Czech Deputy Chief of Mission, Daniel Koštoval. During their visit to Lawrence November 7 they enjoyed visiting an exhibit of Spencer Museum Central European hold-ings and attended talks by Svetlana Vassileva-Karagyozo-va (Slavic) and Nathan Wood (History) at the fall educa-tor’s workshop on “Reimagining Central Europe: Transi-tion and Identity.” We enjoyed hearing Nathan Wood and Anna Cienciala (Emerita, History) discuss the events of 1989 on the Walt Bodine Show (NPR). The semester saw two live readings of Karel Capek’s, RUR: Rossum’s Uni-versal Robots, in Eva Hruska’s new translation, staged by John Staniunas (Theatre), and read by a full cast includ-ing Staniunas and Dennis Christilles. The play became funnier with each reading and elicited questions and lively discussion from the audiences.

Even though we tried to keep Spring 2010 relatively clear for the purposes of grant writing, we didn’t succeed. Along with another calendar full of fascinating Laird Brown bags, ranging from a roundtable on the Ukrainian elections to talks on Serbian nationalism in 1988 and contemporary Turkish nation-building, we are enjoying another semester full of larger events. Thanks to the ef-forts of Shannon O’Lear (Geography), Ft. Leavenworth, and the Kansas National Guard, early February saw a well-attended roundtable on “The Turkish-Armenian Bor-der: Challenges and Implications of Change,” with talks by Elif Andac and Shannon O’Lear. During February and March Slavic PhD student and Spencer intern, Olena Chervonik, mounted an exhibit, “Utopia/Dystopia,” featuring several Slavic pieces. In April we look forward to the Norman E. Saul Lecture by Loren Graham (MIT), a book talk on Voluntary Associations in Tsarist Russia by Joseph Bradley (U. Tulsa), and the spring educators’ workshop on “Teaching the Silk Road: The Past, Present, and Future of the Global Market.” The end of April will

March 8, 2010

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

As I sit down to write my biannual letter to you, thoughts of the new Title VI grant, which is due later in March, are never far away. It’s a relief to feel at least enough peace of mind to be able to write this letter—a lot of promising numbers and interesting facts have now taken their places in the grant narrative and portray a prosperous CREES ready to take the next step.

Inside this number of the CREES Newsletter you will find mementos from the whirl of events connected to last semester’s “Fall of the Wall,” our commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the end of Soviet-style rule in Central Europe. The special Central European semester featured varied events, including related course offerings, Nathan Wood’s “Everyday Communism,” David Skalicky’s “To-talitarianism and Literature in Central Europe,” and a lively Friday at KINO film series with record attendance. Of special interest was a conference on “Central Europe 1989: Lessons and Legacies,” with speakers from across North America and Europe. In November we celebrated “Velvet Revolution Week,” organized jointly by the Kan-sas City Czech and Slovak Club, the Honorary Consuls from the Czech and Slovak Republics, and CREES, with visits from the Slovak Ambassador, Peter Burian, and the

FROM THE DIRECTOR

Newsletter

Spring 2010

CONTENTS

CREES 50th Anniversary ....................... 2

Interview with Maria Carlson .............. 3

KU Senior to Intern at U.N.International Criminal Tribunalfor Former Yugoslavia ............................ 5

Teachers Take Part in Reimagining Central Europe .....................7

Faculty News ............................................ 8

Student and Alumni Updates ............. 10

In Memory ofMichael Palij .......................................... 12

KU CREES is on Facebook .................. 10

CENTER FOR RUSSIAN, EAST EUROPEAN & EURASIAN STUDIES

Keynote speakers with Edith Clowes at the KU international conference “Central Europe 1989: Lessons and Legacies.” From Right, Veronika Ambros (University of Toronto), Jan Kubik (Rutgers), and Izabela Filipiak (University of Gdansk).

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CREES Alumni/ae! We look forward to welcoming you back to KU in late August to celebrate CREES’s 50th an-niversary! Highlights of the weekend include a welcome dinner and concert of Slavic music at Bales Recital Hall; a day-long conference with short research presenta-tions, reminiscences, and keynote speeches by alumni/ae and professors. An added piece of fun is that our new university hotel, The Oread, is now open. It’s up on the hill with a great view in all directions! We have reserved a block of rooms for you. Please RSVP at crees@ku.edu and find information about the weekend on the CREES website.

