Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies

Dia de los muertos in the East Bay

Posted on by Liladhar

Día de los Muertos and UC Berkeley Library Collections

Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is an essential Mexican holiday, primarily celebrated on November 1st and 2nd. It is a time for families and friends to gather, pray for, and remember loved ones who have died. The celebration is vibrant, focusing on life and remembrance, rather than mourning. Key traditions include creating ofrendas (altars) decorated with marigolds (cempasúchil), favorite foods and drinks of the departed, candles, and colorful sugar skulls (calaveras).

In the pantheon of the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century artists who represent Mexico and Mexican art, the artwork of José Guadalupe Posada stands out as a bright constellation that continues to shine a light on important stories through woodcuts, imprints, and engravings. This virtual exhibition is a counterpart of the physical exhibition on Posada that was created by Liladhar P., the Librarian for Latin American Collections. The title of this exhibition is "Illustrating México one page at a time-Print Art of José Guadalupe Posada."The exhibition also highlights two important contemporary Mexican artists: Artemio Rodriguez and Sergio Sánchez Santamaría who continue to cherish and carry the legacy of José Guadalupe Posada. However, I note that these artists have their own stories and own unique style that illustrates the beauty of Mexico's printmaking heritage. This exhibition highlights selected print-items by José Guadalupe Posada. The curator owes a debt of gratitude to Aisha Hamilton and Virgie Hoban.

Illustrating Mexico one page at a time-Print Art of José Guadalupe Posada

Several venues across the East Bay feature Día de los Muertos altars. The Oakland Public Library is among the organizations hosting a related activity. Below are photos of the altar created by the library’s César Chávez branch (formerly the Latin American Library) to commemorate this important cultural tradition.

Photos below: Credit: Liladhar P.

Dia de los muertos altar at Cesar Chavez Branch Library of Oakland Public Library
Our Social Sciences Library at UC Berkeley Library, my departmental colleagues have created also an altar whose pictures I am sharing. Two colleagues who took initiative in supporting this activity are Angelica V.M. and Cody H.

Photos below: Credit Angelica VM.

A dia de los muertos altar at Social Sciences Research Library
A dia de los muertos altar at Social Sciences Research Library

The following subject terms can be helpful to our students when trying to locate materials on Dia de los muertos in our library’s collections.

Subject

Below is some music related to Dia de los muertos. Posted for non-commercial, educational and fair-academic use. The copyright belongs to the creators of this wonderful music. Enjoy!

Save the date: “Art Against Artillery: Cultural Resilience in Times of War”- A Panel Discussion

Posted on by Liladhar

We invite you to attend “Art Against Artillery: Cultural Resilience in Times of War,” a panel discussion.

Date: December 4, 2025
Time: 10 am PST (8 pm Kyiv Time)
Registration: https://tinyurl.com/artagainstartillery
Organizer: Dr. Liladhar R. Pendse, Librarian for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies

The event is free and open to all, provided prior registration is completed. Please sign in to your individual Zoom account and then register. All are welcome!

This image shows information about the online event, "Art Against Artillery: Cultural Resilience in Times of War": A panel discussionDate: December 4, 2025 Time: 10 am PST (8 pm Kyiv Time) Registration: https://tinyurl.com/artagainstartillery Organizer: Dr. Liladhar R. Pendse, Librarian for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies Event Description: Drawing from Art Against Artillery: Voices of Resilience, this discussion examines how Ukrainian artists transform the trauma of war into a cultural renaissance, wielding art as a vital tool for healing, resistance, and memory.
A poster for the event.

Library Trial: Latin America Commons by Coherent Digital

Posted on by Liladhar

We currently have trials set up for several modules from Coherent Digital. We have selected modules from Policy Commons, Africa Commons, and Latin America Commons available until Nov 15, 2025.

Please submit your feedback to your librarian for Latin American and Caribbean Studies: Liladhar

Latin America Commons by Coherent Digital is a full-text, richly-indexed database that provides unified, cross-searchable access to millions of pages of Latin American and Latinx primary-source materials, including books, magazines, photographs, maps, letters, diaries, ephemera, videos, and audio files that were previously scattered across the internet and in archives. The project aims to preserve at-risk content, rare documents, and often overlooked resources spanning from the 16th to the 21st centuries, making it easier for scholars and students to discover vetted, high-quality material for research and study.
Latin America Commons Landing Page

Latin America Commons by Coherent Digital is a full-text, richly-indexed database that provides unified, cross-searchable access to millions of pages of Latin American and Latinx primary-source materials, including books, magazines, photographs, maps, letters, diaries, ephemera, videos, and audio files that were previously scattered across the internet and in archives. The project aims to preserve at-risk content, rare documents, and often overlooked resources spanning from the 16th to the 21st centuries, making it easier for scholars and students to discover vetted, high-quality material for research and study.

