The “Petersburg Judaica” Center of the European University at St.Petersburg, Russia offers a summer program in the history and anthropology of East European Jewry. The program is aimed at advanced undergraduate and graduate students with a serious interest in Jewish or Slavic studies and a working knowledge of Russian, who wish to acquire skills of fieldwork and collect materials relevant to their research topics. The language of instruction will be Russian.

The program will consist of two parts:
1) three-week preparation for field research at the European University at St.Petersburg, and
2) two-week field work in one or two former shtetls in Ukraine, as a part of a larger research group.
The preliminary date of arrival in St. Petersburg is June 20; the preliminary date of departure to Ukraine is mid-July, 2008. The first part includes an introductory lecture course with the following components:

Introduction into research of oral history and culture of the former Pale of Jewish Settlement;
Major directions and topics of research at “Petersburg Judaica” Center;
Methodology of field research;
Russian language skills for field research in the region studied;

Students will also be offered guided tours around St. Petersburg, including “Jewish Petersburg.”

Altogether, there will be 52 hours of class work in St. Petersburg and 72 hours of field work in Ukraine, 14 hours each of the three weeks on average.

At the end of the theoretical part of the course students are expected to submit an essay which should include a rationale and a questionnaire for their research topic.

More information can be found at the St. Petersburg Judaica website http://www.eu.spb.ru/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=272&Itemid=02 All participants will be accommodated in a home-style hotel, with two people in a room (approximately $ 40 per day). During the expedition the group will stay at a local hotel; kosher food will be available.

Successful participants of the program will earn 4 credits from the European University at St. Petersburg. For additional enquiries please contact Dr. Anna Kushkova at: kushka@eu.spb.ru.