As we prepare for our big reunion, would you please send us your reminiscences and pictures from your life at SEES/REES (with the date and everyone in the picture identified; also make sure all digital pictures are at least 300 dpi).

In connection with the new Title VI grant and the 50th anniversary we wanted to draw a picture of you and what professions and careers you have had all these years (Please see the table on p. 3). We sent out 481 sur-veys, and we were delighted that 25% of you responded,

CREES 50th ANNIVERSARY

bring a conference on “Culture and Security in Central Asia,” featuring talks by Martha Brill Olcott (Carnegie Endowment), Roger Kangas (National U.), Michael Mihalka (Ft. Leavenworth, CGSC), and Thomas Wilhelm (Ft. Leavenworth, FMSO), as well Mariya Omelicheva (Political Sciences) and Cristin Burke (PhD student, Geography). The summer will feature still other excit-ing events, including a three-day conference in June on “Designing Tasks for Content and Language Learning: Goals and Standards in Teaching Russian,” organized by William Comer (Slavic). And…finally! August 27-28 we celebrate the 50th anniversary of CREES! All alumni/ae are invited for an action-packed weekend of music,

Dean Greg Simpson welcomes participants to the conference “Central Europe 1989: Lessons and Legacies”

My Svensson and Svetlana Vassileva-Karagyozova chat during a coffee break

talks, reminiscences, and great food and conversation. For information about upcoming events please visit the CREES website, www.crees.ku.edu.

No matter whether we’ve heard from you recently, or not, please keep your news flowing this way. We’ll put it into the fall newsletter.

Sincerely,

Edith Clowes, Director, CREES

some with heartwarming, some with critical, and all with constructive comments about your experience. Generally the picture showed that most of you (85% of respondents) learned Russian; 12% learned BCS; 11% Polish; 4% Ukrai-nian; and 4% Czech. A whopping 63% of you have been in government service at some point in your career. Currently 35% of you are in government service; 22% in education; 9% in business; and 4% practicing law.

We wanted to know, of the languages and areas you studied at KU, what was most useful to you. 51% of you answered that you still use your language at least to some extent in your daily work. 25% say that you have even retained advanced or superior language skills. When we asked whether your area studies or your language training was the more useful to you, 30% said area studies knowledge was most useful, while 23% named foreign language skills. We were happy to hear that 62% of you agreed or strongly agreed that your CREES (SEES) degree had had a strong impact on your life.

We look forward to seeing as many of you as can come to Lawrence in August!

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INTERVIEW WITH MARIA CARLSON

With the 50th Anniver-sary of CREES at KU fast approaching, we thought it appropri-ate to interview one of the former directors of CREES, Professor Ma-ria Carlson. Dr. Carlson shepherded CREES through the turbulent years of 1993-2003, and so we asked her to reflect back on that decade and share her thoughts on the state of area studies today. First, though, we asked her about her current research and her background in the field.

CREES: What sparked your interest in Slavic languag-es and cultures?The right place, the right time, and the right teachers. I studied German for years, and as an undergrad at the University of Wisconsin, I majored in German. Then I took Prof. Michael Petrovich’s Russian history course, and that was it. I signed up for Russian language and Prof. James O. Bailey eventually mentored me into Slavic and into graduate school at Indiana with his colleague, Prof. Felix Oinas. It was touch-and-go between history and literature, but you can do intellectual history in either discipline. So today I am a professor in Slavic and a courtesy professor in History. I ended up in the right place because the right people took an interest in my work.

CREES: You’ve published and spoken about many subjects, including Russian occultism, literature, philosophy, art, and even the modern research library. What is your latest research or book project?Toward the end of my career, I have returned to one of my earliest passions: folklore. Right now I am working on a monograph on corporeal revenants in Slavic folk tradition (those would be vampires). The extant English-language vampirological literature attributes the vam-pire to the Slavs, but contains significant misinformation. I want to provide an English-language resource that more accurately describes, contextualizes, and analyzes this figure. This project is an organic part of my research program, which has always focused on understanding cultures and sub-cultures that are based on an essentially magi-cal (rather than scientific or religious) mode of thought. This includes my work in Russian occultism and my more recent explorations of contemporary Russian neo-paganism. A magical mode of thought structures and perceives the world in a profoundly different manner than a religious or scientific mode. It explores the same

