Fall 2010 - Miami University

The Havighurst Center
for Russian & Post-Soviet Studies
Fall 2010
Newsletter
IN THIS ISSUE
Director’s Letter................1
Upcoming Events ..............2
History of the Gulag...........3
Campus News...................7
Study Abroad...................11
Student Travels/Alumni...13
Grants & Awards.............17
Fall & Spring Classes.......18
Program Funding ...........19
Director’s Message
10 Years of the Havighurst Center
The Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet Studies
was established in 2000, the result of a generous bequest by
Walter Havighurst (1901-1994), a longtime Miami University
English professor and author, who was deeply committed to
improving mutual understanding between the United States
and the former Soviet Union. He drew up his will at a time of
enormous expansion in US-Soviet relations, when for the first
time in three generations, people from each side were able
to visit the other’s country, people-to-people diplomacy was at its height, and the
prospect for ending the long nightmare of the arms race seemed at hand.
He established a legacy through the Havighurst Center which, 10 years later, we hope
we have honored. The Center has been able to support the student experience through
extensive co-curricular programming; many of our activities have been designed as
adjuncts to new or existing courses. We hold a bi-annual Colloquia Series and an
annual International Young Researchers’ conference, many of which have resulted in
subsequent publications. The Center also has aimed at providing information to the
broader community in Oxford and beyond. Our culture festivals, film series, and large
public lectures by prominent politicians and public intellectuals have always attracted
a wide audience.
The number of Russia-related courses has increased as a result of additional tenuretrack hires in Anthropology (Dr. Neringa Klumbyte), Comparative Religion (Dr. Scott
Kenworthy), History (Dr. Steve Norris and Dr. Dan Prior), International Studies
(Dr. Gulnaz Sharafutdinova, who is jointly hired with Political Science), and Political
Science (Dr. Venelin Ganev), which strengthened a pre-existing curriculum in
Russian language and literature, history and political science. These hires, combined
with a widening circle of faculty associates of the Center, have led to the development
of fifty-two new courses and a new major in Russian, East European and Eurasian
Studies. Graduates of the program have gone on to prestigious graduate schools,
non-profits, and work in the U.S. governement; we are justly proud of them and of
our own work.
Faculty and students have established wide contacts through successive trips to
Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia, as an extension of Walter Havighurst’s vision.
The Havighurst Center has provided scholarships for these trips that introduce this
area of eleven time zones and hundreds of languages and cultures, trips which are
critical to making students aware of the vastness of the area, the complexity of its
history, and the challenges Americans face in seeking to understand it.
In keeping with these broad objectives, this year the Center will examine two broad
subjects in depth: the gulag in history and memory, with a series of lectures and an
international conference, all organized around a senior and graduate student seminar
course taught by Prof. Steve Norris; and in the spring, a semester-long study of the
history, culture, religion and politics of contemporary Ukraine, taught by Prof. Scott
Kenworthy. This study will culminate in a summer student trip to the region. -Karen Dawisha
Walter E. Havighurst Professor & Director
Havighurst Center
UPCOMING EVENTS
September 20-November 15
Havighurst Colloquia Series: The Gulag in History and Memory
see page 4 for schedule
September 30
Landscapes of Tourism: Silk Road, Xinjiang and Tibet
As part of the Brill Fall Open-House, Dr. Stan Toops (Geography/International
Studies) will speak about tourism along the Silk Road.
3:00pm, Brill Science Library
October 28-30
The 10th Annual Young Researchers Conference: The Gulag in History
and Memory
see page 5 for schedule
November 2
“Everything is Illuminated:” The Importance of Literature in Everyday
Life
Jonathan Safran Foer, author and activist
Foer is a well known and respected author, activist, and professor. His first and bestselling book, “Everything is Illuminated,” is about his journey into the culture of postSoviet Ukraine where he tried to find the woman who saved his family during WWII.
Time/Location TBA (check website for updated information)
co-sponsored with Association of Jewish Students, College Democrats & Green Oxford
November 30
Music and Totalitarianism
Miami University Symphony Orchestra
7:30pm, Millett Hall
November 30
Annual Havighurst Center Open House
5:00-7:00pm, Harrison Hall 116
December 6
Lecture and Literary Reading
Serhiy Zhadan, author and activist
Zhadan is the leading Ukrainian-language author from Kharkiv, Cincinnati’s sister city.
He is a poet, novelist, essayist, rock musician, and political activist. In 2004, he was the
head of the tent city on Kharkiv’s main square during the Orange Revolution.
4:00pm, Hall Auditorium, Green Room
2
The Gulag in History & Memory
--Stephen Norris
The Soviet Gulag was a massive system of forced labor camps. During its existence,
some 18 million people passed through the prisons and camps of the Gulag. Under
Stalin, prisoners became an important resource for the construction of many industries,
including the nation’s railways and roads, mining operations, and the timber industry.
