guntiss@u.washington.edu  Dept. of Scandinavian Studies  University of Washington  Box 353420  Seattle, WA 98195-3420 Tel: 206-616-5224 Homepage

Assistant Professor of Baltic Studies;
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Slavic;
Head, Baltic Studies Program;

President-Elect, Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (AABS)

Ph.D. Indiana University, 1996

Research:

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

Dissertation:

"A Baltic Music: The Folklore Movement in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, 1968-1991."
Folklore Insititute, Indiana University, 1996.

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.

Professional Societies and Affiliations:

2006-2008: President-Elect, Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (AABS)
2003-2004: Director, Baltic Studies Summer Institute
1998-1999: Visiting Assistant Professor, Baltic Studies Summer Institute, Indiana University.
1998: Chair, sixteenth Conference on Baltic Studies, Bloomington, Indiana.
1998: Presenter for Latvian Delegation, The Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Washington, D.C.
1998-1999: Program Committee (Folklore section), 1999 Annual Meeting of the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study, Seattle.
1998: Program Committee, 1998 Annual Meeting of the American Folklore Society, Portland Oregon.
1998: Organized "Imagining the Baltic on the National Mall: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania at the Festival of American Folklife" forum, Annual Meeting of the American Folklore Society, Portland, Oregon.
1997: Organized "Finno-Ugric Identity Today" panel, American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies Annual Meeting, Seattle.
1996: Instructor, Baltic Studies Summer Institute, University of Illinois, Chicago.
1996: Organizer, "Methods and Materials of Teaching Baltic Languages" Workshop, Fifteenth Conference on Baltic Studies, Boston.
1996 Organizer, "Teaching Slavic Folklore" panel, American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies Annual Meeting, Boston.
1995 Chair and Convener, Slavic Folklore Panels, American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages Annual Meeting, Chicago.
1994-1995: Instructor, Baltic Studies Summer Institute, University of Washington, Seattle.
1993-95 Convener, Baltic Section of the American Folklore Society, organizer of two Baltic panels with five participants from the Baltic, AFS 1994 Annual Meeting, Milwaukee.
1990 Organizing committee, Twelfth Conference on Baltic Studies, Seattle.