New Fulbright Grant for Art Historians

Today, we're pleased to report that Terra Foundation for American Art has just subsidized a new Fulbright grant for U.S. scholars interested in teaching American Art history in EU countries.

The Fulbright-Terra Foundation Award in the History of American Art offers two grants per year at any university in a European Union country (except France, Germany, and the UK, where the Foundation already has established teaching fellowships).  The grants are for undergraduate and/or graduate teaching in history of American art prior to 1980 and for research.  Scholars will be expected to aid host institutions in developing, modeling and adapting American art history curriculum.  They can also give seminars, workshops, and public lecturers, as well as advise graduate students on theses.  The award is for early career scholars up to the Associate Professor level, for one semester grants starting fall 2015.  A letter of invitation from a prospective host institution is required with the application.

Picturesque city of Telsiai

The grant amounts for stipend, housing, living costs and international transportation will correspond to your country benefit levels. Funds for books and for guest lecturing at other institutions in the host country will be included, as these are important to the foundation. Dependent allowances, including tuition reimbursement, will be available, if applicable.  Details can be seen here. 

We most certainly hope you can help us spread the word for this new program and encourage art historians you know to apply for a grant to Lithuania.  Vilnius Academy of Art and its campus in Telšiai offer great opportunities for art historians. 

Vilnius Cathedral Square

Deputy Chief of Mission Silberstein Visits Alytus to Donate Books, Connect with Community

On January 17, Deputy Chief of Mission Robert Silberstein visited  the city of Alytus. Mr. Silberstein  met with the Vice-mayor of Alytus to discuss local Lithuanian-American projects and events. Alytus is the sister city of Rochester, NY, and one of the signature programs of this partnership is the virtual orchestra bridge which connects the Alytus Music School Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Hochstein Youth Symphony Orchestra. On February 2, the virtual “bridge” will connect the two orchestras for a live performance. In the education sphere, the Alytus College will host a U.S. Fulbright Scholar, the first college (as opposed to a university) in Lithuania to do so. Dr. Joseph Bulsys will teach Communication courses and develop curriculum in public speaking; work with Alytus College on academic projects; and establish a partnership between the Alytus college and SUNY-Geneseo.

During his visit, DCM Silberstein also presented the U.S. Embassy book donation to Alytus Jurgis Kuncinas Public Library as part of the Lithuanian President's initiative ,,Knygu Kaledos” (Books for Christmas). In his remarks during the presentation, Mr. Silberstein said, “Today, reading is no longer a solitary pastime. People talk about what they’ve read on social media, almost, it seems, in real time. So I hope that these books will find their fans in every medium, and will be used to create many events and conversations that bring our two nations closer together.”

Mr. Silberstein visited the Maple Street Cemetery to honor the memory of  Sgt. Arunas Jarmalavicius, a native of Alytus who was  killed during an attack on an airfield base in Chaghcharan (Afghanistan), by laying flowers on his grave.

Mr. Silberstein also met with the representatives of Alytus Women's Center, a NGO that maintains a domestic violence crisis center. 

Lithuanian Fulbright Scholar Discovers San Diego--from Mindaugas Briedis

Our today's dispatch is from Professor Mindaugas Briedis from Mykolas Romeris University who is currently finishing his Fulbright Visiting Scholar stay at National University in San Diego, California. 

My Fulbright stay in San Diego lasted for four months and it is hard to grasp the entirety of experience that I’ve got. Perhaps the easier way to tell about it is to divide my story according to Fulbright goals.

The basic goal of the Fulbright was twofold: to get academic experience while being a cultural ambassador for my country. It is amazing how those two modes of stay worked perfectly in my case. As I lived in the very heart of San Diego (downtown), every day after my work I was able to enjoy countless outdoor activities – sports, beaches, hikes, etc. Evenings were dedicated to movies, books, glimpses of the night life of San Diego and, of course, reflection.

At National University I met many friendly colleagues who helped me during my first steps in online education. Surprisingly, I was able not only to watch others working, ask questions and get information, but actually to design an online class and teach it under the great supervision of prof. Paul Majkut. It is true that I have got compliment letters from all (!) of my students. This was certainly a great encouragement for my ambition to learn how to teach online.

Although the first month of my stay was pretty tough (perhaps because of all the paperwork that needed taking care of--banking, lease, social security number, etc.), later I got into a rhythm and found time for my next academic goal – research. National university provided me with all resources needed, thus I could work on my research on online education in humanities. I will present the results of the research at a conference in March and eventually publish the presentation in English.

These were my formal academic goals, but I also want to tell you how much I loved being amongst the people of San Diego in many creative ways. As I am an avid guitarist, I looked to continue playing in California, and we formed a temporary band with other professors at National and played three gigs at a retirement home, Christmas carol at the university and at the gathering of San Diego musicians. Great pleasure! Another great event was organized by San Diego Fulbright panel – we had a nice dinner, music and warm talking in one of the +Balboa Park venues

During all those events I was able to share my experiences with many great friends (students, professor as well as city folks) who also gave me a lot of excellent advice. Thanks to them. I visited most interesting areas and museums in San Diego and travelled California (six national parks – from the desert sands to mountain ice!) for a week. I lived downtown, so always felt the pulse of the city, but also found my solitary refuge with great books and movies as well. I can confidently say I am happy and looking forward to the future – I have determined to tie my life with Fulbright opportunities.