It is estimated that more than 1.5 million died as a result of their imprisonment in the
Gulag. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a Russian novelist, wrote frequently about his experience
in the Russian Gulag system. He was exiled from the Soviet Union in 1974, returning only
in 1994, following the collapse of communism.
After the 1962 publication of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan
Denisovich, a novel about a day in the life of a gulag inmate, he began to receive
letters from fellow camp survivors. Eventually these testimonies helped the writer
compile his devastating portrait of the camp system, The Gulag Archipelago. Banned
from publishing it in the Soviet Union, Solzhenitsyn smuggled his manuscript abroad.
Just as One Day had ignited a firestorm within the USSR, Archipelago would do the
same in the West when it appeared in 1973. A German newspaper would declare that
the book left “a burning question mark over fifty years of Soviet power.” The book’s
appearance in France led many French communists to quit the party. It became a
bestseller in the United States. Stephen Cohen, who reviewed it for The New York
Times in 1974, called it “a non-fictional account from and about the other great
holocaust of our century.”
In his introduction, Solzhenitsyn notes that the material for his “experiment in
literary investigation” came from letters and reports written by 227 people. “But,”
as he ominously writes, “the time has not yet come when I dare name them.”
Solzhenitsyn, who had been harassed by authorities for his increasingly inflammatory
writings, would be exiled from the Soviet Union after The Gulag Archipelago
appeared. He would settle in Vermont and remain there until communism’s collapse.
Solzhenitsyn declared that he wanted his book to tell the truth and to provide a voice
for those who had been silenced. He did not want Russia to fulfill the proverb “dwell
on the past and you’ll lose an eye, but forget the past and you’ll lose both eyes.” His
hope was that The Gulag Archipelago would help further the process of healing what
he called the “scars and sores of the past.”
That healing has taken time. After One Day’s 1962 publication, Soviet citizens had to
read about the Gulag surreptitiously. The Gulag Archipelago circulated in samizdat
form, passed from person to person (typically readers were asked to pass it on within
24 hours, an unwritten rule that meant many experienced Solzhenitsyn’s revelations
in one marathon reading). Andrei Sakharov and other dissidents issued a “Moscow
Appeal” in February 1974, declaring that the book laid bare the “monstrous crimes
committed in the recent past in the USSR.” The appeal called for the book to be
published and for the regime to investigate its charges. Needless to say, the demands
were not met.
Then came Mikhail Gorbachev and his call for the blank spots of history to be filled
in. Beginning in 1986, Soviet citizens could read formerly banned books, watch
films that had sat on the shelves for years, and discuss taboo subjects. Solzhenitsyn’s
monumental work became part of this process. It was published officially for the
3
- continued on pg 6
The Havighurst Center Colloquia Series
THE GULAG IN HISTORY
AND MEMORY
HST 436/536, POL 440/540
Assoc. Professor Stephen Norris
All lectures are in Harrison Hall 209, 12:20-2:00pm
September 20
Jehanne Gheith, Duke University
‘Our Parents Weren’t Dissidents’: Multiple Legacies of the Gulag
September 27
Cathy Frierson, University of New Hampshire
Children of the Gulag Tell Their Histories: Can We Trust Oral
Testimonies/Memories as Historical Evidence?
November 1
Deborah Kaple, Princeton University
Gulag Boss: A Soviet Memoir
November 8
Serguei Oushakine, Princeton University
Sites of Killing, Sites of Memory: Triangulating Stalinism in Belarus
November 15
Scott Kenworthy, Miami University
Russian Orthodox Clergy and Believers in the Gulag
4
The Havighurst Center’s 10th Annual Young Researchers
Conference: The Gulag in History and Memory
Thursday, October 28
Keynote Address
Lynne Viola, University of Toronto, Collectivization and the Birth of the Gulag
5:00-6:30pm, Harrison Hall 111
Friday, October 29
All panel sessions will be held at the Miami Inn, A/B Room
Panel 1 (8:45-11:00): New Stories
Maria Galmarini, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Defending the
Rights of Gulag Prisoners: The Story of the Political Red Cross between 1918 and 1938
Oxana Ermolaeva (State University Higher School of Economics, Russia),
Making a Career in the GULAG: Square Dance with the Devil or a Normal Feature of
Soviet Life?
