Dr William A. Douglas
William
A. Douglass (Reno, Nevada, 1939) graduated as a Doctor in Social
Anthropology from the University of Chicago in 1967. That same year
he took charge of the Programme of Basque Studies at the University
of Nevada –Reno UNR. He spent thirty-three years in this post until
retirement at the end of 1999.
He has published a round
twenty books and some one hundred articles including “Terror and
Taboo: The follies, fables and faces of terrorism (with Joseba
Zulaika, 1996), and “Death in Murelaga: The social signifance of
funerary ritual in a Spanish Basque village (1969)”.
He has
also written on such important subjects as Migration or
Ethnonationalism not to mention the biography of his father, “Tap
dancing on Ice: Jack Douglass (1996) and a book on fishing, “Casting
about in the Reel World (2002).
Douglass has received various
awards and recognition for his many works. Among these, for example
in 1984 he was named Doctor Honoris Causa by the UPV- EHU. In 1989
he was named on the Honours List of the group of Basque Studies
Society of America. In 1998 he was made an Honorary member of the
Academia de la Lengua Vasca.
In 1999 not only did he receive
the award for the “Leading Researcher “of the year, from the
University of Nevada – Reno, but was also awarded the prize for
“Best Professor”. That same year he was presented with the prize of
“Lagun Onari “by the Basque Government. Also for the last four years
a research grant carrying his name “William A. Douglass – Top
Visiting Professor “has been in place, created by an initiative of
the Centre for Basque Studies at Reno and the Basque Government.
Nowadays (2008) he is Coordinator Emeritus of Basque Studies at the
University of Nevada – Reno.
In this text, however, the
biographical and professional side of William A. Douglass has taken
on a new dimension. Here Douglass explains his role in the work
carried out in the search for a solution to the Basque problem, that
is to say, the negotiations, the ups and downs of the process for
which he was personally chosen by The Henri Dunant Centre (in
Geneva), to instigate Humanitarian Talks. He refused the initial
request but the second time they asked he accepted, and he goes on
to explain his visits to the Basque Country, the meeting with the
then Prime Minister Ibarretxe, the cover-ups, the talks he held with
Basques on both sides of the conflict, the contacts with ETA, the
role of the Geneva office, the ETA ceasefire, the talks in Loiola
and the steps taken from autumn2003 to the spring of 2004.
The contract signed with the Henri Dunant Centre meant he had to
remain silent for a lengthy period of time. Now that this time has
passed, the anthropologist has come to reveal the truth through a
direct interview conducted on 20th September 2008.
The son of
Jack Douglass, he is married to Jan and has a our son and
grandchildren.
Any contributions will be
gratefully accepted
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