Past Feature Stories
U.S. Second Lady Discusses Fulbright Community College Initiative in Russia
Dr. Jill Biden met with the Fulbright director and two Russian colleagues during a recent visit to Moscow with her husband, Vice President Joe Biden. The conversation focused on critical issues shared by both the U.S. and Russia such as access to education and workforce training for the 21st century. The Fulbright Program’s work with U.S. community college faculty and administrators in Russia continues to engage interested partners and offer individualized solutions. Read more...
Mid-year Enrichment Event for U.S. Fellows
43 Fulbright U.S. Students, including 27 English Language Assistants, gathered in Moscow on January 20 – 21, 2011 for the mid-year enrichment seminar to share their success stories, professional and personal impressions. An incredible scope of topics, ranging from “Breast and Ovarian Cancer in Siberia” and “Environmental Psychology and Politics of the Lake Baikal region” to “Why Putin Wears a Cross: religion in the Russian Political Sphere”. The seminar was preceded by a 3-day training for the ETA fellows, conducted by Thomas Santos, head of the English Language Office, U.S. Embassy.
U.S. Perspective on Astronomy in Altai
If someone would ask Dr. Nancy Muleady-Mecham what Russia and the U.S. share in common, her answer, most likely, would be about stars and the sky. Dr. Muleady-Mecham spent 3 months in the fall of 2010 in Gorno-Altaisk . During her Fulbright grant, Nancy not only lectured at Gorno-Altaisk State University (GASU), visited local national parks, but also donated a lot of her time and energy to establish the very first in the history of Gorno-Altaisk Astronomy club, which is now has the official name of the Altai Astronomy Club (AAC). The AAC turned out to be an outstanding outreach activity bringing together around 100 people each time. Its fans can be found not only among students and faculty of GASU, but also among local grammar and high school students along with their families.
U.S. Secretary of State addresses Russian Fulbright Fellows
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered remarks to a gathering of Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistants from 48 countries that took place December 8-12, 2010 in Washington, D.C. In her remarks, Secretary Clinton stressed the following: “Senator Fulbright… once said – that, ‘Educational exchanges can turn nations into people.’…As the 2010 class of Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistants, you are the latest in this tradition of young people who have taken up this mission”. Alla Savelieva, an FLTA fellow at Wheaton College, was one of 37 Russian fellows in attendance at the December events in Washington, D.C., and she stressed that Secretary Clinton’s remarks were one of the most exciting moments of the event. The 37 Russian FLTAs together with their colleagues from around the world are spending this year sharing their language and culture with American students across the United States. (For Secretary Clinton’s full remarks, visit http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2010/12/152620.htm).
U.S. Scholars Join Russian Art Community
In celebration of the 90th anniversary of the founding of VKhUTEMAS, the Moscow Institute of Architecture held a 3-day international conference. Two current Fulbrighters, Angelina Lucento and Roann Barris, presented papers at the Thursday afternoon session on the practical and conceptual applications of space in the work of artists associated with VKhUTEMAS and its influences on other artists in the 20th century. Angelina’s paper discussed the painter David Shterenberg’s treatment of space, paint, and concrete objects in still-life oil paintings; Roann’s paper focused on American exhibitions of the art of VKHuTEMAS and their possible influence on architects in the 1980s. The conference was conducted in both English and Russian, and a catalogue of the conference, published in Russian, contains abstracts from all the presentations.
Assistant Secretary of State Meets with Alumni and StaffU.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Ann Stock visited the Fulbright-Moscow offices on November 2, 2010 along with staff members from the Embassy. Her visit included a luncheon with Russian and American Fulbright program participants as well as meetings at the Fulbright office with Director Anthony Koliha and the Fulbright Program staff. The visit agenda included a discussion of how the Fulbright program impacts Russian communities and the potential for increasing the awareness of Fulbright in Russia.
Fulbright Alumni Conference with US Community College AdministratorsRussian and American Fulbright fellows and alumni participated in a conference on “Higher Education for Tomorrow’s Professionals,” from April 2-3 in Moscow. Participants included six senior U.S. Community College administrators, who described the increasingly important role being played by community colleges in training individuals for further higher education as well as for entry into and retraining within the workforce. Read the full story...
Fulbright Fellows travel to Kyzyl! Four English Teaching Assistants (ETA) traveled to Kyzyl, Russia to meet with local students and teachers at Tuva State University. The club “Polyglot” organized a meeting for Tuvan students and faculty with the ETAs and several other foreign students who currently are studying in Kyzyl. The Fulbright Fellows discussed their opinions on “Music as an international form of communication” and sang a traditional American folk songs. Read the full article in Russian.
Fulbright Alumni Concert in Saratov!Saratov State Conservatory named after L.V.Sobinov was honored to host a concert in the Great Hall of the Conservatory on March 25, 2010 of the music of Joel Feigin, Professor at California University in Santa Barbara (USA). Professor Feigin is a Fulbright Program Alumnus. The concert was organized by Russian Fulbright Scholar Alumna, Tatiana Svistunenko. Many of the pieces that were played made their Russian debut. Read more...