CREES 50-Year co-BA/MA Alumni/ae Survey,Spring 2009Information Numbers / Percentage of

respondents#s surveyed/ % responded 481/ 121; 25%Languages learned 85% Russian; 12% Bosnian-

Croatian-Serbian; 11% Polish; 4% ea. Ukrainian, Czech

Current employment 35% govt. service; 22% education; 9% business

Govt. service in career 63% at some point in career

Language skills used in current work

51% (20% very often)

Current proficiency level 25% advanced or above; 29% intermediate

Correlation of advanced proficiency to current job

29% govt. service; 25% education

Usefulness of REES degree (FL/ AS training)

62% agree or strongly agree; 23% neutral

Most useful skills: area studies

30% agree or strongly agree

Most useful skills: foreign language

23% agree or strongly agree

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issues that move all people—love, death, power, good, evil, time—but it asks different questions about these things and comes up with different answers that can be illuminating. There is a lot more “magical thinking” out there than most people think.

CREES: Can you say something about your experience living in Russia?I did a lot of travel to Russia and Ukraine for research and later on CREES business, but Moscow was my home for six years, from November 1980 to December 1986. My husband was assigned to the US Embassy in Moscow, and I found myself on a six-year “grant” with almost unlimited travel and research perks and quality time to spend with Russian friends, academic colleagues, professional writers, artists, and actors. I travelled to 90 cities in the Soviet Union and got a lot of research done. As luck would have it, I also had a front row seat for the beginning of the end of the Soviet regime. I experienced it not from a distance, filtered through the lens of Cold War sovietologists, but up close and per-sonal. Who would have thought that Party congresses and meetings would suddenly become major television events, with people glued to their screens? In my six years I saw the funerals of three general secretaries and watched the rise of Gorbachev. I also kept a detailed di-ary of those years; look for “The Book” shortly after my retirement from KU.

CREES: You were director of CREES from January 1993 to August 2003. That was the period, immedi-ately after the dissolution of the USSR, when many in R&EE studies were doing a lot of soul-searching. The number of students entering the field jumped astro-nomically, and then dropped off significantly. It was a challenging time to be director. It was indeed. I asked myself every day what our goal was, what was worth keeping together, and what had to be reinvented to address changes in our world area. There were no road maps for this one. The best I could do was to hold together the things that the CREES fac-ulty and I agreed were most important. The one advan-tage I had was that, as an intellectual historian, I knew that Jeffrey Sachs was not going to be able to fix the Russian economy on his weekends and that Russia was not going to become a whole different place overnight. So there was time to take a deep breath and do some se-rious strategic planning with the CREES faculty. I think we got over that rough patch just fine.

CREES: What would you say was the most challeng-ing aspect of running CREES? What was most enjoy-able?The most challenging thing about running the Center is learning Lesson 1: CREES is not about you and your interests; it is about the needs and interests of students, colleagues across many disciplines, and other constitu-

encies of the Center (institutional, local, regional, national). You have to listen to your constituents, really know who they are as scholars, and promote curriculum, program-ming and developmental opportunities that meet the great-est number of their needs and interests. The more concrete challenges included raising the profile of KU international programs in the 1990s, finding institutional resources for international programs, maintaining the national visibility of CREES as a US/ED Title VI National Resource Center, and actively pursuing other grant funding that supported research and training opportunities for faculty and students in REES and in other departments. What I found most sat-isfying was being in a situation where I had real resources to promote our profession and to advance the careers of colleagues and students by providing opportunities for research, collaboration, and study abroad.

CREES: Would you share your thoughts on the state of the field? What is the future of Russian, East European, and Eurasian studies? I have no idea. I know only that Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia will not disappear and, presumably, neither will Russian, East European, and Eurasian stud-ies. As new generations of scholars move up in the field, they will reshape it in ways we cannot foretell. And as new area studies graduates go out into the workforce, they will reshape perception of this part of the world and set new priorities for engaging it. Let us hope that we have given them a good tool-kit with which to undertake this task.

CREES: Do you have any memorable moments or fond memories of teaching you would like to share? My favorite course is “Main Currents of Russian Thought,” a two-semester sequence that outlines the evolution and development of Russian ideas and their interaction with Western European ideas from pagan Rus’ to Sept. 1922, when Lenin put all the major Russian philosophers and thinkers on a ship and exiled them to Germany. What I love most about teaching this course is the look on students’ faces when they have their private “Aha! So that’s why ...!” moments. Many REES students have suffered through this course only to discover it’s really a tiny time bomb: some parts go off in class, but other parts are still going off years later, and I have the e-mails to prove it.

