The Phenomenon of Solidarity: Pictures from the History of Poland, 1980-1981

A Photo Exhibit on the Solidarity Movement of Poland

 

Location: Memorial Library, Main Lobby

Date and Time: July 3rd-24th. The exhibition is accessible whenever Memorial Library is open. The regular summer hours at Memorial Library are Monday–Friday: 8:00 am–9:45 pm and Saturday–Sunday: 10:00 am–9:45 pm. The library will close  at 5:45 pm on Tuesday, July 3 and will remain closed all day on Wednesday, July 4 for the Independence Day holiday.

 

Admission: Free. To enter the Library, you need to show a valid UW—Madison ID or General Library System card. Visitors are welcome to Memorial Library, but must first obtain a visitor's pass. Visitors passes are granted to those who produce valid identification (photo ID, with current address information).

 

"The Phenomenon of ‘Solidarity’: Pictures from the History of Poland 1980-1981," organized by the Institute of National Remembrance in Warsaw, Poland, commemorates the 30th anniversary of the founding of the movement and highlights formative moments in its history, such as the strikes of August 1980 and the enforcement of Martial Law in December of 1981. Since summer 2011, the traveling exhibition has been shown at universities, government institutions, and foundations throughout the US and Canada. Madison, Wisconsin will be its final North American stop before it returns to Poland in August 2012. The Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia (CREECA) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Polish Heritage Club - Madison are sponsoring the Madison showing.

 

For more information on this and other CREECA events, please call us at 608-262-3379, or email us at info@creeca.wisc.edu.

To learn about how to access this exhibit and the many other opportunities provided at Memorial Library, please visit the library’s website: memorial.library.wisc.edu or call 608-262-3193.

More information about the Polish Heritage Club – Madison is available on its Web site:  http://www.phcwi-madison.org/

 

To learn more about the Solidarity Movement and the changes it sought and accomplished, click here.

 

 

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Islam in Kazakhstan
Uli Schamiloglu, Professor of Languages and Cultures of Asia, UW-Madison

Date and time: July 3rd at 4:00 P.M.
Location: 2175 Grainger Hall

Sponsor: Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia (CREECA) as part of the Central Eurasian Studies Summer Institute Summer Lecture Series

About the lecture: Coming Soon!

About the speaker:Uli Schamiloglu received his B.A. from Columbia College in Middle East Languages and Cultures and his M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. from Columbia University in History. He is a professor in UW- Madison's Department of Languages and Cultures of Asia.

Dr. Schamiloglu taught as a lecturer and assistant professor in the Department of Uralic & Altaic Studies (now the Department of Central Eurasian Studies) at Indiana University-Bloomington from 1983-89. He joined the department of Slavic Languages at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1989 and, beginning in 1996, was instrumental in the development of the new Department of Languages and Cultures of Asia. Dr. Schamiloglu has been chair of the Central Asian Studies Program since 2002 and director of the Center for Middle East Studies since 2006.

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"Kazakhstan, A Country of Contrasts: Social, Cultural, Economic, and Lifestyle"
Gary Kirking, Assistant Professor and Community Resource Agent at the UW-Extension

Date and time: July 10th at 4:00 P.M.
Location: 2175 Grainger Hall

Sponsor: Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia (CREECA) as part of the Central Eurasian Studies Summer Institute Summer Lecture Series

About the lecture: Delta Credit and representatives of the Kazakhstan Government asked Gary Kirking, Assistant Professor and  UW Extension and Community Resource Agent to work with them to set up a pilot project for the development of Rural Business Centers in Kazakhstan. Kirking will share his experiences and observations on his recent trip to Kazakhstan, including social, cultural, and economic views, and will relate the status of entrepreneurs in the rural areas of Kazakhstan.

 

About the speaker: Kirking has been involved with hosting past delegations from Kazakhstan (4), and delegations from China, Russia, and Japan.  He has had the opportunity to work in 13 countries, with a primary emphasis on Rural Development.  Kirking has been involved with the Leadership Wisconsin program as the Board Chair and Co-chairs their Global Economics Seminar.  Kirking works in leadership development,  economic development, and in building capacity of local and state organizations.

