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COMMUNITY PROGRAMS
| REESC sponsors lectures, panel
discussions, symposiums, films, exhibitions, concerts, and festivals. These presentations
involve scholars from other institutions in the United States and Europe as well as
specialists at the university. The public is invited and often students are given the
opportunity to participate for credit upon completion of a research project associated
with the event. |
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LEARNING IN RETIREMENT
1997 November 12, Alan Kimball (History) presented a
lecture to the UO Retired Professors Association, "Russia and its Immediate Future:
Beyond the four little islands". The lecture looked at the history of the Russian oil
and gas industry in the world market and ventured some speculation about the central
agenda when Russia’s Boris Yeltsin and Japan’s Ryutaro Hashimoto met recently in
Krasnoyarsk for the "no-tie summit".
1997 April and May, REESC faculty presented lectures to the UO Learning in Retirement Program, "Russia
and the Eastern Slavs: Traditions and Trends":
 | A. Dean McKenzie, "The Distinctive Character of Russian Art &
Architecture" |
| Ted Gerber, "Russian Economic Trends and Their Impact on
Politics" |
| Jim Rice, "Ivan Turgenev’s Mother and the Birth of Russian
Identity" |
| Alan Kimball, "Are Russian’s Ready for Democracy" |
| Oleg Kripkov, "Dynamics of Russian Nationalism" |
| Ron Wixman, "Independence for Ukraine" |
OASIS
1996 and 1995, fall term in Eugene OR, REESC faculty presented OASIS/NEH
public lecture series "Reemerging Russia". In 1995, presenters were Julie
Hessler, William Husband (Oregon State University), Father Richard Janowicz (Ukrainian
Catholic Church), Alan Kimball, Albert Leong, Sherwin Simmons, and Ron Wixman. Some
lectures were repeated in Portland OR. One year later, Alan Kimball, Roxanne Easley, and
Oleg Kripkov redesigned the 1995 program for presentation a second year.
1995 October 13: Daily Emerald (UO student newspaper)
featured the OASIS program in an article by Brian Womack:
Education is a never-ending process.
That's the philosophy for people who attend classes at the Older Adults
Services and Information System (OASIS). People of the age 55 and older can sign up for
free membership and attend classes for $3 or less, said Barbara Susman, director of the
OASIS.
The program has a strong focus on volunteerism and the only person paid
to work at the center is Susman. Classes the center offers include finance, botany,
psychology, religion, economics and history.
Instructors to teach these classes come from the surrounding community.
Sometimes they are current professors, but others are people who have never officially
taught before.
The center opened last February and is part of a nationwide chain of
centers that boasts 230,000 members.
Locally, the center is sponsored by Meier and Frank and
McKenzie-Willamette Hospital. The center is located on the second floor of the rotunda at
Meier and Frank in the Valley River Center.
Alan Kimball, professor of history and director of the Russian and
Eastern European Center, has taught three OASIS classes.
He said the center is important to him because it gives him an
opportunity to teach a sector of the public he wouldn't usually come into contact with.
"It's an example of something we need to see a lot more of,"
he said. "It's important to stay in touch with the community."
Susman said the center has some important functions.
There is a growing number of people who are thirsty for enrichment, she
said. "The more opportunities we can afford them, the better."
For more information on OASIS, call 342-6611, ext. 2601.
OTHER COMMUNITY EVENTS
| 1997 December 6, Balkan Folk Dance presentation, with
live music by the UO East European Folk Music Ensemble, directed by Mark Levy
(Music), and by other guest artists. The evening included dance instruction.1997.
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| 1997 June 19, in Portland OR, Alan Kimball
made a presentation to the Oregon Council for the Humanities Program
"Globalization of Western Europe" entitled "Russia and the West, and the
South, and the East". The talk set two purposes: (1) to question the meaning of the
word "West" and (2) to suggest that other compass points, particularly south and
east, have to be taken into consideration when we try to understand Russia.
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| 1997 February 3, Alan Kimball published
an editorial column in The Portland Oregonian, "Russia and the U.S.:
Yeltsin’s ineffectiveness, NATO expansion plans bode ill for democracy" in
connection with his presentation to the Great Decisions lecture series of the World
Affairs Council of Oregon (email) in Portland.
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| 1996 November 12, in the Atrium Courtyard in Eugene,
"Slavej"--a musical group with Carol Silverman (voice), Mark
Levy (clarinet and gaida, a bagpipe), Fred Wilson (accordion), Mary Marshall
(percussion)—presented a concert and participatory folk dance, "A Celebration of
Folk Music of the Balkans". In this connection, three profession musicians from
Bulgaria, Donka Koleva (voice), Nikolai Kolev (gudulka, a vertically-held bowed stringed
instrument), and Radoi Georgiev (tambura, a plucked stringed instrument) presented a
lecture-demonstration on Bulgarian Folk Music.
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| 1996, summer, the "East European Folklife
Center" in Eugene OR conducted workshops on Balkan music and dance (Albania,
Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Fyr Macedonia, Romania & Serbia) in Mendocino CA and Camp
Ramblewood MD.
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| 1996 May 24, "Tribute to Joseph Brodsky (1940-1996),
Nobel Laureate in Literature, 1987, Poet Laureate of the United States, 1990-91"
featured Lev Loseff of Dartmouth College (at UO that spring as holder of
the Russian Department’s Marjorie Lindholm Endowed Professorship), Vladimir
Ufliand (Russian poet from Saint Petersburg), Andrei Ustinov
(Stanford University), and UO faculty James Rice, Albert Leong,
Garrett Hongo, and Oleg Kripkov.
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| 1991 symposium on New Political Cultures: Economics, Gender and Society
in Eastern Europe. |
REESC faculty are active supporters of public programs sponsored by
other regional councils. E.g.: Oregon International Council.
REESC faculty participate in outreach activities with local schools, community groups, and
organizations such as the Eugene-Irkutsk Sister City Committee.
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