructor: David Gottlieb

REES 110:

REES 480:

REES 510:

REES 573:

HIST 557:

POLS 370:

POLS 680:

GEOG 371:

SlAV 140/ 141:

SLAV 340:

SLAV 504:

SLAV 508:

SLAV 516:

SLAV 540:

SOC 332:

LAW 844:

LAW 932:

“Migration, Shadow Economies, and Security Problems on the World’s Borders” was the featured topic of the CREES hosted Spring 2011 Security Conference held on April 1, 2011. The conference was sponsored by CREES, the Cen-ter for East Asian Studies, the Center for Global and In-ternational Studies, the Center of Latin American Studies, the Kansas African Studies Center, and the Foreign Military Studies Office (FMSO), Ft. Leavenworth.

Dr. Martha Brill Olcott, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace gave the keynote address on “State

and Security in Central Asia.” Participants of the conference included a wide range of KU profes-sors from various departments as well as lectures from Kansas State University, SUNY Stony Brook, National Defense University, and Columbia University’s Harriman Institute. Research Fellows from Ft. Leavenworth also participated on several panels.

CREES Assistant Director, Bart Redford, noted that feedback from the Security Conference was over-welmingly positive. Many participants indicated that interaction between different regions and fields of study was particularly useful.

10 CREES NEWSLETTER

CREES ouTREAChSECuRiTy CoNFERENCE

11FALL 2011

highLighTS SpRiNg 2011

Kansas Business and the WorldKansas is an international market. Kansas City is the 2nd largest customs collector and the 2nd largest rail hub in the entire United States. Kansas exports to Russia, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia represent 3.74% of all Kansas exports, which is a signifi-cantly higher proportion than the 2% national average. And while US exports to the re-gion grew at an average of 8.9% per year be-tween 2000 and 2009, Kansas exports to Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia grew at an aver-age annual rate of 15%. Companies in Kansas are increasingly seeking employees who know about the CREES area of the world, have foreign language skills, and are sensitive to cultural differences.

With this in mind, on April 9, 2011, CIBER, CEE, and KU’s Area and International Studies Centers held a

Teachers Workshop where educators learned about international markets and the Kansas economy, and were introduced to new economic teaching tools like Focus Globalization, a collection of lesson plans and activities focused on globalization, trade, and the international economy.

Melissa Birch, CiBER Director

Russian Festival Featuring the north american Round of the tariverdiev inter-national Organ Competition.

On april 7-9, 2011, CRees along with the Department of slavic languages and liter-atures and the Ku school of Music, Division of Organ and Church Music, co-sponsored the Russian Festival and north american Round of the tariverdiev international Organ competition.

the Mikhail tariverdiev Competition is Russia’s first international competition for organists. it began in 1999 in Kaliningrad, and takes place every two years when organ-ists from all over the world come to Kaliningrad to take part in this illustrious event. Deepening the connections between Russia and the West is one of the stated objec-tives of the competition.

the north american round of the competition was held at Ku in conjunction with the Russian Festival, events of which included lectures on Russian music and con-servatories, a film featuring the organ symphony Cher-nobyl, and recitals by accom-plished organists and previ-ous tariverdiev Competition winners like Ku’s own Rob-ert Horton, winner of the 5th tariverdiev international Organ Competition, 2007.

Music, the Arts, And MigrAtionIn keeping with the 2010-2011 international stud-ies theme “Migration and the Heartland,” CREES, in collaboration with fellow KU International Studies Centers (LASC, KASC, CEAS, and CGIS) hosted a K-14 Teachers Workshop called “Music, the Arts, and Migration” at the Lawrence Arts Center on April 16, 2011. The workshop addressed the topic from two angles – the ar ts and music of migratory peoples as well as the movement of ar t across cultures due to human migration. The day featured two performances: first a special performance and lecture by the Alash Ensemble, throat-singers from Tuva; then a stirring percussion concert by the African Drum Ensemble.

The workshop also included lectures on “Marimba Music in Latin America” by Professor Ketty Wong, “From Rocks to Chip Art: A Presentation on Indian Art” by Professor Azyz Sharafy, and “Screening the Margins: Race and Migration in East Asian Films” by Professor Michael Baskett.

Several educators signed up to be Teacher Scholars and submitted workshop themed lesson plans which are currently accessible on the CREES website:

www.crees.ku.edu/outreach

The Alash Ensemble performed at the teachers work-shop as part of a three-day music residency hosted by CREES. Additional activities included morning and afternoon concerts with presentations for pri-mary and secondary Lawrence public school children at the Lawrence Arts Center and for KU faculty and students at the Global Indigenous Nations Studies and CREES co-hosted conference “Peoples of Siberia,” as well as KU REES 220 course: “Societies and Cultures of Eurasia.” The Alash Ensemble also gave two concerts for the Lawrence community, one of which included a choreographed performance by the 940 Dance Company called “Whispering River.”

K-12 TEAChER WoRKShopS

opi ASSESSMENT WoRKShopOn May 25-28, 2011, CREES hosted the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) Assessment Workshop for instructors in Tibetan, Kiswahili, Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian, Ukrainian, Czech, Polish, and Uyghur.

Trainer Karl Otto gave an overview of American Coun-cil on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) methods

and guidelines before individual instructors underwent four days of practice proficiency interviews and discussions. The workshop concluded with a fun cookout at the home of CREES Director, Edith Clowes.

Professors Marta Pirnat-Greenberg (BCs) and Yaroslava tsiovkh (ukrainian)

WEBSiTE AND WEBziNE: NEW ouTREACh TooLSOver the summer CREES Outreach Coordina-tor, Adrienne Landry, and CREES Digital Com-munications Manager, Jake Poterbin, worked hard to develop the Outreach section of the CREES website. Check out the many lesson plans and curriculum development materials now available. You can search by topic (Teacher Workshop theme) or by subject. Also, under the Teacher Resources tab, you can now find information about each country that makes up the CREES area of study.

www.crees.ku.edu/outreach

Outreach is also pleased to introduce a new bi-annual webzine called CREES Crossroads. De-signed for K-12 educators, the electronic publica-tion will feature entertaining and informative ar-ticles about the CREES area of study, along with useful lesson plans, curriculum development, and updates on upcoming KU CREES events. The very first issue of Crossroads will be posted on the CREES website this fall.

