Russian Language / Literature vs. Russian Studies?

[Melissa Smith]

 Populations differ in what appeals. To look at the lowest common 
denominator: Some graduate students at Youngstown State University did 
a study of incoming freshman and their attitudes toward learning a 
Foreign Language and presented their results at an in-house conference. 
When asked what language they would NEVER consider studying, 21% 
indicated Russian (the only lower-rated language was Arabic). One of 
the reasons cited: "B/c Russia is so far away & isolated. 3/4 of the 
country is so cold that no one can live there. I don't see much value 
in learning Russian."

In other words, public institutions have a hard sell.

Melissa Smith

On 12/18/10 2:48 PM, Benjamin Rifkin wrote:
> Dear SEELANGers: 
> 
> 
> I will be discussing this and related matters in my talk at the 
upcoming AATSEEL Conference, from a dean's office perspective. 
> 
> 
> Best wishes to all, 
> 
> 
> Ben Rifkin 
> The College of New Jersey 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "David Graber" <david_graber2 at YAHOO.COM> 
> To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu 
> Sent: Saturday, December 18, 2010 2:15:35 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada 
Eastern 
> Subject: [SEELANGS] Russian Language / Literature vs. Russian Studies? 
> 
> Dear Seelangs Subscribers, 
> 
> As I hear of departments being cut or eliminated, I wonder if it 
matters how we present the *purpose* of our course material--on the one 
hand, as language learning leading to the study of 
literature/linguistics or, on the other, as part of a more general 
humanities/social sciences-based Russian Studies. 
> 
> Does it make a difference if we package our classes as ways of 
understanding "civilization", "culture", "cultural history", "cultural 
studies", "area studies", "history of ideas", etc, as opposed to 
classes that suggest that our ultimate goal is understanding 
"literariness" (e.g., "Russian literature", "19th Century Russian 
Literature", "Romanticism", "Pushkin/Dostoevsky/Tolstoy", "Russian 
Poetry", etc) and linguistics? 
> 
> I'd be curious to know whether anyone on the list has any experience 
with reworking the departmental offerings into a Russian Studies 
program, what is gained/lost in doing so, and whether that seems to 
affect how students, administrators, and the public view the department 
and its usefulness to the institution and society. 
> 
> Dave Graber 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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------------------------------------

Melissa T. Smith, Professor
Department of Foreign Languages and 
Literatures  
Youngstown State University
Youngstown, OH 44555
Tel: (330)941-3462

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