CREES: Is there anything you would like to add?I am proud of each and every student who made it through the KU REES program (and also some who didn’t). I began working with REES students in 1989 and I continue to work with some of them today. I am delighted to say that many of them have matured into good colleagues and friends. Among them are directors of foundations, high-level dip-lomats and government employees, professors and teach-ers, educational support professionals, military men and women, major players in various NGOs, business-men and -women involved Russia and Eastern Europe,—just about every profession you can imagine. KU CREES can rightly boast of high-achieving alumni/ae.

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KU SENIOR TO INTERN AT U.N. INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL FOR FORMER YUGOSLAVIA

Katherine M. Beall, a senior from Baldwin City, has been selected for a prestigious internship at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in the Hague, Netherlands. She will work Aug. 16-Dec. 23, 2010, in the Office of the Prosecutor in the leadership research section, which researches and analyzes the former Yugoslavia, including its history, politics, demography and media. In addition to participating in day-to-day activities, interns are invited to attend lectures and other tribunal activities.

Beall is majoring in environmental studies with a co-major in global and international studies and a minor in Slavic languages and literatures. She has been studying Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian for the last 3½ years.

Beall spent last summer working in the public affairs office at the US Embassy in Zagreb, Croatia, and hopes to pursue graduate study in an area relating to international affairs or international studies, perhaps for the UN or a nongovern-ment organization. “I decided to study Croatian at KU on a whim,” Beall said. “I knew I wanted to study two lan-guages and wanted one to be a less commonly taught one. It sounded interesting, and it ended up being a really good decision. I found the internship with the UN on the Inter-net. It fits perfectly with my interests and potential career path.”

“What excites me about it is that I will be doing positive work in an area that I have spent so much of my time learn-ing about and actually getting to apply the language skills that I have been working on for so long,” she said. “I will get to spend four months living and working in the Nether-lands and have the opportunity to work as part of perhaps the largest international entity in the world.”

“Katie Beall’s prestigious appointment at the ICTY dem-onstrates the value of an education that includes the study of critical world languages and the areas where they are spoken,” said Marc L. Greenberg, chair of the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures. “Many KU graduates with Slavic language knowledge have gone on to work in law, diplomacy, security, intelligence, commerce and other fields connected with Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. We wish Katie well in the start of a promising, dy-namic career and we are very proud that she will represent KU wherever she goes.”

Please obtain a form at: http://www.crees.ku.edu/funding/donors/Support$$4.doc and return with your check to CREES or contact us directly at 785-864-4248.

www.crees.ku.edu/funding/Donor.shtml

YOU CAN HELP CREES WITH YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORT

Many of our activities are enhanced through private donations to the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies. Special events, renowned lecturers, scholarships and study abroad opportunities are just some of the ways your donations can help us to maintain our Center’s vibrancy. We hope that you will con-tribute generously to strengthen the Center’s programs by sending your gift today. Please feel welcome to contact us at 785-864-4248.

John Korba, PhD candidate in Slavic Languages & Literatures, presents his paper at the conference “Central Europe 1989: Lessons & Legacies.”

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FALL 2009 VISITORS

Hydarov

Robert Blobaum (History, West Virginia University) spoke about “Polish-Jewish Relations in Warsaw during the First World War,” at a brownbag lecture on November 3.

Stella Rock (History, University of Sussex) gave a brownbag lecture on “Guiding Believers: Clerical Responses to Popular Orthodoxy in Contemporary Russia” on October 20.

Laszlo Kulcsar (Sociology, Kansas State University) spoke about ”Aging and Community Development in Eastern Europe,” at a brownbag lecture on October 6.

Rustam Hydarov (Muskie Fellow, Kansas State University) spoke about "Communication for Development: Impacting Health, Business and Policy in Uzbekistan," at a brownbag on November 17.

Nadia Shapkina (Sociology, Kansas State University), shared her research on “Human Trafficking in Contemporary Russia and Ukraine” at a brownbag lecture on November 10.

On September 29 Helen Hundley (History, Wichita State University, gave a brownbag lecture entitled "Defending the Periphery: Tsarist Management of Buddhism."

Richard De George (Philosophy), steps aside after introducing Svetozar Stojanovic (University of Belgrade), who returned to KU to deliver a Hall Center lecture on “Lessons from the Demise of Communism and the Crisis of Capitalism” on October 12.