Would you like to have Crossroads delivered di-rectly to your email? Send an email to Adrienne Landry, CREES Outreach Coordinator (creesout-reach@ku.edu) or sign up on our website! The Alash Ensemble

Ketty Wong-Cruz, School of Music

On April 28, 2011 at the Kansas Union, CREES Di-rector, Professor Edith Clowes, presented her new book Russia on the Edge: Imagined Geographies and Post-Soviet Identity.

In her new book, Professor Clowes discusses Rus-sians’ major identity crisis after the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991. This crisis expresses itself in geographical terms. Now that Russia has lost its buffer zones, suddenly borders and periferies loom

much larger in the Russian consciousness. While in the Soviet period Russians saw their country as the hub of revolution and progress, now they are overcome with anxiety at being another periphery. Professor Clowes argues that imagined geography provides a useful perspective for examining post-Soviet debates about what it means to be Russian today.

BooK TALK

BRoWNBAg LECTuRE SERiES

SpRiNg 2011: highLighTS

Julie Denesha, lecturer for KU’s School of Journalism, presented “Roma in Eastern Europe” on February 15, 2011. Ms. Denesha spoke about her time living and photographing the Roma in Eastern Europe. She discussed the events that prompted her to undertake her photography project as well as her general impressions of the Roma, based on her experi-ence.

Julie Denesha graduated from the University of Kansas in 1993, with degrees in Journalism and Russian Language and Literature. From 1996-2004, Ms. Denesha was based in Prague, Czech Republic, where she covered Central and Eastern Europe for a number of inter-national newspapers and magazines. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Newsweek, TIME, The Economist, and the Christian Science Monitor. In 2007, she complted a documentary on Roma life in Slovakia.

RoMA iN EASTERN EuRopE

On March 1, 2011, Rebecca Blocksome illustrated the ways in which public art and design can help counteract the problem of placelessness by sharing her case study of the Izbrisan-16let campaign, which addresses the problem of “the Erased,” a socially marginalized group of ethnic non-Slovenes in Slovenia. Based on ideas put forth in Henri Lefebvre’s The Produc-tion of Space, she argued, that the Izbrisan16let campaign, through its use of contemporary street media engages citizens in rethinking urban space in the city of Ljubljana, Slovenia. As marginalized groups encounter the mainstream Slovenian community in this new common space, the effects of placelessness for both groups are counteracted and the potential for civic dialogue is realized.

Blocksome is an ar tist, writer and cultural theorist currently based in the Kansas City area. She has lived and worked for seven years in Slovenia, Hungary, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and she has been deeply involved in intercultural work on both the practical and theoretical level.

WhoSE pLACE iS ThiS? ART, TERRiToRy AND CiViC DiALoguE iN

LJuBLJANA,SLoVENiA

On March 8, 2011, Sue Novak (KU School of Journalism), and Tom Volek (KU School of Journalism) and Nathan Pettengill (Lawrence Magazine), presented on the past and current state of media in the Russian Federation. Much of their presentation centered on the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

When the Second Chechen War began in 1999, journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who worked for the independent Novaya Gazeta, traveled again and again to that de facto independent republic to repor t on the dire circumstances of the civilians, and sometimes of the federal soldiers themselves, at the hands of the Russian government. Politkovskaya directly blamed Putin and higher ilitary administration for major infractions against in-nocent civilizns and federal soldiers. Warned to stay away from such topics, she instead

continued her repor ting and was ultmately assassinated in October 2006. Her murder has never been solved, and the threats to her newspaper have since caused it to cease all repor ting in the Chechen region. In the years since her death, Politikovskaya has become something of a cult figure among educated Russians.

MEDiA iN RuSSiA

During the course of the fi fteenth and sixteenth centuries, European societies utilized their growing mastery of the mechanical ar ts and sciences to establish cultural and political domi-nance over much of the globe. Despite increasing knowledge of developments in the West, contemporary Russian efforts to adopt Europe’s new technological transformations were delayed and incomplete.

In his April 5, 2011, brownbag lecture, “Technology and Culture in Early Modern Europe: The Challenge of Change in the Russia Context,” Prof. Scott W. Palmer (History, Western Illinois University) examined the process of technology transfer from West to East during the six-teenth and seventeenth centuries. Drawing on the specifi c examples of gunpowder weaponry and the printing press, he described how Russia’s unique geographic, economic, and political contexts worked to forestall the adaptation of new technological systems and to thwart the development of a “culture of improvement” that might serve as a foundation for continuing innovation.

For over 30 years, the CRees Brownbag lec-ture series has been an informal forum for Ku and the surrounding community to discuss general topics related to Russia, eastern eu-rope and eurasia.

Rather than address specifi c themes, each se-mester the lectures cover a variety of topics and areas, and are presented by academics, students, and professionals – anyone with an interesting specialty to share. From the arts and literature to political science and current events, the CRees Brownbag lecture series continues to educate and inform all those in-

terested in this diverse and dynamic area of the world.

CRees brownbags are free and open to the public. they are held every tuesday at noon in 318 Bailey Hall. if you have a topic you would like to discuss or are interested in pre-senting, please contact:

Bart RedfordCRees assistant Director bredford@ku.edu785-864-4248

crees BroWnBAg Lecture series

13FALL 2011

TEChNoLogy AND CuLTuRE iN EARLy MoDERN EuRopE: ThE ChALLENgE oF ChANgE iN ThE RuSSiAN CoNTEXT

In her brownbag talk of April 26, 2011, on “Katyn in Recent Polish-Russian Relations: The Thorny Road to Reconciliation,” KU History Emerita Professor Anna Cienciala noted an important change in the offi cial version of Russian history. After the catastrophic plane crash at Smolensk airport, April 10, 2010, which killed Polish Presi-dent Lech Kaczynski, his wife, and 94 other prominent Poles on their way to commemorate the Katyn Massacre of 1940, Russian President Medvedev stressed the guilt of Stalin for the mass murder of Polish offi cers in spring 1940. The Russian Duma also condemned Stalin for this crime in October 2010.

