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Academics as Educators: Subjectivity-Centric Practice in Higher Education

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Academics as Educators: Subjectivity-Centric Practice in Higher Education

Author(s): Hamish Cowan / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2023

Keywords: educators; subjectivity; responsibility; encounter; ethical praxis; Levinas;

Educating contains features distinct from teaching and learning. This paper sets out a case for this statement based on concerns Gert Biesta raises about the limitations of the learning focus in contemporary higher education. It is argued that it is important for academics to think of themselves as educators in contrast to being teachers, lecturers and subject experts. Educators have a crucial role in creating encounters where their and students’ subjectification is exercised. This calls for a subjectivity-centric focus in academic practice, in contrast to some existing practices that are utility-driven with a deep emphasis on subject content and outcomes-based learning. Highlighting this way of thinking about education moves in line with the emerging commitment in higher education to address selfhood qualities in graduate attributes. It is shown how Emmanuel Levinas’s ideas on responsibility, vulnerability and newness can be adopted as a praxis to inform thinking about educational practice along these lines. Such a praxis is intended to prompt teachers to think reflexively about their identity as educators with interest in enabling subjectivity-centric encounters.

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Surviving the Years of Plague: Two Feminist Academics’ Interrupted Reading of Raewyn Connell’s The Good University

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Surviving the Years of Plague: Two Feminist Academics’ Interrupted Reading of Raewyn Connell’s The Good University

Author(s): Agnes Bosanquet,Barbara M. Grant,Sean Sturm / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2023

Keywords: universities; feminism; slow reading; lived experience;

This epistolary article presents a slow reading of Raewyn Connell’s The Good University by two feminist scholars. Our conversation brings a unique perspective to Connell’s book, capturing our lived experience of plagues, or persistent afflictions causing worry and distress, within and beyond the university. We started reading and writing together in late 2019, a time when work-life for one of us was marred by radical university restructuring and out-of-control bushfires. Our intermittent conversation continued through the new plague that arrived in early 2020 to complicate our civic, work and home lives and dramatically (further) reduce our capacity for scholarly work. Over those months that became years, we found that living with these plagues cast the possibility of the good university into profound uncertainty. The Good University became a point of return – a companion text – for two feminist academics during plague times. What follows is an edited version of the conversation that proceeded in its own time and that shows, on the ground, ‘what [some] universities actually do and why it’s time for radical change,’ as Connell’s subtitle has it.

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The Relationship between Recreational International Travel Experience, Openness to Experience and Cultural Intelligence in High School Students

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The Relationship between Recreational International Travel Experience, Openness to Experience and Cultural Intelligence in High School Students

Author(s): Ziting (Elaine) Gao / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2023

Keywords: cultural intelligence (CQ); international travelling experience; openness to experience; cultural competence; high school students; study-abroad;

The world is flattening, and the younger generation must be culturally competent to navigate an interconnected society successfully. A high level of cultural intelligence (CQ), which is defined as the ability to adapt to culturally different settings, can not only be a predictor of increased cultural judgment but can also be an outcome of more cultural exposure and a culturally open attitude. Although research backs the benefits of study-abroad programmes for college students’ CQ, little to no research has assessed the case of high school students. This research surveyed 149 students in the United States, using Likert scale questions to assess their recreational international travelling experiences, their personality traits of openness to experience and their levels of CQ. With data analysis, the Spearman rank coefficients indicated that both travel experiences and students’ openness to experience have weak, positive correlations with CQ. Further hierarchical regression revealed that, despite the weak associations, openness to experience has a mediating effect on travel experience and CQ. The findings of this research highlight the necessity for high school students to be able to travel not just recreationally but to prepare for a global society.

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What’s so European about the Crisis of the European Sciences?

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What’s so European about the Crisis of the European Sciences?

Author(s): Andrew Haas / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2023

Keywords: crisis; European; Husserl; implication; science; truth;

The contemporary crisis of the European sciences and arts is not simply European – it is a crisis of universal truth. But a response is possible, as Husserl suggests, if we revivify the task of philosophy as universal science. A renaissance, therefore, in the theory and practice of the sciences and arts that inaugurates a new way of translating the language and logic of philosophy – which has animated speaking and thinking from the Greeks to us – in order to consider what never comes to presence in speech or thought, but is only just implied. This would put an end to the assumption, which precipitated the crisis, that truth is a priori finite and closed, and mark the opening of science and art to implication. Phenomenology, therefore, would point the way to a cure for the crisis of the sciences and the arts – or, if not a cure, at least to a treatment which allows us to survive, at least for the time being.