Voices & Vision: A Hispanic American Heritage Month Webinar at UC Berkeley Library

Posted on by Liladhar

All are invited to attend our 2025 Hispanic American Heritage Month webinar that this time focuses on Afro-Latinx heritage.

The webinar will take place on September 16th from 12:45 pm to 2:15 pm PST (3:45 pm to 5:15 pm EST). The webinar is free and open to all with prior registration.

One may register for the webinar here: https://ucberk.li/3KN.

This is a poster-slide for a 2025 National Hispanic American Heritage celebration webinar focuses on Afro-Latinx Heritage

This webinar features three scholars whose work advances understanding of Latin American and Afro-Latinx communities through social policy, culture, and education. In recognition of National Hispanic Heritage Month, the event explores racial and gender justice, ethnoracial legislation, climate ethnography, and Afro-Indigenous knowledge systems. Presenters offer critical insights into how law, environment, heritage, and pedagogy shape the lived experiences of Hispanic and Afro-Latinx communities.

Ukraine War Maps: A picture speaks thousand words!

Posted on by Liladhar

As the war in Ukraine is now in its third year of current military conflict (excluding the takeover of Crimea), it becomes vital for us to provide resources to our students related to the actual war and its progress. For this reason, I wanted to focus on two different platforms that currently offer updates from the field as it evolves on the ground. I hope that the readers of these maps will find them helpful to make their own assessment of the current state of affairs. The first resource is the Deepstate map.

The interface is pretty intuitive, and the map can be displayed in both English and Ukrainian legends. Below is the screenshot that shows the map as of 11:05 am PST on August 25, 2025.

Below is the screenshot of a map of Ukraine that was taken on August 25th at 11 am on the site called deepstate live.

The deepstate live has several different partners that sponsor the project. One of them is Brave1.

Also, there is a blog that is associated with DeepState Live, which can be accessed here.

The second source is hosted by the Institute for the Study of War, which can be accessed here. The resource provides an assessment of the Russian offensive in Ukraine with a cutoff date of August 24, 2025.

Library Trial of Russian Imperial Era Periodicals: a Bibliography and Reference Guide (ImPressDB)

Posted on by Liladhar
The library has set up a trial of a bibliographic database on Russian Imperial Era periodicals, which will run through the end of this month. The trial can be accessed here:
Upon accessing the database, one will see the landing page. A login button will be in the top right-hand corner of the screen. Please click on it, as no password is required. You will be able to test the database and assess its utility.
Please reach out to your Slavic Studies Librarian with your valuable feedback.
Russian Imperial Era Periodicals: a Bibliography and Reference Guide (ImPressDB) is a comprehensive research database of periodicals and serials from the time of the Russian Empire, published between 1702 and 1917. It includes publications from within the Russian Empire itself, across its diverse linguistic and cultural regions, as well as from some territories under its influence, and from the Austrian Empire (Austria-Hungary), Germany and other countries. The database also covers periodicals published by the empire’s diaspora in various parts of the world, including those by émigrés, political exiles, and immigrant communities, offering a broad, transnational perspective on the era’s printed media.
Russian Imperial Era Periodicals: a Bibliography and Reference Guide (ImPressDB) is a comprehensive research database of periodicals and serials from the time of the Russian Empire, published between 1702 and 1917. It includes publications from within the Russian Empire, across its diverse linguistic and cultural regions, and from some territories under its influence, including the Austrian Empire (Austria-Hungary), Germany, and other countries. The database also covers periodicals published by the empire’s diaspora in various parts of the world, including those by émigrés, political exiles, and immigrant communities, offering a broad, transnational perspective on the era’s printed media.

 

"Czołem!" Publication type one-off newspaper Publication dates 1906, July 1 Locality Warsaw Region Warsaw Governorate Country Russian Empire ; Congress Poland Language Polish ID A001391 Persistent URL https://rpdb.impressdb.com/item/A001391
A bibliographic entry for Czołem

Russian Women Writers Project Completed

Posted on by Liladhar

At UC Berkeley Library, with the leadership and guidance from the library’s current acting AUL for Associate University Librarian for Digital Initiatives and Information Technology, Lynne Grigsby, we are excited to report the completion of the Russian Women Writers Collection’s digitization. The collection’s analog items can be searched here.