 

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“Tragic Erotica:  Images of the Tsar and His Family during the First World War”

Boris Kolonitskii, Department of History, European University of St. Petersburg

Part of the “Russia’s Great War and Revolution, 1914-1922” lecture series

 

 

Date and Time: July 11th, 2012 at 4:00 pm

 

Location: Curti Lounge, 5th floor of the Mosse Humanities Building

 

Sponsors: The Department of History and CREECA, with generous support from the Alice D. Mortenson/Petrovich Chair in Russian History, Mr. Scott Jacobs of Houston, Texas, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Anonymous Fund

 

 

This talk is part of the lecture series "Russia’s Great War and Revolution, 1914-1922," held in conjunction with an editorial conference of scholars from North America, Britain, Austria, Russia, and Japan, who are taking part in “Russia’s Great War and Revolution, 1914-1922:  A Centennial Reappraisal.”  This international consortium is producing a multi-volume work intended to bring appropriate attention to the role and experience of the Russian Empire during the first World War, a history little known to popular or scholarly audiences who associate the Great War with the trench warfare that defined the western front.   This emphasis has led many to lose sight of the tremendous casualties and dislocations that resulted from the conflict pitting the Russian Empire against Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire, a war that brought down all four imperial combatants and left in its wake a highly unstable peace that set in only gradually during the early 1920s. The Madison editorial conference is being organized by David McDonald, the Alice D. Mortenson/Michael B. Petrovich Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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"Man Follows Birds"
(Chelovek Ukhodit Za Ptitsami)

 

Date and time: July 12 at 7:00 P.M.
Location: 4070 Vilas Hall, 821 University Ave., Madison, WI 53706

Sponsor: Cinematheque, CREECA

Director: Ali Khamrayev
Starring: Dzhanyek Fayziev and Dilorom Kambarova

About the film: Uzbekistan, 1975, 35 mm, 87 min., Russian with subtitles

A Muslim boy painfully struggles toward manhood in brutal medieval Uzbekistan. Director Khamraev balances the harshness of life with moments of quiet tenderness.  His pageant of deliriously beautiful images helps make this one of film history’s most memorable coming-of-age stories.

 

For more about this film, check out Cinematheque's Web site at cinema.wisc.edu.

 

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Russian Festival Concert

Part of the 34th annual BDAA convention.

 

Location: Middleton High School Performing Arts Center
Date and Time: Friday, July 13th at 7:30 pm

For more information: http://bdaa.com/content/2012/concert.html

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"Polish Solidarity, a Retrospective: The Workers’ Revolution that Toppled the ‘Workers’ State'."

Neal Pease, Professor of History, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

 

Location: Memorial Library Room 126*
Date and Time: July 16th, 5:00 pm

Admission: Free

 

*Room 126 may be accessed through the West Corridor entry doors off of Library Mall. No ID is needed to enter the West Corridor from Library Mall. However, to enter the main part of the Library, including the Lobby area where the exhibition will be on display, you need to show a valid UW—Madison ID or General Library System card. Visitors are welcome to Memorial Library, but must obtain a visitor's pass at the main entrance. Visitors passes are granted to those who produce valid identification (photo ID, with current address information).

 

About the speaker: Neal Pease is a Professor of History at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he has taught since 1983. His primary area of teaching and research interests are the history of Poland and East Central Europe, particularly the role of the Catholic Church in 20th century Poland. He is current president of the Polish American Historical Association. His most recent book, "Rome's Most Faithful Daughter: The Catholic Church and Independent Poland, 1914-1939" (Ohio, 2009) was named co-winner of the 2010 ASEEES Kulczycki Prize for the best book in the field of Polish studies, and winner of the 2010 John Gilmary Shea Prize given by the American Catholic Historical Association for the best book in the field of Catholic history.

 

About the lecture: This lecture is being held in connection with the exhibition "The Phenomenon of 'Solidarity': Pictures from the History of Poland, 1980-1981," on display in Memorial Library from July 3-July 24, 2012.

 

During the discussion following the lecture, members of the Polish Heritage Club - Madison (PHC) who were eyewitnesses to the Solidarity movement will also share their recollections of that tumultuous era. A light reception, sponsored by the PHC, will follow the lecture and discussion.

 

 

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"Could Kazakhstani Nationalists Come to Power after Nazarbayev?"
Gulnara Dadabayeva, Assistant professor of international relations and regional studies, KIMEP University, Almaty , Kazakhstan

Date and time: July 17th at 4:00 P.M.
Location: 2270 Grainger Hall

Sponsor: Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia (CREECA) as part of the Central Eurasian Studies Summer Institute Summer Lecture Series

About the lecture: Since the demise of the Soviet Union , the post-Soviet nations have been diligently trying to find a place for themselves in the new global environment. The failure of Soviet ideology forced the leaders of the newly-independent nations, including Kazakhstan, to substitute it with a concept they thought would help overcome the ensuing political and financial crises.  In the early 1990’s, Kazakh nationalism was effectively used by the ruling elite to strengthen its political position in the country.   Whether Kazakh nationalists could come to power after Nazarbayev depends primarily upon how the ruling elite utilize nationalism as a tool in the recovery process.