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Resolving the Passion of Responsibility through the Secret

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Resolving the Passion of Responsibility through the Secret

Author(s): Hadi Shahi Gharehaghaji / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2023

Keywords: passions; oblique offering; responsibility; the secret;

This study attempts to investigate the problem of responsibility as stated by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida in his essay ‘Passions: “An Oblique Offering.”’ Having rejected the previously postulated notions of responsibility, Derrida ventures into positing his own peculiar framing of the concept of responsibility by offering the concept of the secret, which makes it resolve the binary opposition of obligation and free will in responding to, say, an invitation. However, the article argues that to resolve the problem of responsibility, Derrida has recourse to Platonic Forms through the concept of the secret. To work through the secret, a ritualistic ceremony is needed to unfold the relationship between the subject and the other and to be held responsible in this way demands approaching the secret of the other indirectly or offering oneself obliquely. It is in this way that the secret unfolds its conception of responding and responsibility.

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Virtualisation of the Lifeworld and Anthropological Changes of the Person of the Digital Era

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Virtualisation of the Lifeworld and Anthropological Changes of the Person of the Digital Era

Author(s): Tatyana Gennadyevna Leshkevich,Olga Vladimirovna Kataeva / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2023

Keywords: virtualisation; subontology; technological rationality; virtual person;

The article discusses the impact of modern technologies on a person’s lifeworld: the anthropological transformations generated by large-scale digitalisation and virtualisation. The goal is to understand the specifics of modern technologies’ impact on a person and their lifeworld. Three groups of problems are analysed. The first group is related to the replacement of the real being by the virtual (the concept of ‘subontology’), to the identification of the effect of superdetermination by the virtual. The second one is aimed at analysing technological rationality. The third group involves the consideration of the virtual person phenomenon and its distinctive features. The methodological basis is the principle of sociocultural determination. It allows us to identify 1) the impact of the modern digital era on the lifeworld and 2) anthropological shifts that form a new type of person. The authors conclude that the subontology generated by digital algorithms and network interactions sets the suprapersonal scale of control. The new type of person is characterised by the presence of ‘digital skills.’ In the current situation, the boundaries between the real and the virtual are blurring. Socio-humanitarian reflection reveals and makes it possible to comprehend the negative consequences of the virtualisation of the lifeworld.

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Advanced Computational Thing-Kin: Sociomaterial Kinship and the MakerSpace

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Advanced Computational Thing-Kin: Sociomaterial Kinship and the MakerSpace

Author(s): Emit Snake-Beings,Ricardo Sosa,Andrew Gibbons,Sereima Baleisomi Takiveikata,Chris Cheng,Adam Ben-Dror,Daniel Badenhorst,Andy Crowe,Emma O’Riordan,Keu Iorangi,Leanne Gibson / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2023

Keywords: computational thinking; makerspace; datafication; makerfication; techno-kinship;

The incursion of tech companies into wider aspects of our lives means that computational thinking has become increasingly enmeshed with physiological, emotional, creative and social aspects of human life. We suggest that advanced computational thinking should be considered in wider terms than the limited scope of computer sciences and that we should recognise the expansion of the ‘computer world’ and its incursion into lived life: the pervasive encroachment of technology into physical, emotional, spatial, culturally complex and, strictly speaking, non-logical areas of our lives. The proposal is that we use a new term, advanced computational thinking, with the appropriate and relevant acronym of ACT, to suggest a social performative bias to existing ideas of computational thinking in education. The expansion of the computer world is the backdrop for exploring thinking as a ‘kinship’ with things (thing-kin) traversing human and material forms. In this article, ACT engages with the cultural scaffolding of the makerSpace, supporting a thinking space where kinship between ‘things’ and makers promotes diversity of learning style and an idea of epistemological pluralism. By recognising thinking and things as being closely entangled with sociomaterial realms, advanced computational thinking incorporates the wider social consequences of technology: expanding early definitions of computational thinking as tools exclusively focused on mathematical, logical or algorithmic thinking.