Vsevolod Bashkuev (Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia), “Based Upon Deeply
Rooted Hostile Views…”: Anti-Soviet Sentiments and Resistance among the Special
Settlers in Buryat-Mongolia, 1940s-1950s
Discussant: Deborah Kaple, Princeton University
Student Poster Session
11:30-12:30, MacMillan Hall Great Room
Keynote Address
Steven Barnes, George Mason University
Death and Redemption: The Gulag and the Shaping of Soviet Society
12:30-2:00, MacMillan Hall Great Room
Panel 2 (3:00-5:00): Transforming Lives
Julie Draskoczy (University of Pittsburgh), The Put’ of Perekovka: Transforming
Lives at Stalin’s White-Baltic Sea Canal
Wilson Bell (Dickinson College), Sex and Soviet Power in the Gulag in Siberia
Discussant: Cynthia Ruder, University of Kentucky
Saturday, October 30
Panel 3 (10:00-12:00): Reconsiderations
Alan Barenberg (Texas Tech University), Resistance and the Everyday:
Reconsidering the Vorkuta Prisoner Strike of 1953
Jeffrey Hardy (Princeton University), Gulag Tourism: Khrushchev’s “Show” Prisons
in the Cold War Context, 1954-1959
Discussant: Michael Jakobson, University of Toledo
Panel 4 (1:30-3:30): Memories
Elza-Bair Guchinova (Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia), The Gulag
Experience in the Reminiscences of Japanese Prisoners of War
Josephine von Zitzewitz (Oxford University), The “Virtual Museum of the Gulag”
Discussant: Stephen M. Norris, Miami University
5
(continued) The Gulag in History and Memory
first time in 1989. The “return of the repressed,” as one historian described these
revelations, contributed to communism’s collapse in 1991. Ironically, the end of the
Soviet system meant that the work of memory Solzhenitsyn longed for would continue
only haltingly. The decade of the 1990’s brought a severe economic depression. Most
Russians simply did not have time for the past.
The new century has brought with it new opportunities for healing history’s wounds.
The relative stability of the Russian economy has helped to usher in a new interest
in the past. President Putin visited Butovo in 2007, the site near Moscow where
thousands were shot in the Stalinist purges, and declared that the site should
commemorate the “hundreds of thousands, millions of people [who] were killed and
sent to camps, shot and tortured.” President Medvedev has gone further, visiting
Magadan and other former Gulag camps and calling them “a tragic page in our
country’s history.” More importantly, documents and memoirs about and from
the Gulag have appeared in Russian. Historians and other scholars have begun to
research the camp system. Former camps have become memorial sites. Perm-36
is the largest, most extensive memorial site dedicated to the Gulag and its prisoners
(http://www.perm36.ru/eng/). A Gulag Museum now exists in central Moscow
and has state funding. The critical newspaper Novaya gazeta began publishing a
special monthly supplement called “The Truth about the Gulag” in February 2008. In
its first edition, the editors declared that it was time for Russians to get on with the
work of memory because “we must grasp our recent past; only then will our country
have a future.”
Certainly not everything about this recent work has been rosy. Memorial, the human
rights agency that got its start in the mid-1980s trying to put names to the numbers
of Stalin’s victims, had its St. Petersburg offices raided in December 2008. Russian
police confiscated twelve hard drives that contained information about the Gulag.
Fortunately, a Russian court decided the raid violated legal procedures and the files
were returned. Many scholars have found archives closed for no reason and research
on the Gulag difficult at best. Writers in the Novaya gazeta series have lamented the
absence of a prominent Gulag memorial in Moscow (a stone from the Solovki prison
sits in Lubianka Square, across from the former KGB headquarters).
The scars of the past rarely heal the way we would like them to. Many Russian
politicians and Russian citizens still fear losing an eye if they look too hard into
the past. Others, as the Novaya gazeta series indicates, do not want to go blind by
ignoring it. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who died in 2008, began to participate in the
reinvestigation of the Soviet past. In 2001, he published (in Russian) a collection of
seven camp memoirs that had been sent to him. This time, the names of the authors
appeared in print (Northwestern University Press published a translation called
Voices of the Gulag earlier this year). Most significantly, The Gulag Archipelago is
now required reading for Russian high school seniors. In its preface, Solzhenitsyn
wrote: “And someday in the future, this Archipelago, its air, and the bones of its
inhabitants, frozen in a lens of ice, will be discovered by our descendants like some
improbable salamander.” This discovery, however fitfully, is certainly taking place.
Stephen Norris is an associate professor in the Department of History. He is teaching this
semester’s Havighurst Colloquia course, as well as organizing the Havighurst Center’s
Young Researchers Conference, both on the subject of The Gulag in History & Memory.
6
CAMPUS NEWS
Central Eurasian Studies Society
CESS News
by Prof. Daniel Prior, CESS Executive Director
Now entering its fourth year of cooperation with the Havighurst Center, the
Central Eurasian Studies Society (CESS) is working as hard as ever to serve the
community of scholars of Central Eurasia around the world. The Secretariat,
housed in Harrison Hall at Miami, says farewell this fall to graduate assistant
Steve Hess, who is moving on to his doctoral research work.
A recent institutional membership/fund-raising campaign has garnered pledges
of multi-year contributions from federally-funded area studies centers all over
the U.S. These centers, concentrating in Russian/East European, Middle East,
East Asian, and other area studies, now officially join the Havighurst Center in
recognition of the work CESS does to promote understanding of an important
region that has often “fallen through the cracks” of academic regional definitions.
CESS will hold its 11th Annual Conference on October 28-31 in East Lansing,
Michigan, where the hosts of the event will be the Center for European, Russian
and Eurasian Studies and the Asian Studies Center at Michigan State University.
