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Basque Studies Program Newsletter · Issue
61, 1999
From the Director
A Center for Basque Studies in the
Internet Era
by Joseba Zulaika
Center for Basque Studies is the new name for what
has been until now University of Nevada, Reno’s Basque
Studies Program. “Basque Studies” continues to be
our defining label and everything else derives from this
central university mission of research, information
gathering, debate, publication, teaching, and dissemination
of knowledge about the Basques.
The name change reflects what Basque Studies has
become over the years, and it provides an opportunity to
reframe how we do academic business in the present Internet
era. The new Internet technologies can service our
traditional mission of research and dissemination of
information regarding the Basques. The challenges for Basque
Studies are enormous but so are the opportunities.
Adjustment to this new web-based technological environment
requires a serious rethinking of our
mission.
Basque Culture in the Global Network
The massive transformations brought about by Europeanization
and globalization on the one hand, and diasporic and
postmodern discourses on the other, are affecting our very
notions of Basque identity, culture, politics, and theory.
These realities require substantial changes in the area of
Basque Studies.
Our perspective on Basque local and global realities
will emphasize a “diasporic” viewpoint. That is,
we see a need to view Basque culture, or economy, or urban
planning, or identity formation from the more globalized
perspectives of the migrant, the tourist, the international
student, the businessman, the media and
cyberspace.
Most descendants of Basques live outside of the
Basque Country. Forgetting the intrinsically diasporic
nature of things Basque is a major shortcoming in the
academy, in politics, and in representations of Basque
culture. We believe that taking such an external perspective
is necessary for a more appropriate understanding of the
issues at hand. From this viewpoint, everything Basque is
also diasporic and global, including those Basques who live
in the home country and those issues that appear to be most
local.
The Internet has suddenly forced upon us a new
awareness that cultures are all-encompassing webs of meaning
and information. In this sense the linkage and informative
possibilities offered by the Internet appear to be
limitless. For that reason, we are redesigning our Web site
to become the electronically interactive Center needed by
the English-speaking Basque academic and migrant
communities. Our goal is to promote a new sense of Basque
transnational scholarship, culture, technology, and
identity.
This goal can only be achieved if the various sectors
of higher education in the Old World Basque Country and the
various countries where Basques have migrated are brought
together in a dynamic synergy of ideas, university programs,
and technological know-how. This requires a supranational,
multilingual, and culturally diverse
mentality.
Basic Components of our Web Network
Library
The Basque Library has been historically at the heart and
soul of UNR’s Basque Studies. The collection now
numbers approximately 43,000 volumes and 1,500 journal
titles. Current and retrospective material is added at a
rate of about 1,300 items yearly. This is the largest
collection of material relating to the Basques outside of
the Basque Country. In the new electronic era, far from
becoming obsolete, the Library will continue to provide the
foundation from which primary research can be conducted and
essential information on Basque topics formulated and
disseminated through the new
technologies.
Research
UNR’s Center for Basque Studies is primarily a research
entity. Major accomplishments that evidence this are: the
research on Basque migration across several continents
conducted by Douglass and Bilbao; bibliographer
Bilbao’s massive fourteen-volume Basque bibliography,
completed at UNR during the 1970s; the compilation and
publication of the first Basque-English, English-Basque
dictionary by Aulestia and White; and the successful
fruition of many individual research projects. During this
decade alone, the Basque Book Series of the University of
Nevada Press has added thirty new titles. This research
production remains our primary task.
Presently, however, the Center is faced with the
challenge of conducting new research and producing new
thinking concerning the pressing issues of the moment. These
include: migration / diaspora studies; the politics of
global culture (Bilbao Guggenheim, film, television,
literature, mass media, architecture, urbanism);
international discourse on the Basques (terrorism, pacifism,
anthropology, news, popular culture, Bilbao); gender
studies; and internationalization of academic
cultures.
At the same time, as a Center we are bound to produce
information resources and databases that will disseminate
our findings and facilitate the work of scholars in the new
technological environment. This requires that the contents
of the Web must be stabilized by creating a track record of
availability and reliability.