Fulbright’s 35th Anniversary in Russia As part of the 35th Anniversary celebrations, more than 100 Russian and American Fulbright Alumni participated in the V All-Russia Alumni Conference on March 23-24, 2009. The conference was organized in cooperation with Moscow State University and the State University-Higher School of Economics. The opening reception was hosted by US Ambassador John Beyrle and his wife Jocelyn Greene at their residence. Full article...
US Fulbright Scholar Concert The Moscow Conservatory performed four pieces by US Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Joseph Dangerfield, on Saturday, October 31, 2009 including the world premier of Remnants, dedicated to and performed by pianist Natalia Cherkasova. Dr. Dangerfield is an Assistant Professor at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He is currently spending a year teaching composition and working with Professor Vladimir Tarnopolski at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory. 
Fulbright Summer School 2009Under the leadership of Dr. Tatiana Venediktova, president of the Russian Fulbright Alumni Association, participants from all across Russia took part in the Twelfth annual Fulbright Summer School in the Humanities, entitled “Media Imagination,” from June 15-21, 2009. According to 2009 Fulbright Senior Specialist to Russia, Dr. Stephen Duncombe (New York University), “Over the course of one intense week we loosened the tyrannical bonds of the present (and past) and began to think of what might be. That is: we began a process of imagining.” Full Article
International Earth Day On this day, people volunteer to help clean their local courtyards and parks, plant flowers and trees throughout the city and participate in various other environmental improvement efforts. The holiday was founded in the United States to increase understanding and awareness of local and global environmental problems. Interested to learn more about what our Fulbright alumni think about today’s environmental issues, we asked them to describe what they consider to be the main global environmental problems today? How are they affecting Russia specifically? And what measures are people taking in Russia to address these problems? Read their responses!
“Abraham Lincoln: Lessons of History and the Contemporary World” The Fulbright Program participated in an international conference dedicated to U.S. President Abraham Lincoln’s 200th anniversary. The conference was hosted by Rector Efim Pivovar, a Fulbright alumnus, at the Russian State University for the Humanities. Speakers included U.S. Ambassador John Beyrle and Russia Fulbright Director Anthony Koliha. American and Russian scholars (including a number of Fulbright alumni) from a wide variety of disciplines gathered to share their research on Lincoln and to discuss Lincoln’s influence on and significance to contemporary times. Read the full article... 
New Geosciences Program launched in Russia Alumni of the Russian Fulbright Scholar Program gathered to discuss the opportunities and prospects of this new program in Russia. The program, funded by ExxonMobil, provides an opportunity for recent graduates and young professionals to receive a Master's Degree in the Geosciences in either the United States or United Kingdom. Scholars in attendance at the meeting recently held at the Fulbright Office in Moscow included: Olga Nikolaevna Solomina, professor, member of the Russian Academy of Science, senior researcher at the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Science; Natalia Nikolaevna Mitin, professor, senior researcher at the Institute of Water Problems of the Russian Academy of Science; Igor Semenovich Zektser, professor, chair of the laboratory at the Institute of Water Problems of the Russian Academy of Science; Nikolay Nikolaevich Akinfiev, professor, leading researcher at the Institute of Geology of Ore Deposits, Petrography, Mineralogy and Geochemistry of the Russian Academy of Science and Korotenko Konstantin Aleksandrovich, professor, leading researcher at the Institute of Oceanography of the Russian Academy of Science. The application deadline for the competition in Russia is March 15, 2009. More information about the program
Saint Petersburg- December 12th and 13th- Fulbright Senior Scholar Keith Sanborn and his partner Peggy Ahwesh presented a mini-retrospective at the "Rodina" theater of their most significant individual and joint work during the past 20 years in a series titled "Philosophy in the Boudoir: Laughter / Abjection". The event also served as the premier for Keith Sanborn's newest film "The Force of Beauty: The Beauty of Force" created from a series of advertisements by the Russian Ministry of Defense recently shown on the television station "Star". Keith Sanborn and Peggy Ahwesh have worked individually and jointly in the field of experimental film, video and electronic arts for nearly 30 years. Keith Sanborn is currently lecturing at Smolny College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. To read more, click here...
Robert Givens, a professor in the Department of History at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, IA, attended a conference hosted by Tomsk State University: “Outcomes of the Twentieth Century as the USA Enters a New Century,” on November 13th and 14th. Dr. Givens is currently a Fulbright Scholar and lecturer at the School of International Relations at Saint Petersburg State University. Dr. Givens gave a talk during the opening presentations of the conference in Tomsk based on some of his earlier research that sought to link the anti-communist crusade of the 1950s to the recent cultural wars in the US...Read more
Senior Fulbright Fellow Angela Stent, a guest lecturer and consultant at Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) this Fall, had an opinion article featured in the November 11th edition of the Moscow Times entitled “Ready for Re-engagement”. Published five days after the U.S. Presidential Election results were announced in Russia, the article addresses the tensions between Russia and the United States and the prospect of opening the doors of communication between President Dmitry Medvedev and the soon-to-be Obama administration in hopes of greater cooperation where mutual interests are concerned. Dr. Stent is the Director of the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies in the Georgetown School of Foreign Services and Professor of Government and Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
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