“Teaching Russian Culture in the Global Context”

This pioneering workshop will take place on July 17-29 in Crimea, Ukraine (changes in time and location may occur and will be announced). The duration of the program is twelve days. The faculty of the program will include leading historians, linguists, and specialists in Russian culture from Russia and the United States.

The participants of the program are junior faculty from Russia, America, and other post-Soviet states. At the program, aside from lectures, seminars, and roundtables, there will be time and space for exchange and interaction between American, Russian, and other scholars-teachers.

This program is entirely novel and original. Until now, different groups of specialists: historians of Russia, specialists in linguistics, and experts in culture and literature - worked and taught separately from one another. And, despite long-standing contacts, numerous exchange programs, and various ³summer institutes, there have been no comparative workshops of the kind proposed here. The main goals of the program are:

• Discuss in comparative perspective how to teach Russian language, culture, and history in Russian and non-Russian (especially American i.e. quintessentially ‘Western’) environments.

• Discuss and develop comprehensive educational strategies that would focus on teaching Russian language, culture, and history.

The program/workshop will fill this gap between several different disciplines and professional groups dealing with Russian history, culture, and language. A range of issues from linguistics, translation, and cultural communication, to history and social science will be discussed not for their own sake, but in connection to the challenges that Russian and American professors face in their respective countries when they try to increase and broaden the interests of 21st century students in Russia’s cultural heritage. The very contrast between the existing ‘national’ schools: a) teaching about Russia in the United States and b) teaching about Russia in Russia itself - will guarantee high-powered debates that will stimulate further research and discussion.

The specific content of the program is under discussion, and the issues that attract the organizers’ attention include:

The workshop will help the next generation of American professors of Russian history and language to be better informed of the issues, values, and ideas that inform and inspire the teaching of Russian culture at Russian universities.

Those admitted for participation in the program will be provided room and board in Crimea for the duration of the workshop and will be reimbursed for their transportation expenses in full or up to a certain maximum after the workshop is over. (Transportation reimbursement level will be specified in notification of admission.)

To apply:

a) The US-based scholars-teachers go to: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=MR3t0Sus0fLXzG_2bdH6SeTQ_3d_3d

b) The non-US applicants (from Russia, etc.) go for instructions to: http://www.ino-center.ru/news/n267.html

All application materials must be received no later than May 1, 2009.
Admission decisions will be made and applicants will be informed by the end of May.

For more information or questions, contact:

Vladislav Zubok, Professor of History, Temple University zubok@temple.edu
Benjamin Rifkin, Professor of Russian, Temple University brifkin@temple.edu