Past Feature Stories

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 2009
Under 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.