Both the Polish government and the Russian Association “Memorial” demand the legal classifi cation of the crime as a war crime and crime against humanity. The individual legal rehabilitation of each victim is demanded by both as well. Nevertheless, the legal rehabilitation of the victims by Russian courts has not advanced one step this far.

KATyN iN RECENT poLiSh-RuSSiAN RELATioNS: ThE ThoRNy pATh To RECoNCiLiATioN

Ruoxi Du and Nathan Pickett, FMSO-CREES 2011 Research Assistants, presented their research on May 10. Nathan Pickett (MA candidate, REES) discussed how Soviet and post-Soviet histo-riographical narratives have confl ated legitimate socioeconomic concerns with an identity con-fl ict between Crimean Tatars and Crimean Russians. He concluded that while the situation has spawned no major episodes of violent confl ict, tension remains high between the two groups. His presentation addressed the challenges that Crimea faces because of this identity confl ict and presented solutions for how it could be resolved.

Ruoxi Du (MA candidate, REES) analyzed oil and natural gas resources of Central Asian states as a factor in Russia-China relations. It was her contention that the lack of visible frictions be-tween Russia and China with regard to Central Asian energy resources, despite their colliding interests, can be attributed to three factors, namely the multi-vector foreign policy conducted by Central Asian leaders, Russia’s and China’s interests in maintaining their broader “strategic partnership,” and the unexpected impacts of the 2008 global economic crisis.

The Foreign Military Studies Offi ce (FMSO) Research Assistant internship is a cooperative project of FMSO and CREES. REES students in either Humani-ties or Social Sciences, who have advanced level reading skills in their target language, a security-related research question, and are interested in gaining a better understanding of how the US military analyzes the Eurasian security environment, are encouraged to apply.

FoREigN MiLiTARy STuDiES oFFiCE RESEARCh ASSiSTANTShip pRESENTATioNS

Miss a lecture? Watch it at your convenience online!

Our Brownbag and special guest lectures are available on the CRees website:

www.crees.ku.edu/videos

12 CREES NEWSLETTER

14 CREES NEWSLETTER

FACuLTy & STAFF NEWSCREES welcomes new faculty members: ani Kokobobo (SLL) and alex Diener (Geogra-phy). Prof. Kokobobo recently received her PhD from Columbia University and specializes in 19th-century Russian literature. Professor Diener, a specialist on Central Asia, will join us after a Fulbright year in in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.

ivana Radovanovic (Anthropology ) received a National Science Foundation grant for archeo-logical work in Serbia. Over the summer she conducted a survey and tested excavations of the Mesolithic sites in the Danube Iron Gates hinterlands.

terry l. Koenig (School of Social Welfare) has received a joint teaching/research Fulbright award to Kazahkstan. In the fall semester of 2011, Koenig will teach cross-cultural social policy in the social work department at Eurasian National University in Astana, Kazakhstan. Further, she will conduct a qualitative research study examining the role of social work and social policy development in Kazakhstan.

Congratulations to nathaniel Wood (History) who has been promoted to Associate Profes-sor in the History Department. Professor Wood was also a recipient of a Fulbright grant that will allow him 5 months of research in Warsaw, Poland, on his new book project on aviation.

anna M. Cienciala (Professor Emerita, History) reviewed S. M. Plokhy’s book, Yalta the Price of Peace, for the Polish Review, W. Borodziej and S. Dębski’s, Polish Documents on Foreign Policy, for Diplomacy & Statecraft, and K. K. Kostdan’s book, No Greater Ally: The Untold Story of Poland’s Forces in World War II, for the Journal of Slavic Military Studies. Professor Cienciala’s ar ticle “The Foreign Policy of Jozef Pilsudski and Jozef Beck, 1926-1939: Misconceptions and Interpretations,” was published in The Polish Review. In June 2011, Professor Cienciala’s con-ference paper “Refl ections on Poland in Anglo-American Books on the Interwar Period in Europe” was presented at the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America, Arlington, VA.

arienne Dwyer (Anthropology) received three NSF grants totaling about $760,000 for the next three years to research Uyghur and Inner Asia, and to conduct a 2012 summer school program at KU on language documentation.

Ron Francisco (Political Science) received an International Programs course development grant for his course “Social Welfare, Taxation and the Citizen.”

Mariya Omelicheva (CREES Assoc. Director, Political Science) took part in a workshop titled, “Comparative Perspectives on the Substance of EU Democracy Promotion,” held at Ghent University, Belgium, in June 2011. She was also a receipient of an IREX short-travel grant and spent one month carrying out research in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan in summer 2011.

Renee Perelmutter (SLL) received a GRF summer grant for work on women’s on-line dis-course; and a travel grant from the Institute of Advanced Studies in Jerusalem to give a talk on “Cultural Archeology: Medieval Jewish-Slavic contacts.”

tom volek (Assoc. Dean, School of Journalism) and Barbara Barnett (Assoc. Dean for Un-dergraduate Studies, Journalism) received a two-year extension on a Media and the Military grant from the McCormick Foundation. The total grant award is $200,000.

norman e. saul (Professor Emeritus, History) created the Norman E. Saul REES MA fund for travel grants to collections as well as for those students presenting to conferences pertaining to the REES area of study. Professor Saul also presented a paper on the origins and development of Slavic Studies at the University of Kansas in April at the meeting of the Missouri Historical Society in Kansas City, Missouri, at a session on international studies at the university. He drew on the excellent presentation of Professor DeGeorge at the 50th anniversary celebration last year and added his own insights. In June and July, Professor Saul spoke on “How Kansas Became the Wheat State” for civic groups in Wellington, Park City, and Tonganoxie for the Kansas Bicentennial celebration sponsored by the Kansas Humanities Council. His talks emphasized the role of Mennonites and Volga Germans from Russia in developing grain cultivation and the fl our milling industry in the state.

