Above, 2013 NEH Summer Scholars in front of Alma Mater.
Attendance at all of the NEH Summer Institute events listed below is strictly limited to the NEH Summer Scholars, presenters, and specially invited luncheon guests. Video recordings of many of these talks will be available to view on this site after the conclusion of the Institute.
Day One: Sunday June 8
4:00-8:00 Orientation & Buffet Reception
At the Midtown home & garden of Robert Davis.
“The Lessons of the 2013 NEH Summer Institute on The Russophone Immigrations.”
Alan Timberlake, Edward Kasinec & Robert Davis (Columbia).
MODULE ONE
Day Two: Monday June 9
10:00-11:30 “Straddling Two Worlds”: Reflections of Prominent Americans on their East Central European Heritage.
Marica Vilcek, Interviewed by John Micgiel (Kosciuszko Foundation).
11:45-12:45 Lunch. Special Guest: Wendy Luers (Vaclav Havel Library Foundation), Lise Stone (Author).
Remarks by Van Tran (Columbia): “The Comparative Study of Migration.”
1:00-3:30 Roundtable: Envisioning 20th Century Central Europe. Holly Case (Cornell), Paul R. Magocsi (Univ. of Toronto), John Connelly (UC Berkeley).
Day Three: Tuesday June 10
10:00-12:00 PM Roundtable: East Central European Migrants in America: Acculturation and Political Interrelations with the Homelands. Mihaela Robila (CUNY, Queens College), Alan Timberlake, Paul R. Magocsi.
12:15-1:30 Lunch. Special Guest: Irina Denischenko (Columbia).
1:45-2:30 Discussion
MODULE TWO
Day Four: Wednesday June 11
10:00-12:00 Roundtable: American Jews from Central Europe. Rebekah Klein-Pejsova (Purdue), Mikhail Mitsel (Joint Distribution Committee), Daniel Soyer (Fordham).
12:15-1:30 Lunch. Special Guest: Michelle Chesner (Columbia)
1:45-2:30 Discussion
Day Five: Thursday June 12
Project Research Day
6:00 PM. Evening Films & Literary Readings moderated by NEH Summer Scholars on the theme: “Hollywood’s Depiction of the East Central European Immigrations”. Among the relevant possibilities: “My Girl Tisa” (1948), “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1951), “Hester Street” (1975), “The Deer Hunter” (1978), “Avalon” (1990), “My Antonia” (1995), “Roommates” (1995), “An American Rhapsody” (2001), “Gran Torino” (2008).
Day Six: Friday June 13
10:00-12:00 Roundtable: The Poles. Mieczyslaw B. Biskupski (Central Connecticut State), James Pula (Purdue), Dominic Pacyga (Columbia College, Chicago).
12:15-1:30 Lunch. Special Guests: Dr Svitlana Iarmolenko (Georgia Southern University); Peter B. Kaufman (Columbia and IntelligentTV).
1:45-2:30 Discussion
Day Seven: Saturday June 14
10:00-12:00 Roundtable: The Balts: Latvians and Estonians. Ieva Zake (College of New Jersey), Mara Lazda (Bronx Community College), Janis Kreslins, Jr. (Royal Library, Stockholm, via Skype).
12:15-1:30 Lunch. Special Guest: Janis A. Kreslins, Sr. (Council on Foreign Relations Emeritus)
1:45-2:30 Discussion
Day Eight: Sunday June 15
Site Visits & Project Research.
Day Nine: Monday June 16
10:00-12:00 Roundtable: The Czechs & Slovaks. Milan Hauner (Univ. of Wisconsin), Jeremy King (Mt. Holyoke), Mark Stolárik (Univ. of Ottawa), Martin Nekola (freelance editor, presentation circulated to Summer Scholars).
12:15-1:30 Lunch. Special Guest: Pavla Niklova (Czech Center of New York/Vaclav Havel Library Foundation)
1:45-2:30 Discussion
Day Ten: Tuesday June 17
10:00-12:00 Roundtable: Hungarians. Thomas Sakmyster (Univ. of Cincinnati), Peter Pastor (Montclair State), James Niessen (Rutgers).
12:15-1:30 Lunch. Special Guest: Susan Glanz (St. John’s)
1:45-2:30 Discussion
Day Eleven: Wednesday June 18
Project Research Day
Evening Films.
Day Twelve: Thursday June 19
10:00-12:00 The Serbs & Croats. Lorraine M. Lees (Old Dominion); John Kraljic (Croatian Academy of America).
Toivo Raun (Indiana, via Skype) Due to poor weather, Prof. Raun was unable to join us in person, as originally planned.
12:15-1:30 Lunch. Special Guest: Hon. Mark Sokolich, Esq. (Mayor of Ft. Lee, NJ).
1:45-2:30 Discussion
MODULE THREE
Day Thirteen: Friday June 20
10:00-12:00 Roundtable: Acculturation and Attainments: East Central European Elites and Artists. Steven Mansbach (Univ. of Maryland), Anna Brzyski (Kentucky).
12:15-1:30 Lunch. Special Guest: Christina Peter (Frick Museum)
1:45-2:30 Discussion
Day Fourteen: Saturday June 21
Project Research Day
Day Fifteen: Sunday June 22
Beach Day at the home of Edward Kasinec, and/or Site Visits
Day Sixteen: Monday June 23
10:00-12:00 Roundtable: Ad Fontes: Community Based Archives, Libraries, Archives, Museums and Historical Memory. David Chroust (Texas A&M), Robert Davis, Marta Deyrup (Seton Hall), James Niessen, Wojciech Siemaszkiewicz (New York Public Library).
12:15-1:30 Lunch. Special Guest: James Neal (Columbia University Libraries)
1:30-2:45 Brief Capsule Characterizations of Summer Scholar Home Institutions.
MODULE FOUR
Days Seventeen through Twenty: Tuesday June 24 through Friday June 27
Tuesday through Thursday 9:30-12:00, and 1:30-4:30. NEH Summer Scholar Presentations
Presentations are strictly limited to 20 minutes, followed by ten minutes of discussion.
Lunch on your own.
On Friday June 27, we shall hold a morning review session, and seek critical feedback from the Summer Scholars.
Summer Scholars and Presenters are invited and encouraged to submit any syllabi, lesson plans, teaching resources, documents that could be used in teaching (e.g. maps, photographs, historical art images, short primary source texts), research guides to particular collections, finding aids, or other research or teaching resources related to the topics of the Summer Institute in order to document for the NEH the impacts of work done by Summer Scholars, and, with permission, to distribute to the Summer Scholars and/or post on this web site.
Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this Web resource do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.