Updates

When the flurry of Spring turns to Summer semester the day after Memorial Day, it has one not forging forward but first, reflecting back. Indeed the promised art exhibits, oral history exhibits, Viva Europe! festival, conferences and Spring panels all happened. In fact we had five events in January alone. To name a few, our beloved Anna Muller, who now teaches at the University of Michigan, returned to us mid-January to give the fascinating talk, "Mother Solidarity: Anna Walentynowicz's Path to Opposition - An Exercise in Memory Studies." To close out this graupeling month we, in conjunction with the Center for Women's Studies and Gender Research, had a film screening of the documentary called "In the Name of Love: Mail Order Brides" at The Wooly in downtown Gainesville.

In February we managed to hire our new office manager, Cecilia Greco, UF alumna and CES enthusiast, who conceded to move from the simpering grip of Chiberia and shortly thereafter, comfortable at her newly darned desk (thanks to our CES toolkit), established our first-ever Twitter page, https://twitter.com/UFCES.

In the mix, revolution gripped Ukraine, and we invited scholars to bid us new perspectives on the Ukrainian situation at our "Ukraine, Russia, and the European Union: Legacies of the Past" panel in March. One among the panel is the pictured Keith Darden, a quizzical Political Scientist from American University.

Keith Darden

In April after the sights and sounds of Viva Europe! flickered in Bo Diddley Plaza, Valerie Sperling's talk "Sex, Politics, and Putin" garnered much attention at UF. Such was particularly true in the flyer department, where some mysterious soul set to dressing Putin proper for the event:

Before

After

The Ukrainian situation has since stabilized and, from the eve of Presidential elections this past May 24th, Chocolate Putins (hand-over-heart, bomb behind) fly off the shelves in Lviv.

The final reflection-cajoled update plods to the present with mention of the "Getting to Know You: Our Neighbors of European Heritage" oral history exhibit, which opened in May and will be housed at the Thomas Center until June 21st, 2014. 

A moving video compilation put together by Eastside High School students and the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program for "Getting to Know You: Our Neighbors of European Heritage" is available to view here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeBmMpuvPxo. As is Eastside High's index of individual interviews: http://eastside.sbac.edu/pages/EHS0421/5130169170831539170/IB_Program/IB_Oral_History_Project.

Alas, we conclude this post-Memorial Day update with Cecilia's avowal to resurrect this blog and keep us all in loop with CES news through the Summer. Until next time, friends.