Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies
Holocaust Remembrance Day 2022
Yesterday was Holocaust (Shoah) Remembrance Day, and today at sundown, we will have the beginning of Jewish Shabbat. So, first of all, to my readers of this blog who follow the Jewish faith, Shabbat Shalom. I fondly remember my teacher in Jewish Studies, Professor Zev Garber of Los Angeles Valley College, who helped me understand the complexities of Jewish American Literature when I was a “new” and yet unestablished “immigrant from the Indian sub-continent” in the United States. I had no idea that the West had coined “South Asia” and that campus identity politics existed across North America. I had no idea about the words like “being canceled” and sent to an exile in Academic Siberia. But I knew of Babii (Babyn) Yar and the Genocide of innocent Jews and others during WW II. And leave you with three recent books that interrogate the Holocaust. In memoriam to the victims of Holocaust/Shoah. Also, reminder, that the library with the gracious funding assistance from our AUL Joanne Newyear-Ramirez was successful in purchasing access to USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive
- Americans And The Holocaust : A Reader. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2022. Print. (Photo copyright: Rutgers University, Used for Blog, non-commercial and academic purposes)
- Tarica, Estelle. Holocaust Consciousness And Cold War Violence In Latin America. State Univ Of New York Pr, 2022. Print. (Photo copyright: SUNY Press, Used for Blog, non-commercial and academic purposes)
- Goldenshteyn, Maksum. So They Remember : a Jewish Familys Story of Surviving the Holocaust in Soviet Ukraine. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2022. Print. (Photo copyright: University of Oklahoma Press, Used for Blog, non-commercial and academic purposes)
Lastly, I leave you to reflect on an article by Larisa Maliukova (Лариса Малюкова) in a Russian Newspaper: Novaya Gazeta with the title: Сергей Лозница: «Война — всегда отвратительный способ нерешения проблемы»
And two clips of Sergei Loznitsa’s 2021 documentary film: Voina-vsegda otvratitel’nyi sposob neresheniia problemy (translation: War- always a poisonous method (for) a failure to resolve problems.
And the second clip is below:
Trial of Seans Digital Archive (Film Studies Journal) through 11 February 2022
UC Berkeley Library has set up a trial of Seans Digital Archive (1990-2020). Seans is a well-known Russian journal dedicated to Film Studies. The UC Berkeley’s registered students, staff, and faculty can access the digital archive here. The trial will last from 12 January 2022 through 11 February 2022. The vendor description: The Seans digital archive contains all available published issues from 1990, with an additional year’s worth of content added annually. The archive offers scholars the most comprehensive collection available for this title and features full page-level digitization and complete original graphics. The archive has searchable text and is cross-searchable with numerous other East View digital resources.
Each issue of Seans is devoted to a specific theme. Examples of past themes include:
- Based on true events (Основан на реальных событиях)
- Back in the USSR
- Sources of the impossible (Источники невозможного)
- Speak, Memory
- It’s sad (Это печально)
- Everything is going according to plan (Все идет по плану)
- Faust
- Le tour de France
- Russian Cabinet of Curiosities (Русская кунсткамера)
Alternatively, the Seans Digital Archive is also available on the web at no cost here: https://seance.ru/magazine/
However, the archive that is on the web is not cross-searchable with other digital content that Eastview offers.
A new online exhibition at UC Berkeley Library: ¡Viva la Revolución Mexicana: 1920-2020!
We are delighted to announce a new virtual exhibition, “¡Viva la Revolución Mexicana: 1920-2020!” that was initially going to be a physical exhibition to accompany an in-person conference, “México: La Conquista-Independencia-Adaptación, 1521-1821-2021,” that the librarian for the Caribbean and Latin American Collections, Dr. Liladhar Pendse had planned. When you first land on the home for this exhibition, please scroll down to see its different features.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic upended any real opportunity to meet in person, and everything was a bit delayed. Thus, we had to resort to a virtual exhibition and conference.
Both endeavors could not have been possible without assistance, encouragement, and support from many of our colleagues.
Tomorrow: November 10-México: La Conquista-Independencia-Adaptación:1521-1821-2021
Conference: México: La Conquista-Independencia-Adaptación:1521-1821-2021 that is scheduled to take place on November 10th virtually. We are grateful to the sponsors of this virtual conference: UC Berkeley Library, Center for Latin American Studies, and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese of UC Berkeley.
Two hundred years ago today, Mexico signed the Declaration of Independence from the Spanish Empire (Acta de Independencia del Imperio Mexicano). The conference is dedicated to noting some critical landmark dates in the history of Mexico and Latin America. I am also attaching an image of a conference poster that our library’s communications team members have created. We also note that the image used for this poster is from Codex Yoalli Ehecatl (also known formerly as Codex Borgia).
We are grateful to all faculty members across our continent who will be speaking at this conference. All are welcome to attend with prior registration the whole forum or its parts as you see fit in your busy workday.
Please register here: https://sites.google.com/berkeley.edu/mexico-1521-1821-1921/home/registration-inscripci%C3%B3n?authuser=0
The Organizing Committee: Dr. Liladhar R. Pendse and Professor Ivonne Del Valle, UC Berkeley
Conference Sponsors: UC Berkeley Library, Center for Latin American Studies, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, UC Berkeley
Library Trial of Soviet Woman Digital Archive (25 October 2021 through 24 November 2021).
