Founded on December 1, 1968, at the first conference on Baltic Studies at the University of Maryland, the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (AABS) is an international educational and scholarly non-profit organization. It promotes research and education in Baltic Studies by sponsoring meetings and conferences, supporting publications, sustaining a program of scholarships, grants, and prizes, and disseminating news of current interest in Baltic Studies. Since 1991, it has been a constituent member of the American Council of Learned Societies.

Membership in the AABS is open to anyone wishing to support the scholarly purposes of the Association. AABS members receive a subscription to the quarterly Journal of Baltic Studies, reduced registration fees at AABS conferences, and an annual report of the association’s activities.

Södertörn University and the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies CBEES, has volunteered to organize the 9th Baltic conference in Europe. The conference will be held in Stockholm, Sweden on 12-15 June 2011. The Call for Papers will be issued in September 2010. For more information, contact the Director of CBEES, Professor Anu Mai Kõll, anu-mai.koll@sh.se

Further details will be forthcoming. AABS members are encouraged to participate and attend.

The 15th AABS CONFERENCE (Australasian Chapter) will be held on 23-24 September 2010 at the Lithuanian House in Melbourne. The conference theme is The Baltic Region: Past, Current and Future Pathways.

For more information, please contact Dr. Andrew Blumbergs, aabs@y7mail.com

AABS is already planning the 2012 conference, which will be held in Chicago. We hope you will join us!

Ilze Garoza, recipient of the 2009 Grundmanis Fellowship, gives AABS an update on her research in this post.

As a Grundmanis Fellow, my graduate studies were in Comparative and International Development Education Program in the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy and Development, University of Minnesota. Due to the complexity of my master's thesis project, I am actually still working on my thesis writing. I currently hold a Graduate Fellow position at the Immigration History Research Center, University of Minnesota.
The Grundmanis Fellowship allowed me to pursue and advance my graduate studies and conduct research focusing on the Latvian diaspora in the United States.

Titled "Building bridges between two immigrant generations from Latvia: A case study of Latvian supplementary schools in the United States," my research focuses on relationships between Latvian Americans who came to the U.S. as a result of World War II and Latvians who have come to the U.S. in 1990 or later. Through this interdisciplinary case study I am trying to assess the existing relationships between Latvian Americans and recent immigrants from Latvia, what hampers and what promotes relationships between the two groups, and what role do Latvian supplementary schools in the United States play in bridging them. I plan to complete the research and defend my thesis by the end of this year.

With the help of Grundmanis fellowship, I have been able to finish up the required coursework to complete M.A. studies in the program of Comparative and International Development Education, as well as to start conducting my masters research, gather data, and participate in several academic conferences. The fellowship has been of extraordinary value in my process of graduate studies at the University of Minnesota. Thank you so much for that!

Laima Laučkaitė received the AABS2008-2009 Book Prize for the volume Art in Vilnius 1900-1915, published by Baltos lankos in 2008.

According to the recommendation by reviewers, Art in Vilnius is a "pioneering study in art history and the city of Vilnius. It presents Vilnius as a multicultural city in which different ethnic-national cultures overlap but also pursue their own agendas, and it is beautifully illustrated." The review noted that the period 1900-1915 is a crucial one both for the development of art and for the development of national identity in the city. "What is particularly interesting is the book's sophisticated approach which begins with different national groups producing art in the city (Poles, Lithuanians, Jews, Russians), then goes into specific artists in more depth (two Poles and one Lithuanian), followed by a discussion of the "Avant-Garde" and "Belle Époque" in Vilnius. It is a informative, stimulating, and engrossing read."

The 2010 AABS conference was held on April 22-24, 2010 in Seattle, Washington, as a joint conference with the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study.

After an almost 200 year nap, the Icelandic volcano Eyafjallajökull disrupted most European air traffic with a massive ash cloud for six days, starting from April 15th. The SASS-AABS Conference which expected scores and scores of academics from across the Baltic States, Scandinavia, Germany, the United Kingdom and elsewhere throughout Europe began in Seattle on April 22nd. Unsurprisingly, the volcano's impact on the conference was considerable. Still, with heroic efforts from the organizing committee (changing panels and room assignments on an hourly basis), even more heroic travel efforts from the few European scholars that crossed the Atlantic, and the overwhelming good will, understanding and resolve of the assembled scholars of Scandinavian and Baltic Studies, the conference proved to be an enjoyable and academically valuable endeavor. The conference included many innovations that may become mainstays of AABS conferences in the future, including discipline and geographic specific lunches, book panels, and a searchable database of conference abstracts online. I look forward to the next AABS conference in Chicago in 2012 and the potential rumors of a future joint conference in SASS. Hopefully Eyafjallajökull's sister, Katla continues to snooze for many more years to come.

Abstracts for papers delivered at the conference are available here.

 

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