The SRAS Newsletter
A Resource for Students, Educators, and Anyone Curious about Eurasia
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 Georgian mchadi (corn bread) served with various traditional accomponiments. Georgian Foodways will study national identity, cultural diplomacy, and more this summer in a travel-seminar to Georgia! |
Select spring study abroad courses are still available under extended application deadlines. You still have until November 15 to apply for programs in Kiev, Bishkek, and Warsaw!
For those interested in summer study abroad, start planning early! We have redesigned and new programs across Eurasia! Study the role of foodways in economy, government policy, and ethnic identity in Georgia. Study cultural diplomacy in Cuba and St. Petersburg. Study environment in Irkutsk, anthropology in Bishkek, museum science in St. Petersburg, security in Warsaw, or learn Russian or intern in nearly any of our many locations. There is funding available for most programs as well. Deadlines start March 15.
Our newsletter below has some of the best of what our students have produced for our family of sites. You'll find a discussion of the difficulties in defining Central Asia, advice on how students can make friends abroad, a new political profile of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navlany, instructions on how to make and eat Georgian cheese, an introduction to one of Russia's most prestigious music schools that doubles as a popstar factory... and much more!
Table of contents
GeoHistory Students Abroad Russian Language
PopKult ArtinRussia Books
Study Abroad
in Eurasia!
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Study Abroad
in Russia!
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Study Abroad
in Poland!
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- Summer Study Abroad -
Application deadlines: March 15
In most locations: Russian as a Second Language
Internships
Challenge Grants
In Warsaw: Security and Society
In Bishkek: Central Asian Studies
In Georgia: Georgian Foodways
In Russia: The Art and Science of Museums
Russia and the Environment
The Cuba-Russia Connection (+in Cuba!)
- Spring Study Abroad -
Extended deadline for select programs: November 15
In Warsaw: Security and Society
In Bishkek: Central Asian Studies
Russian as a Second Language
In Kiev: Policy and Conflict in the Post-Soviet Space
Russian as a Second Language
Funding for all the above programs: Challenge Grants
GeoHistory.today
History and Current Events in Perspective
Russia on the Ground Foreign Affairs TV News
What do Russians think about issues that matter? What is going on in Russian foreign relations? How does Russian TV really report on the main issues of the day? These free monthly resources from GeoHistory.today are meant to keep you informed.
Central Asia: Core and Periphery
An entity as much cultural as it is geographic, traditional boundary concepts are nearly meaningless when trying to define Central Asia. At the center of vast and vastly diverse Eurasia, Central Asia is at once unique from and inseparably tied to the lands that surround it.
Profile: Alexei Navalny
This new profile details Navalny's rise to become Russia's most formidable opposition politician by leveraging social media and building both liberal and nationalist bases of support. By SRAS Home and Abroad Scholar Katheryn Weaver.
Students Abroad
Travel, Study, Volunteer, Work Abroad
Ararat Brandy Factory
Charlie Bacsik, a student at the University of Texas at Austin, discusses her tour of a monument to Armenian cultural pride and cultural diplomacy as part of SRAS program abroad.
Meeting Locals in Irkutsk
Alaina DeLeo, a student at the University of Kansas, gives advice from her experience in embedding herself in the local society of her study abroad location.
Sick in a Foreign Country
Getting sick abroad is very common and very natural. There will be bugs that your body has never seen before and even strong immune systems are more susceptible after the rigors of international travel.
Eurasian Languages
Lessons and Resources from around the Web
SRAS: Nadugi: Never Too Much Georgian Cheese
Nadugi is a soft traditional Georgian cheese that goes great with just about everything. This Russian/English recipe, with commentary, comes from Dr. Michael Denner, who will lead SRAS's Georgian Foodways program this summer.
LobeLog: The Many Flavors of Persian in Eurasia
The language categories we are more or less stuck with are organized vertically by nation-state, which at once obscures the profound variation of local dialects, while simultaneously implying deep differentiation by country that does not in fact exist, among Farsi, Dari, and Tajik.
Luch Sveta: Moscow Bike Parade
Luch Sveta details how Moscow activists brave adverse weather and angry drivers to promote bicycling in Russia. View the Russian-language video and read the transcript in Russian and English translation.
PopKult.org
Contemporary Eurasian Popular Culture
Nashe Radio Polish Pop Hits Russkoe Radio Top Russian Movies
Find out what local language hits are playing on local radio stations in Poland and Russia and on Russian silver screens with these free monthly resources from PopKult.org.
Gnessin
Gnessin is one of Russia's most prestigious music schools - and also doubles as a factory for pop stars. SRAS Home and Abroad Scholar Katheryn Weaver gives you a quick introduction.
LemON
LemON is a Polish-Ukrainian band named for a Ukrainian ethnic minority inhabiting a stretch of the Polish Carpathian Mountains. They are currently dominating Poland's pop charts.
TOP 5 SRAS Facebook Posts
These are the posts from SRAS’s Facebook feed that you have most actively liked, shared, or commented on for the month of October. As usual, the list is diverse and eclectic.
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Featured Book!
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ArtInRussia.org
High Culture, Museum Science
(Soon to be Renamed MuseumStudiesAbroad.org!)
10 Contemporary Russian Painters Worth a Look
Levitan, Shishkin, and Aivazovsky, among many others, are names known to every well-educated person in Russia and abroad. These artists are Russia’s pride. Today, too, there is no shortage of talented Russian artists. Their names are just not yet so widely known.
The Russian Salvador Dali
Vladimir Kush was born in Moscow and initially studied art there. His big break, however, came in the US from a French businessman.
Socialist Realism
At its worst, Socialist Realism produced, even demanded, empty propaganda. At its best, it produced artworks pulsing with life, with immediacy and potency.
Books from Amazon
New Releases!
The Red Atlas
The Soviet military completed what is now recognized as the greatest mapping project in the history of the world. They mapped just about everything with incredible detail - from safe drinking water in China to load-bearing weights of American bridges. This new book contains dozens of excerpts from the project as well as history (and some speculation) on how it was done. The author says that early satellite imagery was probably involved as well as actual "Soviet feet on the ground" - everywhere from Tokyo to Galveston.
City Folk and Country Folk
Sofia Khvoshchinskaya was a 19th century Russian author compared to Emily Bronte and Jane Austen. She wrote about female characters in contemporary society, eschewing the archetypes of her day (unlike the works of her male peers). This novel has been translated to English for the first time and is now available on Amazon thanks to a great translator and friend of SRAS, Nora Favrov!
Stalin: Waiting for Hitler
This is book two of Stephen Kotkin's epic biography of Stalin. Book one was a lengthy, enjoyable, and informative read. This one comes highly recommended.
The Cold War: A World History
New scholarship on the global history and modern repercussions of The Cold War.
Gorbachev: His Life and Times
A new biography by William Taubman.
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