We have set up a thirty-day trial of the Soviet Woman Digital Archive (1945-1991)
To link to this database during the trial is below:
Published initially under the aegis of the Soviet Women’s Anti-Fascist Committee and the Central Council of Trade Unions of the USSR, in the aftermath of WWII in 1945, the Soviet Woman magazine began as a bi-monthly illustrated magazine tasked with countering anti-Soviet propaganda. The magazine introduced Western audiences to the lifestyle of Soviet women, their role in the post-WWII rebuilding of the Soviet economy, and praised their achievements in the arts and the sciences.
Additional Information:
The magazine covered issues dealing with economics, politics, life abroad, life in Soviet republics, women’s fashion, as well as broader issues in culture and the arts. One of its most popular features was the translations of Soviet literary works, making available in English, (and other languages) works of Russian and Soviet writers that were previously unavailable. An important communist propaganda outlet, the magazine continued its run until the collapse of the USSR in 1991.
Coverage:1945-1991
Vendor: East View
Producer:Правда
Afghanistan: At the Heart of the Silk Roads Virtual Talk
Afghanistan: At the Heart of the Silk Roads
Sanjyot Mehendale, UC Berkeley
Thursday, October 21, 2021, 7 pm (ET)
A talk organized by the Dunhuang Foundation
PO Box 8309, Houston, TX 77288
Register for the virtual talk here
This talk aims to counterbalance the popularly imagined Afghanistan—filtered by the mass media through the lens of terrorism and war— as a barren and backward place. Instead, presenting a place that lies at the heart of vibrant, millennia-old regional and international trade and exchange networks, with a culture not only rich but richly diverse, not isolated and insulated but deeply and complexly engaged with other cultures near and far.
Sanjyot Mehendale received her B.A. (Art and Archaeology) from the University of Amsterdam and her M.A. (Art and Archaeology) from the Rijksuniversity of Leiden, The Netherlands. She obtained her Ph.D. (Near Eastern Studies) in 1997 from the University of California at Berkeley. Since 1997, she has been teaching Central Asian and Silk Roads art and archaeology in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Berkeley. From 2001-2005, she was the co-director of the Uzbek-Berkeley Archaeological Mission (UBAM). During the same period, she was Executive Director of the Caucasus and Central Asia Program. Among Dr. Mehendale’s main research concerns is a focus on the Kushan period, in particular on trade and cultural exchange and the relationship between Kushan kingship and Buddhist institutions. A recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, she has developed, in collaboration with the Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative, a digital archive of the Begram ivory and bone carvings, which were once housed in the National Museum in Kabul, Afghanistan (www.ecai.org/begramweb). The author of several articles on Silk Roads art and archaeology, she is the co-editor of Central Asia and the Caucasus: Transnationalism and Diaspora (Routledge, 2005). At Berkeley, Sanjyot Mehendale is Chair of the P.Y. and Kinmay W. Tang Center for Silk Road Studies and Vice-Chair of the Center for Buddhist Studies.
Ancestors and Archives online workshop: UC Berkeley, October 20, 2021
Colleagues,
As a co-organizer of the event that is related to the DEIB work, I would like to invite you to attend the following event, “Ancestors and Archives online workshop,” on October 20, 2021. Please register using the link below. Please feel free to share this event with your respective professional lists.
https://ucberk.li/ancestors-and-archives-event
Library Trial of Rand State Statistics Database (October 6- November 2, 2021)
My colleague, Hilary Schiraldi has set up a 30 day trial of the Rand State Statistics Database. Although not technically related to Slavic, East European, or Latin American Studies, as a librarian who provides reference services to our users, I find a great value in exploring different databases. I invite you to utilize this opportunity to try out Rand State Statistics Database. Please use your proxy or VPN if you are accessing it from an off-campus location! Explore! Browse! Enjoy!
LAUC-B 2021 Annual Conference on October 5 and October 6: Reimagining Libraries Through Critical Library Practices!
As a member of the LAUC-B 2021 Annual Conference Organizing Committee, it is my great honor to write this blog post/reminder welcoming all those who have registered to mark their calendars and attend the Reimagining Libraries Through Critical Library Practices which will take place on October 5 and October 6 virtually.
Registration is now closed. But there will be recordings made available after the conference. The schedule is linked here. One can read, the Code of Conduct and Land Acknowledgement by clicking on the terms.
I acknowledge that the land I live and work on is the territory of xučyun (Huichin), the ancestral and unceded land of the Chochenyo-speaking Lisjan Ohlone people.
Trial of Central Asia, Persia and Afghanistan, 1834-1922: From Silk Road to Soviet rule
The Library has set up a thirty-day trial of an Archives Direct digital resources on Central Asia. If one is accessing it from an off-campus location, please authenticate using your proxy or VPN. Please click here to access the resource.
Central Asia, Persia, and Afghanistan, 1834-1922: From Silk Road to Soviet Rule
The image is used for educational purposes only.
Self-description:
“This collection of Foreign Office files explores the history of Persia (Iran), Central Asia, and Afghanistan from the decline of the Silk Road in the first half of the nineteenth century to the establishment of Soviet rule over parts of the region in the early 1920s. It encompasses the era of “The Great Game” – a political and diplomatic confrontation between the Russian and British Empires for influence, territory and trade across a vast region, from the Black Sea in the west to the Pamir Mountains in the east.
Comprised of correspondence, intelligence reports, agents’ diaries, minutes, maps, newspaper excerpts, and other materials from the FO 65, FO 106, FO 371, and FO 539 series, this resource forms one of the greatest existing sets of historical documents relating to this region, offering insights not only into the impact of Great Power politics on the region but also the region’s peoples, cultures and societies.”
There is an introductory video to this collection. It can be accessed here