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News Release

Last modified: Monday, September 22, 2008

Indiana University's Horizons of Knowledge lecture series benefits many

Indiana University's Horizons of Knowledge lecture begins Wednesday

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sept. 22, 2008

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The 2008-09 Horizons of Knowledge Lecture series kicks off Wednesday, September 24, with "A Warsaw Story: Polish-Jewish Relations in the First World War," by Robert Blobaum from West Virginia University. The lecture will be at 5 p.m. in the Indiana Memorial Union (IMU) Faculty Room of the University Club at Indiana University Bloomington. Sponsors of the talk are the Robert A. and Sandra S. Borns Jewish Studies Program, Polish Studies Center, Department of History and Russian and East European Institute.

Professor Blobaum's lecture will address a surprising story of ethnic relations in Eastern Europe during the First World War. Spy scares, accusations of profiteering and speculation, suspicions that the Jews had privileged access to ever-scarcer food and public assistance and anti-Jewish boycotts in Warsaw should have meant a high likelihood of an anti-semitic pogrom, like the one that wracked Lwow, in Eastern Poland, in November 1918. Yet such a pogrom did not happen -- and Professor Blobaum will explain why.

Last year, 18 IU Bloomington departments, in affiliation with 47 universities of higher education (12 from outside the U.S.), provided 53 lectures at Indiana University Bloomington.

"I believe the wealth of shared expertise that is generated by this series is outstanding," said Barbara Bichelmeyer, associate dean of faculties, who is responsible for the oversight of the series. The interdisciplinary and intercollegiate synergy of this lecture series helps provide a scholarly environment of learning for all concerned."

In 1957, the Horizons of Knowledge Lecture Series began with a financial commitment by the university of a modest honorarium to encourage lectures beyond the financial scope of regular department funds. The Office of the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculties, which funds the series in collaboration with individual academic departments, encourages faculty to arrange lectures that are of interest to large and diverse audiences and cross department and disciplinary lines on the Bloomington campus.

This talk, like all Horizons of Knowledge lectures, is open to IU undergraduates, graduates and the general public. For questions, contact dof@indiana.edu or call 812-855-1610.

Information on applying for Horizons of Knowledge funds can be found at: https://www.iub.edu/~deanfac/download/download.html#grfel.

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