PRINTA three-week institute for twenty-five higher education faculty to investigate four waves of Russophone immigrants to America.
Veteran directors Timothy Frye (Columbia University), Robert Davis (Columbia University), and Edward Kasinec (The New York Public Library) conduct a new institute that explores the particular characteristics, motivations, and experiences of the four waves of Russophone immigrants to America from the territories of the former Soviet Union. According to the directors, "while the achievements of notable individuals from this milieu have been celebrated, sometimes uncritically, the specific post-Bolshevik/post-Soviet transnational, and Russian-American milieu from which they emerged is little-known." The institute enables participants to interact with an array of master teachers, scholars, and community representatives of the last three waves of emigration, in order to investigate in detail the core issues for these immigrant groups. They examine the reception, adaptation, and assimilation of the various waves of ethnic Russian immigrants; the formation of various ethnic organizations; and the implications of gender, class, and politics in the interaction between Russophone immigrants and non-Slavic ethnic groups. Furthermore, the readings and discussions integrate post-Soviet historiography within the broad sweep of immigrant studies in America, through specific methodological and conceptual approaches. Using the key terms "diaspora," "transnational," "accommodation," and "memory," the institute creates a "sophisticated narrative of the 'Russophone Experience' in America that could be integrated into broader courses on American politics and immigration, sociology, and ethnic studies."
Faculty: Thomas Beyer, Steven Cassedy, Zvi Gitelman, Michael Gordin, Phil Kasinitz, Thomas Kessner, Rebecca Kobrin, Laurie Manchester, Olga Matich, Catharine Nepomnyashchy, Maxim Shrayer, and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak