A great man is one who collects knowledge the way a bee collects honey and uses it to help people overcome the difficulties they endure - hunger, ignorance and disease!
- Nikola Tesla

Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.
- Franklin Roosevelt

While their territory has been devastated and their homes despoiled, the spirit of the Serbian people has not been broken.
- Woodrow Wilson

Тhe Njegoš Fund for Serbian Studies at Columbia University

The Njegoš Fund for Serbian Studies at Columbia University was established in 1997 to promote language instruction and cultural studies at the University. The Serbian language program at Columbia, one of the oldest in North America, dates back to before World War I, when Mihajlo “Michael” Pupin was a famous professor at Columbia. We at the University have tried to uphold this tradition by improving and expanding the program of instruction in Serbian studies and events for the community.

Instruction: During the last calendar year, 63 students enrolled in a score of International Affairs, Language and Comparative Literature, and Political Science courses that were offered in the South Slavic area. The figure includes language classes, taught now by Dr. Aleksandar Bošković, who was hired to replace Dr. Radmila Gorup; he also taught a course on Serbian culture. Using Njegoš funds, Dr. Gorup was brought back this fall to teach her signature course, “Within and Beyond Empires: Literatures of South Slavs.”

In addition, for the first time the Njegoš Fund has announced a postdoctoral research fellowship in Serbian studies for the academic year 2016–17. We hope that the fellow will help us expand teaching to include history and/or political science.

Cultural Program: In addition to supporting instruction, the Fund has been used this year, as in previous years, to support a rich and active program of extracurricular lectures, conferences and special events. The program in 2015 included:

January 23, 2015: “The Serbian Medieval Cultural Legacy”: Exhibit and Celebration. Remarks by Vesna Petković, author of Serbian Medieval Cultural Heritage (2015).

March 6, 2015: Conversation with Vladimir Pištalo, author of Tesla: A Portrait with Masks (2015).

March 4, 2015: Lecture by Dr. Vladislav Beronja, University of Michigan on “Can We Critically Redeem Turbo-Folk and Should We Even Try?”

May 1, 2015: Professor Svetlana Rakić, Franklin College (Franklin, Indiana), delivered a lecture on “Art and Reality: Serbian Perspectives.”

September 25, 2015: Screening of the film Evaporating Borders and conversation with the director Iva Radivojević.

October 22–23, 2015: Two-day conference “Through the Transnational Lenses of Dubravka Ugrešić” organized by Prof. Aleksandar Bošković. Participants: Zoran Milutinović, University College London, Eva Karpinski, York University, Tatjana Aleksić, University.of Michigan, Nataša Kovačević, Eastern Michigan University, Aleksandar Mijatović, University of Rijeka, Vladislav Beronja, University of Michigan, Radmila Gorup and Alan Timberlake, Columbia University.

November 17, 2015: Lecture by Prof. Svetlana Tomić, Alpha University (Belgrade), on “Using Neglected Literary Texts to Understand the Evolution of Serbian Society.”

November 18, 2015: A lecture by Prof. Aleksandar Pavlović, University of Graz, on “Figuring out the Enemy: Re-imagining Serbian-Albanian Relations.”

November 24, 2015: “Theorizing Culture of Transition in (Post)-Yugoslav Space”  — lectures by Prof. Tatjana Rosić, Singidunum University (Belgrade) and Prof. Marija Grujić, Freie University (Berlin).

Several events are planned for 2016. These include a conversation with Dr. Krinka Vidaković-Petrov, former Ambassador of Yugoslavia to Israel and author of Serbs in America (2015); the conversation is scheduled for February 5, 2016.


SA

 

People Directory

Rose Ann Vuich

California State Senator

A Democrat from Dinuba, California, Senator Vuich represented the region for 16 years until retiring in 1992. Senator Vujich had earned a reputation for voting her conscience and did not look kindly on bill that had no value other than attracting campaign contributions for lawmakers.

Senator Vuich was a farmer from Dinuba in Tulare County, President of the Chamber of Commerce, and a tax accountant. In addition, she was a member of the Tulare County Democratic Central Committee and served on the board of directors for the Alta Hospital District, Agricultural District Fair, Commission on the Status of Women, and the National Society of Public Accountants.

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Publishing

Notes On Ecumenism

Written in 1972 by St. Abba Justin Popovich, edited by Bishop Athanasius Yevtich, translated from Serbian by Aleksandra Stojanovich, and proofread by Fr Miroljub Ruzich

Abba Justin’s manuscript legacy (on which Bishop Athanasius have been working for a couple of years preparing an edition of The Complete Works ), also includes a parcel of sheets/small sheets of paper (in the 1/4 A4 size) with the notes on Ecumenism (written in pencil and dating from the period when he was working on his book “The Orthodox Church and Ecumenism”; there are also references to the writings of St. Bishop Nikolai [Velimirovich], short excerpts copied from his Sermons, some of which were quoted in the book).

The editor presents the Notes authentically, as he has found them in the manuscripts (his words inserted in the text, as clarification, are put between the slashes /…/; all the footnotes are ours).—In the appendix are present the facsimiles of the majority of Abba’s Notes which were supposed to be included in his book On Ecumenism (written in haste then, but now significantly supplemented with these Notes. The Notes make evident the full extent of Justin’s profundity as a theologian and ecclesiologist of the authentic Orthodoxy).—The real Justin is present in these Notes: by his original language, style, literature, polemics, philosophy, theology, and above all by his confession of the God-man Christ and His Church. He confesses his faith, tradition, experience and his perspective on man, on the world and on Europe—invariably in the Church and from the Church, in the God-man Christ and from Him, just as he did in all of his writings and in his entire life and theologizing.