Institute of Modern Russia

 

The Summer Institute is a National Endowment of Humanities (NEH) program that provides teachers and other scholars with an opportunity to deepen their knowledge of scholarship in key fields of the humanities. In 2013, Columbia University’s Harriman Institute received a prestigious NEH Summer Institute grant to explore the particular characteristics, motivations and experiences of the four waves of Russophone (Russian-speaking) immigrants to America from the former Russian Empire and Soviet republics. The institute aims at creating a sophisticated narrative of what is called “the Russophone experience in the U.S.,” built around four key concepts: “diaspora,” “transnational,” (when an immigrant community moves freely between the “sending and “receiving” country), “accommodation,” and “memory.”  After completing the institute, participants should be able to integrate this narrative into broader courses on American politics, sociology, immigration and ethnic studies.

Each Summer Institute hosts 25 scholars who are primarily teachers at American colleges and universities. Qualified independent scholars, employees of museums, libraries, historical societies, and other organizations are also eligible to apply for this program. Up to three places are reserved for full-time graduate students in the humanities.

As in previous years, the 2013 Summer Institute will be co-directed by Harriman Research Scholar Edward Kasinec and Columbia University Libraries’ Robert Davis, with Harriman Institute Director Timothy Frye serving as Principal Investigator. The Summer Institute’s faculty includes a number of prominent academics, such as Thomas Beyer, Steven Cassidy, Zvi Gitelman, Michael Gordin, Phil Kazinitz, Thomas Kessner, Rebecca Kobrin, Laurie Manchester, Olga Matich, Catharine Nepomnyashchy, Maxim Shrayer, and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak.

NEH Summer Scholars received awards to help cover travel, room and board, and research expenses.  No tuition is charged. Information on how to apply can be found on the Summer Institute’s website. Please note that the deadline for the submission of applications is March 4, 2013.

 

Edward Kasinec: “The goal of the Institute is to look at the Russophone culture of the 20^th century as a whole”

 

 

In his capacity as co-director of the 2013 Summer Institute, Edward Kasinec spoke with IMR’s Olga Khvostunova about the Institute’s goals and the timeliness of its theme—the Russophone diaspora. 

Over the last thirty years Edward Kasinec has lectured on issues of Slavic cultural history, bibliography and librarianship throughout the world, including at Sapporo University, the Hebrew University, and various North American and Eastern European institutions. He holds graduate degrees from Columbia University (M.A., 1968, M.Phil., 1979), and Simmons College (M.L.S., 1976). His professional career includes service as a Reference Librarian/Archivist for Harvard University Library and the Ukrainian Research Institute Library; and Librarian for Slavic Collections, University of California, Berkeley, Library. Mr Kasinec was also Curator of Slavic and Baltic Division at the New York Public Library for 25 years (1984-2009).

 

Olga Khvostunova (O.Kh.): How did you become involved with the NEH Summer Institutes Program?

Edward Kasinec (E.K): About eight years ago, when I was Principal Curator of Slavic and Baltic Collections at the New York Public Library, we applied for a National Endowment of Humanities’ grant to fund a Summer Institute for college teachers. The theme of the first institute was Russian visual art. We received two subsequent grants for Summer Institutes. After I retired from the library in 2009, I started thinking whether we could organize an institute here, at Columbia University. In 2011 we succeeded in receiving a grant for a Summer Institute entitled “America Engages Eurasia.” It was a study of how a variety of diplomatic, academic, cultural and teaching programs that deal with Eurasia were developed in America over a period of 150 years. And it was wonderfully successful!

O.Kh.: Who are the Summer Institutes intended for? Who is your primary audience?

E.K.: The Institute’s program is designed for 25 people, who are college and university teachers, independent scholars, librarians, museum employees and some graduate students. Applicants must be United States citizens, residents of U.S. jurisdictions, or foreign nationals who have been residing in the United States or its territories for at least the three years immediately preceding the application deadline.

O. Kh. Does that mean it is not open to Russian-speaking scholars from abroad?

E.K. Yes, that is correct.

O.Kh.: How competitive is the program? How many people usually apply?

E.K.: This year we expect up to a hundred people to apply for 25 slots, so it’s clearly competitive. On our website you can find all the information regarding eligibility, selection criteria, conditions, stipend and so on.

O.Kh.: Who will be teaching this program?

E.K.: The faculty will include a number of senior presenters who are considered the best teachers and researchers in various academic fields. For example, one of our topics will be the literature of the Russophone diaspora in America. This will be taught by perhaps the best specialist in that area—Maxim Shrayer from Boston College. To address the issue of the Russian Jewish diasporas of the third and fourth waves we invited Professor Zvi Gitelman from the University of Michigan.

