UCLA Center for Europe and Eurasian Studies-Spring 2010 Event Schedule

CEES Events

Spring 2010

 

April 8, 4:00 pm, 6275 Bunche Hall

France's New Museums in a Postcolonial Age*   

The Tjibaou Center: Post-/Neo-Colonialism in New Caledonia and Paris

A public lecture by James Clifford, UC Santa Cruz, Anthropology

Cosponsored with the Mellon Foundation, the UCLA Department of History, and the Eugen Weber Chair in European History

 

April 15, noon, 10383 Bunche Hall

Reproducing the French Race: Immigration, Intimacy, and Embodiment in the Early 20^th Century

A book talk with author Elisa Camiscioli, Binghamton University, History

Discussant: Stephanie Limoncelli, Loyola Marymount University, Sociology

 

April 22, 3:00 pm, 10383 Bunche Hall

France's New Museums in a Postcolonial Age*   

A Mestizo Planet: The Other Face of the Musée du Quai Branly

A public lecture by Serge Gruzinski, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, History

Cosponsored with the Mellon Foundation, the UCLA Department of History, and the Eugen Weber Chair in European History

 

April 29, noon, 10383 Bunche Hall

Building States and Markets: Enterprise Development in Central Asia

A book talk with author Gül Berna Özcan, University of London, School of Management

Cosponsored with the UCLA Center for International Business Education and Research

 

April 29 - May 3

South-East European Film Festival

Cosponsored with the Goethe Institut Los Angeles and the American Cinema Foundation

 

May 6, noon, 10383 Bunche Hall

Constitutional Crises in Turkey

A public lecture by Asli Bâli, UCLA, School of Law

 

May 6, 4:00 pm, 6275 Bunche Hall

France's New Museums in a Postcolonial Age*   

Ethnography for the Masses: The Musée de l'Homme and the 'Modern' Museum in 1930's Europe

A public lecture by Alice Conklin,
Ohio State University, History

Cosponsored with the Mellon Foundation, the UCLA Department of History, and the Eugen Weber Chair in European History

 

May 13, noon, 10383 Bunche Hall

Title TBA

A public lecture by Mitchell Orenstein, Johns Hopkins University, European Studies

 

May 20, 4:00 pm, 10383 Bunche Hall

France's New Museums in a Postcolonial Age*   

'Us' and 'Them': Colonial Legacies and Shifting Identities in Paris' New Museums

A public lecture by Benoît de l'Estoile, École Normale Supérieure, Anthropology

Cosponsored with the Mellon Foundation, the UCLA Department of History, and the Eugen Weber Chair in European History

 

May 26, 7:30 pm, 314 Royce Hall                                                            

The "1939" Club Series in Holocaust Studies

The Minsk Ghetto during World War II: Resistance and Inter-Ethnic Solidarity

A panel discussion with Barbara Epstein, UC Santa Cruz, History, and Maurice Zeitlin, UCLA, Sociology

Cosponsored with the UCLA Center for Jewish Studies and the UCLA Department of Sociology

 

May 27, 4:00 pm, 306 Royce Hall

France's New Museums in a Postcolonial Age*   

French Primitivism from the Porte Dorée to the Musée du Quai Branly

A public lecture by Daniel Sherman, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Art History

Cosponsored with the Mellon Foundation, the UCLA Department of History, and the Eugen Weber Chair in European History

 

June 3, noon, 10383 Bunche Hall

The New Grand Bourgeoisie under Post-Communism: Central Europe, Russia, and China Compared

A public lecture by Iván Szelényi, Yale University, Sociology

Cosponsored with the UCLA Center for Chinese Studies

 

*Please note the afternoon times for lectures in the "France's New Museums in a Postcolonial Age" series. 

 

For updates and detailed information on all events, visit the calendar section of our website: www.international.ucla.edu/euro

 

Call for Articles for Ab Imperio

The editors of Ab Imperio invite contributions to the journal's annual program in 2010.