The program consists of nearly 50 panels and 300 presenters; a special
Presidential Roundtable Panel on the recent unrest in Kyrgyzstan will be one of
the highlights. Please join us! See http://cers.isp.msu.edu/.
CESS’s 2nd Regional Conference was held July 29-30 in Ankara, Turkey at the
Center for Black Sea and Central Asia (KORA) of Middle East Technical University (METU). The biennial Regional Conferences emphasize CESS’s mission of
promoting the involvement of scholars from the Central Eurasian region. The
program is available at https://www.cess.muohio.edu/regional_conf_10_program.html.
The CESS Board is now making plans for institutional transition, which will bring
the Secretariat to another university for its next four-year rotation. Details will
be announced this fall. To join CESS or learn more about the organization, visit
www.cess.muohio.edu, or contact the Secretariat (cess@muohio.edu).
7
CAMPUS NEWS
Faculty Publications
Costica Bradatan, former Havighurst Fellow (2004-6)
In Marx’s Shadow: Knowledge, Power, and Intellectuals in
Eastern Europe and Russia (Lexington Books, 2010)
Bradatan, former Havighurst Fellow and now assistant
professor at Texas Tech University, co-edited this volume
with Serguei Oushakine (Princeton University). By drawing
attention to unknown and unexplored areas, trends and ways
of thinking under socialism, the volume examines Eastern
Europe and Russian histories of intellectual movements
inspired - negatively as well as positively - by Communist
arguments and dogmas.
Carl Dahlman, Associate Professor, Geography
His latest book is Bosnia Remade: Ethnic Cleansing and
Population Returns (Oxford, 2010; with Gearóid Ó Tuathail,
Virginia Tech). An authoritative account of ethnic cleansing
and its partial undoing in the Bosnian wars from 1990 to the
present. The book presents a bird’s-eye view of the war from
onset to aftermath, with a micro-level account of three towns
that underwent ethnic cleansing and - later - the return of
refugees.
Scott Kenworthy, Associate Professor, Comparative
Religion
The Heart of Russia: The Trinity-St. Sergius Monastery under
Tsars and Soviets (Oxford University Press and Washington,
DC: Wilson Center Press, 2010). A book-length study of the role
of monastic revivals in Russian Orthodoxy from the eighteenth
to the end of the twentieth centuries.
Gulnaz Sharafutdinova, Assistant Professor, Political
Science
Political Consequences of Crony Capitalism Inside Russia
(Notre Dame University Press, January 2011). This book
examines the coexistence of crony capitalism and traditionally
democratic institutions such as political competition and
elections in Russia after the collapse of communism.
8
CAMPUS NEWS
Faculty News
In addition to completing her forthcoming book, Gulnaz Sharafutdinova
(POL) won the Ed A. Hewett Policy Fellowship (National Council for Eurasian
and East European Research) for her project “Asymmetric Federalism and
Property Rights in Russia.” The project targeted the issue of property rights by
examining linkages between evolving federalism and the stability of property
rights in post-communist Russia. She carried out her fieldwork in Russian
regions in the summer of 2010 and focused specifically on the recent and ongoing
conflicts between the regional and federal governments over regional economic
assets.
During his 2009-10 leave, Daniel Prior (HST) published two articles: Travels
of Mount Qāf: From Legend to 42° 0´ N 79° 51´ E (Oriente Moderno, vol. 89,
[2009], no. 2); and Sparks and Embers of the Kirghiz Epic Tradition (Fabula,
vol. 51 [2010], no. 1/2), as well as an obituary for his mentor (“Arthur T. Hatto
[1910-2010]”, in the same issue of Fabula). He also presented papers on his
current research at the annual conference of the Central Eurasian Studies
Society; at the Central Asia Seminar, Institute for Asian and African Studies,
Humboldt University, Berlin; and at the Seminar for Arabic and Islamic Studies,
Oriental Institute, Martin-Luther University, Halle. He also conducted research
at the Library of Congress, in the Ethnologisches Museum and the collections of
South and Central Asian art in the Museum für Asiatische Kunst in Berlin, and in
the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin; and he got fired up to teach World History touring
Berlin’s Altes Museum, Neues Museum, and Pergamonmuseum, and visiting a
Norman-era parish church in rural Hertfordshire, England.
In February 2010, Miami’s board of trustees approved the following for tenure
and promotion to ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR. The Havighurst Center extends
its warmest congratulations to:
Vitaly Chernetsky, German, Russian, & East Asian Languages
Author of Mapping Postcommunist Cultures: Russia and Ukraine in
the Context of Globalization (2007)
Scott Kenworthy, Comparative Religion
Author of The Heart of Russia: The Trinity-St. Sergius
Monastery under Tsars and Soviets (forthcoming)
Benjamin Sutcliffe, German, Russian, & East Asian Languages
Author of The Prose of Life: Russian Women Writers
from Khrushchev to Putin (2009)
Zara Torlone, Classics
Author of Russia and the Classics: Poetry’s
Foreign Muse (2009)
9
CAMPUS NEWS
Meet Our Newest Graduate Students
Azra Husejnovich, Political Science
Azra graduate in 2010 from Northern Kentucky University with
a degree in Economics, minoring in Political Science and Math.