O.Kh.: The 2013 Summer Institute will focus on America’s Russian-speaking immigrants and refugees of the 20^th century. Why did you choose this particular issue?

E.K.: While thinking about issues worthy of attention, we undertook careful research and came up with that theme. We saw that the volume of literature on the Russian-speaking diaspora that had been published in the last 10-15 years was enormous. It’s a broad theme, and we had to take into account hundreds of works in English and in Russian that covered the history of four waves of immigration, starting from 1917. It took us about five months to write a proposal for the NEH. Judging by the number of inquiries and applications for the institute, Robert Davis, my colleague and co-director of the Institute, and I are certain that this topic fills an important void.

 

Since 2011, the Summer Institute has been hosted by Columbia University

 

O.Kh.: Does this topic have any relevance to understanding Russia today?

E.K.: It is very timely. The issue of transnational migration evokes a lot of interest today. When you look at Russian history of the 20^th century, you usually see two tracks: “Soviet Russia” (“Sovetskaya Rossiya”) and “Post-Soviet Russia” (“Postsovetskaya Rossiya”). And you also have “Russia Abroad” (“Zarubezhnaya Rossiya”), or the Russian-speaking diaspora. Conventional studies imply that there was no interchange between the national and international historical narratives, between “Sovetskaya Rossiya” and the diaspora. But this is absurd in today’s world! So the goal of the Institute is to look at the Russophone culture of the 20^th century as a whole.

O.Kh.: How do you define the Russophone group?

E.K.: We are very careful not to say “Russian,” we say “Russophone,” or Russian-speaking.  The term “Russophone” underscores the often underappreciated complexity of this century of immigration from the territories of the former Soviet Union, including not only individuals who would identify themselves as ethnic Russians, but also Russian-speaking Jews, Caucasian peoples, Central Asians, et al. Moreover, we cannot classify how people feel about their national identity. In some cases, individuals may develop their national identities once they get here. For example, Pavel Mikhailovich Fekula, a great private collector of Russian books and manuscripts, was born in Canada, but his family came from the Carpathian Mountains on the border of Poland and Ukraine. And he considered himself Russian.

O.Kh.: What are the specific problems that the Institute will focus on as a part of creating this new narrative?

E.K.: The Institute’s program is focused on the issue of the interrelations between four waves of the Russophone immigration to the United States, their adaptation to American realities and the ways that the immigrants preserved their historical memory. We will also compare the Russophone diaspora to other diaspora groups, such as the Hispanic or Chinese. Through the Institute, we hope to raise these issues to the level of a community discussion.

O.Kh.: In your opinion, what is the impact of the Russian-speaking diaspora on U.S. culture?

E.K.: All around us we see so many individuals of accomplishment and attainment who are Russophones! One example from the older generation is Professor Boris Bakhmeteff, a Russian engineer, after whom the Bakhmeteff Archives are named here at Columbia University. Then there are people who came to America more recently, like Mikhail Baryshnikov, Sergei Brin, Len Blavatnik, Vitaly Komar, and many others. Today, very often, while walking the streets of New York, you hear Russian being spoken and you are not surprised any longer—it has become a “comme il faut.”

O.Kh.: What chance do the participants have to give their feedback on the program?

E.K.: On the last day of the Summer Institute, graduates of the program are asked to fill out a detailed evaluation, which is about four or five pages long. They are encouraged to fully express their opinion of the Institute and to provide their views on the individual presenters. These are filed directly with the National Endowment for the Humanities. Thus, as well as seeing what kind of job we have done, NEH can use this information when planning future programs.

O.Kh.: What are your expectations for the upcoming Summer Institute?

E.K.: I expect to meet people from both large universities and small colleges who are interested in integrating the issue of the Russophone diaspora into a broader context, particularly teachers of Russian history, American immigration, and sociology.  I also look forward to exposing these scholars to New York, to Columbia University, and to the Institute’s prominent faculty. And I expect to learn a great deal myself.

O.Kh.: You seem to take a personal interest in Russophone diaspora issues. Where does it come from?

E.K.: I have been working in the field for many years and have been privileged to know people of various waves of the diaspora. When I first came to Columbia University in the 1960s, Lev Magerovskii was curator of the archives here. Between the two world wars he was one of the curators of the Russian Historical Archives in Prague. In 1970, as a student, I visited the Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, New York, which belongs to the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. I met Archimandrite Konstantin (Zaitsev), who had graduated from St. Petersburg University Law School in the imperial era. He was truly a figure of the ancien regime. As the curator of the Slavic and Baltic Division of the New York Public Library, I met people of the third and the fourth waves of immigration. Many of them became my friends and colleagues.  In a sense, I was reliving my own experience as a part of this ethnic group. I have great enthusiasm for this program, which, I hope, I was able to convey. There has never been such an academic institute ever before!