 

For information on the journal, contact addresses and description of issues,please, visit http://abimperio.net or contact the journal editors directly at office@abimperio.net

 

Ab Imperio 2010: Friends, Foes, and Neighbors: Ascribing Meaning to Imperial Political, Economic, and Social Order

 

Visions of friend and foe remain focal points for studies of different processes, from formation of individual and collective identities to the making of a state's foreign policy. The "friend-foe" binary pair is immediately recognized as one of the most basic anthropological oppositions that structure the boundaries of individuals and groups. The image of the enemy serves as an important factor in defining the limits of political communities and in legitimizing sovereignty and political independence. For contributions to the four thematic issues of Ab Imperio in 2010, the editors invite prospective authors to shift their attention from the ontology and structuralist symmetry of the opposition of "friend-foe" to the fluctuations of the roles of "friend" and "foe"

and these roles functionality in imperial situation. The editors suggest exploring images and functions of "friend" and "foe" in the multilayered and heterogeneous imperial context. This allows us to discover and describe situations when a "friend" simultaneously appears to be a "foe"

(e.g., the Pole as a Slav and the Pole as an enemy of Russian imperial statehood).

 

We can also detect situations in which these very basic dichotomies lose their specific content and their normative component. Consider the category of "neighbor." Is "neighbor" a "friend" or "foe," or is the concept of "neighbor" associated with one of the poles depending on the situation and the intention of historical actors? Is there room for the category of stranger," a neutral social interlocutor, in the repertoire of social experience? In other words, instead of elusive structural statics we are interested in the historical dynamics of the imperial socio-political,cultural, and economic experience. This experience is reflected in discursive (and not only discursive) attachments and repulsions of groups, societies, and states.

 

In contrast to the ideals of multiculturalism and tolerance that dominate today's social sciences, historians have done much to show that past experience significantly deviates from these norms. How images of the enemy and of external danger were used for supporting and legitimizing political communities, national distinctiveness, and patriotic mobilization during wars and political crises has all been studied especially thoroughly. One cannot imagine today's nationalism studies without thematic foci on hostility, repulsion, resentment, and perceived dangers of the extinction of political independence and cultural distinctiveness of the national body. While recognizing the importance of these aspects of solidarity and conflict in past experience, the editors of Ab Imperio are proposing that we think about those (not necessarily obvious) important roles and situations that find themselves in the unmarked space between the extreme poles of friendship and animosity. Is there a difference between the experience of perceiving otherness and translating cultural differences into full-blown alienation and orientalization? Which particular levels of understanding of "friendship" and "familial ties" can be seen when we reconstruct developments of pan-ideologies, such as pan-Islamism, pan-Slavism, pan-Turkism? How different are projects of various political unions, commonwealths, and "common spaces?" What is the semantics and functionality carried by the categories of practical political language, such as Stalin's or revolutionary France's "enemy of the people" (and the French "friend of the people" conspicuously absent from the Soviet parlance), American "enemy of the state," Soviet "friendship of peoples"and "community of historical destiny?"

 

The dynamic and contextual interpretations of the "friend-foe" opposition allow one to overcome the inertia of a research method aimed at "natural"limits of sovereignty and national community. It also allows us to closely explore the historical experience of hybrid, confederative, and consociationist forms of political unions and identities. Despite the fact that the sovereign nation-state continues to be perceived as the main and almost "natural" political form, today's world order is not only composed of the mosaic of monochrome nation-states one sees on the map. Both inside and outside these political spaces there existed and continue to exist complex and mutually untranslatable hierarchies, incongruities, and lines of attachments and repulsions. The discourse of friendship and Hobbesian hostile anarchy that dominates analyses of foreign policy cannot reflect those lines of division and association. Hence, the search for a corrective in the form of analytical language capable of describing processes of encounters, conflict, and cooperation in the imperial situation is on our research agenda.

 

Consequently, in 2010 the focus of the journal will be on the practices of marking solidarity and differences and on motivations for these practices, from anthropological aspects of social interaction to the sphere of foreign policy.

SUSTA - Federation of Ukrainian Student Organizations of America Conference

SUSTA - Federation of Ukrainian Student Organizations of America - is pleased to invite you to our annual conference on March 20-21, 2010 at Boston College (Boston, MA).



The theme of this year's conference is "Ukrainian Youth and Education." The organizers have invited distinguished speakers to talk about the educational reforms in Ukraine in the past few years, about the student experience studying in Ukraine, Western Europe, and USA. There will be numerous workshops re. student life and the
organization, time for sightseeing and meeting other participants.




Registration is now open at www.susta2010.org Early registration will save you $5 off the registration fee ($25 otherwise) which includes breakfast and lunch on Sat., March 20, as well as all conference activities.