The digital component of the project can be accessed here.

My predecessor, Dr. Allan Urbanic, was instrumental in helping us with the description of the project, which is as follows, “Russian Women Writers Collection
This project has been created in cooperation with the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg. In recent years, scholarship has focused on women’s contributions to the history of Russian literature. It has also been discovered that many of these writers were poorly represented in American libraries’ collections. The project first concentrated on filling in the corpus of women writers at the beginning of the 19th century. As the project moved forward, the works of Russian women authors of the later 19th century and the 20th century have been added.”

Maklakova, Lidii͡a Filippovna. Di͡evochka Lida razskaz dli͡a di͡eteĭ. Izd 2-e. Moskva: Tipo-lit. T-va I.N. Kushnerev i Ko., 1894. Terms governing use and reproduction Researchers may make free and open use of the UC Berkeley Library’s digitized public domain materials. However, some materials in our online collections may be protected by U.S. copyright law (Title 17, U.S.C.). Use or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use (Title 17, U.S.C. § 107) requires permission from the copyright owners. The use or reproduction of some materials may also be restricted by terms of University of California gift or purchase agreements, privacy and publicity rights, or trademark law. Responsibility for determining rights status and permissibility of any use or reproduction rests exclusively with the researcher. To learn more or make inquiries, please see our permissions policies (https://www.lib.berkeley.edu/about/permissions-policies).
Maklakova, Lidii͡a Filippovna. Di͡evochka Lida razskaz dli͡a di͡eteĭ. Izd 2-e. Moskva: Tipo-lit. T-va I.N. Kushnerev i Ko., 1894.

Terms governing use and reproduction
Researchers may freely and openly use the UC Berkeley Library’s digitized public domain materials. However, U.S. copyright law may protect some materials in our online collections (Title 17, U.S.C.). Use or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use (Title 17, U.S.C. § 107) requires permission from the copyright owners. The use or reproduction of some materials may also be restricted by terms of University of California gift or purchase agreements, privacy and publicity rights, or trademark law. Responsibility for determining rights status and permissibility of any use or reproduction rests exclusively with the researcher. Please see our permissions policies to learn more or make inquiries (https://www.lib.berkeley.edu/about/permissions-policies).
Source
Russian Women Writers

One can look at the usage data of the item called Di͡evochka Lida razskaz dli͡a di͡eteĭ as shown below,

Di͡evochka Lida razskaz dli͡a di͡eteĭ's download statistics as a graphical representation
Di͡evochka Lida razskaz dli͡a di͡eteĭ’s usage statistics

Library Trial: Muslim in Russia Online (Brill Database)

Posted on by Liladhar

UC Berkeley Library has set up a trial of Brill’s Muslim in Russia Online Database. The database trial will continue until February 1, 2025. You can access the trial here.

This collection examines the varied Russian Muslim population during the period of 1861-1918. It includes works by and about Muslims, highlighting the significance of this heritage as the history and spirituality of Muslims in Russia are being reexamined. A word of caution: Most of the periodicals in this database have been digitized from microfilms; thus, digitization quality is problematic. The OCR seems unchecked and automated “dirty,” so one has to look at the images.

Please access the database here: https://shorturl.at/M4IyT

Please see the screenshot below:

Title: V mīri͡e musulʹmanstva:ezhenedelʹnai͡a, literaturnai͡a, politicheskai͡a i obshchestvennai͡a gazeta.<br />Date: 1911<br /> Date in Source: [1911-1912]
Title: V mīri͡e musulʹmanstva:ezhenedelʹnai͡a, literaturnai͡a, politicheskai͡a i obshchestvennai͡a gazeta.
Date: 1911
Date in Source: [1911-1912]

Here are the key points about this database are highlighted below:

