A newsletter devoted to diversity and opportunity in Eastern Europe and Eurasia, published by the Duke-UNC Joint Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies
Volume 1, Number 2
November 1996
Russia is a strange place right now. The words "society at a crossroads" instantly spring to mind as I remember the combinations of old and new, Western and non-Western, that bombarded my senses every day of the seven-week "Duke in Russia" program in St. Petersburg this summer. The prevalence of Western advertisements and goods provoked ongoing discussion. Signs in English are commonplace and foreign items appear in stores. This change was especially striking since on my visit in 1991 all such things were novelties rather than the norm. The new situation led to some unexpected scenarios in everyday life: buying ice cream from a Baskin Robbins' kiosk across from the Peter and Paul Fortress, watching a dubbed version of "Interview with a Vampire" in a Russian home, or learning the word "fat" in different languages as we examined the nutritional information on our food. While I am not convinced this onslaught is healthy for Russia and its culture, it did make us a little less homesick.
We had a rather ambiguous status in Russia. As language students, we were not tourists, but we were certainly not natives. At first, we stood out quite blatantly, but gradually we adopted more and more Russian behavior. We pushed and squeezed almost as well as Russians on all forms of transportation. And we spoke much more quietly. Despite these changes, we still felt foreign much of the time. For instance, we never knew with any degree of certainty whether our Russian student cards would be accepted or we would have to pay foreign entry fees to museums. It did not help that our success varied from museum to museum and from day to day.
I think we learned a great deal during our seven weeks in Russia. To begin with, wonders surrounded us and we appreciated them every day. Our daily ride to school took us through the heart of the city - past the Hermitage, the spire of the Admiralty, and the dome of St. Isaac's. Then came my favorite part of our daily routine: the walk around the Smolny Cathedral and across a beautiful treed lawn to the building where the Center of Russian Language and Culture had its classes. The quiet and stillness were unbelievable for a city of that size. I felt I could almost see the ghosts of the young women who once lived there wandering the grounds in their white dresses.
We quickly realized that one cannot rely on Western rules because norms are not universal. Some small but socially important differences include sunbathing and giving of flowers. People in Russia often sunbathe standing up and in, what seems to us, the oddest places (such as outside the walls of the Peter and Paul Fortress). And flowers, it turns out, should only be given in odd numbers. On a larger scale, we confronted a different set of laws or no laws at all. For instance, I am convinced there are no traffic rules in St. Petersburg. Anything is acceptable provided one is daring enough to try and we took great pride in the maneuvers of our drivers. But strangely, we never felt unsafe.
In addition, we came to appreciate small things differently. I cannot adequately describe our pleasure when someone suddenly produced Western toilet paper from a secret stash and passed it out in Moscow. Or how important hot water came to be in our minds. You would have thought we won the lottery when we got an extra week of hot water in June. Once the hot water finally went off, my roommates and I felt lucky because we had a soup ladle in our apartment and could pretend to shower with our stove-heated water. And suddenly, things that looked like earth-shattering crises before we left (such as the number of shoes I could cram into my luggage) seemed rather frivolous. In fact, my first thought when I got back to Durham was "My God, my apartment is huge!"
Finally, a few words must be said about the friendliness of the Russians. Despite the language barriers, people tried to help us and showed a great deal of tolerance. From the excitement of seniors at the museums to our cook Irina who coped with our likes and dislikes admirably, we were always met with smiles. Our teachers were first rate and made the material stimulating and challenging so our Russian noticeably improved on a daily basis. In the end, I think the Russians were pleased we chose to go to Russia and they sensed our love for it.
Alison Rowley, Graduate Student
History Department, Duke University
The Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships are designed to provide support and funding to graduate students studying the languages and cultures of specific foreign countries, including Eastern Europe. An annual competition is held to determine the recipients for both summer and year-long grants. FLAS fellowships cover tuition at UNC/Duke plus a stipend. Stipends are expected to be approximately $10,000 for a year-long award and $2,400 for summer. Travel awards of up to $1,000 are available only in connection with a summer FLAS fellowship to cover travel to another institution if necessary.
A standardized FLAS application has been developed and is available from the Center. In addition to the application, students must also provide academic transcripts and statements describing how the proposed language study fits in with their overall course of study and career goals, and their research project. Eligibility is limited to graduate students who are US citizens or permanent residents. Only academic year awards may be used for research abroad and only in the event the research cannot be done effectively in the US. Summer awards are for intensive language training only. Overseas awards are for advanced and intermediate levels. Priority will be given to the non-Russian languages of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union and higher levels of training, as well as the distribution of awards among a diverse range of disciplines.
This is a wonderful opportunity for language study and should not be missed. All graduate students studying Russian or an East European language are encouraged to apply. The deadline for receipt of all materials is January 15, 1997. Decisions will be made by April, 1997. Please submit all application materials to the Center for Slavic Studies, 223 E. Franklin St. CB#5125.