About the speaker: Gulnara Dadabayeva, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the department of international relations and regional studies of KIMEP University, Almaty, Kazakhstan.  Her research interests focus on nation- and state- building processes in Central Asia.

 

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“War, Revolution, and anti-Jewish Violence, 1918-1922”

Oleg Budnitskii, Department of History, Higher School of Economics, Moscow

Part of the “Russia’s Great War and Revolution, 1914-1922” lecture series

 

Date and Time: July 18th, 2012 at 4:00 pm

 

Location: Curti Lounge, 5th floor of the Mosse Humanities Building

 

Sponsors: The Department of History and CREECA, with generous support from the Alice D. Mortenson/Petrovich Chair in Russian History, Mr. Scott Jacobs of Houston, Texas, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Anonymous Fund

 

This talk is part of the lecture series "Russia’s Great War and Revolution, 1914-1922," held in conjunction with an editorial conference of scholars from North America, Britain, Austria, Russia, and Japan, who are taking part in “Russia’s Great War and Revolution, 1914-1922:  A Centennial Reappraisal.”  This international consortium is producing a multi-volume work intended to bring appropriate attention to the role and experience of the Russian Empire during the first World War, a history little known to popular or scholarly audiences who associate the Great War with the trench warfare that defined the western front.   This emphasis has led many to lose sight of the tremendous casualties and dislocations that resulted from the conflict pitting the Russian Empire against Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire, a war that brought down all four imperial combatants and left in its wake a highly unstable peace that set in only gradually during the early 1920s. The Madison editorial conference is being organized by David McDonald, the Alice D. Mortenson/Michael B. Petrovich Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

 

Click here to view a PDF of the poster.

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"Fall of Otrar"

(Gibel Otrara)

Date and time: July 19 at 7:00 P.M.
Location: 4070 Vilas Hall, 821 University Ave., Madison, WI 53706

Sponsor: Cinematheque, CREECA

Director: Ardak Amirkulov
Starring: Dokhturbek Kydyraliev

About the film: Kazakhstan, 1990, 35 mm, 150 min., Kazakh with subtitles

Four arduous years in the making, Ardak Amirkulov's 1990 historical epic about the intrigue and turmoil preceding Genghis Khan's systematic destruction of the lost East Asian civilization of Otrar is unlike anything you've ever seen. The movie that spurred the extraordinary wave of great Kazakh films in the 90s, Amirkulov's film is at once hallucinatory, visually resplendent and ferociously energetic, packed with eye-catching (and gouging) detail and B-movie fervor, and traversing an endless variety of parched, epic landscapes and ornate palaces. But "The Fall of Otrar" is also one of the most astute historical films ever made, and its high quotient of torture and gore (Italian horror genius Mario Bava would have been envious) is always grounded in the bedrock realities of realpolitik: when the Kharkhan of Otrar is finally brought before the Ruler of the World, he could be facing Stalin, or, for that matter, any number of modern CEOs. The movie that has everything, from state-of-the-art 13th-century warfare to perfumed sex, "The Fall of Otrar" is a one-of-a-kind experience. Shot in a sepia-toned black-and-white, and written by none other than Amirkulov's old teacher Alexei Guerman and his wife, Svetlana Karmalita.

 

For more about this film, check out Cinematheque's Web site at cinema.wisc.edu.

 

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"Ibrahim Altynsarin and His Influence on Late 19th Century Kazakh Education."
Omar Mohamad

Date and time: July 24th at 4:00 P.M.
Location: 2270 Grainger Hall

Sponsor: Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia (CREECA) as part of the Central Eurasian Studies Summer Institute Summer Lecture Series

About the lecture: As the Russian Empire expanded into Central Asia and established greater control in the Kazakh steppe, a number of Kazakh intellectuals were left to face the new reality of foreign colonial domination.  One of these intellectuals, Ibrahim Altynsarin, began to argue for new schools in the steppe along the model of the native Russian schools.  This talk examines the factors that influenced Altynsarin, his views on education and language, and the role of these issues in the formation of 19th-century Kazakh identity.  