The Center’s Activities
In the recent past we hosted two international conferences
here in Reno, both of which led to publication of collected
essays. We believe that the Center for Basque Studies is
uniquely situated to organize such conferences, lectures and
seminars on a permanent basis, which will attract leading
thinkers and generate debates and ideas. The Web will record
the Center’s activities while permanently disseminating
the results of this intellectual work. Needless to say,
interdisciplinarity has been, and will continue to be, a
strong ingredient of the research produced by the
Center.
Online Courses
A primary goal of the Center is to provide university-level
instruction for English-speaking college students throughout
the world. While we will continue offering traditional
face-to-face courses at UNR, we feel that our true mission
in the Internet era is to become a cyberuniversity for the
English-speaking Basque communities in the U.S. and
beyond.
With a generous grant from the Basque
Government’s Education Department, we are presently
engaged in creating twelve new online courses in Basque
Cultural Studies during the 2000-2001 biennium. Three of the
courses - Basque Culture, the first semester of Basque
Language, and Bilbao Guggenheim Museum - are already being
offered. The other courses in the making are: Modern Basque
History, Basques and / in Film, Basques and European
Culture, Basques on the Internet, three more semesters of
Basque language, Sociolinguistics, Basque Pre-modern
History, Consuming Cultures: Food, Gastronomy, and
Lifestyles, Basque Diaspora, Basque Economy, and Basque
Sports.
Study Abroad and the Internationalization of
Academia
UNR’s Basque Studies has de facto become an
international center for Basque scholars. It has facilitated
the entry into the United States of hundreds of Basque
researchers and students. Still, we believe that the
facilities offered by UNR are underutilized and that we
should make a renewed effort to strengthen our links with
the scholarly community as well as the general
public.
Under the direction of Carmelo Urza, the Basque
Studies Program originated and sponsored the very successful
international programs of USAC (University Studies Abroad
Consortium). Initially designed to send American students to
the Basque region - San Sebastian, Pau, Biarritz, Bilbao -
it has become a truly international endeavor with programs
in fifteen countries. Thus the Center’s theoretical
concerns with diaspora, travel, and globalization are
grounded not only in the experiences of migration and global
discourse affecting the Basques, but also on the
international exchange of academics and students across
several continents.
In sum, online teaching, the internationalization of
academia, and study abroad programs are converging and
mutually supportive trends. The Internet has become an
essential tool in this convergence.
Consortium for the Study of Basque Women
We consider gender studies vital to our overall theoretical
outlook. From the workplace to the family setting, from the
classical male / female social domains to migration patterns
in the New World, from the traditional sexual patterns to
homosexuality, from religion to prostitution, from the
male-biased disciplinary canons to the denial of female
literature and art, gender studies force us to formulate
novel avenues for tackling classical problems. Under the
direction of Linda White, the Center has established a
Consortium for the Study of Basque Women. More than sixty
scholars are already members.
Special Projects
One prominent example of what we mean by a special project
is Professor Jose Mallea’s Basque Arborglyphs Project.
For more than a decade he has developed a database with more
than 11,000 entries. The Center’s Web site will make
his findings accessible to the general public. His book on
the subject is currently in press with the Basque Book
Series.
Outreach activities
We will continue to bring speakers, artists, writers, and
filmmakers to our Center. This summer we offer a course on
Basque cinema and some of the films will be shown to the
public. Also from next year on, Basque artists will be
regularly exhibited at UNR’s Sheppard Gallery and we
hope to share these exhibits with other universities that
are part of UNR’s University Studies Abroad Consortium.
The Zenbat Gara dance ensemble performs throughout the
American West. Our own Center faculty provide lectures and
special classes for the regional
community.
Conclusion: Seizing the New Opportunities
The new informational world presents both singular
challenges as well as unprecedented opportunities for Basque
Studies in general and for a Center of our characteristics
in particular. Firmly embracing the new Internet
technologies could prove enormously beneficial for our
traditional mission of research and dissemination of
information on the Basques. They present unique
opportunities for teaching, outreach, and interactivity, and
we are prepared and willing to take full advantage of them.
Such an open and experimental attitude should be premised on
a basic conceptual shift: the Web site has become a
cornerstone of how we manage our academic affairs and who we
are. It is already and indispensable tool for gathering
information, and disseminating knowledge. In the future it
will also serve as a central interactive space in which we
exchange information and create a new sense of intellectual
and moral community.
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