I spent a total of six weeks at Harvard this summer, during which I took 12 credit hours of courses. Advanced Ukrainian was taught by a Ph.D. candidate in Slavic Literature, Taras Koznars'kyj. A native Ukrainian speaker who emigrated from L'viv, he was a fantastic instructor. In addition to being very enthusiastic, he was one of the most well-prepared language teachers I have ever had - and I've had many. My second course was Modern Ukrainian History and Culture, taught by Dr. Borys Hudzjak, the director of a theological research institute in L'viv. Not surprising given Dr. Hudzjak's expertise, the course was oriented toward the history of religion in Ukraine, and he brought a great deal of knowledge and insight to this area, which is important in the history of Ukraine in general.
In addition to taking courses, I made full use of the wonderful facilities at Harvard to conduct research on my Master's thesis, which concerns dative and locative case endings in Ukrainian. In addition to the extensive Slavic collection at Widener library, relevant materials were found at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. I also discussed my thesis topic with Dr. Michael Flier, the chair of the linguistics department at Harvard and one of the leading experts on East Slavic linguistics.
I can say with conviction that the time I spent at Harvard improving my Ukrainian language skills and researching my thesis topic is paying significant dividends at the present, as I work on my thesis at a feverish pace in anticipation of a December graduation. In addition, the language skills and cultural knowledge I obtained will serve me well into the future as I continue my career dealing with the countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
Collin Schnell, Graduate Student
Slavic Department, University of North Carolina
Recipient of Summer FLAS Fellowship, 1996
As a third-year graduate student under the guidance of Professor Jarausch in the History Department, I am currently working on a dissertation proposal addressing the multi-dimensional character of everyday political culture in eastern Germany from the beginning of Soviet occupation in 1945 to the erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961. The FLAS fellowship is funding my study of Russian, with which I plan to gain insight into the Soviet perspective on the German Democratic Republic. I am very grateful to Slavic and Eastern European Studies for sponsoring this grant because it allows me extra time to improve my language ability and to develop my dissertation prospectus. It has been instrumental in making my workload during this crucial stage of my academic career more manageable.
Rob Steinfeld, Graduate Student
History Department, University of North Carolina
Recipient of Academic Year FLAS Fellowship, 1996-1997
My dissertation is in its beginning stages, but I plan to incorporate into it a generative approach to the word order of the Slavic languages, including pragmatic and phonological considerations. Naturally, I would like to bolster my analysis with field work conducted with native speakers, for which a good knowledge of the language in question is essential. My previous work has been in Russian, but my experience with Serbo-Croatian has indicated to me that this language promises to be extremely interesting both with regards to my dissertation topic and other linguistic phenomena.
My attraction to Serbo-Croatian stems both from my research interests in the language as well as my personal fascination with the people and culture of the region. Though there are many pressures that interfere with my graduate studies in general and studying Serbo-Croatian in particular, the FLAS means that money for school need not be one of them.
Patrick Murphy, Graduate Student
Slavic Department, University of North Carolina
Recipient of Academic Year FLAS Fellowship, 1996-1997
Simon Karlinsky, professor emeritus of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of California, Berkeley, will be giving talks on Thursday and Friday, November 7 and 8 on the UNC Campus. On November 7 he will be speaking on "Nabokov and the Poets of Russian Modernism" beginning at 5:00 p.m. in Dey Hall Room 402. On November 8 his talk will be titled "Debates about Tchaikovsky's Life and Death" beginning at 7:00 p.m. in Toy Lounge in Dey Hall. For more information, contact Christopher Putney at 962-3977. This event is co-sponsored by the Center.
A celebration of Polish poetry will be held on November 11 at 6:30 p.m. in the Conference Room at 223 E. Franklin St. featuring the reading in both Polish and English of the poetry of Wis»awa Szymborska, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in October, 1996. Madeline Levine published an analysis of Szymborska's work in her 1981 book on Polish poetry and will provide a short introduction to the evening's readings. Please contact the Center for more information.
On November 15, the Duke University Artists Series presents Vladimir Valek conducting the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra with violin soloist Alyssa Park in Page Auditorium. Tickets are available for $28, $25, $22. For more information and to purchase tickets call 684-4444 or 684-5578.
The next Piedmont Slavic Colloquium will be held on December 3 beginning at 5:30 p.m. in the Conference Room at 223 E. Franklin St. Dr. Nina Rusinova, of the Institute of Sociology, St. Petersburg and currently visiting UNC-Greensboro, will discuss "A Look at Informal Family Economics in St. Petersburg". Stephen Press, a doctoral student in Music at UNC will speak on Prokofiev's ballets and how they anticipate the themes of Soviet ballets. Future Colloquium dates are January 21, 1997 at Duke, February 25 at UNC and March 25 at Duke.
The Duke University Museum of Art is running an exhibit of works by artist Shimon Okshteyn entitled "Chaika: Preserving the Images of Ideology" through December 29. For more information, please call 684-5135.
The Center is sponsoring an all-day conference for sixth grade teachers on March 8, 1997 in Toy Lounge, Dey Hall on the UNC campus. Titled "The Other Europe: Culture and Society in Eastern Europe and Russia", the conference will emphasize the traditions, foods, cultures, and crafts of Eastern European countries. For more information, please contact the Center.