Azra is originally from Sarajevo, Bosnia, lived six years in Berlin,
Germany, and currently calls Kentucky home. She will be focusing
on American Politics at Miami, with a hope of working for the
federal government after her graduate studies. Azra is also
working as the Havighurst Center’s graduate assistant.
Maria Semykoz, Fulbright Scholar, Political Science
Maria grew up in eastern Ukraine, in the city of Severodonetsk.
She moved to Kyiv in 2005, just after the Orange Revolution, to study in the National
University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” and received her BA
in political science in 2009. Maria then spent time at Tartu
University in Estonia, studying the post-Communist transition
experience of the East European countries. Before receiving her
Fulbright, Maria worked as a researcher in a market and social
research company in Kyiv, and later as an assistant to a member
of the Ukrainian parliament. Her interest in political science
stems from the intense political developments taking place
in Ukraine during its post-Soviet transition–“it’s easy to get
fascinated with the opportunities and challenges my country has been facing for the
last decades.” She will focus on party systems in post-communist countries of Eastern
Europe.
Ekaterina Zabrovskaya, Fulbright Scholar, Political Science
Ekaterina earned her undergraduate degree in Journalism
from Lomonosov Moscow State University in 2007. From her
subsequent professional experience in the Russian news and
information agency “RIA NOVOSTI”, she realized that her
goal was to become a foreign correspondent. She believes that
broadening her outlook with postgraduate study abroad and
majoring in political science will give her a theoretical and
pragmatic background to augment her journalism training, and
help her to become more objective. Ekaterina plans to focus on
foreign relations, specifically between Russia and the United
States.
AND undergraduate student worker, Valeria Naymark, Accounting
Valeria Naymark was born in Volgograd, Russia and spent most of her
life studying in Russian schools. After graduating high school in Russia in 2007, she continued her studies in the US, recognizing the rankings of top American universities in the world arena. She was accepted
to Cranbrook Kingswood High School in Bloomfield Hills, MI and
year later she transferred to Stony Brook High School in NY, where
she graduated with high honors. Miami University became her third
“home” during her freshman year and that remains the case today. she
is currently the President of the “Fashion For Charity” organization on
campus.
10
STUDY ABROAD
Intensive Summer Russian
Language Program in Novgorod
June 2 - July 5,2011
(6 credit hours; 4 graduate credit hours)
The four-week program in Novgorod offers an
extraordinary first-hand experience of Russian
life. Students study at Novgorod State University
and live in home stays with Russian families. Course work includes phonetics,
grammar, conversation, writing, and reading about Russian culture and daily life. All
the classes are taught by native specialists in Russian as a foreign language. Included
are tours and excursions in the Novgorod area and longer tours to Moscow and St.
Petersburg and their environs.
For more information, contact the trip director:
Irina Goncharenko-Rose, GREAL, at gonchai@muohio.edu
For a workshop application, go to the Novogorod website at:
http://www.units.muohio.edu/greal/study-abroad/novgorod/
For a Havighurst Center travel grant application, visit the Havighurst Center website at:
www.muohio.edu/havighurstcenter/russianstudies/documents/TRAVELGrant.PDF
Havighurst Summer Workshop
in Ukraine
July 4 - 26, 2011
HST/REL/POL/RUS 482/582
(6 credit hours)
In Summer 2011, the Havighurst Center’s Summer
Workshop will go to Ukraine. This three-week
workshop will offer an intensive exploration of Ukraine’s complex multicultural
makeup, rich history, and present-day challenges. You will visit three of Ukraine’s
most famous cities: its capital, Kyiv; the main city of the country’s western region,
L’viv; and the Black Sea port, Odessa. Each location will include tours of historical
sites and contemporary cultural facilities, meetings with writers and filmmakers,
guest lectures by prominent local scholars, and other exciting events. The workshop’s
multicultural aspect will include a focus of not only Ukrainian, but also Jewish,
Polish, Russian, Greek and other cultures present in the country. Knowledge of
foreign languages is not mandatory.
For more information, contact the trip director:
Vitaly Chernetsky, GREAL, at chernev@muohio.edu
For a workshop application, visit the Havighurst Center website at:
www.muohio.edu/havighurstcenter/russianstudies/documents/SAApplication.pdf
For a Havighurst Center travel grant application, visit the Havighurst Center website at:
www.muohio.edu/havighurstcenter/russianstudies/documents/TRAVELGrant.PDF
11
STUDY ABROAD
Travel Grants for summer and semester programs
The Havighurst Center for Russian & Post-Soviet Studies offers financial
assistance to Miami University students participating in study abroad programs
to Russia and other post-Soviet states. Miami University students planning to
enroll in a study abroad program for the summer, semester, or full academic year
are eligible to apply. Travel awards are based on the cost of the program, the
student’s academic record, and/or financial need. Visit the Havighurst Center
website for more information and an application.
www.muohio.edu/havighurstcenter/russianstudies/documents/TRAVELGrant.PDF
Russian and East European Universities
Semester Programs
Approved for Credit at Miami University
Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic
Instruction is in English. Fall or spring semesters. (Exchange)
Central European University, Budapest, Hungary
The language of instruction at CEU is English. Fall semester, spring semester, or
academic year.
