Celebrate Spring with the Department of Russian and Slavic Studies! Maslenitsa (aka Spring Festival or Pancake Week) is one of the popular holidays of many Eastern European countries which all share excitement for the end of winter.

The cultures and customs of Uzbekistan have developed over a long history of contact and exchange with others, from the time of the Great Silk Road to the globalized 21st century. Find out more about this vibrant region as Dr. Oldfield discusses life, literature, travel, and culture in Uzbekistan and Central Asia.

An alumnus of the UA Dept. of Russian & Slavic Studies (MA, 1998), Dr. Anna Oldfield now works at Coastal Carolina University, where she teaches world literature and film. In addition to work in Russia & Ukraine, Dr. Oldfield has participated in various projects in Azerbaijan, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. Her research centers on Central and Western Asia, and she is currently collaborating with Uzbek scholars, writers and translators on an anthology of 20th- and 21st-century Uzbek short stories.

The conference will be held at the University of Arizona on Friday, March 28 (virtual session) and in-person on Saturday, March 29, 2025 (Location: Environmental and Natural Resources 2 Building, room S225)

This year’s keynote lecture will be delivered by Professor Brian Goodman (English Department, ASU)

March 28 (virtual session) and March 29 (in-person)
Sponsored by the Department of Russian and Slavic Studies, University of Arizona
In collaboration with the Russian Program & the Melikian Center, Arizona State University
All times are listed in local AZ (MST)

Friday, March 28
3-4:30 Virtual Panel on Zoom: Perspectives on Russian Language Teaching (Part I)
Chair: Dr. Veronika Williams (vaw@arizona.edu) 
•    Emil Asanov (easanov@fsu.edu) “Native-speakerism: How an institutional ideology manifests itself as an instructor internalized construct in Russian Studies”  
•    Aselle Almuratova (almuratova@wisc.edu) “Teaching the Russian language through the Decolonial Lens” 
•    Alla Savelieva (alsa5009@colorado.edu) “Classroom Materials in Russian Language Teaching: Fostering Diversity and Accessibility”

Saturday, March 29, 2025
In-Person 
Location: Environment and Natural Resources 2 Building (ENR2) - Room S225
Address: 1064 E Lowell St, Tucson, AZ 85719

8:30-9:00 Welcome & Light Refreshments

9:00-10:15 Panel 1: 19th-Century Russophone Literature and Culture
Chair: Prof. Suzanne Thompson (seanes@arizona.edu) 
•    Colleen Lucey (luceyc@arizona.edu), “The Nigilistka in Russophone Fiction of the 1860s”
•    Tatiana Ulanova (tatianaulanova@arizona.edu), “Could Prince Myshkin and the Übermensch be Friends? 
•    Miroslav Seleznev (seleznev@arizona.edu), “Realism and the Condition of Women in 19th Century Russia: Female Characters in Dostoevsky’s The Idiot and Khvoshchinskaya’s Boarding-School Girl”

10:15-10:30 Break

10:30-12:00 Panel 2: Politics, Identity, and Semiotics
Chair: Dr. Ana Hedberg Olenina (ana.olenina@arizona.edu) 
•    Sabrina Sulaymonova (ssulaymonova@arizona.edu), “A Close-to-Home Account of Life in Soviet Central Asia” 
•    Sterling West (sterlingw@arizona.edu), “Atomized Tears: Collective Memory of Chernobyl and Hiroshima” 
•    Emil Volek (emil.volek@asu.edu) “The Prague School Yesterday and Tomorrow: The Question of ‘Structuralism’ and Semiotics”

12-1 Lunch
(meeting for ASU and UA faculty-light lunch provided for meeting attendees)

1:00-1:45 Keynote Address 
Dr. Brian Goodman (brian.k.goodman@asu.edu) 
"Reading Howl across the Iron Curtain, or Why Our Cold War Ideas About Banned Books May No Longer be Helping"

1:45-2 Break

2-3:00 Panel 3: Perspectives on Russian Language Teaching (Part II)
Chair: Dr. Colleen Lucey (luceyc@arizona.edu)
•    Yulia Mikheeva (yuliamik@arizona.edu) “Teaching Russian with Virtual Field Experiences (VFEs)
•    Naomi Caffee (caffee@reed.edu) and Rossina Soyan (rsoyan@asu.edu) “Indigenous Literatures in Russian Language Instruction”

3:00-3:15 Break

3:15-4:45 Panel 4: (Re)Discovering Film: Cinema in Ukraine and Russia
Chair: Dr. Anastasia Gordienko (gordienko@arizona.edu) 
•    Ana Hedberg Olenina (ana.olenina@asu.edu), “From Shadows to Limelight: Rediscovering Ukrainian Film History Today”
•    Peter Baedke (gbaedke@asu.edu), “Nikita Mikhalkov’s 12: The Distortion of Law in Modern Russia” 
•    Rachel Sims (Rachel.sims@phoenixcollege.edu), “Elena and The Arcana of Reproduction: Liberation and Domestic Labor in Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Elena”

4:45-5 Closing Remarks

Equipment request (if necessary)  

Conference registration is free, but participants are expected to cover lodging and accommodations.

The Critical Languages Program is offering a free Ukrainian taster course for FIVE hours of instruction. This course will be an introduction to the Ukrainian language and culture and will be held via Zoom on Mondays 8:00PM - 9:15PM (AZ time) December 2 - December 23.

Please click here to learn more from the Critical Languages Program.

Hear from three University of Arizona students who studied language and culture in Kazakhstan in Summer 2023. Arizona in Kazakhstan gives Russian-language students a unique opportunity to learn language and to experience the culture in one of the most vibrant, successful post-Soviet Russian-speaking countries. Key features of this program include intensive Russian or Kazakh language (all levels are welcome!), and culture study in Astana, the exquisitely beautiful and modern capital of Kazakhstan. During the six-week stay in Kazakhstan, students will have weekly excursions in Astana and around the country.

for more information please contact Professor Suzanne Thompson at seanes@arizona.edu.