Jay alexander’s (Professor Emeritus, History) 1973 book, Emperor of the Cossacks, has been translated into Russian and published in Ufa this year in both electronic and hard versions.

Cambridge University Press published a 2011 paperback edition of Marxism and the Good Society (1981), in which Richard De George (Philoso-phy) has the lead article “Marxism and the Good Society.”

In May, 2011, Jacob Kipp (REES) delivered a paper, “Russian Nuclear Posture and Policies” at a NATO-Estonian Ministry of Defense Conference on Adapting NATO’s Deterrence Posture: The Alliance’s New Strategic Concept and Implications for Nuclear Policy, Non-Proliferation, Arms Control, and Disarmament, in Tallinn, Estonia. Prof. Kipp was interviewd by Voice of America on Russian military reform on July 5, 2011.

Associate Professor afshin Marashi (History) has accepted a professorship in Middle East history at the University of Oklahoma. We thank him for his excellent contributions here at KU and wish him great success in all his future endeavors.

A SpECiAL CREES ThANK you To pRoF STEphEN pARKER

CREES thanks Slavic Languages and LIteratures Professor stephen Parker who, after a 44-year successful career at KU, will begin his retirement in the fall of 2011.

For 13 years, Professor Parker served as chair of the Department for Slavic Languages and Literatures, almost a third of his time at KU, and did a great deal to build the department. For at least one semester he was the Acting Director of CREES. Part of his lasting legacy is the en-tire generation of faculty he helped bring into the KU family: Professor Maria Carlson, Profes-sor Marc Greenberg, Professor Bill Comer, and CREES Director, Professor Edith Clowes.

Professor Parker is one of the world’s lead-ing experts in Nabokov and taught popular courses on Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. He leaves behind the Fan Parker Russian and Slavic li-brary, dedicated in honor of his mother. In recognition of Prof. Parker’s long and fruitful service, CREES assisted in bringing Nabokov expert Brian Boyd to campus for a three-day visit this past spring. While we say goodbye to Professor Parker as a faculty member and dedicated teacher, CREES looks forward to continued collaboration with Professor Parker as he refocuses his efforts on fundraising and research.

15FALL 2011

Beginning in August, erik s. Herron (Political Science) will join the National Science Foundation in Virginia for two years as a Program Offi cer. In the past year, Prof. Herron has had two articles published.: “Measuring Dissent in Electoral Authoritarian Societies: Lessons from Azerbaijan’s 2008 Presidential Election and 2009 Referendum” was printed in Comparative Political Studies; and “How Viktor Yanukovych Won: Reassessing the Dominant Narratives of Ukraine’s 2010 Presidential Election” was published in East European Politics and Societies.

Michael H. Crawford (Anthropology) received the Franz Boas distinguished achievement award from the American Human Biology Association. This yearly award recognizes leading, internationally recognized human biologists for their research and service.

Professor Crawford, along with fellow researchers, was featured in a special, double issue of Human Biology: The International Journal of Population Genet-ics and Anthropology in December 2010. This publication synthesized almost ten years of research (sponsored by National Science Foundation) in the Aleutian Islands and Siberia by a research team from the Laboratory of Biological Anthropology at the University of Kansas. This issue examines the demographic and genetic sequelae associated with Russian contact with the indigenous Aleut (Unangan) populations during the 18th and 19th centu-ries (http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/humbiol/vol82/iss5/).

Fifteen years after founding the journal Slovenski jezik / Slovene Linguistic Studies with partner Marko Snoj (Director of the Slovene Language Institute, Scientifi c Research Centre, Slovenian Academy of Sciences & Arts, Ljubljana), Profs. Marc l. Greenberg (Chair, Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures) and Snoj are handing off their journal to younger colleagues, Kozma Ahačič and Grant Lundberg (KU SLL PhD ‘99, now Assoc. Prof. of Slavic Languages at BYU). SJ/SLS is among the fi rst Slavic journals to be made available in simultaneous print and digital open-access formats.

Professor Greenberg continues his activity as an advocate for the KU Open Access Policy at KU, serving on its Advisory Board and Task Force. He has recently had an essay on this topic, co-written with Ada Emmett, KU Scholarly Communication Librarian, “The Scholarly Communication Prob-lem: Why Open Access is Necessary. A Transatlantic Perspective,” published in English in the Hall Center Communiqué and in Croatian, Romanian, Serbian, Slovene, and Ukrainian in newspapers and magazines in the respective countries (Slobodni filozofski, Vatra, Danas, Pančevačko čitalište, Delo, and Bibliotečnyj forum Ukrajiny). He also continues as Linguistics Editor of the journal Slavia Centralis, which he co-founded with colleagues in the Czech Republic, Hungarian, Poland, and Slovenia in 2008 (http://slaviacentralis.uni-mb.si/)

Professor Greenberg’s most recent ar ticle publication is “The Illyrian Movement: A Croatian Vision of South Slavic Unity,” which appeared in the 2011 Handbook of Language and Ethnic Identity: The Success-Failure Continuum in Language Identity Efforts.

svetlana vassileva-Karagyozova’s (SLL) article “The Grandmother as Political Actor in post-1989 Polish Initiation Novels” was published in the Forum for Modern Language Studies as well as in Polish in Polonistyka bez granic (Polish Without Borders).

Congratulations to lisa and John Giullian who welcomed a new baby boy, Christian Henry Guillian, on May 5, 2011. Mom, dad and baby are doing well!

As she cares for her growing family, we say farewell but not goodbye to lisa Giullian as CREES Program Assistant and welcome adrienne landry (BA, SLL and History 2003) who will be taking on CREES administrative duties like course scheduling and FLAS coordination. After completing her MA at Columbia University’s Harriman Institute and working a number of years in SE Europe and the Caucasus, Adrienne returned home to join the CREES team as the new Outreach Coordinator in February 2011. She began Program Assistant work in May.

