The University of Washington's Department of Scandinavian Studies, in conjunction with the Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies Center of the Jackson School are pleased with the progress and popularity of the Baltic language program. With the help of supporters in Washington state and throughout the country, we hope to make these languages a permanent part of the University's curriculum.

Students Enrolled in the Baltic Languages Program, 1994-96 Estonian: Ene-Liis Arrowsmith. Maris Berzins, Christina Carmichael, Aurora Case, Meghan MacKrell, Kristi Magee. Amy Neugebauer, Tiia Reinvald, Daniel Ryan, Robert Smurr, Charles Tait, Sonia Wichmann. Latvian: Markus Andrejevs, Erika Bandrevics, Girts Beitlers. Maris Berzins, Erik Copeland, Larisa Copeland, Zane Elksnitis, Laila Galins, Erik Graudins, Anna Johnson, John Johnson, Andrew Knudsen, Vija Ozols, Dagnija Paskovskis, Diana Petersons, Valdis Riekstins, Amy Swanson, Charles Tait, Dzidra Razevska-Upans, Karen Wennerstrom, Kathrine Young, Keoki Young, Kristine Young. Lithuanian: Eugenija Bertulis, Stephen Liffick, Nikola Litven, Carol Loretz, Timothy Miller, Toni Pulikas, Bre Sakas, Laurie Swift.

     BALSSI is funded by a consortium of American universities committed to promoting the study of Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian in the United States during the summer. The five member consortium, created through the efforts of Prof. Daniel Waugh, Chair of the University of Washington's Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies Program and a key organizer of the University's Baltic Studies initiative, includes Indiana University, the University of Illinois at Chicago, the University of Michigan, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Washington. Several more schools have expressed interest in joining the consortium. Member institutions pool federal resources to insure the teaching of these crucial languages at one institution each summer. The 1994 and 1995 pilot efforts were hosted by the University of Washington, which supplied the bulk of the funding for the courses and programming. Generous grants from the World Lithuanian Community Foundation and the Social Science Research Council made both years' programs possible. The 1996 BALSSI will be hosted by the University of Illinois at Chicago. Contact Guntis Smidchens or Thomas DuBois at the Scandinavian Department (206 543-0645) for details.

Ambassador Toomas Ilves (left) welcomes President Lennart Meri (right) to the podium at a fund raising dinner held for the Baltic Studies Program, October 31, 1996.

     Other speakers over the last two years have included Andrejs Plakans, Toivo Raun and Alfred Senn, historians of the Baltic region; Algirdas Eidintas and Toomas Ilves, Ambassadors of Lithuania and Estonia to the United States; Aapo Pölhö, Deputy Ambassador of Finland to the United States; Violeta Kelertas, chair of Lithuanian Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Halters Nollendorfs (University of Wisconsin) and Tiina Kirss (Mercer University), specialists in Baltic literature.

     Our next guest is Paul Goble, a prominent specialist in nationality issues in post-Soviet states. He will speak on Friday, February 9, 1996 at 11:30 in Thompson Hall 325 on the topic: "The Contemporary Political and Economic Situation in Scandinavia and the Baltic States." On the same day, he will speak a second time at 2:30 in Balmer Hall 202 on the topic: "The Russian Empire: Past, Present, and Future." Visits by such figures enrich the lives of both University faculty and students and the general public of the Northwest, who are always cordially invited to all University colloquia and addresses. We look forward to working with the local Baltic-American communities to continue making the Baltic nations and Baltic studies accessible in the Great Northwest.

     Two Baltic language students were awarded scholarships to travel to the Baltic: two of only three scholarships awarded the University of Washington this year. John Johnson, a double major in Botany and Slavic Languages and Literature, is presently studying in Riga, at the University of Latvia. Tiia Reinvald, majoring in Comparative Literature and Art, is enrolled in courses at Tartu University in Estonia. We congratulate them both for their fine work and perseverance.

Robert Smurr received a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California at Davis in 1984. He studied Russian at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, in 1984-86, and served in the U.S. Army in Augsburg, Germany, from 1986 to 1990. He received an M.A. in International Studies from the University of Washington's Jackson School of International Studies in 1992, and in 1995 passed the doctoral candidacy examinations in the University's Department of History. He has traveled to Russia four times, but has not yet visited Estonia, where he plans to travel on an academic exchange once he has learned the language. In the 1995-96 academic year, Robert was awarded a Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship to study Estonian in our program. He intends to write his dissertation on the Estonian environmental movement and its relation to the drive for national independence.

Daniel Ryan received a B.A. in History and Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies in 1995 from the University of Iowa. He is presently a first-year graduate student in the Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies Program at the Jackson School of International Studies. His current research interests center on Russia and the former Soviet Union, particularly during the era of Gorbachev. He plans to study the Baltic national movements during this historical period.

     In the 1970s, the Finnish Ministry of Education created a Council of Finnish for Foreigners (UKAN), an advisory organization that helps promote and sometimes finance Finnish courses in more than twenty countries around the world. UKAN provides a valuable service for both foreign universities and the Finnish people, who benefit from the increased familiarity with Finland which such foreign institutions and programs insure. In the United States, UKAN sponsors lectureships at Indiana University and Columbia University. The addition of the University of Washington raises the University to a select group of institutions recognized as providing meritorious service to Finland.

     We in the Baltic Initiative see the Finnish case as an inspiring and heartening example of what may develop over time in our teaching of Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian. We believe that our sustained commitment to these languages will result in broad recognition of the value of our Baltic program, recognition reflected in substantive investment through private donations and foundation grants. Although the Baltic governments are in no position to help us in the way that Finland can at the current time, the people of the Baltics, both in the Baltic nations and especially here in the United States can certainly help make this program a permanent part of Baltic-American education.

Top of Page