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Basque Studies Program Newsletter · Issue 46, 1992 Basque Studies Program Receives International Honor On September 4 commemorative awards from Euskaltzaindia and the University of the Basque Country were presented to William A. Douglass on behalf of the 25th anniversary of the Basque Studies Program. In addition, representatives from the University of the Basque Country and the Public University of Navarra spoke the Program’s praises and a letter from the President of Navarra, Juan Cruz Alli, was read at the ceremony. A letter was also received from José Antonio Ardanza, President of Euskadi. Twenty-five years ago William A. Douglass accepted the challenge of coordinating the newly formed Basque Studies Program, then a part of the Desert Research Institute and now a Center of Excellence at the University of Nevada, Reno. (See Newsletter number 27 and 36 for a more complete history of the Program). Inspired by his research on his Basque ancestors, Robert Laxalt was an active participant in the Program’s inception. With the original goal of investigating the impact of the Basque immigrant on the Great Basin, the Program grew into a research center with a library of 25,000 volumes. Along the way, bibliographer Jon Bilbao published his multi-volume magnus opus entitled Eusko Bibliographia; a Basque-English English-Basque dictionary was written and published; a minor was established for undergraduates; and a tutorial Ph.D. program was initiated to encourage scholarship in the field. In addition, an occasional summer studies abroad program blossomed into today’s University Studies Abroad Consortium with students in five different countries. These are some of the accomplishments that were recognized on September 4. For although many Americans are unaware of the Program’s existence, thousands of Basque in Euskadi read about it on a regular basis in newspapers or visit it through television specials or hear about it on radio interviews. Dozens more visit it in person every year to facilitate their research or to highlight their vacation in the States. Letters of congratulation were also received from the Sociedad Cultural Landazuri and from Eusko Ikaskuntza. The Euskadi connection is so strong that Enrike Knörr, the President of the Onomastics Commission of Euskaltzaindia, chose Reno as the site of the Fourth Onomastics Conference in honor of the Program. As part of that Conference, an awards ceremony was held during which the commemorative plaques were presented to Dr. Douglass. |
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