Please visit the CREES video archives atwww.crees.ku.edu/news_events/videos.shtml

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TEACHERS TAKE PART IN REIMAGINING CENTRAL EUROPE

As a part of the last semester’s “Fall of the Wall: Re-constructing Central Europe,” CREES and the Spencer Museum of Art (SMA) presented “Reimagining Central Europe: Transition and Identity,” a workshop for K-16 educators. The event took place in the Spencer Museum on November 7. While waiting for the gallery tour, educators, students and professionals gathered in the Spencer’s charming reception room. The workshop orga-nizers—Tatyana Wilds, Outreach Coordinator (CREES/International); Amanda Martin-Hammond, Public Programs Coordinator, and Kristina Mitchell, Director of Education (SMA) welcomed participants with a conti-nental breakfast.

Natalie Svacina, SMA intern, gave an inspired tour of the Spencer’s Central European Collection that included posters, photography, and prints. After the gallery tour and a discussion, Professor Nathan Wood (History), gave an exciting lecture on “Solidarity: Non-Violent Protest and the Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe.” Professor Wood also showed a unique movie episode called, “We Caught God by the Arm.” The epi-sode belongs to a series entitled, “A Force More Power-ful.” After a short break, Professor Svetlana Vassile-va-Karagyozova (Slavic Languages and Literatures) captivated listeners with a talk on “The Leaders of the Revolution: Lech Walesa and Vaclav Havel.” Her pre-sentation helped participants to understand the complex characters of these two leaders and to learn about their personal connection, struggles, and achievements.

The second part of the workshop was a roundtable dis-cussion. Teachers and presenters had an opportunity to ask questions and exchange information and experience on the topics of the workshop and to discuss possible lesson plans.

CREES always encourages educators to attend its events and to incorporate area studies into Great Plains class-rooms. The center offers travel grants, which in the current economic climate, are of noticeable help. Teach-ers also have the opportunity to become teacher-scholars and write lesson plans, for which they receive an hono-rarium.

Nathan Wood presents at the workshop

STAY TUNED FOR OUR APRIL K-16 WORKSHOP!

On April 17, 2010, the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, the Center for East Asian Studies, the Center for Economic Education and the Center for Global and International Studies will host a workshop for educators, “Teaching the Silk Road: The Past, Present, and Future of the Global Market.”

For the Schedule please see: www.crees.ku.edu/outreach/Workshops_for_Educators.shtml

As a result of this productive and fun event, four teachers chose to become teacher-scholars and wrote lesson plans.

To download lesson plans, please visit: http://www.crees.ku.edu/teachers/Curriculum.shtml.Also, do not overlook this new website for educators, http://www.crees.ku.edu/teachers/index.shtml.

Natalie Svacina, SMA intern, gives teachers a tour of the “Imagining Central Europe” exhibit.

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Jay Alexander (Professor Emeritus, History) reviewed Romanovs: Ruling Russia 1613-1917, by the late Lindsey Hughes, in the Slavic Review’s December issue.

Maria Carlson (Slavic Languages & Literatures) attend-ed the international conference “Russian Futures: Con-texts, Challenges, Trends,” held at Duke University, Feb-ruary 19-21, 2010, where she delivered the paper “Tools to Think With: Strategies for Teaching ‘Culture’ to Con-temporary College Students.”

Anna Cienciala (Professor Emerita, History) recently published “The United States and Poland in World War II: An Overview,” and “Polish Foreign Policy and the Czechoslovak Crisis of 1938, as Reflected in Polish Diplo-matic Documents,” both in the Polish Review, vol. 54, no. 2, 2009.

Jon Giullian (Slavic and Eurasian Studies, Watson Li-brary) recently published an article entitled “Slavic Folk-lore, the Library and the Web: A Case-Study of Sub-ject-Specific Collaborative Information Literacy at the University of Kansas,” Slavic and East European Informa-tion Resources (SEEIR) v. 10, no. 2/3. (This case-study de-scribes the on-going integration of information literacy (IL) into a large undergraduate general education course on Slavic folklore at the University of Kansas. The pur-pose of the case-study is to provide practical examples that Slavic librarians and other colleagues may find use-ful in the development of their own customized library instruction program. Giullian also chaired a panel at the 2009 AAASS National Convention in Boston, on “Librar-ianship as Career Path for Scholars in Slavic and Eur-asian Studies.”