The Hill of Crosses: Commemorating Suffering, Survival, and the Human Spirit in Siauliai

 Another installment from Dr. Windy Petrie, Associate Professor and English Department Chair at Colorado Christian University, who was a Fulbright grantee to Lithuania in 2006.

During my time in Lithuania, I had the opportunity to visit the northern city of Siauliai to speak about American Woman Writers for the 50^th anniversary celebration of the Humanities at the university there.  After my speech, one of the professors who teaches there took us to the Hill of the Crosses.  I had no idea what to expect from the name, and, frankly, even if I had, the site, and the sight, would still have completely blown my mind. You drive a ways out of town, then down a little side road, and a spreading clump of hills come into sight. When you get out of the car and walk up to them you see that these hills, these mounds, are entirely composed of crucifixes, one piled atop another, and you try to imagine just how many must be there to create such height, such breadth, and you can’t conceive what the total number must be. Or at least I couldn’t. And then you start imagining how each cross placed there was placed by an individual, who made the trip from near or from far, each for a personal, individual, reason.  And you really, really, can’t conceive of that.

This place is truly amazing. It is thought that the tradition might have begun when the town was founded in 1250 AD, although existing records mention them in the early 1800s, possibly due to a local rebellion against the presumption of the czar in the 1830s. People brought crosses in honor of those who had been lost in the fighting at that time, and have continued to bring them during all local and national struggles for liberty since then. It has also served as a site for Christian pilgrims for many years now. It's no wonder that these hills, representing to an extent the collective protest, faith, and hope of the people, grew so large during the Soviet occupation (and grew larger after each Soviet dismantling via bulldozing, blockades, and intentional flooding) and continues to grow today.

Lithuania has had a very complex National history, having been claimed by nearly all of the regional powers at one time, or another, in its long history. Russia, Germany, Poland, and I believe even Sweden, have all staked a claim to Lithuania and its people in the last 500 years. Even Napoleon occupied Vilnius during his losing bid to invade Russia. Lithuania has remained, through it all, a very independent people. Think of it: they were the last people to accept Christianity in the whole of Europe. They fought off the German Teutonic Knights for what I believe ended up being more than a century. More recently, Lithuanians engaged in clandestine, guerrilla warfare with the Soviets for decades after WWII. And they were the first Baltic nation to claim and secure independence in the early 1990's.

As a non-violent means to defy the Soviets during their occupation of Lithuania, the Hill of Crosses became a historical monument to the human spirit. For hundreds of years, individuals have been bringing crosses of all sizes, some taller than a man and others smaller than a key, made of every imaginable material from precious metals to scraps and rags, to express faith and loss in times when such expression was forbidden. 

After the breakup of the USSR, the Hill of Crosses gained worldwide fame. Pope John Paul II visited the sacred site in 1997, and declared the Hill an international site of devotion. At that time, it became known not only a spiritual symbol of Lithuanian tenacity, but a contemporary shrine. When I visited, I saw many new additions to the Hills, bearing labels from all over the world.

A Fulbrighter Learns Lithuania--and Its Very Old, Very Hard Language

Today's blog post is by another guest writer -- Christine Beresniova, Fulbright Grantee to Lithuania in 2011-2012. 

I have a very special relationship with Lithuania because I am married to a Lithuanian. So when I was awarded a Fulbright grant in 2011 to spend 9 months doing dissertation research there, many people thought that I would have an easy time of things. People assumed that because I could already limp along in the language, and I knew what I was getting into when someone uttered the words "Lithuanian winter” that I was merely going on some kind of extended vacation.

This was hardly true. My husband was not going with me nor was I going to be spending 9 months lazing about on my mother-in-law's sofa. Instead, I was going to have to carve out my own research path and make my own way in a world that neither knew me nor was invested in my success. Yes, I could look forward to a lovely Sunday dinner of buttery cauliflower, lumpy potato dumplings (cepelinai), and freshly made poppyseed cake every week, but my in-laws could not help me build trust with people, nor could they make the subject I was studying less controversial in Lithuania's political landscape. Doing anthropologic fieldwork on how post-Soviet teachers are trained to teach the Holocaust after 60 years of Soviet-occupied silence on the matter was going to be a journey I had to undertake almost entirely on my own.

A Fulbrighter's Love Affair with Old-Town Vilnius

Another installment today from Dr. Petrie, Associate Professor and English Department Chair at Colorado Christian University, who was a Fulbright grantee to Lithuania in 2006.