For more details incl. program and latest updates please visit www.susta2010.org





If you have any questions, please contact us at mail@susta2010.org.



Source
Oleh Kotsyuba
- SUSTA Vice President

Russian Language and Culture Position at Colgate University

The Department of Russian at Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y., seeks a Visiting Assistant Professor of Russian for a one-year replacement position beginning in July 2010. The candidate is expected to have or soon receive a PhD in Russian language and literature. Our preferred field of specialization is open, although we hope the candidate will be able to offer one course in Russian film. We place paramount importance upon proven facility in teaching Russian language at all levels. The successful candidate will join a strong interdisciplinary Russian Studies program with colleagues in literature, anthropology, geography, history, and political science. Teaching duties will include five courses yearly ranging from intermediate through advanced Russian, to Russian culture or film, to the departmental senior seminar. Fluency in Russian and English is a given, along with a dynamic teaching presence and a strong commitment to scholarship. Please send a letter of application and C.V., and arrange to have three letters of recommendation sent to: Ian Helfant, Chair, Search Committee, Department of Russian, Colgate University, 13 Oak Drive, Hamilton, N.Y. 13346. Review of applications will begin March 22, 2010.

Colgate University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.

Developing and sustaining a diverse faculty, staff, and student body further the University's educational mission.

European Library Online Exhibition: Roma Journey

According to its description, "The European Library (EL) is a free service that offers access to the resources of the 48 national libraries of Europe in 35 languages. Resources can be both digital (books, posters, maps, sound recordings, videos, etc.) and bibliographical . Quality and reliability are guaranteed by the 48 collaborating national libraries of Europe."


The EL has posted an interesting and informative online exhibition that is titled "The Roma Journey."

US Department of Agriculture Releases Food Atlas Online

Although my blog on Slavic Studies Librarianship has to do little with the US Department of Agriculture's release of its online Food Atlas, nevertheless I wanted to bring this important resource to the attention of my readers.



"USDA officials today highlighted one of its newest web-based mapping tool, Your Food Environment Atlas, which will enable researchers, policy makers, and the public to find information on a range of factors that affect access to healthy, affordable food, and will allow users to map the data by county. The map will provide highly detailed information on local food environments and health outcomes, including grocery store access and disease and obesity prevalence."



The new atlas is at: http://www.ers.usda.gov/foodatlas/



The full press release is linked from the USDA Newsroom: http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1OB?navtype=MA&navid=NEWSROOM.


Source: Linda Zellmer
Government Information & Data Services Librarian
415 Malpass Library
Macomb, IL 61455
LR-Zellmer@wiu.edu
Phone: 309-298-2723
Fax: 309-298-2791

Aynurə Suri: Learning to Love Azerbaijani Culture! Loving Azeri Music!

Hello All! I must admit my love for the beautiful culture and the popular music of Azerbaijan. One can argue that why popular and not mugham? Well I am still acquiring the language and the pop music is helping me learn the language. Yes, once again I pay attention to the words and try hard to understand them. If for some reason, I do not understand these words, then I refer to lughet or dictionary and try to make sense of the song.



The Culture of Azerbaijan on one hand captivates me with its charms and on the other hand it forces me to think how my own ana dili- Marathi has been enriched with the words from Turkic languages. Well afterall the Bahmani Empire and the Sultanates in its immediate aftermath meant fusion of those including Turkestani warriors who fought on the Deccan plateau for dominance and control.



Well as usual, I am going off the topic. I want to introduce you to a couple of clips of songs by an Azerbaijani Pop Artist- Nura Suri
.


Do we remember the starting theme of Inglorious Basterds?? So here is a song called Yuxu by Nura Suri. Yuxu as I understand is a hiccough, but I might be wrong.






Nura Suri "Senden oyrendim"

The UCLA Asia Institute Announces 2010 Faculty and Graduate Student Grants

The UCLA Asia Institute Announces 2010-2010

Faculty and Graduate Student Grants

Application deadline: April 2, 2010

 1. Asia Institute Graduate Fellowships

The Asia Institute provides two fellowships of $8194 each to UCLA graduate students whose research focuses on an Asian topic or incorporates Asia in comparative or regional perspectives or methodologies. The regions covered by these fellowships include East Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia. Graduate student applicants must be advanced to candidacy at the time of the award and have a minimum GPA of 3.0.