About the speaker: Omar B. Mohamad is an M.A. Candidate in the Department of Languages and Cultures of Asia at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  He has spent time researching Turkic languages and literature, including works in Uzbek, Kazakh, and Tatar.  Prior to his graduate studies, he spent a year in Kazan', Russia as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant and simultaneously began independent study of the Tatar language.  He earned his B.A. from Binghamton University, double majoring in Arabic Studies and Russian and East European Studies. 

 

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“The End of Tsarism”

Peter Waldron, Department of History, University of East Anglia

Part of the “Russia’s Great War and Revolution, 1914-1922” lecture series

 

Date and Time: July 25th, 2012 at 4:00 pm

 

Location: Curti Lounge, 5th floor of the Mosse Humanities Building

 

Sponsors: The Department of History and CREECA, with generous support from the Alice D. Mortenson/Petrovich Chair in Russian History, Mr. Scott Jacobs of Houston, Texas, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Anonymous Fund

 

This talk is part of the lecture series "Russia’s Great War and Revolution, 1914-1922," held in conjunction with an editorial conference of scholars from North America, Britain, Austria, Russia, and Japan, who are taking part in “Russia’s Great War and Revolution, 1914-1922:  A Centennial Reappraisal.”  This international consortium is producing a multi-volume work intended to bring appropriate attention to the role and experience of the Russian Empire during the first World War, a history little known to popular or scholarly audiences who associate the Great War with the trench warfare that defined the western front.   This emphasis has led many to lose sight of the tremendous casualties and dislocations that resulted from the conflict pitting the Russian Empire against Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire, a war that brought down all four imperial combatants and left in its wake a highly unstable peace that set in only gradually during the early 1920s. The Madison editorial conference is being organized by David McDonald, the Alice D. Mortenson/Michael B. Petrovich Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

 

Click here to view a PDF of the poster.

 

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The Kálmán Balogh Gyspy Trio

Blending Central European Folk and Jazz

 

When: Friday, July 27th at 8:00 pm

 

Where: The Brink Lounge, 701 E. Washington Avenue, Madison WI

 

Sponsors: The Village Dance House and WORT 89.9 FM

 

The Kálmán Balogh Gypsy Trio is a dynamic merging of music from the old and new worlds. Balogh continues a fabled European musical tradition harking back to the collaboration of masters like Gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stephane Grappelli, connecting ancient folk music traditions of Europe with the chord progressions and swinging rhythm of jazz. Balogh's cimbalom becomes a new and compelling voice centering the Trio, which is enhanced by violin/viola and acoustic bass. Similarities between jazz and traditional folk music, such as improvisation and a kaleidoscope of emotional expressions, are immediately evident.

 

Kálmán Balogh is one of the foremost Hungarian cimbalom players, descending from a famous dynasty of Hungarian Gypsy musicians. His virtuosity is matched only by his understanding and respect of his heritage. A graduate of the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Balogh has completed many successful tours throughout the world with various folk, classical, and jazz music ensembles, including well over a dozen tours in North America. The cimbalom, an oversized hammered dulcimer played with mallets like a vibraphone, possesses piano like percussive capabilities to drive a band rhythmically or take the melodic lead. In Balogh's expert hands, the cimbalom can do both simultaneously. His mastery of this unique and rare Hungarian folk instrument has mesmerized audiences.

 

The Trio includes excellent musicians who have worked with Balogh extensively. Robert Lakatos, a viola and violin player from Slovakia, is steeped in classical music training and played with important classical orchestras, but always gravitated toward folk and world music. He plays in several groups ranging from classical to folk and jazz genres. Bassist Csaba Novák is one of the most versatile bass players in Hungary, familiar with Gypsy, Klezmer, folk, and jazz music styles.

 

Melodies polished in European villages for centuries are interpreted with great respect and understanding by the Trio, enabling present day music lovers to experience the emotions and beauty inherent in the music of our ancestors. The Kálmán Balogh Gypsy Trio brings a contemporary and uniquely forward-looking edge to time-honored traditions, leaving audiences enthralled and inspired.

 

For more information contact Dan at (608) 233-5322.

