Guntis Šmidchens

Assistant Professor of Baltic Studies; Head, Baltic Studies Program | Ph.D. Indiana University, 1996
Tel. +1-206-616-5224 | Email guntiss@u.washington.edu

Teaching:

Baltic History
Baltic Cultures
The Baltic States and Scandinavia
Baltic States since 1991
Introduction to Folklore Studies
Folk Narrative
Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian Languages

Publications:

"National Heroic Narratives in the Baltics as a Source for Non-Violent Political Action," Slavic Review: Interdisciplinary Quarterly of Russian, Eurasian, and East European Studies (66,3: 484-508), Fall, 2007.

"Notes on the Latvian National Epic Hero, Lacplesis," Journal of Folklore Research (43,3: 271-280), 2006.

Executive Producer, Symposium on the Baltic in the 21st Century (film, 1 hour).  Panel discussion by Walter C. Clemens, Juris Dreifelds, Saulius Suziedelis and Toivo Raun.  Published by the BALSSI Consortium, 2004. Broadcast on the Research Channel, April 2004

Executive Producer, Baltic Studies Summer Institute.  (Documentary film about the Baltic Studies Summer Institute, 4 minutes).  Published by the BALSSI Consortium, 2004.  Broadcast on the Research Channel, April 2004.

"Why Study Baltic Languages?" Newsnet: News of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (May 2003), 25-27.

Translation from Latvian to English, "Latvian Bourdon Songs"Baltic Voices (Harmonia Mundi, Volume 1, HMU 907311), 2003

Producer (with Geoffrey Boers and the UW Chamber Singers), Music of the Baltic Lands CD.  Published by the UW Baltic Studies Program, 1999.

"Folklorism Revisited," Journal of Folklore Research 36(1999), 51-70.

"Regional Update: The Baltic Countries," REECAS Newsletter, Fall 1999, 6-7.

"M. Azadovskii," "A. Gil'ferding," "C. von Sydow," in Folklore and Literature: An Encyclopedia, ed. Bruce Rosenberg (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 1998).

"Urban Folklore," in Folklore: An Encyclopedia of Forms, Methods, and History, ed. Thomas A. Green (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 1997).

"The Baltic Studies Program at the University of Washington," Baltic Studies Newsletter (March, 1997): 20-21.

"Baltic Peoples in the United States," in American Folklore: An Encyclopedia, ed. Jan H. Brunvand (New York: Garland Press, 1996), 61-64.

"Vēsturiski nostāsti Amerikas latviesu ģimenes dzīvē (Historical Narratives in the Live of Latvian Families in America)," Latvijas Zinātņu Akadēmijas Vēstis (Proceedings of the Latvian Academy of Sciences), 1993, 12: 28-30.

"Folklore in the Baltic States," American Folklore Society Newsletter, 22(1993): 5-6

"Volkskunde in den baltischen Staaten," Zeitschrift für Volkskunde, 1993/II: 264-266

"Immigrant and Ethnic Folklore," in The Emergence of folklore in Everyday Life: A Fieldguide and Sourcebook, edited by George H. Schoemaker (Bloomington, Indiana: Trickster Press, 1990), 133-144.

"Ethics and the Student Fieldworker," (co-authored with Robert E. Walls) in The Emergence of Folklore in Everyday Life: A Fieldguide and Sourcebook, edited by George H. Schoemaker (Bloomington, Indiana: Trickster Press, 1990), 11-14.

Affiliations:

Adjunct Assistant Professor of Slavic
President, Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (AABS)

Research:

Baltic Studies; Baltic Languages and Cultures; Folklore; Russian Folklore; Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian languages and literatures.