2. Hiroshi Wagatsuma Memorial Graduate Student and Faculty Grants

The Wagatsuma Fellowship was created in honor of the late UCLA Anthropology Professor Hiroshi Wagatsuma, who for many years served as an important bridge of mutual understanding between students and academics in Japan and the United States. He pursued cross-cultural studies in anthropology, psychology, sociology, and law until his death in 1985.

• Graduate Fellowships:
  Several awards of up to $7000 will be made to students working on a dissertation or comparable research project with a substantial cross-cultural or comparative dimension, preferably one concerning Japan or other Asian country and North America. Applications should discuss how the proposal meets the requirements of the award to continue in the spirit of Prof. Wagatsuma's work.
  

Graduate student applicants must be current UCLA students in good standing with a minimum GPA of 3.0. Each application must be accompanied by a proposal of 2-3 pages in length, an unofficial UCLA transcript, and two letters of recommendation.

• Faculty Grants:
  A grant of up to $5000 will be made to a UCLA faculty member in support of research, a conference, workshop, or publication in a collaborative research project with a Japanese scholar. These grants may not be used for salary supplements for UCLA faculty or visiting Japanese scholars.
  

For further instructions and to access the online applications, please visit the UCLA Asia Institute website at http://www.international.ucla.edu/asia/funding/. To apply online, visit http://apply.international.ucla.edu/?ai.

For information, please contact Elizabeth Leicester, Assistant Director, UCLA Asia Institute at eleicester@international.ucla.edu.

 
 

UCLA Asia Institute
11288 Bunche Hall
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1446
Phone: (310) 825-0007
Fax: (310) 206-3555
Email: asia@international.ucla.edu
Website: www.international.ucla.edu/asia

 

Deadline for nominations for the Post Secondary Russian Scholar Laureate Award is today: 1 March 2010

It's time once again to nominate the TOP STUDENT in your program for the annual Post Secondary Russian Scholar Laureate Award--PSRSLA!! The PSRSLA is a FREE program offered to US Russian Departments and Programs. Organized under the auspices of ACTR (the American Council of Teachers of Russian), the PSRSLA seeks to provide national recognition for our star students--those students who best embody an enthusiasm for and love of things Russian. ACTR provides this program as a service to the profession. We encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to publicly recognize your top student. It's free! It's easy!

 

In order to nominate a student, please follow these guidelines:

 

--Deadline for nominations 1 MARCH 2010.

--Nominations are accepted in ELECTRONIC FORMAT ONLY, via e-mail to me at cynthia.ruder@uky.edu. Nominations can be in the body of the e-mail or sent as an attachment. Nomination letters should include the following information:

--Full name of student. Nominees should be juniors or seniors.

**Note that only 1 student can be nominated from each institution. We realize that Russian programs frequently have more than one outstanding student, but in order to preserve the integrity of the award, no more than ONE student at a given institution can be nominated to receive the PSRSLA.

 

***Remember that YOU decide who is worthy of this award, not ACTR.

--Description of why this student most deserves this award. Be sure to supply specific information that describes how the student promotes the study of Russian and models the behavior of a committed Russian student. The student need not have the top GPA, nor be a Russian major, but should demonstrate an active dedication--in course work, outside activities, attitude--to the study of Russian language and culture.

--Name and contact information of the nominator. The nomination should reflect the consensus of the program or department. The nomination letter should be submitted over the signature of the Department or Program chair or the Director of Undergraduate Studies.

--Remember that the nominator must be a member of ACTR. If you are not a member of ACTR and would like to join, you can join ONLINE at http://membership.actr.org. If you prefer to join/renew by mail, please contact George Morris, ACTR Treasurer at actrmbrs@sbcglobal.net.

With your membership fee you receive the ACTR Newsletter as well as a subscription to the Russian Language Journal--a peer-reviewed journal that focuses on all aspects of the Russian language and welcomes submissions.

--Award certificates will be mailed to nominators during March so that they arrive prior to any departmental award ceremonies.

Questions? Feel free to contact me at cynthia.ruder@uky.edu. We encourage you to take advantage of this program in order to let our best and brightest know that we appreciate their work and value their commitment to all things Russian.

 

Best regards, Cindy Ruder

 

Cynthia A. Ruder, Associate Professor

University of Kentucky

MCL/Russian & Eastern Studies

1055 Patterson

Lexington, KY 40506-0027

859.257.7026

cynthia.ruder@uky.edu