“During the darkest day of the Franco era when we were denied our language, our culture and our identity, we were consoled by the knowledge that an American university in Nevada had lit one small candle in the night.” – Basque President Jose Antonio Ardanza

This is how important the William A. Douglass Center for Basque Studies is and has been to the Basque people. Nestled in the University of Nevada, Reno, campus, the Center is a cornerstone of Basque history and culture, not only in the United States but the world.

• Established in 1967, what is now the Center for Basque Studies began its existence as part of the Desert Research Institute, a part of the University of Nevada. The idea was initially floated in the early 1960s but didn’t take fruit until 1967 when William Douglass was recruited to “return” home to be the new center’s co-ordinator.
• Today, the Center has programs for both minors and PhDs in Basque studies. PhD programs center around one of several themes related to Basque studies: anthropology, world languages and literatures, geography, political science, English, or history. The minor, for undergraduates, covers topics from sports to politics to arts. Scholarships are available for interested students.
• A key part of the Center for Basques Studies is the Center for Basque Studies Press. The Press is the leading publisher of Basque topics in English in the world. Topics cover anything Basque related, from “Basque culture, history and more, including history, politics, culture, children’s books and novels.” It grew out of the Basque Books Series at the University of Nevada Press (founded by Robert Laxalt), with Rodney Gallop’s A Book of the Basques as the first title published and Laxalt’s own In a Hundred Graves published not long after.
• Douglass remained the director of the Center until 1999, when he retired, at which point Joseba Zulaika took over. He led the center until 2009, when Sandra Ott became the director until she stepped down in 2016, at which point Xabier Irujo, the current director, took her place.
• In recognition of his seminal contributions to Basque studies and his leadership of the Center, the Center was renamed the William A. Douglass Center for Basque Studies in 2015.
• The University of Nevada, Reno, also hosts the Jon Bilbao Basque Library. Growing since its conception in the 1960s, the library contains some 55,000 items, placing it as one of the leading libraries on Basque topics in the world.
• The full history of the Center has been documented by Pedro Oiarzabal in his book A Candle in the Night.

A full list of all of Buber’s Basque Facts of the Week can be found in the Archive.

Primary sources: William A. Douglass Center for Basque Studies; The William A. Douglass Center for Basque Studies Newsletter, number 84, Winter 2016.