MONDAY,AUG.20.2001
FACESOFKU
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 11C
D'Anieri: Associate professor delves into Ukranian politics
CONTINUED FROM 10C
He can remember asking a colleague if he had plans for the weekend. His colleague said he was going to the village "to do potatoes," which meant he was going to help his family harvest potatoes and would receive some of the harvest in exchange.
D'Anieri said that most faculty salaries could not cover the cost of living, so many faculty members traded their labor for food.
During D'Anieri's stay, his friends cooked a Thanksgiving dinner for him and another American. It was his most thankful Thanksgiving because his friends had little money but managed to make a dinner with all the trimmings, including a pumpkin pie.
Retraining social scientists
Besides researching the politics of Ukraine, D'Anieri also is retraining social scientists so they can train future leaders about democratic government.
D'Anieri said he would like Ukrainians to develop their own internal capacity to study Ukrainian politics.
He said that Ukrainian universities had no division of political science when Ukraine became independent because the universities had studied Marxism under Soviet rule.
Maria Carlson, director of the center for Russian and East European studies, said D'Anieri played a role in Ukraine's transition to become a modern state. Success
One of the faculty members D'Anieri taught has written a textbook on Ukrainian political parties, using the western approach to studying politics.
D'Anieri said his biggest reward was teaching undergraduate students at Lviv State, because it was interesting to see what they've accomplished.
One of his female students has
started a Non-Governmental Organization to foster a women's political movement in Ukraine.
"It's frustrating that none of the big changes one hopes to see ever happens, and I see no prospect of them happening," D'Anieri said, "But, in the individuals I've worked with, I've seen a lot of change."
The students' optimism also affected D'Anieri's life. As a self-proclaimed pessimist, he found that inspiring.
An interest in politics from an early age
D'Anieri grew up in New York during the Watergate scandal. In school he learned about the glory and honor of American politics. Then he would go home and read the three newspapers his parents subscribed to, turn on the TV to the Watergate hearings and learn how American politics were full of scandals and corruption. He felt disillusioned.
These discrepancies motivated him to have a better understanding of politics. As an undergraduate at Michigan State University, he decided to pursue his long-standing interests in international affairs. His work at KU
"There was an enormous gap between the propagandized view of American democracy I got in school and what was in the paper every day," D'Anieri said.
At the University, D'Anieri splits his time between teaching political science and being associate dean of international programs.
D'Anieri teaches Political Science 170, Introduction to International Politics and Political Science 675, Russian Foreign Policy. He said he was probably one of a few professors who likes to teach in the big lecture halls.
"There is something about me that likes an audience," D'Anieri said. "I like concocting a lecture that can explain something very
"There is something about me that likes an audience. I like concocting a lecture that can explain something very complicated in a simple manner." Paul D'Anieri
Paul D. Ahern
Author and associate professor
complicated in a simple manner."
D'Anieri said he is committed to involving faculty and students into international affairs. He said he is working on a program that would help undergraduates experience different cultures by studying abroad or living with a roommate from a different country.
Diana Carlin, dean of international programs, said D'Aneri's international visibility demonstrates the importance of international programs. She said he is a model for what the programs try to accomplish.
Carlin said it was also nice to have D'Anieri around when meetings got bogged down.
"He has a great sense of humor," Carlin said. "He'll do something to get us laughing."
Straw can be reached at 864-4810 or writer@kansan.com
By Mark Hansen Kansan staff writer
KU lecturer finds time to reflect on his hero
James Grauerholz spem years at Beat Generation ground zero, and had a 23-year friendship with William Burroughs, much of it in Lawrence.
Burroughs, who died in Lawrence in 1997, was a prolific writer who defeated censorship with his signature novel Naked Lunch and pioneered several methods of artistic creation, including "cut-up" texts and shotgun art.
Grauerholz is the director of William Burroughs Communications and the executor of Burroughs' estate. He has edited numerous Burroughs works, is writing a definitive biography on Burroughs and he has found time to teach in the American studies department at the University of Kansas.
Grauerholz's odyssey into the heart of the Beat Generation began when he left Mount Oread for New York City in 1974. He eventually came back.
One thing he missed was a Lawrence lawn beneath the summer moon.
"I missed that in Lawrence if you were partying on a summer night, if the chiggers weren't too bad that week, you could fall asleep on the yard and see the stars," he said. "In general people are permanently imprinted with a love for the place where they came from."
Grauerholz grew up in Coffeyville and came to Lawrence to attend KU. He ventured to New York to pursue a music career and to meet the Beat Generation's living luminaries: Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs.
Burroughs and Grauerholz bonded immediately.
son," he said. "My heart opened to him right away. He was kind to me."
"I was attracted to William not by his looks but by his per-
Their intimate relationship led to a lifelong friendship. Thunderbolt in print
Between classes at Field Kinley High School in Coffeyville, Grauerholz received the book that changed his life. An acquaintance handed him Burroughs' Naked Lunch. It was the Spring of 1967, and the novel had been cleared from censorship restrictions the previous year.
"I went home and started reading it, and it was just like a thunderclap, a thunderbolt really. I loved it," Grauerholz said. "It was hysterically funny, and
had stayed in that environment I doubt he would have lived as long as he did."
Propst said reports that Buroughs was isolated in Lawrence were false.
Grauerholz and Burroughs shared similar perceptions.
"People in their 30's don't have the social life William had," he said.
"I missed that in Lawrence if you were partying on a summer night, if the chiggers weren't too bad that week, you could fall asleep on the yard and
"William was and James is the type of person that sees more than most people see — they made a pretty good match," Propst said.
see the stars."
James Grauerholz Local artist and KU lecturer
I couldn't put it down, and I just immediately got into it."
Wayne Propst, artist, poet and builder in Lawrence, said Grauerholz provided a perfect environment for Burroughs when the two moved to Lawrence in the early 1980s. Burroughs realized it when visiting a friend at a retirement home.
"I remember we went out to Presbyterian Manor, and after that the old man was starting to get cranky, and he caught himself in mid crank. He would realize, 'Hey, I've got a nice home, people who look after me, I can drink and smoke all day long,'" Propst said. "New York is a pretty brutal place even if you're a young person. If he
Grauerholz has accomplishments outside of his work with Burroughs.
"James is an accomplished musician. He's had an artistic life quite separate from William."
"A lot of James' projects didn't spring from Bill and didn't have their genesis there, like music." Propst said.
Propst said that Grauerholz also has innate design skill.
"He would not merely do sketching,but he would build a scaled model of what he wanted to do."he said.
Propst is among Grauerholz's circle of friends from his years as a KU student. The friendships were strong enough to lure Grauerholz and the beat icon to Lawrence. "When I die, I want to be buried in the same coffin as James," Propst said.
SEE GRAUERHOLZ PAGE 12C
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