David Ramseur book launch Sept. 14

September 7, 2017

University Relations

Please join former Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reporter David Ramseur at his Fairbanks book launch, with a special introduction by columnist Dermot Cole, at 7 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 14, in the Murie Building auditorium on the Fairbanks campus. This is a free public event. Parking is free after 5 p.m.

Ramseur will discuss his new book "Melting the Ice Curtain: The Extraordinary Story of Citizen Diplomacy on the Russia-Alaska Frontier" (University of Alaska Press).

In 1988, Ramseur helped organize the Alaska Airlines “Friendship Flight” between Nome, Alaska, and Provideniya, Russia, which reunited indigenous peoples of common languages and cultures (Siberian Yupik and others) for the first time in four decades. "Melting the Ice Curtain" tells the story of how inspiration, courage, and persistence by citizen-diplomats bridged a widening gap in superpower relations.

Ramseur, who has visited the Soviet Union and Russia more than a dozen times since 1988, is a visiting scholar in public policy at the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Institute of Social and Economic Research. Ramseur served in various roles with Alaska Govs. Steve Cowper and Tony Knowles, and Anchorage Mayor and U.S. Sen. Mark Begich.

For more information about this title and many more, please visit www.uapress.alaska.edu or call 800-621-2736.