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.

The Journal of Folklore Research invites papers on any aspect of the folklore of conflict zones and conflict resolution. Topics may be current or not-so-current. “Conflict” for the purposes of the issue should be understood to involve the group use or serious threat of coercive physical force. Theories and comparative treatments of vernacular discursive tactics and interventions, based on field observation and/or analysis of archived or published texts, are welcome. Please send an article proposal in the form of a 200-300 word abstract to mills.186@osu.edu. If accepted, we will solicit a finished paper for external review. Papers (total 20-35 pp. double-spaced) will be needed by February 28, 2009. Details

In cooperation with the Stockholm and Uppsala universities, Södertörn University College (Sweden) is inviting applications for 10 doctoral student positions within the Baltic and East European Graduate School. The language of instruction is English and fluency in English is required. Areas include Ethnology, History, Literature and Rhetoric. For information about the regulations regarding admission, selection and entry requirements, see: www.sh.se/beegs.

The 2006-2007 AABS Book Prizes has been awarded to:

Katrina Z.S. Schwartz, Nature and National Identity after Communism: Globalizing the Ethnoscape (U of Pittsburgh P, 2006).

Iveta Silova, From Sites of Occupation to Symbols of Multiculturalism: Reconceptualizing Minority Education in Post-Soviet Latvia (IAP, 2006).

Honorable Mention: Jeff Johnson: The New Theatre of the Baltics: From Soviet to Western Influence in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (McFarland, 2007)

International Workshop: 18 - 19 October 2008, Tartu, Estonia

The independent Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were occupied and annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940. The scope of the seminar will encompass both the Sovietization begun in 1940, following the occupation and annexation of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and the post-Second World War period to the mid-1950’s. The aim of the workshop is to bring together scholars from the Baltic States and elsewhere to discuss different aspects of Stalinist rule in the three countries. Fields to be covered might be:

• Politics
• Repression
• Forms of Resistance
• Deportation and Population Resettlement
• Stalinist Nationalities’ Policy
• Culture
• Education
• Everyday-Life
• Social Change
• Economics
• Remembering the Stalinist Era

A preliminary version of the paper should be distributed to all participants in advance. During the workshop the major themes of the paper should be presented in 20 minutes. Time will be left for extensive discussion. It is the intent of the organizers of the workshop to publish the final versions of the papers afterwards. The working languages of the workshop will be English and Russian. The workshop will be held at the University of Tartu in Tartu, Estonia. The organizers offer board and accommodation and cover part of the travel expenses.
The workshop is organized by the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (AABS), the Nordost-Institut in Lüneburg, Germany, and the University of Tartu, Estonia.
Please send your proposal for a paper (250-300 words) and a short CV no later than 1 May 2008, by e-mail, to Dr. Olaf Mertelsmann (omertelsmann@yahoo.co.uk).

The German Institute for International and Security Affairs invites applications for a full-time senior research position in Northern and Baltic Sea studies at the rank of a project leader and for a related junior research position. Both positions are intended to start as soon as possible.

More Information

The 2007-2008 AABS Dissertation Grant has been awarded to Jennie Schulze, George Washington University. Schulze's project is entitled The Language of Belonging: Russian Minorities in the Baltic States .

2007-2008 AABS Emerging Scholar Grants have been awarded to:

Gediminas Lankauskas, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Regina. Lankauskas' project is entitled Modernity, Morality, and Pentecostal 'Civil Society' in Postsocialist Lithuania.

Kara Brown, Assistant Professor of Educational Studies at the University of South Carolina. Brown's project is entitled The Politics of Preschool: Bilingual Education Possibilities and Problems in Estonian Kindergartens.

Indrė Čuplinskas, Assistant Professor of Catholic Studies at the University of Alberta. Čuplinskas' project is entitled Controlling the Future of the Nation: the Lithuanian Government's 1930 Crackdown on the Ateitis Catholic Student Federation.

The 2006-2007 AABS Dissertation Grant has been awarded to Jolanta Mickutė, a PhD student in Modern Jewish History at Indiana University to support her work on marginalized historical narratives of Lithuanian and Polish Jewish women.

The 2006-2007 AABS Emerging Scholar Grant has been awarded to Brent McKenzie, Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Guelph.

McKenzie's project is entitled From Soviet to Selver: Tallinna Kaubamaja -- 'Estonia's Department Store.' The Shaping of the Retail Sector in Estonia.

Oskars Stucis (Notre Dame University) has been awarded the 2006 Jānis Grundmanis Postgraduate Fellowship for study in the United States.

 

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