Vilnius has long been a cosmopolitan city with many cultures and ethnicities, and the Old-Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Since I was teaching at the University there, it made sense for us to live in the center of Old-Town Vilnius, but our location offered much more than convenience.  The energetic mish-mash of cultures, shops, entertainment, and dining experiences there was unique and unforgettable.  With every day that passed, our street, Totoriu Gatve, named in reference to the fact that it was, long ago, the Tatar quarter of the city (just as Vokieciu Gatve means “German Street” for the same reason) fascinated me more and more. Across the street from our flat was an antique shop, run by an antique lady who lived in the flat above it and featured lace curtains in all her windows, each of a different pattern. 

Directly next to her lies the Transylvania, a pub which advertises +Guinness GB and seemed to be very popular with motorcyclists and British tourists. My husband still claims that you haven't lived until you've seen a tipsy Brit singing Diana Ross's "Stop in the Name of Love" to a passing Taxi in Lithuania. When the Scots were in town for the Lithuania/Scotland football match, we heard a lot of "Auld Lang Syne" coming from there, and our street was flooded by men in kilts. The pub and the antique shop seemed to exist in a semi-armed detente, in which the proprietor of the shop shook her head and clicked her tongue out the window, and the motorcyclists made their bikes backfire in response.

Tubas, Nigerian drama, and Lithuanian Identity: Teaching Literature as a Fulbright Scholar

Today's guest-blogger is Dr. Windy Counsell Petrie, Associate Professor and English Department Chair at Colorado Christian University, who was a Fulbright grantee to Lithuania in 2006. During her time in Lithuania, Dr. Petrie lectured at several Universities on representations of exile in nineteenth- and twentieth-century World Literature as well as the role of female and African American authors in American literary history. Here are her reflections on making the transition from an American University to a Lithuanian one.

On the first day of school at Vilnius University, where I was a visiting scholar, I walked down to campus and witnessed the opening ceremonies for the school year, which occur in the first of many lovely courtyards of the University. Students, spectators, and  tourists watched and listened as the school orchestra played the National Anthem and the University song, children danced in traditional folk costume, and the administration and faculty filed out of the main building onto a large adjoining platform. Speeches were made, the national and University flags raised, and I found it quite moving.  Although I think many Americans would find it quaint to spend the first day of school in festivities, with a band in the background, instead of getting right down to business, I think there’s a certain wisdom to this tradition. After all, any new chance to learn should be celebrated, with tubas if necessary.  

Reflections of a Fulbright Artist

Today's guest blogger is Patrick Suzeau, associate professor of Dance at the University of Kansas, who spent a semester in Vilnius as a Fulbright scholar in 2007. He was introduced to the Fulbright program by another Fulbright senior scholar, Linda Maxey, who suggested that Patrick and his wife Muriel, also a professor of dance at the University of Kansas, go to Lithuania to offer a different and fresh artistic perspective.

We first came to Vilnius for about three weeks in 2004, around Thanksgiving and we had a superb experience. We enjoyed watching and giving classes at the Lithuanian Academy and the National Ballet School. Muriel taught contemporary dance classes that were very well received; contemporary dance technique was a relatively new arrival to Eastern Europe.  Meanwhile I was asked to teach ballet classes. I thought that it was odd that they would be interested in ballet classes considering that they have a strong tradition in Russian ballet. It became clear to me why when I asked them to execute a certain step, which they did superbly. However, they did it as it is done in Russia.  American ballet has evolved in different directions. That is when I realized why these senior teachers were watching my classes. As a New York City-trained dancer, my background is eclectic, something typical of American artists who have been exposed to diverse techniques and approaches. In addition, as a contemporary choreographer I favor unconventional spatial and rhythmic patterns, something that seemed to have been new and of interest to Lithuanian ballet teachers.

Fulbright Alumna Laima Vince: Why I Wrote The Interpreter (Vertejas)

The Post today is by guest-blogger, Laima Vince, author of the play The Interpreter (Vertejas) that will be performed in Vilnius, during the Baltic Pride Week on July 27th and 28th. 

Laima Vince is a writer, poet, and literary translator. Twenty years after the independence movement began, Laima Vince returned to Vilnius as a Fulbright lecturer to document life in Lithuania's fledgling democracy. Over the past four years Laima has traveled around Lithuania's provinces and cities collecting oral histories. She has spoken with postwar partisan fighters; liaison women; Holocaust survivors; exiles to Siberia; German women exiled to Tajikistan; village verbal charmers and healers; young women who have been victims of human trafficking and the social workers who work towards their recovery in underground shelters; Chechen war refugees; gypsies; and gays and lesbians who are fighting for recognition and legal rights in Lithuanian society. 

When people see or read The Interpreter many assume I am gay or bisexual. Why else would a woman write a play with two gay men in relationship as the main characters? And then, I’ve been attacked by gay friends who are outraged that I—a heterosexual woman and the mother of three children, and living a conventional lifestyle—could presume to know what it feels like to be in a homosexual relationship or to suffer prejudice or experience a hate crime because of my sexual orientation. My reply is that there are two human qualities that enable us to imagine ourselves in the lives of others: empathy and the power of the imagination.