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Conceptual Autoethnography: Every Third Linefrom Work Emails I Sent in 2021

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Conceptual Autoethnography: Every Third Linefrom Work Emails I Sent in 2021

Author(s): Kurt Borchard / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2023

Keywords: autoethnography; conceptual writing; COVID-19; universities; pedagogy; sociological writing; creative writing;

Here I present conceptual writing as/within autoethnography. As a conceptual writing project, I took the third line of every email I sent from my work account in 2021 (January 1 to December 31) and present each as a single, stand-alone line. As autoethnography, the work reaffirms Raymond Williams’ idea that individuals live in eras that each have a ‘structure of feeling.’ These decontextualised statements, questions, signature lines and auto-generated advertisements cumulatively help reframe my everyday written communication, lived experience, professional self and quotidian bureaucratic life as indicators of emergent culture in an unusual year.

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Encouraging the Participation of Archival Institutions in Protecting and Preserving Traditional Knowledge: a Reflection on the Indonesian Case

Author(s): Harry Bawono / Language(s): English / Issue: 36/2018

Keywords: protecting; preserving; traditional knowledge; national asset; community archives;

The issues about protecting and preserving traditional knowledge have long been an international debate. International archival communities welcomed this issue by bringing up the role of archives in order to protect traditional knowledge. Archival communities in countries such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand, paid special attention to the issue of traditional knowledge. It is the implications of their cultural context as the countries inhabited by indigenous groups. In contrast, issues about the archiving of traditional knowledge in Indonesia have not been popular. Even though Indonesia is a country inhabited by approximately 1,340 indigenous groups, the archival community in Indonesia does not intensively deal with this issue. The involvement of archival institutions in Indonesia on the issue of traditional knowledge is still limited. Actually, the objectives of organizing the archives in Indonesia is to ensure the safety of national assets which are in the form of culture, but until now there has been no comprehensive program related to it. This condition is much different with archival institutions, for example, in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. They take a very active role in protecting and preserving traditional knowledge through the method of archiving. Using qualitative methods through literature review and interview, this paper argues that in order to play a role in the protection and preservation of traditional knowledge, archival institutions in Indonesia cannot be optimized without developing community archives in each cultural community throughout Indonesia.

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Among the Working Papers of a Paleographer: the Discovery of a Territory and its Culture

Author(s): Flavio Carbone,Francesca Nemore / Language(s): English / Issue: 36/2018

Keywords: paleography; territory; Italy; rural areas; university; abbey;

Not long ago, the authors of this paper came across a box containing a portion of the archive of Vincenzo Federici. This discovery gave rise to a research project that involved the location, analysis, and archival arrangement of the remaining part of the archive, and the study of sources found in other archives to reconstruct the many aspects of the activity of a multifaceted academic character. The Federici Papers are also interesting because on one hand they provide a unique vision of his connection with both prominent local figures and simple folk who could help the researcher in his quest. On the other hand, they offer a very interesting representation of a large part of the Italian central and southern regions, from the years before the Second World War to the later processes of rural migration and urban concreting in the sixties. What is really interesting is the opportunity to look, through Federici, at the cultural life of rural areas in the center and south of Italy before and after the Second World War.

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More than Words: Respectful Stewardship and the Balance of Community Archives

Author(s): Bryan Giemza / Language(s): English / Issue: 36/2018

Keywords: post-custodial; community archives; social justice; participatory research; charrettes;

From the Canadian “total archives” movement of the 1980s, to more recent human rights and reconciliation community-driven archives in Australia, South Africa, and Cambodia, community-driven archives offer a powerful counterbalance to the representational inequality that sometimes characterizes the interactions between institutional archives and socially stigmatized or marginalized groups. The power disparity between a community collective seeking to preserve its materials and a partner archival institution points to the limited options available to the community. Some communities might be obliged to accept whatever curatorial terms the institution extends, with the only (impractical) alternative being the creation of its own unsupported archive. At the same time, traditional archival institutions that support community-driven archives face many ethical and practical challenges in that role. Beyond the duty to manage expectations, issues of patrimony, creator rights, and the local disposition of material all attach to the post-custodial paradigm.The Southern Historical Collection (SHC), in UNC’s Wilson Library Special Collections, is currently engaged in at least four community-driven projects (The Appalachian Student Health Coalition, The Eastern Kentucky African American Miners Project, The Historic Black Towns and Settlements Alliance, and The San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum). The projects’ objectives and concerns are as various as the creator communities that fostered them. In this paper, I consider the limits of parallels between community gardens and community archives. Drawing from the work of Douglas Biff Hollingsworth, I argue for a common lexicon describing community archives, according to various models of distributed curatorial responsibility, as a starting point for imagining canons of ethical responsibility. We suggest a new vocabulary for appraisal categories (existential value, cathartic value, accountability value, reconciliatory value, and communal value), and how such language supports a professional shift from an outcome-driven, commodity based tradition. Finally, I will describe some practical experiences regarding community rights and the role of community liaisons and charrettes in orchestrating community-driven archival projects.