After 6 years of superb service, Bill london has left the position of CREES Offi ce Manager. Bill accepted the position of Director of Internal Opera-tions at the Spencer Museum of Art. While he is greatly missed, he promises to visit often and attend all Fall and Spring mixers!

As the new CREES Accountant and Offi ce Manager, we welcome Cathy swenson-tucker. Cathy joins CREES from the Offi ce of Study Abroad where she worked for 11 years. Even after just a few short weeks, Cathy proved herself invaluable as the new Offi ce Manager, and we look forward to many more years of collaboration.

CREES Student Assistant, Wayne Keeton, graduated in May 2011 with an MBA. He and his wife, former CREES student assistant, Julie King Keeton, have moved to Wichita, where he has accepted a position as an accountant with Koch Bros. CREES Digital Communications Manager, Jake Poterbin, graduated as well with a BS in Journalism with an emphasis on strategic communication. Jake is pursuing a career in design and advertisement.

2011After graduating in Spring 2011, lily Boyce (BA, Geography & REES) took part in a summer research internship with Food and Water Watch. She helped research a new book on farm subsidies and agricultural policy by Executive Director, Wenonah Hauter. She is currently living in Washington DC pursuing a career in nonprofi t environmental advocacy and international problem-solving.

2010vanessa aldrich (MA, REES) has star ted volunteering at Plymouth Congregational’s free ESL classes, a nondenominational service for members of the Lawrence community. Vanessa cur-rently works as a Production Assistant at Allen Press, Inc., here in Lawrence. For more infor-mation about the Plymouth ESL Language courses for the Fall semester, search “Plymouth Language Program” on facebook.

2001Cassandra Payton (BA, SLL) has joined the US State Department’s Foreign Service and will be an International Relations Offi cer posted to Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina. For the past 10 years she has been working with American Councils for International Education, most recently as the Regional Director for Southeast Europe, based in Belgrade.

ALuMNi NEWS

Cassandra Payton (Ba sll, 2001) with Charles english, former united states ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Matthew Cotton was born and raised in McPherson, KS, just a few hours down the road from Lawrence. He star ted his study at Kansas State University in architecture but changed to a History major his freshman year. Matthew completed his History BA in 2010 focusing on modern Russia and Eastern Europe. He has spent the last year working on his Russian language skills, and will con-

tinue his Russian studies at KU. With REES he intends to focus his studies in History and either Political Science or Literature.

STuDENT NEWSCongratulations to Bethany Owens (MA, REES) and Yuki Onogi (MA, REES) for completing their Masters work in Russian, Eastern European and Eurasian Studies! Both graduated in Spring 2011.

After her May 29, 2011 wedding to Stephen Ber-nzen, Bethany moved to Washington DC where she started a new job with SRA International, a government contracting fi rm. Bethany is also a fi -nalist for the Presidential Management Fellowship.

Yuki will be continuing at John Hopkins University in Bologna, Italy, in the School of Ad-vanced International Studies (SAIS) program.

CREES congratulates Spring 2011 graduating REES co-majors: lily Boyce, eliska valeh-rachava, and nicholas Krogman. Thank you for all your hard work, and we look forward to hearing about your future successes!

laura Dean and Assistant Professor of Sociology at Kansas State University, Nadia Shap-kina, were on the Heartland Labor Forum KKFI 90.1FM talking about human traffi cking in April 2011. They mentioned some of the work they have done in Eastern Europe as well as labor traffi cking in the US. To listen to their broadcast, go to: http://cas.umkc.edu/labor-ed/shows.htm. On April 29, the Department of Political Science awarded Laura the Walter Thompson Scholarship, an annual award dedicated to summer re-search projects.

John Biersack, Cody Brown, sarah Willenbrink, and shay Wood have all been awarded prestigous Fullbright Fellowships for research abroad. John will be doing his research in Ukraine, Cody and Shay in Croatia, and Sarah in Poland.

Research Assistantships with FMSO-Ft Leavenworth were awarded to Ruoxi Du and sandra King-savic for AY 2011-12, and to Ruoxi Du and Patrick Callen for Summer 2011.

sarah Bazih was awarded a research assistantship through the Russian Review, where she has been working as an Editorial Assistant. Russian Review is a leading multi-disciplin-ary journal hosted at KU. Sarah was also awarded a 2011 Excellence in Advanced Rus-sian by the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures. Starting in the fall, Sarah will start a Russian Language Club at Cordley Elementary School here in Lawrence, KS.

Dezeree Hodish was awarded a Boren Fellowship for the 2011-12 academic year. The Boren Fellowship is a unique opportunity for those students com-mitted to careers concerning US national security. It covers a full year of study abroad and research. Dezeree will be going to Ukraine to conduct research for her dissertation, which will compare the process of urban acculturation for Ukrainian and Russian workers in the sister cities of Donetsk, Ukraine, and her hometown, Pittsburgh, Pa. Dezeree was also awarded a 2011 Slavic Department award for Excellence in Intermediate Ukrainian.

Additional 2011 Slavic Department awards went to: Rebecca stakun for Excellence in Elementary Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian, and Holly Glasgow for Excellence in Intermediate Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian.

Slavic Languages and Literatures minor and Summer 2010 FLAS recipient, Godfrey Riddle, was featured in a May 12, 2011 KU graduation profi le titled “Graduation stories: Godfrey Riddle envisions the future of urban housing.” To read the full article, go to: www.news.ku.edu/2011/may/12/riddle.shtml.

