Please join us on November 12 at 5:00 pm for a lecture by the

Ambassador of Uzbekistan

and a reception at 6:00 pm celebrating the life of

Professor Ilse Cirtautas

Please find the Seattle Times obituary of Dr. Cirtautas here.

Please find our original announcement about Dr. Cirtautas’ passing below:

We regret to announce the passing of Professor Emerita Ilse Cirtautas. Professor Cirtautas was a leader in Central Asian studies and a good friend of the Ellison Center. We thank Professor Cirtautas for her many years of scholarship, teaching, and mentoring students at the University of Washington as well as her great contributions to the sister city relationship between Seattle and Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Professor Cirtautas was also a generous donor who invested in students studying Central Asia by establishing the Ilse D. Cirtautas Fund in Central Asia Studies to support tuition and travel to the region. People wishing to honor Professor Cirtautas through donations to this student fund may do so here. We invite friends and mourners to celebrate Dr. Cirtautas by reading her 2013 article Memories of Tashkent 1972 and the Start of the Seattle-Tashkent Sister City Relationship. In tribute to this sister city connection and Dr. Cirtatuas’ many years of international friendship, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan announced his condolences which are available here.

Ilse, as she was known to many, will be greatly missed.