Marc L. Greenberg (Chair, Slavic Languages & Litera-tures) gave the plenary lecture “The Meaning of South Slavic Dialectology” at the opening of the “6th Congress of Dialectology and Geolinguistics,” on 14 September 2009 at the University of Maribor, Slovenia. Some 100 di-alectologists from Asia, North America, and Europe par-ticipated in the conference. Prof. Greenberg will also co-edit the proceedings volume together with Mihaela Ko-letnik (Slovenia) and Astrid van Nahl (Germany).

Mohammed El Hodiri (Economics) represented Univer-sity of Kansas at a conference held at the Kazakh Nation-al University (KazNu, formerly KazGu) named after Abu Nasr Ali alFarabi. The university celebrated the 75th an-niversary of its founding with an international scientific conference, “The University of The 21st Century: Innova-tions and New Technologies,” in Almaty Oct 14-15, 2009. His paper, one of 15 plenary papers presented at the con-ference, was entitled “Accumulation and Maintenance of Human Capital in Higher Education.” While there, Pro-fessor El Hodiri taught a short intensive course on non-standard economic analysis, attended by junior faculty and PhD students.

Jacob Kipp (Russian, East European and Eurasian Stud-ies) gave presentations at a number of conferences and workshops recently. In January he attended a Carne-gie Endowment for International Peace conference on “Asian Nuclear Issues,” where he presented a paper on Asian Drivers in Russia’s Nuclear Posture. On January

25-26, he was at a US Army War College Conference held at the Finnish Embassy in DC, devoted to US-Russian Secu-rity Dialogue, where he gave a paper on Russian military doctrine. On Feb. 16-18, Dr. Kipp attended a Conference on Asia’s Nuclear Future, held at the Lowry Institute in Syd-ney, Australia, where he again presented on Asian Drivers in Russia’s Nuclear Posture.

Marie Alice L’Heureux (Architecture) was awarded tenure and promotion to Associate Professor.

Shannon O’Lear (Geography) submitted the final manu-script for her book, Environmental Politics: Scale and Power, to Cambridge University Press in December. The book is expected to be published in the spring of 2010.

Norman Saul (Professor Emeritus, History) published an Historical Dictionary of United States-Russian/Soviet Relations with Rowman and Littlefield.

Irina Six (Slavic Languages and Literatures) received a 2010 Business Language Research & Teaching (BLRT) Grant, awarded by the Consortium of CIBERS (Centers for International Business Education & Research) to Pro-mote Business Language and Teaching. She received the award for her project “Mastering Business Case Discussion: Data-Driven Teaching Materials for Intermediate Students of Russian,” which aims to develop classroom materials for students of business Russian. The award was presented at the 2010 Business Language Conference in Philadelphia in March.

A new volume on a central issue in Slavic linguistics has just been issued by John Benjamins (Amsterdam), co-edit-ed by Renee Perelmutter (Slavic Languages & Literatures and Jewish Studies) and Viktoria Hasko (Univ. of Georgia), entitled New Approaches to Slavic Verbs of Motion (= Stud-ies in Language Companion Series 115). The refereed volume includes fifteen chapters by leading international Slavic scholars, including KU faculty Stephen M. Dickey (Slavic Languages & Literatures), Renee Perelmutter, and Marc L. Greenberg (Slavic Languages & Literatures).

FACULTY NEWS

Marc L. Greenberg at the opening of the “6th Congress of Dialectology and Geolinguistics” at the University of Maribor, Slovenia

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FALL 2009 BROWNBAGS

FALL 2009 MIXER AND WINTER PARTY

Alex Tsiovk (REES), discusses the potential impact of the upcoming elections in Ukraine on Ukrainian-Russian relations at a brownbag held on November 24.

REES Alum Major Scott McIntosh (Dept. of International Security and Military Studies, Air Command and Staff College) delivers a briefing on the "UN Observer Mission in Georgia, 2008," during a brownbag lecture on September 15.

History Professor Ron Francisco was presented with the REES Faculty Appreciation Award at the Fall Mixer.

REES faculty, students and friends connected at the REES Winter Party.

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STUDENT NEWS

Brett Chloupek, doctoral student in Geography and master’s student in REES, reports a productive year con-ducting research for his dissertation in the state archives in Slovakia. Chloupek, who received a Boren Graduate Fellowship to conduct research this year, reports that he is looking forward to seeing everyone upon his return.