BRAMLAgE FAMiLy FouNDATioN FELLoWShip

Incoming REES MA student Gloria Funcheon is the 2011 recipient of the Bramlage Family Foundation Scholarship. Through the generosity of the Bramlage Family Founda-tion, REES is able to offer a $3,000 scholarship to an in-coming KU REES MA student with a strong connection to the state of Kansas.

pALiJ uKRAiNiAN STuDiES AWARD

nathan Pickett was awarded the 2011 Palij Ukrainian Studies Award. The award, established by the Palij Family, offers $75 worth of academic books to a student with a strong dedication to Ukrainian studies. Nathan was also elected president of the REES Graduate Organization. All inquiries about graduate students and events can be sent to his email at: reesgo@ku.edu.

to learn more about funding and award opportunities at CRees, contact CRees assistant Director Bart Redford, bredford@ku.edu or check out our website:

crees@ku.edu

16 CREES NEWSLETTER 17FALL 2011

The Foreign language and area studies (Flas) Fellowship program provides allocations of academic year and summer fellowships to meri-torious undergraduate and graduate students undergoing training in modern foreign languages and related area or international studies via a US State Department grant. For more information or how to apply, go to:

www.crees.ku.edu/academics/funding/

summer 2011austin Charron – Ukrainian – GeographyHolly Glasgow – BCS – AnthropologyJames Joeriman – Ukrainian – REEI/Public Administration (Indiana)Mylisa Jones – BCS – Slavic Languages and Literaturestim Kenny – Russian – Slavic Languages and Literaturestravis Major – Uyghur – Linguisticsnatalie Mauser-Carter – BCS – REES Brad Reynolds – Russian – Slavic Languages and Literatures allison schmidt – Czech – History

Academic Year 2011-12Drew Burks – Polish – HistoryPatrick Callen – Russian – REESHolly Glasgow – Slovene – Anthropologynatalie Mauser-Carter – BCS – REESBrad Reynolds – Polish – Slavic Languages and LiteraturesRebecca stakun – BCS – Slavic Languages and Literaturesausten thelen – Tajik – GeographyJared Warren – Polish – REES

sandra King-savic is a 2nd generation immi-grant born to Balkan parents and grew up in Switzerland. She completed an apprenticeship in business management (Detailhandel) and worked as a merchandiser until the age of 26 when she and her husband moved to Puerto Rico. At 27, she star ted her BA at the Univer-sity of Wyoming in international studies with

a focus on the Middle East. She spent a summer with the organization AMIDEAST in Tunisia. At KU, Sandra plans to study the sociopolitical as well as religious development in the South Serbian Sandžak region. She is specifi cally interested in the development of newer Islamic community centers and the associated ‘promotion’ of Wahabi Islam.

Jared Warren grew up in Connecticut and fi rst encountered Eastern Europe through his family’s Polish heritage. In May 2011 he graduated from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan with a BA in history and French literature. At KU, he plans to study Polish history, particularly emphasizing Pol-ish encounters with French culture. After

earning his MA, Jared will pursue a PhD in history. In his spare time, Jared enjoys dabbling in foreign languages and obsessing over classical music.

iNCoMiNg REES gRADuATE STuDENTS

natalie Mauser-Carter grew up in Dayton, Ohio, home of the Peace Accords! She gradu-ated from Ohio State University in 2009 with a BA in Russian and Linguistics. While at Ohio State, she spent a summer studying Russian with ACTR in St. Petersburg, another summer teaching English in a small town in Bosnia, and a few weeks studying Albanian at the Univer-

sity of Pristina in Kosovo. she would like to focus her studies at KU on language ideologies and identity politics in the Balkans. After her MA, she intends to pursue a career in the non-profi t world and is considering a JD in international human rights law.

Gloria Funcheon graduated from Kansas State University in 2011. While complet-ing her BA in History, she discovered a love for Russian history and language. Gloria is this year’s recipient of the Bram-lage Family Foundation Scholarship, an award given to incoming KU REES MA students who have strong connections to the state of Kansas. In her free time she

loves gardening, reading, and learning about other cultures. She plans to be a Foreign Service Offi cer after graduation.

After graduating with a BA in Music Edu-cation in 2008, amy Murphy served an 18 month mission in Western Ukraine. Her interactions and associations with Ukrainians encouraged a desire to study more deeply Ukrainian culture and his-tory. Amy looks forward to returning to Eastern Europe. She wants to incorpo-

rate her skills as an educator to help others develop a more ac-curate understanding of the region.

US Army Major Gary Oscar received his BA from the University of Pennsylvania in Russian History and Soviet Civilization. He joined the United States Army in 1987, married the former Jennifer Morri-son of Independence, MO in 1997. They have six children: George (13), Carolyn (11), Sean (9), Sophie (7), Margaret (5),

and Gabriel (3). Gary is a Foreign Area Offi cer, specializing in Rus-sia and Eurasia. He has served two combat tours in Afghanistan and one in Iraq, as well as Peace Keeping mission in the Balkans, where he served in the Russian Brigade's sector. He has a particu-lar interest in Russian History and the Russian view of Central Asia.

Foreign LAnguAge AreA studies FLAs

FeLLoWshiP reciPients

Holly Glasgow, Rees Ma candidate and summer 2011 Flas recipient, standing in front of the round Church of saint Donat in Zadar, Croatia.

austin Charron, Geography Ma candidate and summer 2011 Flas re-cipient, at the Chernobyl nuclear Power Plant facility in Pripyat, ukraine.

Democracy, ten Years later: Politics and identity of Minorities in serbiaslavisa Rakovicljubljana Graduate school for the Humanities ACIE, Belgrade Officeaugust 30

Russia’s transition to a Market economy: Birth of a Commercial legal FrameworkHolly neilsonBaring vostok Capital Partnersseptember 9

What’s new at the libraryJon GuillianKu librariesseptember 13

arhaeological survey in eastern serbia 2011: international Collaboration, Preliminary Results and Perspectivesivana RadovanovicKu Department of anthropologyseptember 20

student Panel on study abroadRees and Rees-area Ku studentsseptember 27

title tBatBaOctober 18

Western and Central asian Perspectives on Democracy and Democratization: Compar-ing the Models of DemocracyMaria OmelichevaKu Department of Political scienceOctober 4

Democratization, state Building, and Minorities: Multiethnic states of southeast europealex GrigorevCouncil for inclusive GovernanceInternational Peace and Conflict Resolution, arcadia universityOctober 25

tsar Dmitry and Russia-natO RelationsRaymond Finch, Foreign Military Studies Officenovember 1

title tBastephen DickeyKu Dept of slavic languages and literaturesnovember 8

Feminism in Russia: two Centuries of Historynatalia Puskarevainstitute of ethnology and anthropologyRussian academy of sciencesnovember 15