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Tradition Archives and the Challenges of the Digital World: from Exclusive Rules Towards Networks and Contexts

Author(s): Lauri Harvilahti / Language(s): English / Issue: 36/2018

Keywords: tradition archives; collection; context; archival standards; ISAD (G); RiC-CM;

At the beginning of the 20th century, international indexing and cross-referencing type-systems were developed for folklore archiving and research that later advanced to international standards in tradition archives, but they were not compatible with the general archival rules and practices. At present, during the digital age of 21st century, a need to participate in creating interoperable archival standards has emerged. Archival and cultural theories have proceeded from the postmodern era towards the requirements of the digital network society. This paradigm shift calls for measures for creating new standards and rules for the archival world, and a new understanding of the word context in the archival terminology. Furthermore, an integration of the archives, museums and libraries in developing search portals and solutions of Linked Open Data is at stake right now. In the digital age the keywords for the collecting institutions include: network, context, interoperability, and integration.

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“Records in Contexts” and the Finnish Conceptual Model for Archival Description

Author(s): Pekka Henttonen,Jaana Kilkki / Language(s): English / Issue: 36/2018

Keywords: conceptual modeling; description; archives; libraries; museums;

ICA’s “Records in Contexts” (RiC) and the Finnish Conceptual Model for Archival Description (FCM) have many similarities. Despite of some differences, the models are not profoundly dissimilar when it comes to describing the context: besides records, they both include entities representing agents and functions of agents. What makes the models different is the general approach: in the RiC description is retrospective and recordscentric whereas the FCM sees the description as a continuous activity related process that starts with the record creation. Another main difference is that the goal of the RiC is to integrate ICA’s existing archival standards while the FCM seeks a common interface with the description in libraries and museums. Both models suggest that the description of mandates and business activities is in the core of archival description. Description of mandates and business activities is missing from the models of libraries and museums and is unique for the archives.

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Folklore Heritage of the Local Community and Archives

Author(s): Yanina Hrynevich,Iryna Vasilyeva / Language(s): English / Issue: 36/2018

Keywords: Belarus; intangible cultural heritage; folklore; local community; preservation; the Collection of Folklore Records;

The article focuses on documenting and preservation elements of intangible cultural heritage materials of the local community using of folklore and ethnographic data from Vielieŭščyna village (Liepieĺ district, Vicebsk region) in Belarus. In The Collection of Folklore Records—the largest folklore archive of Belarus—different types of materials are stored including audio and video records, photos, manuscripts and musical note transcriptions which were made in the one location (village, town, etc.) at different times by professional folklorists and amateurs. Substantial parts of these materials covering all aspects of folklore were accumulated during field expeditions of folklorists from The Institute of Art, Ethnography and Folklore named after K. Krapiva of The National Academy of Science of Belarus since 1960s. Other parts were sent to the contest “Best Folklore Collector”, donated to The Collection of Folklore Records from personal and university archives. Materials were collected under different conditions (historical periods, collecting strategies, technical equipment, etc.). These folklore and ethnographic data allow for the characterizing of local traditions to see how they have changed over time.

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Authenticity in Describing Archives – Standardisation vs. Institutional Mandates?