 

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“The Use of Terror by ‘Reds’ and ‘Whites’ in Russia’s Civil War, 1918-1921”

Liudmila Novikova, Department of History, Moscow State University

Part of the “Russia’s Great War and Revolution, 1914-1922” lecture series

 

Date and Time: July 30th, 2012 at 4:00 pm

 

Location: Curti Lounge, 5th floor of the Mosse Humanities Building

 

Sponsors: The Department of History and CREECA, with generous support from the Alice D. Mortenson/Petrovich Chair in Russian History, Mr. Scott Jacobs of Houston, Texas, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Anonymous Fund

 

This talk is part of the lecture series "Russia’s Great War and Revolution, 1914-1922," held in conjunction with an editorial conference of scholars from North America, Britain, Austria, Russia, and Japan, who are taking part in “Russia’s Great War and Revolution, 1914-1922:  A Centennial Reappraisal.”  This international consortium is producing a multi-volume work intended to bring appropriate attention to the role and experience of the Russian Empire during the first World War, a history little known to popular or scholarly audiences who associate the Great War with the trench warfare that defined the western front.   This emphasis has led many to lose sight of the tremendous casualties and dislocations that resulted from the conflict pitting the Russian Empire against Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire, a war that brought down all four imperial combatants and left in its wake a highly unstable peace that set in only gradually during the early 1920s. The Madison editorial conference is being organized by David McDonald, the Alice D. Mortenson/Michael B. Petrovich Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

 

Click here to view a PDF of the poster.

 

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"Waiting for Uighurstan"

A documentary film by Sean R. Roberts

Date and time: July 31 at 4:00 P.M.
Location: 2270 Grainger Hall

Sponsor: Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia (CREECA)

Director: Sean R. Roberts

About the film: Kazakhstan, 1996, 55 min., English

In preparation for the lecture on August 7th by Prof. Roberts, CREECA will be screening his film "Waiting for Uighurstan" instead of holding a lecture. This screening will replace the canceled lecture by Prof. Manu Sobti listed below.

 

From the film's back cover, "Shot while the filmmaker was conducting ethnographic fieldwork, this documentary is about personal survival and nationalist desire in the borderlands of the former Soviet Union. It chronicles the experiences of three Uighurs who live in the Republic of Kazakhstan."

"Caught between the politics of the Soviet Union, the Republic of Kazakhstan, and China, they dream of the establishment of a Uighur state in their homeland which will allow them to determine their own fate."

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CANCELED

 

Medieval Riverlogues: Crossings and Contestations along the Oxus Borderland
Manu Sobti, Associate Professor of Architecture & Urban Planning at UW-Milwaukee

Date and time: July 31st at 4:00 P.M.
Location: 2175 Grainger Hall

Sponsor: Center for Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia (CREECA) as part of the Central Eurasian Studies Summer Institute Summer Lecture Series

About the lecture: How do physical borders and boundaries delineate the nature of cultural interactions and determine the development of historical time and place? What are the kinds of spaces created alongside borders that promote inclusive permeability versus boundaries that generate exclusive separation? Combining archival sources, innovative fieldwork, mapping and photography, this presentation examines one such unique borderland condition on the legendary Silk Road, located on Central Asia’s important Amu Darya. It seeks to unravel how conflict, reconciliation and interaction between medieval Arab and Persian communities created unique urban forms alongside this geographically significant and politically critical divide.

 

About the speaker: Dr. Manu P. Sobti is an Islamic architecture and urban historian, associate professor at the School of Architecture & Urban Planning (SARUP), University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee USA. His ongoing research focuses on the urban history of early-medieval Islamic cities along the Silk Road and in the Indian Subcontinent, with particular reference to the complex ‘borderland geographies’ created by riverine landscapes. Within the purview of a comparative, trans-disciplinary research project on the Mississippi, Danube, Ganges and Amu Darya Rivers, he is currently completing a manuscript entitled The Sliver of the Oxus Borderland: Medieval Cultural Encounters between the Arabs and Persians for Brill Publications (Leiden, Netherlands) – a comprehensive work that collates his noteworthy fieldwork in libraries, repositories and archives across Central Asia. His work has received several awards, including the Trans-disciplinary Research Collaborative Award from the Center for 21st Century Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (2011–13), the Global Studies Research Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (2010-11), the Hamid Bin Khalifa Research and Travel Fellowship for Islamic Architecture and Culture (2009), the Center for 21st Century Studies Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (2009-10), the Aga Khan Graduate Fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology-Cambridge (1993-95), and grants from the National Council for East European and Eurasian Research in Seattle (2009-10), the Graham Foundation of the Arts in Chicago (2008-09), the French Institute for Central Asian Studies in Tashkent (2003), and the Architectural Association in London (2001). He will be a fellow at UW-Madison Institute for Research in the Humanities in 2012-13.

 

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