Poland’s last Communist Generation: lost or Found in the transition?svetlana vassileva-KaragyozovaKu Dept of slavic languages and literaturesnovember 22

FMsO Fellowship ResultsRuoxi Du, Ma candidate, Reessandra King-savic, Ma candidate, Reesnovember 29

Grandfather Frost: the evolution of a Russian Cultural iconirina sixKu Dept of slavic languages and literaturesDecember 6

Korowod Twist of Fatein Polish with english subtitlesseptember 23

9 Рота9th Company in Russian with english subtitlesOctober 21

An SehThose Three in tajik with english subtitlesnovember 18

PoletjaSummer Hitin slovene with english subtitlesDecember 2

CREEScalendarPREVIEW OF EVENTS

all CRees brownbags, book talks, and film series are FREE and OPen to the public. if you would like to give a brownbag lecture or would like to recommend a movie for our film series, please contact:

Bart RedfordCRees assistant Director

bredford@ku.edu785-864-4248

Back to school FairWyandotte Countyaugust 6, 9:00 - 1:00 PM

teaching Gallery exhibit“identity and Community in the Contemporary World”spencer art Museumaugust 23-september 2, 2011

Rees Ba, Ma, and Flas OrientationBailey Hall, Room 318august 23, 12:00 PM

special Film viewingMy PerestroikaQ&a with director Robin HessmanKansas union, Woodruff auditoriumaugust 25, 7:00 pm

international studies Conference“identity and Community: after the Cold War era”Kansas union

august 25-27, 2011

august 25 Key note speakerayse ZarakolWashington and lee university “liminal states after the Cold War era: the case of turkey in comparative perspective”Kansas union, 1:00 - 2:00 PM

august 27 Key note speakerRuel HanksOklahoma state university“Oltin Meros and the territorialization of Memory in uzbek national identity”Kansas union, 1:00 - 2:00 PM

CRees Fall Mixer & PotluckLawrence Union Pacific Train Depotseptember 9, 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Central eurasian studies twelfth annual ConferenceOhio state universityColumbus, Ohioseptember 15-18, 2011

Backus Memorial lectureBloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalintimothy snyderHistory, Yale universityKansas unionMalott Roomseptember 22, 7:00 PM

Festival of Culturesinternational studies exhibitsouth Park in lawrenceseptember 25, 12:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Jerkovich lecture“ethnic identity and Community in the Post-Conflict Balkans: Flashpoint Kosovo”alex GrigorevPresidentCouncil for inclusive GovernanceInternational Peace and Conflict Resolution, arcadia universityKansas unionCentennial RoomOctober 24, 7:00 PM

Book talk: Environmental Politics: Scale and Powershannon O’lear, Geography, KuKansas union, Jayhawk inc.October 27, 4:00 PM

“Commemorating Jewish victims in early Post-War Yugoslavia “emil Kerenjii, applied Research scholarunited states Holocaust Memorial Museumnovember 3, 4:00 PM , venue tBa

2011 Central slavic Conference and Charles timberlake Memorial symposiumst. louis, MOnovember 10-13, 2011

43rd aseees annual ConventionOmni shoreham HotelWashington, DCnovember 17-20, 2011

CRees Holiday PartyDirector edith Clowes’ houseDecember 6, 6:30 PM - 9:30 PM

18 CREES NEWSLETTER 19FALL 2011

special events and lectures

BroWnBag series

318 Bailey, 12:00 pMFriday night at the Kino

318 Bailey, 7:00 pM

www.facebook.com/ku.crees

FALL2011

C REES

ALL FOR PAPERSUniversity of Kansas

Center for Russian, East European, & Eurasian StudiesThe 18th Annual

Roy and Betty LairdESSAY COMPETITION

All University of Kansas students actively pursuing interests in Russian, East European, & Eurasian studies in any KU academic program are eligible to submit an essay of approximately 2,000 words on any topic dealing with the region. The essay should be a “think piece,” not a formal research paper. It should explore a key issue in any discipline relevant to the region. For example, students might explore the causes and consequences of recent political changes in the region, discuss the implications of the post-imperial order for national languages and literatures, the role of religion today, or compose an essay on another topic. Students may rework papers from KU classes, but submissions must be reformatted to meet the following criteria. They must be typed, double-spaced, and in 12-point font size.

Submit an anonymous version of the essay to Ms. Cathy Swenson-Tucker in 320 Bailey Hall by 5:00 pm by Monday, March 26, 2012. A committee will evaluate the essays and select the winning entry. The winner will receive $750, a book of his or her choice, a certificate, his or her name on a plaque, and an impressive line on the résumé. The winner will be invited to present the pa-per at the final REES Brown Bag of the academic year and may have the paper posted on the CREES website.

If you have further questions regarding the topic or submission, please contact Cathy Swenson-Tucker in 320 Bailey, at 864-4236, or by e-mail at crees@ku.edu.

THE REES ESSAY COMPETITION IS SUPPORTED BY THE PROFESSOR ROY D. AND BETTY LAIRD ENDOWMENT.

Roy and Betty Laird ESSAY COMPETITION

750PRIZ

E

$

CREESFall Mixer

2011

For more information:

Come join us as we celebrate the beginning of a new semester with good food, drinks, and fun. Bring your favorite dish and share with family and friends!

CENTER FOR RUSSIAN, EAST EUROPEAN, & EURASIAN STUDIES

Friday, September 96:00 - 9:00 pm

POTLUCK

LAWRENCE UNION PACIFIC TRAIN DEPOT402 N. 2ND STREET

www.crees.ku/educrees@ku.edu

Russian Alternating Wed./Thurs. at 6pm The Mirth Café on 8th and Mass. Contact Eva Hruska for more info. hruskae@ku.edu

Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian Thursdays from 12-12:50pm Alcove E of the Kansas Union Contact Marta Pirnat-Greenberg for more info.mpg@ku.edu

Polish Mondays at 4-5pm 3rd Floor Kansas Union (Dining) Contact Svetlana Vassileva-Karagyozova for more info. svk@ku.edu

Farsi/Tajik Tuesdays from 2:50-3:50pm 4th Floor Kansas Union (Commons) Contact Razi Ahmad for more info. r.ahmad@ku.edu

Czech Thursdays at 5pm The Mirth Café on 8th and Mass. Contact Eva Hruska for more info. hruskae@ku.edu

2010-2011

In Russian, East European, and Eurasian Regions

Everyone is Welcome to Come!

