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.

We are pleased to invite you to the "Empowering Change: Bridging Human Rights Advocacy and Global Engagement" virtual conference. This insightful two-day event will be held on April 25-26 via Zoom, and will feature presentations by students from the RSSS/HRTS 561 course who have partnered with international NGOs to complete impactful human rights projects. During this year's conference, students will showcase the culmination of their work assisting 10 human rights organizations across five countries. The projects span critical areas such as environmental protection, migration, freedom of speech, revitalization of indigenous languages, and several other pressing human rights issues.

RSSS 461/561 "Human Rights in Eurasia" is an innovative course offered by the Department of Russian and Slavic Studies in collaboration with the MA Program in Human Rights Practice at the University of Arizona. The course provides an in-depth exploration of significant human rights concerns in the Eurasian region, with a particular focus on the integration and implementation of international human rights in various Eurasian states. The curriculum delves into the historical background and socio-cultural foundations of states in the region, examining the human rights of minorities and other communities. It addresses specific issues including LGBTQ+ rights, minority and linguistic rights, regional feminism, among others. The course critically assesses the international human rights system's effectiveness in upholding these rights and considers diverse approaches and perceptions of rights by states and governing bodies. A key component of the course is experiential learning, where students engage directly in social mobilization and civic activism alongside human rights activists within the region.

Join us as we engage in dialogue, learn from our students' experiences, and inspire change through global engagement!