Author(s): Karsten Kühnel / Language(s): English / Issue: 36/2018

Keywords: archives; archival description; standard; authenticity; RiC-CM;

The influence institutional mandates have on the activity and results of describing archives could be risky for the value of descriptive authenticity. Different understandings of archival terminology, descriptive processes, and context models certainly influence the concept of authenticity in regard to archival description within a collection holding institution. If one will ask for authenticity matters, a model of archival description will not be sufficient in order to give insights into the factors description and its results are influenced by. Therefore, the basis of this investigation shall be the draft of a conceptual model consisting of models regarding objects of description, subjects of describing, toolkit for describing and perception. As conference proceedings, this essay highlights certain points and parts. One question is the role of “Records in Contexts Conceptual Model” (RiC-CM) as a new standard which enables priorizations of relationships, and whether it can help to put standardization and authenticity efforts closer together.

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Improving archival collections’ discoverability, accessibility, and usability through contextual information

Author(s): Rona Razon / Language(s): English / Issue: 36/2018

Keywords: archival descriptions; context; discoverability; Thomas Whittemore; Byzantine Institute;

This paper examines how the new conceptual model Records in Contexts (RiC) by the Expert Group on Archival Description (EGAD) of the International Council on Archives (ICA) could improve access and use of historical or cultural heritage collections through its emphasis on contextualized information. It also shows how contextualized archival descriptions play an important role in virtually or intellectually reuniting physically dispersed but related archival collections, as in the case of the Image Collections and Fieldwork Archives of Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection in Washington, D.C., United States, and the Bibliothèque byzantine of Collège de France in Paris, France. While discoverability of information in archives and research institutions has increased since the emergence of finding aids and online databases, the accessibility and usability of archival information are issues that many archivists are still struggling to improve and perfect. Lingering questions among archival professionals include: how much information should be given to each collection; should archivists provide contextual information for enhanced access and use of collection materials; or are minimal descriptions sufficient? To illustrate the advantages of putting records in context, this paper investigates how the physically separated but associated archives of Thomas Whittemore and the Byzantine Institute came together, although they are preserved and described in two different institutions. Through the efforts of restoring Respect des fonds to its original order, echoing RiC’s stress on the principles of Provenance, the aim was to enhance the discovery of information and to focus on the approachability and usefulness of information for better scholarship of primary or archival sources.

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A Folkloristic and Anthropological Approach to the Study of Ritual and Performance in India: Cases of Daiva-nyama (Bhoota-kolam) and Yakshagana

Author(s): Svetlana Ryzhakova / Language(s): English / Issue: 36/2018

Keywords: Performance studies; folklore studies; folkloristics; methods of anthropology; local traditions; Tulunadu; Coastal Karnataka (India);

The article deals with the relevance of both anthropological and folkloristic methods as “action-based” and “text-based” approaches in the study of two regional traditions in Coastal Karnataka, India – the theatrical tradition yakshagana and the ritual-performance daiva-nyama or kolam, bhoota-kolam. Both are living, orally-transmitted traditions. They are interconnected to religious culture in different ways (temple festivals, spirit worship, possession, impersonation) and both provide “mirrors” of the local social set-up. Both are based on epic traditions—pan-Indian in case of yakshagana and local in case of kolam. The paper is based on the fieldwork conducted by the author in the time period from 2013 to 2015. It addresses the distinction between these different research methods and the need to combine them when applied to this complicated reality. The author discusses some of the social and cultural aspects of yakshagana and kolam analysis, including their origin, classification and stratification. She offers a cultural interpretation of repertoire and action, describes some of the social characteristics oftroupes and of the performance context, explores their interconnection, and enquires into their social functions. The related problems of sponsorship, patronage, and gender are also described. The author argues that yakshagana and kolam appear to be an “intermediary” cultural phenomenon that connects the area’s pan-Indian heritage with local performing practices. This performance tradition is also expressive of local musical, literary, poetic, theatrical and expressive knowledge. As a drama, yakshagana is based on a written text (prasanga) and many orally transmitted elements. Kolam is enacted according to strong ritualistic vernacular plot lines and is particular to a certain place and deity. Apart from re-enacting the story, kolam appears as a peculiar social expression of joint concerns, an institution for inter-caste communication, mantic practices, etc., with a strong aesthetic overderlay. However, both enjoy certain spontaneity and both are pregnant with unpredictable turns. Both serve as an instrument of socialization, as a form of preserving and enactment of local historical memory, as a way to overcome difficulties, etc. Being cultural tools with multiple purposes, both yakshagana and kolam need to be studies from a range of different angles and perspective.

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Bonding with ‘Friends’ and Allies. The Teutonic Order’s Confraternity and Networking Strategies of the Livonian Master Wolter von Plettenberg

Author(s): Gustavs Strenga / Language(s): English / Issue: 36/2018

Keywords: social networks; Teutonic Order; commemoration; Livonia; spiritual confraternity;

The Ability to create a network of relationships is essential for every group in order to pursue its long-term interests. The institution of familiares or the spiritual confraternity of the Teutonic Order helped this Military Order to create bonds with their supporters and benefactors, lay noblemen, and to create political alliances with rulers. The aim of this institution was to gain financial and political support, and, moreover, to create spiritual bonds between those involved. In the Teutonic Order bonding between the Order and its lay “friends” and allies was practiced since the 13th century; in Livonia, where the Order had its branch, the confraternity of the Order in the sources appears only during the late 15th century—the time when Wolter von Plettenberg was the Master (1494–1535). This article shows how the institution of the confraternity was used by Wolter von Plettenberg to strengthen his own position and to gain supporters during the crisis—the war with Muscovites.

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Inventorying the Intangible: an International Context for Archival Practice

Author(s): Anita Vaivade / Language(s): English / Issue: 36/2018

Keywords: archives; ethics; intangible cultural heritage; international policy; inventorying; UNESCO;

The paper explores a context for archival practice, namely the intergovernmental cooperation within UNESCO and international as well as national policy making and policy-implementation in the field of intangible cultural heritage (hereinafter – ICH). Although neither “inventorying”, nor “intangible” are among the most frequently used words in the present day vocabulary of archival practice, they are nevertheless of high relevance for archival work. The paper provides some historical insights into the evolution of intergovernmental debates during the previous decades, in relation (initially) to safeguarding folklore or traditional and popular culture, and (later) to safeguarding ICH. Such evolutions include, for instance, shifts from an emphasis on centralised national archives to decentralised documentation institutions, from harmonising archiving methods to diversifying research methodologies, from specialists trained in conservation to communities trained in safeguarding. The paper further explores the present international stances and principles for national ICH inventorying (in relation/comparison to international ICH listing), and the various roles that archives have or could have in that regard, with some national cases as examples. The paper concludes by exploring some prospects for partnerships where archival knowledge, expertise, know-how and experience could be put into practice for the initiatives of ICH inventorying, whether carried out by public institutions, or accomplished as community-driven non-governmental initiatives. The article provides some international standard-setting references, which currently ground the international cooperation on ICH safeguarding, including (in relation to inventorying): awareness-raising, ethical principles, and others. And such references, in their turn, could be practically used for considering possible involvement of archives in policy-implementation in the field of ICH, as well as potentially contributing to on-going policy development in this same field, both at the national as well as international levels.

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The Cultural Dexterity of the Latvian Musical-Comedy Group Čikāgas Piecīši

Author(s): Inta Gale Carpenter / Language(s): English / Issue: 35/2017

Keywords: Exile culture; humor; bi-cultural competence; cultural production; intertextuality; musical-comedy;

The article discusses the continued relevance of the Čikāgas Piecīši (The Chicago Five), an American-Latvian musical-comedy troupe that toured Latvian exile communities and performed in Soviet and post-Soviet Latvia over the span of some fifty years. It asks the question: Given the diverse and contentious nature of their global audiences, how did the Čikāgas Piecīši sustain their appeal and their authority as spokespersons for Latvians worldwide? Five sources fundamental to their success are identified and analysed. In their concerts, the Čikāgas Piecīši offered a lively new form of social communication to their audiences. While their biographies connected them with the culture and values of their elders, the cultural authenticity they brought to the stage foregrounded Latvian and American experiences and presented a more inclusive worldview than the one they had inherited. As they gently challenged prevailing boundaries, including those that forbade contact with Soviet Latvia, they changed the register for speaking about Latvian exile life by adding humour to the accustomed solemnity of community programming. Their work extended the notion of intertextuality beyond that of verbal texts to include musical sounds and images. My sources derive from participant-observation over many years, both in the Latvian community in Indianapolis and at Latvian Song Festivals in North America where the performances of the Čikāgas Piecīši were regular crowd pleasers. I consulted reviews and interviews published in the U.S. and in Latvia, articles in exile publications (such as the literary journal Jaunā Gaita), and conducted interviews with members of the group.

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