LITUANUS LITHUANIAN QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES   Volume 26, No. 4 - Winter 1980 Editor of this issue: Jonas Zdanys ISSN 0024-5089 Copyright © 1980 LITUANUS Foundation, Inc.

BALTIC STUDIES IN AUSTRALIA

JONAS ZDANYS

The emergence of a strong and dedicated effort in Australia to create and maintain an ongoing interest and activity in Baltic Studies has gone largely unnoticed by scholars engaged in such studies in other parts of the world. The Australian effort has been increasing and is now moving toward the incorporation of an Australasian Baltic Studies Group, under the leadership of Trevor G. Fennell, a faculty member of the School of Humanities at The Flinders University of South Australia, and Aldis Putninš, a psychologist with the South Australian Department for Community Welfare.

The Australasian Baltic Studies Group was formed to join together in a common research effort Baltic scholars from throughout Australia and New Zealand, and to serve as a unifying organization which will bring scholars of similar interests into closer contact through publications, professional meetings, and Baltic Studies seminars. Those readers of Lituanus who wish to initiate contacts with the Australasian Group can do so by writing to Dr. Fennell at the School of Humanities, The Flinders University of South Australia, Bedford Park, South Australia 5042.

The papers which appear in this special issue have been selected from among papers read at the First through Fifth Australian Baltic Youth Seminars. The seminars have been held annually since 1976, when they were initiated by the Australian Baltic Youth Action Group, and have met since then, variously, in Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney. The essays which appear here have been selected, with one exception, from the proceedings of those meetings.

The papers that follow include studies by Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian scholars and range from Ena Nõmme's reporting of subjective observations of immigrant adjustment among second generation Estonians in Sydney to Aldis Putninš' theoretical examination of the forces of alienation and assimilation at work in immigrant communities. Other essays examine the search for political, social, and ethnic identity in émigré Baltic communities, problems of bilingualism and biculturalism, the structure and function of Australian ethnic schools, and political and technical activities within the Baltic States themselves and in the Soviet Union as a whole. Also included are poems by Lidija Šimkutė Pocius, a Lithuanian poet living in South Australia, without whose active assistance this issue could not have taken shape.

Lituanus is pleased to present the work of these Australasian Baltic scholars. We will continue to publish relevant studies from Australia, New Zealand, and surrounding countries as they become available.