  • Role in Russian State: Muslims played a crucial role in the creation of the multinational Russian state, completed with the annexation of Central Asia in the 1860s. By 1897, Muslims made up almost 11% of Imperial Russia’s population (14 million).
  • Russian State Policy: Russian policy towards Muslims varied. Initially, there was forced Russification and Christianization. From Ekaterina II onwards, the policy shifted towards legitimizing Muslims. Under Alexander III, discrimination against non-Christians, including Muslims, increased.
  • Early 20th Century: The early 1900s saw a rise in Muslim nationalism, fueled by religious reformism and liberal ideas. The First Russian Revolution (1905-1907) led to significant political changes, including creating the State Duma and civil freedoms.
  • Union of Muslims of Russia: Formed in 1905-1906, this organization became the most powerful political body for Muslims until 1917, with branches across various regions.
  • Intellectual and National Identity: Early 20th century saw more Muslim intellectuals and interest in national identity, heritage, and traditions.
  • 1917 Revolutions: Muslim nationalist movements grew during the February and October Revolutions of 1917. Post-1917, Bolshevik policies negatively impacted Muslims’ religious freedoms.
  • Muslim Press: Until 1905-1907, Muslim issues were poorly reported. The 1905 revolution led to a surge in Muslim publications. These periodicals covered a range of ideological perspectives and helped address Muslim problems.
  • Unique Publications: Publications from 1861-1918 provide insights into Muslim life in the Russian Empire and their leaders’ perspectives. These works are valuable for understanding Muslims’ historical and spiritual heritage in Russia.

Library Book Talk (Webinar): On Savage Shores: How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe

Posted on by Liladhar

Please save the date on your calendars for an exciting upcoming conversation-book talk (On Savage Shores : How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe) for our community of UC Berkeley Library and affiliated staff and librarians.
Date: February 6, 2024
Day: Thursday, Time: 12-1 pm (Pacific Time) 8 pm-9 pm UK Time

Zoom Webinar Link: https://berkeley.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_LGoU0V9ZQXegc5fHxlF_WA

Registration: https://ucberk.li/3GW

Free and Open to All with prior registration. If you need special assistance or accommodation, please contact Dr. Liladhar R Pendse, the event organizer.

About the Webinar: In this webinar, Professor Caroline Dodds Pennock (She/her) will discuss her book, On Savage Shores: How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe. This book challenges the traditional Eurocentric view of the Age of Discovery by focusing on the Indigenous Americans who crossed the Atlantic to Europe after 1492. For centuries, history has taught that global history began when the “Old World” met the “New World” with Columbus’ arrival in the Americas. However, Caroline Dodds Pennock’s research reveals that, for many Indigenous people—Aztecs, Maya, Totonacs, Inuit, and others—Europe was the “New World.”

A Collage of pages of Codex Mendoza. The Codex Mendoza is an Aztec codex, believed to have been created around the year 1541.[1] It contains a history of both the Aztec rulers and their conquests as well as a description of the daily life of pre-conquest Aztec society. The codex is written using traditional Aztec pictograms with a translation and explanation of the text provided in Spanish. It is named after Don Antonio de Mendoza (1495-1552), the viceroy of New Spain, who supervised its creation and who was a leading patron of native artists.
Collaged pages of Codex Mendoza. The Codex Mendoza is an Aztec codex, believed to have been created around the year 1541.
These individuals, including enslaved people, diplomats, explorers, servants, and traders, saw Europe as a land of both wonder and cruelty, filled with vast wealth inequality, and strange customs. Their experiences, marked by abduction, cultural clashes, and loss, have been largely excluded from mainstream historical narratives. This book tells the untold stories of the Indigenous Americans who traveled to Europe, such as the Brazilian king who met Henry VIII, the Aztecs at the court of Charles V, or the Inuit displayed in London pubs. Pennock uses their stories and European accounts to reveal how these Indigenous people, though marginalized, left a lasting impact on European culture and society.

About the author

Professor Caroline Dodds Pennock (She/her) has been at the University of Sheffield since 2010, where they are known as one of the few British historians specializing in Aztec studies. Their current research, however, has expanded to include Indigenous histories in a global context, with a particular focus on the Atlantic world. Dr. Caroline Dodds Pennock recently published On Savage Shores: How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe, which tells the stories of Indigenous Americans who traveled to Europe in the sixteenth century. These accounts, often involving abduction, loss, and cultural appropriation, have largely been overlooked in mainstream history.

Professor Caroline Dodds Pennock (she/her)B.A., M.St., D.Phil. (Oxon), FRHistS School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities Professor in International History Department Director of One University, University of Sheffield
Professor Caroline Dodds Pennock, University of Sheffield. Image Credit: University of Sheffield

Dodds Pennock, Caroline. On Savage Shores : How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe / Caroline Dodds Pennock. First American edition. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2023.

https://search.library.berkeley.edu/permalink/01UCS_BER/1thfj9n/alma991086032106106532

Event Sponsors:  Social Sciences Division. Library’s Equity and Inclusion Committee, Institute for European Studies, UC Berkeley and Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS), UC Berkeley