St Petersburg State Polytechnic University, St Petersburg,
Russia
Instruction is in English and Russian. Fall semester, spring semester, or academic
year.
For more information on these and other study abroad programs in Russia and
Eastern Europe, contact the Office of International Education, 216 MacMillan
Hall, international@muohio.edu.
12
Student Travels & Alumni News
Matthew Bradley graduated from Miami University in 2009 with a degree in History,
minoring in Russian. He attended the European University in St. Petersburg in their
International MA in Russian and Eurasian Studies (IMARES) program.
For those interested in Russia and/or
Central Asia, European University in
St. Petersburg’s IMARES program is a
great opportunity to study both places
in depth. The program offers a new
perspective on an area that is often
overlooked. The fact is that Russia and
Central Asia are very key to US foreign
policy planning for Afghanistan. The
US is investing millions of monetary
resources as well as human resources in
the region, and unfortunately things have not always gone according to plan, as the
examples of Uzbekistan throwing the US out of its territory in 2005 and the recent
coup in Kyrgyzstan illustrate.
The IMARES program gives a student a real opportunity to dig into the region, and
really expand one’s knowledge. The faculty is amazing; they are very approachable,
friendly and knowledgeable above all. As the program is quite small, there are real
opportunities to learn from these professors. The classes are very interesting too.
For someone interested in going into a career in the security agencies, they offer
classes on terrorism and extremism, and even a class on comparing certain organized
criminal groups. For those interested in Islam, there are multiple classes on Central
Asia and Islam in the region.
St. Petersburg is also a great place to learn. It is a city of five million people, so
it is big enough to really get the feeling like one is in a real city, but not as big as
Moscow, where one can easily get overwhelmed. St. Petersburg is also close to the
Scandinavian and Baltic Countries, so you can easily visit Finland, Sweden, Norway,
Estonia, Latvia and/or Lithuania quite quickly. The city itself is full of beautiful
buildings and is home to the professional sports clubs Zenit and SKA St.Petersburg.
Of course, it goes without saying that the cultural scene in St. Petersburg is
unparalleled.
On top of the wonderful topics, teachers and location of this university, the IMARES
program really gives the student a chance to broaden his/her learning perspective
with the other students in the program. About half of them were from European
countries when I attended, and it was a very eye-opening experience. Issues
tend to be seen more globally, rather than just from an American perspective.
As all the teachers are Russian, discussions in class could get rather lively. The
program is taught in English, so those who do not speak Russian should not be
intimidated. Overall, the program was a wonderful learning experience for me, and
I would recommend it to any student with an interest in going abroad. If anyone
has any specific questions about the IMARES program, feel free to email me at
bradleymj1216@gmail.com or go to www.eu.spb.ru/ and look under their
International Programs.
13
Student Travels & Alumni News
Kunduz Rysbek Kyzy is a native of Kyrgyzstan and a junior at Miami majoring
in political science. This summer she served as an intern for the Kyrgyz Embassy in
Washington, DC.
The three months I spent in Washington, DC interning
at the Kyrgyz Embassy to the United States were more
rewarding than I expected in my most audacious hopes.
My position at the Embassy as an Assistant to the Head
of Mission allowed me to work on a broad range of
diplomatic and economic undertakings. I was fulfilled
with endless enthusiasm while working with other
diplomats on bringing more US-based international aid
organizations to Kyrgyzstan, and successfully organizing
the constitutional referendum for the Kyrgyz citizens
living in the US and Canada.
Most of the times I worked closely with the Head of
Kunduz standing next to the Head of
Mission (Charge D’Affaires) near
Mission, reporting to him on panel discussions hosted
the Kyrgyz flag
by various Washington-based political think-tanks, and
attending - together with members of Congress and Assistant Secretary Robert Blake
- a hearing on Kyrgyzstan at the US Helsinki Commission.
Because Washington, DC is an incredibly international city, where people from all
around the globe are united by one common quality, namely ambition, it has a highly
sophisticated and competitive labor market. Yet, meeting interesting, experienced,
internationally well-exposed spirits living and working in DC, made me more eager
to come back to this captivating US capital in the nearest future, as well as further
motivated me to work hard and dream big at all times.
Anna Montag is a senior at Miami, double majoring
in Religion and Russian, East European and Eurasian
Studies. She participated in the 2010 Havighurst
Summer Workshop in Russia.
I really enjoyed my experience with the Havighurst
Center workshop. We spent three weeks in Russia:
a week in Moscow, a week on a boat cruise of
the Golden Ring of Russia and a week in Saint
Petersburg. Not only did we get to see all of the
highlights of Russia, like Red Square, the Hermitage
museum, and other key sites, our group attended
lectures and spent time in several churches, monasteries, and museums. The really
unique aspect of the trip was the boat cruise. This was an excellent opportunity in
which we were able to spend time with Russians as they vacationed. This portion
of the trip was not only relaxing, but allowed us to see sights many regular tourists
and even Russians themselves never get to see. The islands showcased everything
from beautiful Russian wooden architecture, like on Kizhi, to the monasteries like
on Vaalam Island. I learned so much about Russian culture and experienced some
unique site-seeing as well. I highly recommend this trip for anyone who has an
interest in Russian culture, because it offers a taste of everything Russian.
14
Student Travels & Alumni News
Michelle Smith graduated from Miami University
in 2006 with a B.A. in political science.
In July 2010, alumna Michelle Smith joined the
Atlantic Council as the assistant director of the
Patriciu Eurasia Center. She will manage existing
programs on Black Sea and Caspian energy, as well
as develop new areas of practice on U.S. policy in
Central Asia, regional economic integration, trade
and development, and environmental and human
security issues.
In 2004 and 2005, Michelle participated in
Havighurst Center summer workshops in Russia
and worked at the Center. Michelle says the
interest in Russia and Eurasia that she developed through the Havighurst Center--and
the faculty with whom she worked and studied--inspired her to move to Washington,
study U.S.-Russia relations at the postgraduate level, return to St. Petersburg for
language study, and pursue a career in international policy.
Prior to joining the Atlantic Council, Michelle was a research associate at the Council
on Foreign Relations, where she focused on arms control, nonproliferation, and energy
security issues. She interned at the Scowcroft Group and the Kennan Institute. In addition to her degree from Miami, Michelle received an MA in International Affairs from
the George Washington University. Her writing has appeared in the Bulletin of the
Atomic Scientists, Foreign Policy magazine, the International Herald Tribune, Oxford
Analytica, and several publications of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies Graduates
A new major in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies became available in Fall
2005. Here’s what some of the program’s graduates are doing now. If you graduated
with a REEES degree, let us know what you’re up to and we’ll try to put it in our next
newsletter.
After graduating cum laude in 2009, with a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies/Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies, Sara
Wenger joined the Peace Corp and is now teaching in Ukraine.
Check out her blog at http://sara-wenger.blogspot.com/.
Lindsey Hallock, a 2010 graduate in International Studies/
Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, is now working in
the Washington, DC office of Congressman Tom Graves, Georgia’s
9th District. Lindsey is studying for the Foreign Service Exam and
investigating graduate school opportunities in International Studies.
Lindsey was a student worker in the Havighurst Center from 20082010.
15
Library News
Masha Misco, Slavic librarian for the Miami University Libraries, provided the
following updates on some of Miami’s latest acquisitions. For information about
Miami’s library holdings related to Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia, contact
Masha at stepanm@muohio.edu.
Pravda Digital Archive
In May 2010, the Library added a very important online
resource to the collection of Universal Databases. The
newspaper Pravda has been the principal Russian
newspaper since before the Soviet Union formed. It
started in 1912 and became the official organ of the
Bolshevik Central Committee in 1917. It reflected the
Soviet perspective on all major events: the Russian
Revolution, World War II, the Cold War, and the
dissolution of the Soviet Union. Although in 1991, with
the fall of the Soviet Union, Pravda officially closed
down, it continued to support the oppositional stance of
the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.
Before its digitization, the only way to access the newspaper was through microfilm
and fragile print copies. The Pravda Digital Archive now offers keyword search,
browsing, and text recognition capabilities. You can access this impressive resource
through the library catalog at http://www.lib.muohio.edu/.
The Atlas of the Russian Empire
King Library
The Miami University Libraries are proud to
announce the acquisition of a new facsimile of
The Atlas of the Russian Empire, 1800, which has
been widely considered a masterpiece of Russian
cartography and has long been a bibliographical
rarity.
In 2008 Akteon Publishers created a facsimile
hand-bound edition of this rare unique historical
publication. The Atlas includes 44 maps of Russian
provinces and a general map, printed on canvas. It
is accompanied by a separate Index volume.
16
Funded Projects and Travel Grants
Havighurst Center Program Grants
2009-2010
Havighurst Advisory Grants are awarded to faculty and student groups for
programming related to Russian, East European, and/or Eurasian studies. The
following were awarded program grants in during the last cycle of applications.
