Tag Archives: Russian Studies

NEH Summer Scholars Named for “America’s Russian-speaking Immigrants and Refugees”

by Robert Davis on

The Institute Selection Committee has named twenty-five Summer Scholars to take part in this June’s “America’s Russian-Speaking Immigrants & Refugees,” a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute for College & University Teachers, Co-Directed by Robert Davis of Global Studies and Edward Kasinec of the Harriman Institute.  The Institute takes place on the campus of Columbia University from June 9 to June 29, 2013.

Selected from a large pool of more than eighty candidates, Summer Scholars hail from fifteen states and a wide variety of  institutions: Vitaly Chernetsky, Miami University (Ohio); Tanya Chebotarev, Columbia University; David Chroust, Texas A & M; Phyllis Conn, St. John’s University (New York); Elena Dubinets, Seattle Symphony; Andrew Janco, University of Chicago; Bettina Jungen, Amherst College; Scott Kenworthy, Miami University (Ohio); Yakov Klots, Williams College; Natasha Kolchevska, University of New Mexico; Margarita Levantovskaya, University of California, San Diego; Matthew Miller, Northwestern College; Suzanne Orr, Sam Houston State University; Tatiana Osipovich, Lewis & Clark College; Karen Rosenberg, Independent Scholar; Claudia Sadowski-Smith, Arizona State University; Margaret Samu, Yeshiva University/Stern College; Erik Scott, University of Kansas; Vladimir von Tsurikov, Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary (New York); Kristen Welsh, Hobart & William Smith Colleges; Anna Winestein, Boston University; Natalie Zelensky, Colby College; and graduate students Michael Darnell, Columbia University; Jay Oppenheim, CUNY Graduate Center; and Roman Utkin, Yale University..

Over a three-week period, this select group will engage in a lively dialogue with an extraordinary array of upwards of fifty master teachers, scholars, and social services and community representatives of the last three waves of emigration (and with the children of the first).  The Summer Scholars will consider the substance of the terms “diaspora,” “transnational,” “accommodation,” and “memory” through the specific prism of the four distinct waves—First (1917-40), Second (1947-55), Third (1967-89), and Fourth (1989 to the present)— of Russian-speaking immigrants to America.  Can we create a sophisticated narrative synthesis of the “Russophone Experience” in America that could be integrated into broader courses on American politics and immigration, sociology, anthropology, and ethnic studies?  Could this synthesis be applied to the experience of other immigrant groups?

A full description, daily schedule, and application information is found at: NEHsummerinst.Columbia.edu  This site will be constantly updated in the weeks leading up to, and following the Institute period, and will eventually include video of daily roundtable presentations.

The 400th Anniversary of the Romanov Dynasty Marked at Columbia University Libraries

by Robert Davis on

Last month, Columbia University Libraries hosted “In Search of Empire: The 400th Anniversary of the House of Romanov,” an international conference that drew standing room only crowds to Room 203 Butler Library.

Organized by Professor Irina Reyfman of the Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures, and Bakhmeteff Archive Curator Tanya Chebotarev, the conference was the first of many in commemoration of the Romanovs during this anniversary year.  The conference program may be found at http://library.columbia.edu/indiv/rbml/units/bakhmeteff/news.html

The conference also marked the opening of  “The Quartercentenary of the House of Romanov,” an exhibition organized by Ms. Chebotarev.   Located in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library’s Kempner Galleries, the exhibit ranges from works on paper—such as a 17th century tsarist charter issued by the first Romanov Tsar, or the coronation album of Empress Elizabeth—to ephemera, such as a delicate parasol used by the last Empress, Aleksandra Fedorovna.  The exhibit runs until June 28.  See: http://library.columbia.edu/indiv/rbml/exhibitions/current.html

The Columbia conference, as well as others planned elsewhere were touched upon in Eve M. Kahn’s New York Times article “The Romanov legacy Finds New Life,” March 7, p. C28.  The article quotes Ms. Chebotarev, as well as conference presenters Edward Kasinec (Harriman Institute, Columbia) and Fr. Vladimir von Tsurikov (Holy Trinity Monastery).