Ukrainian Mondays at 5pm 3rd Floor Watson Library Contact Vanessa Aldrich for more info. bredford@ku.edu

2011 - 2012

Language Tables

RussianTBA - check facebook.com/KURussianClub for updates or contact John Korba for more info.korba@ku.edu

Farsi/TajikThursdays at 4:30pm (tentative schedule)4th Floor Kansas Union (Commons)Contact Razi Ahmad r.ahmad@ku.edu

Bosnian/Croatian/SerbianThursdays from 12-12:50pmAnschutz Library, Rm 436Contact Marta Pirnat-Greenberg mpg@ku.edu

PolishWednesdays from 4-5pm3rd Floor Kansas Union (Dining)Contact Svetlana Vassileva-Karagyozovasvk@ku.edu

UkrainianMondays at 6:30pmThe Java Break on 7th and Mass.Contact Vanessa Aldrich bredford@ku.edu

TurkishNo Turkish TableIf interested in conversing in Turkish contact Abbas Karakaya.abbaskarakaya@ku.edu

UyghurThursdays at 4:30pm3rd Floor Kansas Union (Dining)Contact Mahire Yakup for more info.mylyakup@ku.edu

Everyone is Welcome to Come!

www.facebook.com/ku.crees

Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies

Identity Community&After the Cold War Era

University of Kansas

ConferenCe

aUgUst 25-272011

Kansas Union

Sponsored by:

University of Kansas Office of the Chancellor

Office of the Provost

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Department of Film

Department of

Slavic Languages and Literatures

Dole Institute of Politics

Hall Center for the Humanities

Spencer Museum of Art

School of Music

US Army Research Office

US Dept. of Education, Title VI

Organized by:

Center for Russian, East European,

& Eurasian Studies

Center for East Asian Studies

Center for Global and International Studies

Kansas African Studies Center

Center of Latin American Studies

ConferenCe partiCipation is free and open to the publiC.

reGistration is required. to reGister, Go to:

www.crees.ku.edu/identity_conference.shtml

topiCs inClude:

rethinkinG national Myth

CoMMunity after eMpire

history and national identity

tools for CoMMunity reGulation

ConstruCtions of national identity

iMpliCations for iMMiGration and soCial poliCy

narratinG and arChivinG history

internet CoMMunities

borders, MiGration, and identity

reGional identities

reliGious and philosophiCal CoMMunities

state, poliCy, and identity

free speeCh, huMan riGhts, and CoMMunity

rural, urban, and suburban CoMMunities

SPECIAL

FILM VIEWINGFREE & OPEN

TO THE PUBLIC

MEET THE

DIRECTOR

Q&A

FOLLOWING THE

FILM

THURSDAY

AUGUST 25

7:00 PM

KANSAS UNION

WOODRUFF

AUDITORIUM

BROUGHT TO YOU

BY:CENTER FOR RUSSIAN, EAST

EUROPEAN, AND EURASIAN

STUDIES

ERMAL GARINGER ACADEMIC

RESOURCE CENTER

HALL CENTER

FOR THE HUMANITIES

SLAVIC LANGUAGES

AND LITERATURES

FILM AND MEDIA STUDIES

BECoME A CREES DoNoR ToDAy!Many of our activities are enhanced through private donations to the Center for Russian, east euro-pean & eurasian studies. special events, guest lec-turers, scholarships and study abroad opportuni-ties are just some of the ways your donation can help us ensure our Cen-ter’s vitality. We hope that you will contribute generously to strengthen the Center’s programs by sending your gift today.

For more information, please contact us at:crees@ku.edu785-864-4248

Or check out our website:www.crees.ku.edu

the university of KansasCenter for Russian, east european& eurasian studies1440 Jayhawk Blvd., Room 320lawrence, Ks 66045-7574

CRees General FundThe CREES General Fund supports a wide range of educational and outreach activities on campus and in the wider community. Among its dedicated sponsors are the Backus Memorial Fund which allows CREES to host the annual Backus Memorial Lecture, and the Bramlage Family Foundation Fund which provides scholarships to incoming KU REES MA students who have strong connections to the state of Kansas.

Maria Palij Memorial FundThe Maria Palij Fund suppports an annual visiting lecturerer specializing in Ukrainian studies. The fund also supports the Ukrainian Studies Prize for an out-standing student specializing in Ukrainian.

George C. Jerkovich FundThe mission of the Jerkovich Fund is threefold: 1) supports the development of KU’s South Slavic li-brary collection; 2) provides awards to outstanding students who have demonstrated an interest in the study of Croatian or Serbian history, literature, folk-lore, or culture; 3) brings noted specialists in South Slavic studies to KU.

Roy & Betty laird FundThis fund is named after the late Professor Roy D. Laird, a longtime member of the Russian and East European Studies (REES) and Political Science facul-ties, and Ms. Betty Laird, whose continued support of CREES activities includes sponsoring the annual

Roy & Betty Laird Essay Contest. Monies donated to support this fund will primarily contribute to the advancement of Russian Studies.

norman e. saul FundNamed after KU History Emeritus Professor Nor-man E. Saul, this fund supports REES MA students with travel grants to collections or to REES related conferences at which they will be presenting the re-sults of their research.

giViNg oppoRTuNiTiES

if you would like to make a donation by check or money order, please make your check payable to: Ku CRees.

Please mail your donations to: university of Kansas Center for Russian, east european & eurasian studies 1440 Jayhawk Blvd., Room 320 lawrence, Ks 66045-7574

Your gifts are tax deductible as allowed by law. thank you for your support!