Dear Colleagues!

The Russian State University for the Humanities is pleased to invite you to participate in the International Academic-Applied Conference «Russian/Soviet Studies in the United States, American Studies in Russia: Mutual Representations»

Organizer: Russian State University for the Humanities (American Studies Program & Division of International Relations & Institute of Russian History & Department for Post-Soviet Near Abroad Studies & Department of World Politics and International Relations) in cooperation with the US Embassy in Moscow, the Fulbright Program in Russia, and the Kennan Institute

Location: RSUH central campus, Moscow, Russia

Number of participants: Up to 50 historians, literary scholars, political scientists, and specialists in cultural studies from Russian and American Universities and academic сenters

Time and Duration: 2 days, to take place on February 16-17, 2011

Principal Purposes of the Conference are: (1) to expand the boundaries of the Imagology of Russian-American Relations using new thematic priorities, comparative study approaches, and primary sources; (2) to stimulate an interdisciplinary discussion of the scholarly research of other country, national character, and people as a field for the construction of national identity in both the Russian Empire/USSR/Russia and USA; (3) to perceive the correlation between the academic agenda, on the one hand, and domestic and international challenges, on the other, in the 19^th -21^st centuries; (4) to elucidate the role of the “human factor” in the study of each other on both sides of the Atlantic; (5) to analyze the “double reflection” situation (“Our” perception of “Them” studying “Us”); (6) to broaden our knowledge about the cultural dimension of the foreign policy in Russia and in the US; (7) to examine the prospects of Russian Studies in the US and Amerikanistika in Post-Soviet Russia in the context of contemporary bilateral and international relations.  

Outcome: Special emphasis will be placed on how to utilize the information and ideas from this conference in the implementation of the second bilingual volume within the international project “Russian/ Soviet Studies in the US, American Studies in Russia as Scholarly and Pedagogical Fields: Mutual Representations” initiated by Victoria Zhuravleva (Russian State University for the Humanities) and Ivan Kurilla (Volgograd State University) two years ago. The first bilingual book has been published in Volgograd under financial support of the Kennan Institute (Victoria Zhuravleva, Ivan Kurilla (eds.) Russia and the United States: Mutual Representations in the Textbooks, 2009).  

Program Content

The program will consist of the plenary session, four thematic panels, and the round table.

Proposed Panels:

• The History of Russian Studies in the United States and Amerikanistika in Russia
• An image of the Other in textbooks, university courses, and school curricula
• Activity of academic centers in the context of foreign policy making process in the 19^th -21^st  centuries
• Russian/Soviet studies in the US and Amerikanistika in Russia within methodology of national human sciences

Round Table: Study of each other after the Cold War: lessons and prospects

The working languages of the conference are Russian and English.

Applications including the author’s name, degree, institutional affiliation, e-mail, phone number, and the topic of the presentation and abstracts (200 words) are expected before November 1, 2010. Applications and abstracts are to be sent electronically as an attached file, Microsoft Word format, to Victoria Zhuravleva, Associate Professor, Director of the RSUH American Studies Program, Vice-director of the RSUH Division of International Relations, at zhuravlevavic@mail.ru