Carnegie Grant to support 'New Directions in Russian Studies'

The Russian Studies Project that was launched in January 2015 at the Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale has been awarded $200,000 by Carnegie Corporation of New York to focus on “New Directions in Russian Studies.”

The goal of the interdisciplinary Russian Studies Project is to meet the growing interest in Russia on campus — and generate even more — with a range of activities that will cover political, economic, social, cultural, and other issues. Over the last several months, the project presented a multi-faceted set of events to inform and engage student and faculty interests in the nation, drawing on the enduring and new lessons of Russian history, Russian culture as depicted in film, and the ideas of contemporary thinkers focused on Russia at this pivotal time.

The project is led by Paul Bushkovitch, the Reuben Post Halleck Professor of History; Thomas Graham, senior fellow at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs; John MacKay, professor of Slavic languages and literatures, and of film and media studies; and Douglas Rogers, associate professor of anthropology.

“We are grateful to Carnegie Corporation of New York for this support,” said Ian Shapiro, the Henry R. Luce Director of the MacMillan Center, and Sterling Professor of Political Science. “It will allow us to build on the project’s initial successes by developing more robust programming and expanded opportunities for students and faculty on campus and in Russia, as well as reinforce the institutional foundation for the long-term sustainability of Russian studies at Yale.”

With this new funding, the project will:

• Convene Russia-focused events that will reach new and expanded generalist audiences at Yale and beyond;
• Convene three major international conferences that have the potential to transform the field of Russian studies by fostering new perspectives, collaborations, and methods;
• Deepen linkages between Yale and Russian institutions by bringing more scholars, students, and professionals from Russia to the Yale campus and to the United States; and
• Support the new scholarship and research of Yale graduate students in Russian studies.

In addition to Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Russian Studies Project is supported by the MacMillan Center, the European Studies Council at the MacMillan Center, and an anonymous donor.

The project reinforces the MacMillan Center’s role as a hub of interdisciplinary research and teaching on contemporary issues of global, institutional, and human import.