Central Europe & Russia Task Force

Notes of the Meeting on October 1, 2004

• Symposium planning
• Draft schedule
• Possible keynoters
• Symposium publicity
• Russia faculty seminar
• Travel grants
• International visitors
• Wrappping up the project

Meeting held: October 1, 2004 from 11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. at the office of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest, Chicago, Illinois

Participants: Todd Armstrong (Grinnell), Martin Farrell (Ripon), Uliana Gabara (University of Richmond), Gitta Hammarberg (Macalester), Daniel Sack (ACM), Joseph Troncale (University of Richmond) (by phone), Kim Tunnicliff (ACM), Larry White (Beloit)

The main issue for the meeting was planning a symposium, scheduled for April 8-10, 2005, at the University of Richmond. Task force members laid out many hopes for the event.

• Dan said the symposium would help to wrap up the Central Europe/Russia work of the Global Partners Project, summarizing what has been done and laying out a possible agenda for future work in the region for liberal arts colleges.
• Uliana thought such a meeting would be useful, since the project really hasn't done any thinking about the future of the field.
• Todd senses that scholars across the board are struggling with the idea of area studies, especially due to the rise of international or global studies. The symposium could address those concerns.
• Marty suggested that the issue of area studies would be worthy of a plenary, since it raises both disciplinary and interdisciplinary issues.
• Larry pointed out that people who are not area specialists might not be interested in area studies.
• Kim suggested that the symposium could provide a chance to discuss curricular issues, rather than just have a series of paper presentations.
• Gitta hoped the symposium would send a message to administrators about the value of this region and of area studies. Uliana proposed that the symposium come up with a united statement on the field and its future.
• Gitta noted that a previous conference on the region (at the College of Wooster) had sessions on new courses, which was very useful.
• Todd hoped that the symposium could lay a foundation for finding funding for studies of the region, as happened with previous Ford Foundation grants.
• Larry hoped the symposium would reinforce the interests of non-specialists who had visited with the region because they wanted to do something new. To do that, Todd suggested a session on new course modules and on interdisciplinary courses. Uliana agreed, noting that we have moved away from specialist teaching to generalist teaching. We have to convince the specialists that the future of the field requires collaboration with non-specialists.
• Gitta hoped to hear what seminar participants and travel grant recipients had done with their research projects. There was general agreement that the symposium should be a reunion of both groups.

After a good deal of discussion, the task force came up with the following tentative schedule:

Friday, April 8
Afternoon Registration
5:30 PM Reception
6:30 Dinner
8:00 Plenary: Keynote (someone to raise general issues, but not heavy)

Saturday, April 9
8:00 AM Breakfast
9:00 Plenary: Panel on issues in the study of the region (off-campus study, area studies, etc.)-Participants should include someone from a graduate program and someone from a Title VI center
10:30 Break
11:00 Small group discussions of plenary, with randomly assigned participants
12:30 PM Lunch
1:30 Disciplinary panels-language study, literature, economics, history, etc.
3:00 Break
3:30 Reunions of the seminar groups-others can attend whichever one they choose
5:00 Reception
6:00 Dinner, perhaps with some appropriate music
7:30 Optional movie

Sunday, April 10
8:00 AM Breakfast
9:00 Small group discussion: What has Global Partners accomplished? (Randomly assigned participants)
10:30 Break
11:00 Plenary panel: Next steps for study of region-include a dean, foundation representative, etc. Helen Scott was recommended as a participant
12:30 PM Lunch (box lunches available)

Task force members brainstormed a bit about possible keynote speakers. Names mentioned included:

• Madeleine Albright
• Olga Matich (University of Southern California) (Russians in Hollywood)
• Slovenka Drakulic (novelist) (suggested by Marty)
• Ms. Broz (Tito's grand-daughter, author of a new book) (suggested by Gitta)
• Sbaboj Zizic (Slovenian urban planner) (suggested by Todd)
• Zbigniew Brzezinski
• Mark Beissinger (University of Wisconsin) (suggested by Gitta)
• Mischa Glenny (New York Times) (suggested by Dan)
• Michael Ignatieff (Harvard)
• Caryl Emerson (Princeton)
• Stephen Kottkin (Princeton)

There was some discussion of publicity. The task force agreed that invitations should be sent to those who had gone on one of the seminars or had received a travel grant. That group should include those who receive travel grants in February 2005. Uliana distributed information on the university and the city of Richmond; she proposed that symposium publicity stress the city and its resources.

In other business, the task force briefly discussed the faculty development seminar in Russia in the summer of 2004. Facilitator Joe Troncale described the seminar program, which he felt was a success. Dan noted that the evaluations were generally quite positive. Joe was very well received, and people enjoyed the speakers. The interdisciplinary mix worked very well, it seems, and people got along. The biggest complaints are about time-there was too much to do in too short a time, with no time for discussion and reflection. Also, people were frustrated by the language barriers; they found themselves in the role of students-for better and worse. Evaluations suggest that the seminar has already had curricular impact, and will have more.

Dan described the travel grants awarded in 2004. We had twenty applicants, and funded twelve. Some of the recipients did collaborative work-one involved taking students to a dance competition, another worked with a student already there, while a few involved working with local academics. Reports are posted on the project web site. There will be one more round of grants in 2005.

He also described response to the international visitors program. There has been significant if not overwhelming interest. Without question it is having an impact. Participants in the summer seminar will be bringing someone they met in Moscow to their colleges. The program is also encouraging collaboration between colleges.

Finally, Dan asked what the task force should do to wrap up its work. Members generally agreed that a good result would be a paper on the state of the field, analogous to an ACE white paper. It should be targeted at groups like ATSEEL, Title VI centers, and the Chronicle, getting liberal arts colleges a set at the table where decisions are made. Such a project would keep the region's importance on our campuses from getting lost. The project should commission someone to write such a paper, based perhaps on the final plenary at the symposium.