Russian Club—for meetings, community dinners, newsletter
$890
Travel Scholarships—for students studying abroad (see below)
$15,560
Library Purchase Program—to add to the Library’s collection of
materials on Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia
$6,000
Sergio Sanabria (ARC)—The Wall—for supplies to build the
“Berlin Wall” on the Slant Walk
$8,000
Performing Arts Series- Concerts of Russian compositions
$1,000
Peter Rose (CLS)—to host guest lecturer Boris Kagarlitsky
$1,000
Vitaly Chernetsky (GREAL)—Ukrainian Speaker Series $2,550
Erik Jensen (HST)—to develop course on post-communist Berlin $732
Scott Kenworthy— to host guest lecturer Dr. Thomas Hopko,
Dean Emeritus of St. Vladimir’s Theological Seminary
$350
Music Department—Russian Music Recital—student organized
performance of Russian works
$400
TOTAL GRANTS AWARDED FOR 2009-2010
$44,022
Travel Grants
The Havighurst Center offers student fellowships for Miami University
undergraduate and graduate students participating in study abroad programs or
individual research trips to Russia and other post-Soviet states. Recipients are
selected for grants based on the cost of their programs, their academic records,
and their financial need. The following students received awards in the last round
of applications.
Havighurst Russia Workshop
Lance Cummings
Jack Little
Sam Richter
Taylor White
Kali Amos
Susan Hewitt
Anna Montag
Cristina Rue
Caroline Spiese
Lindsey Hearon
Zachary Davis
Semester Study
Sam Storey (Spring 2010)
Susan Hewitt (Fall 2010)
Brett Haskins (Fall 2010)
Tim Boll (Full Year 2010-11)
17
Courses in Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies
SPRING 2011
FALL 2010
GEO 307 Geography of Central Eastern
Europe and Russia (Hamilton campus)
Skryzhevska, Yelizaveta
ATH 306 Peoples and Cultures of
Russia & Eurasia
Klumbyte, Neringa
GEO 408/508 Geography of the Silk
Road Toops, Stanley
ATH 434 Anthropology of Democracy
and Citizenship
Klumbyte, Neringa
GLG F108 Geology and Geopolitics:
Silk Road
Dilek, Yildirim
ATH/HST/POL/REL/RUS 254
Introduction to Russian, East European,
and Eurasian Studies
Prior, Daniel
HST 324 Eurasian Nomads & History Prior, Daniel
HST 375 A History of the Soviet Union
Norris, Stephen
HST 374 Russian Empire
Norris, Stephen
HST 436/536/POL 440/540/REL
440/540 Havighurst Colloquia Series:
Ukraine, Religion, Culture, Politics
Kenworthy, Scott
HST 436/536 POL 440/540
Havighurst Colloquia Series: The Gulag
in History and Memory Norris, Stephen
POL 332 Russian Politics
Dawisha, Karen
POL 331 Development of Russian Polity
Ganev, Venelin
POL 328 Central Asian Politics
Sharafutdinova, Gulnaz
POL 471 The International Systems:
Gorbachev and the End of the Cold War
Dawisha, Karen
RUS 102 Beginners Russian
Sutcliffe, Ben
REL/RUS 133 Imagining Russia
Kenworthy, Scott
RUS 202 Intermediate Russian
Chernetsky, Vitaly
RUS 101 Beginners Russian
Sutcliffe, Ben
RUS 255 Russian Literature: From
Pushkin to Dostoevsky in Translation
Sutcliffe, Ben
RUS 201 Intermediate Russian
Chernetsky, Vitaly
RUS 302 Advanced Russian II
Ziolkowski, Margaret
RUS 258 Contemporary Russian
Women’s Writing Chernetsky, Vitaly
RUS 450A Topics in Russian Culture
Chernetsky, Vitaly
RUS 301 Advanced Russian Ziolkowski, Margaret
RUS 411 Advanced Conversation,
Composition & Reading
Sutcliffe, Benjamin
18
FUNDING OPPORTUNIHAVIGHURST CENTER GRANTS
The Havigurst Center announces the next round of competition for grant
assistance through the Havighurst Center Fund for projects/program to be
undertaken in Spring and Summer 2011. The purpose of the Havighurst Fund
is to provide full or partial support for projects undertaken by full-time faculty
and staff from all Miami campuses in all fields that focus on Russia, Eastern
Europe, and/or Eurasia. Initiatives that promote wider faculty and student
awareness of the region and that seek to deepen Miami’s programmatic
involvement in this area are preferred.
Those who wish to be considered for funding for Spring and Summer 2011
should submit one original and 9 copies of their application no later than
5:00pm, Friday, November 1, 2010, to the Havighurst Center, 116 Harrison
Hall, Miami University, Oxford, OH 45056. Another round of competition
will be held in Spring 2011 to consider projects to be undertaken the following
Fall.
Proposals will be reviewed by the Havighurst Advisory Committee, comprised
of faculty peers who will submit their recommendations to the Provost for
approval.
All applicants are encouraged to contact Karen Dawisha, Director of the
Havighurst Center, to discuss their proposals before submitting them.
DAWISHKL@muohio.edu.
The Havighurst Center can add you to its listserv for
information about internships and job openings.
Contact the Havighurst Center at
havighurstcenter@muohio.edu
The Havighurst Center
for Russian & Post-Soviet Studies
Miami University
116 Harrison Hall
Oxford, Ohio 45056
Karen Dawisha, Director
Lynn Stevens, Program Coordinator