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Highlights In June Gorka Aulestia and Carmelo Urza attended the Jaialdi International Basque Cultural Festival held in Boise, Idaho. Gorka Aulestia served as a discussant on a panel devoted to public discussion of Basque nationalism. On September 14 Gorka Aulestia successfully defended his dissertation entitled "El 'Bertsolarismo': Literatura Oral Improvisada del País Vasco." Professor Juan María Lekuona of the E.U.T.G. of the University of Deusto in San Sebastián, leading authority on the Basque bertsolari and a specialist in Basque literature, served as the outside member of Dr. Aulestia's committee. Professor Lekuona came to Reno for the defense. William A. Douglass gave a paper entitled "A Critique of Recent Trends in the Analysis of Nationalism" as part of the World Congress of Basque Studies currently in progress in the Basque Country. The paper was part of a week-long session on the Sociology of Nationalism held in late September in the city of Vitoria/Gasteiz. Rodolfo Luera has recently enrolled in the tutorial Ph.D. in Basque Studies program. Mr. Luera possesses an M.A. in Romance Languages and Literatures from Harvard University and completed two years of doctoral studies in history at the University of California, San Diego. His dissertation interest regards the recently implemented Basque language school system (the ikastolak). Linda White attended Euskaltzaindia's second Jornadas Onomásticas (Conference on Onomastics) held in Orduña, Spain, September 23-25. Ms. White presented a paper entitled "La Americanización del Apellido Vasco en el Oeste de los Estados Unidos." Gorka Aulestia attended the Conference on Literature of the World Congress of Basque Studies held in Vitoria/Gasteiz October 5-9. Professor Aulestia gave a paper entitled "Two Pioneering Poets: 'Lauaxeta' and Jon Mirande" in the session on Symbolism and Modernism in Basque Literature. Carmelo Urza spent part of the month of October in Turin, Italy making preliminary arrangements for an Italian campus for the University Studies Abroad Consortium that he directs. UNR's Graduate Dean John Nellor and Dean Henry Amato of the College of Business joined Urza in Turin to finalize an agreement with the European institution. Professor Joseba Zulaika, social anthropologist at the University of the Basque Country and currently a recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, was in residence with the BSP from February to September. Professor Zulaika has recently finished a book manuscript on Basque political violence that is scheduled to appear shortly in the Basque Book Series of the University of Nevada Press. Professor Román Basurto, historian at the Lejona campus of the University of the Basque Country, spent part of July and August in residence with the BSP researching Basque activities in the New World. Jasone Astola of the Lejona campus of the University of the Basque Country spent July to mid-September in residence with the BSP conducting research on the local organization of American government as a comparative dimension for her dissertation regarding local administration in the Basque Country. William A. Douglass published an article entitled "Anthropological History in an Iberian Context" in the Winter, 1987 (Vol. 14, No. 2) issue of the journal Peasant Studies. In May the famed sculptor Eduardo Txillida, his wife Pili and his agent Jose Tasende visited the BSP as part of their most recent US tour. A reception was held in the artist's honor at the Jubilee Ranch in Carson Valley attended by many northern Nevada art patrons. On October 27 Professor Frank Bergon of Vassar College gave a reading at UNR from his new novel Shoshone Mike (Viking Press). The novel is based upon an incident in 1911 when a roving band of Shoshone Indians killed four Basque sheepherders in the northern Nevada desert and were then hunted down and massacred by a posse. The lecture was cosponsored by the BSP and the English department. William A. Douglass received two publishing subsidies from the Program for Cultural Cooperation between Spain's Ministry of Culture and United States Universities. An award of $2,000 was granted to assist with publication of a special issue of the Journal of Family History on Iberian family history to be guest edited by Douglass. The second grant provides $2,500 towards publication of a book by Renato Barahona entitled Politics and Society in an Early Nineteenth Century Spanish Region: Vizcaya and the Basque Provinces. The work is to be published by the University of Nevada Press as part of its Basque Book Series. Louella Laguna joined the staff of the University Studies in the Basque Country Consortium in September. Ms. Laguna will serve as the Consortium secretary. Gorka Aulestia recently published two articles. "P. Topet Etxahun: poeta popular y romántico" appeared in the Journal of Basque Studies in America, vol. VII, 1986; and "Basque Literary Historiography" was published in Collages and Bricolages (Clarion University of Pennsylvania), vol. 1, 1987. He also published three book reviews in World Literature Today, vol. 61, no. 2 (Spring 1987). The works reviewed were: "Lauaxeta," Olerki Guztiak, Bilbao, 1985; X. Amuriza, Emea, San Sebastián, 1985; B. Gandiaga, Denbora galdu alde, San Sebastián, 1985. |
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