Sam Baron spent the month of September in St. Petersburg, Russia, helping to prepare the Russian translation of his biography of Plekhanov. Lack of funding, however, has made publication problematic. With some time to spare, he delved into his new project: Bloody Saturday in the Soviet Union: Novercherkassk, 1962.
Paul Debreczeny participated in a Pushkin Symposium at the University of Wisconsin-Madison October 4-6. The Symposium gathered Pushkin specialists from across Russia and the USA in order to assess the state of Pushkin scholarship. Paul presented a report on Pushkin's incomplete fiction and nonfictional prose. A subsequent volume of reports from the Symposium will be published by the University of Wisconsin Press.
The Other Pushkin: A Study of Alexander Pushkin's Prose Fiction (Stanford University Press, 1983) by Paul Debreczeny has recently been published in a second revised edition, in Russian, by Akademicheskie proekty in St. Petersburg.
The American Council of Teachers of Russian offers summer, semester, and academic-year programs for language study in St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Republics of the CIS. These programs provide students with the opportunity to study Russian and non-Russian languages in the regions these languages are spoken. For more information and a copy of the application, please contact the Center or Margaret Stephenson of ACTR, 1776 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20036 (tel. 202-833-7522, fax 202-833-7523, email stephens@actr.org).
The Council on International Educational Exchange has scholarships available for study on various Council-administered programs in St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk, Russia. For more information, contact Jill Phelphs, Program Registrar, tel. 212-661-1414, x1485.
The Stanford Humanities Center is offering External Faculty Fellowships for 1997-98 of up to $40,000. These include senior fellowships for well-established scholars and junior fellowships for scholars at least three years beyond the receipt of their Ph.D. to provide research opportunities in the humanities. Applications are due November 15. A copy of the application can be obtained from the Center.
The University of Lodz Center for Modern Translation and Interpretation Studies is offering two programs of post-graduate training in translation and interpretation. Basic tuition is $2,500 for each program. Students should have facility in Polish. More information can be obtained from the Center or by contacting the Osródek Badan a Studiów Prezkladowych, ul. Matejki 21/23 p. 112, 91-850 Lodz, Poland (tel/fax 048-42-354748/9; email hartzell@krysia.uni.lodz.pl).
The Centre for Russian and East European Studies of the University of Toronto announces a symposium on State and Society in the Stalin Era through the Prism of Regional Archives to be held in Toronto on June 15-22, 1997. Scholars interested in participating in the symposium should apply to the Stalin-Era Research and Archives Project, Centre for Russian and East European Studies, University of Toronto, 130 St. George Street, Suite 14341, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A5 Canada, tel. 416-978-8192, fax 416-978-3817, email serap@epas.utoronto.ca. The deadline is December 1, 1996. More information can also be obtained from the Center.
International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) 1997-1998 grant information for US scholars is now available on the WorldWideWeb. Applications can be downloaded and printed from the site. The list of opportunities is also available in hard copy by writing irex@irex.org.
Spend the New Year in St. Petersburg. The Center at Duke is organizing an 11-day sight-seeing trip to Russia from December 27 to January 6. Itinerary includes a city tour, visits to historical sights and museums and a performance of the Kirov Ballet. The cost is $1245, which includes airfare, hotel, meals and excursions. For more information, please contact Edna Andrews at 660-3157.
Tver State University is sponsoring its Second Annual Winter School for Applied Russian Studies in Tver from January 6 to February 17, 1997. Students of all ages and abilities are invited to apply for the program which includes Russian language instruction, area studies seminars, local and regional excursions and various winter activities. For more information and applications, please contact Dr. Marina Oborina, Director of Academic Programs, International Institute of Russian Language and Culture, PO Box 0565, Central Post Office, 170000 Tver, Russia, email iirlc@ic.redline.ru.
Be a Summer Camp Counselor in Russia. Spend 4-8 weeks volunteering at youth camps across Russia, learning Russian language and culture and teaching Russian youth about America. For more information contact Camp Counselors USA at 1-800-999-2267 or pick up a copy of the application at the Center.
Students interested in working for the government should take the Foreign Service Exam. The exam is given in November. Information on the Exam can be obtained by writing to the US Department of State, Recruitment Division, P.O. Box 9317, Baltimore, MD 21236, ATTN: FSWE or by contacting the appropriate University Career Services office.
The University Center for International Studies has published a resource guide to Funding Opportunities for International and Cross-Cultural Research for graduate students. This guide is available for use at UCIS, 223 E. Franklin St.
UNC at Chapel Hill Center
223 E. Franklin St. CB#5125
UNC Chapel Hill, NC 27599-5125
tel.: (919) 962-0901
fax: (919) 962-2494
e-mail: slavic@email.unc.edu
Duke University Center
302 Languages, Box 90260
Durham, NC 27708-0260
tel.: (919) 660-3157
fax: (919) 660-3188
We look forward to seeing you soon!
Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Institutions. This publication was produced without the use of State Funds.
inflections is a quarterly publication of the Joint Duke-UNC Center for Slavic, Eurasian and East European studies. Editor: Laura A. Janda; Associate Editor: Nicolae Harsanyi; Managing Editor: Sharon Kowalsky.