Bethany Owens, an MA-MBA student in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies and Business Administration, will be spending this summer in Romania. She will be working for 10 weeks for the US Department of State at the US Embassy in Bucharest in the Public Affairs Section.

Shay Wood, a graduate student in History, studying Slovene language, working in collaboration with his instructor, Marta Pirnat-Greenberg (Slavic Languages & Literatures), translated the short story “Vilnius” by Klemen Pisk. The translated work was awarded the Editor’s Choice Award by Fiction’s Fix (http://www.fictionfix.net/).

ALUMNI NEWS

Let us know what you have been up to! Send your new updates to Bart Redford, bredford@ku.edu

1972Brigadier General (Ret.) John C. Reppert is returning to Garmish, Germany, as Dean of the College of Inter-national and Security Studies at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies. Over the course of his career, Reppert has served as presidential transla-tor on the “hot line” in the Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, DC; Military Attaché at the Ameri-can Embassy in Moscow; Principal Director for Rus-sian, Ukrainian, and Eurasian Policy at the Office of the Secretary of Defense; and Director of the On-Site Inspec-tion Agency (OSIA). He is married to the former Patricia Rash, and they have two children.

1976Mark Scott reported that the Russian edition of his book Eyewitness Accounts of the Murmansk Run, was presented recently at a special ceremony at the American Consulate in St. Petersburg. The Russian title of the book is “Hail, Rocky Peaks,” a play on the hymn of the Soviet Northern Fleet, which was “Farewell, Rocky Peaks.”

2003Randy Masten has been accepted into the History PhD program at KU. He plans to study interwar Poland and Czechoslovakia. He will start the program in January 2011.

STUDENT AND ALUMNI UPDATES2008Darrell Kendall has been promoted to Program Officer at IREX. In addition to maintaining responsibilities with IREX’s American scholar programs team, Darrell will be managing the University Administration Support Program (UASP). Funded by the Carnegie Corporation, UASP was designed by IREX to improve the administration and man-agement of select international universities in China and Eurasia, and soon, in Africa. In notifying staff of Darrell’s promotion, IREX management noted that “Darrell’s proj-ect management experience, his Eurasian regional exper-tise, and his skills in working with senior-level university folks have prepared him well for the UASP.”

2009Matthew Stein now works as a Military Analyst at the For-eign Military Studies Office in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

KU CREES IS ON FACEBOOK!

You can find us by searching KU Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies. Become a KU CREES Face-book fan, receive updates on upcoming events, news items of interest, and network with other folks interested in REES activities.

Alumni have also created a KU CREES Alumni Facebook Group, which anyone can join. If you are a CREES alum, then join up and find out about reunions or alumni gather-ings in your city. Or you can organize your own event and invite group members. Just search KU CREES Alumni on Facebook, and then join the group!

On November 7 Edith Clowes, Barbara Romzek, and Slovak Ambassador Peter Burian celebrated the Velvet Revolution.

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Michael Palij Jr., long-time colleague and supporter of Ukrainian Studies at KU, passed away on January 21, 2010, at Lawrence Pres-byterian Manor. Born in Khorostkiv, Ukraine, Dr. Palij attended school at the University of Minnesota and received his Ph.D. in History at KU.

Dr. Palij was a historian and librarian, and worked tireless-ly to develop both the Polish and Ukrainian collections at KU. He also established and endowed a regional library

and museum in Khorostkiv, Ukraine. He wrote two major books on the Ukrainian Revolution, as well as on Ukrainian immigration to the United States and Canada.

IN MEMORY OF MICHAEL PALIJ

Michael Palij1913-2010

The University of KansasCenter for Russian, East European& Eurasian Studies1440 Jayhawk Blvd., Room 320Lawrence, KS 66045-7574

Dr. Palij married Maria Bech in 1949 in Germany. After her death in 1977, he married Lubomyra Welyhorsky-Denysiuk on Dec. 1, 1979 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She survives. Other survivors include a son, Peter Palij and wife Linda Leibengood, Ardsley, N.Y., and two grandchildren, Maria and Mark Palij.

The family welcomes memorial contributions to the Palij family Fund, in care of the Kansas University Endowment Association.

Bill Comer speaks to participants at CARTA’s pre-conference workshop “From Text to Talk: Approaches to Reading in the Russian Language Classroom” March 26, 2010.