Rutgers Professor Recognized with Diversity Programming Award for Public TV Program

Editor's note: The following information is a press release from the Rutgers University Department of American Studies.

Once a year, the Jersey Access Group (JAG), a forum for promoting quality operations for New Jersey’s public television stations, holds an awards ceremony to recognize video excellence from the previous year. The ceremony was held at the Hyatt Hotel in New Brunswick on Thursday, May 3.

The winner in the category of “Diversity Programming” for 2011 was a program on “Kalymk-American Traditions” hosted by Angus Kress Gillespie. The program was broadcast by East Brunswick Television as part of Gillespie’s series “Old Ways in New Jersey.”

The program showcased the little-known group of about 3,000 Kalmyk-Americans in New Jersey. Their community was originally established during the 1950's in Howell, New Jersey. These people were originally refugees from Russia and were rapidly assimilated.

In the program, Gillespie interviewed Tserendorj Amarhanov, who is representative of the revival of Kalmyk culture around the world.  Amaranhov was born in Philadelphia in 1980 and raised in the greater Philadelphia area.
     
He left America at the age of 17 and lived in both Kalmykia and Mongolia before returning to the U.S. at age 21. He is a Kalmyk folk-musician, multi-instrumentalist, composer and throat singer.

Amarhanov is not only a musician, but also a historian and spokesman for the group, which has a fascinating history.  After World War II, the Kalmyks found themselves stateless, living for six years in Displaced Persons Camps in West Germany.

Finally, after novel legal arguments of lawyers working on behalf of the Kalmyks, the way was cleared for immigration to the United States.  Between December 1951 and March 1952, some 571 Kalmyks arrived in the United States, with additional families and individuals arriving later.

After receiving the award, Gillespie said, “I could not have done this without the constant support of station manager Cindy O’Connor and my producer Dave Ambrosy, who always manages to make me look good.”