The Amherst Center for Russian Culture undertakes a number of initiatives to advance new scholarly and undergraduate research in Russian Studies. You can read about some of the current initiatives below.
The Center is undertaking various programs to respond to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. These efforts range from educational programming for our various constituences to critically assessing of our collections and developing ways to support scholars and artist at risk.
As part of this effort, the ACRC convened an AALAC-funded workshop with colleagues from other liberal arts colleges, “Rethinking Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies in light of Russia’s War in Ukraine.” Additional information summarizing the findings of that workshop will be posted shortly; we also anticipate additional symposia to develop themes of the workshop in the coming the academic year.
Taking up the College's Anti-Racism plan and inspired by a visit by the Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg in October 2019, the ACRC launched a series of programs related to the complex history of the Soviet Union, decolonization, and the Civil Rights in the United States. The project critically explores that history and collects archival and other documentary material related to it. This initiative is led by Prof. Michael Kunichika.
Milestones of the project so far have included: In 2022, the ACRC exhibited "The Wayland Rudd Collection," a conceptual project by the artist Yevgeniy Fiks which assembles an archive of visual works testifying to the Soviet Union's engagement with race relations in the United States and decolonization efforts in Africa. This exhibition inspired a student-led collections project to build a library of materials related to race and decolonization in the Soviet Union. The Center supports Fiks's mounting of the show at various institutions. If you are interested in bringing the collection to your school, please be in touch with either Yevgeny Fiks or acrc@amherst.edu.
The Center has also made possible the translation of Prof. Dale Peterson's landmark volume, Up from Bondage, into Russian.
The Anti-Racism Library: A student-led collections project, under the guidance of Prof. Michael Kunichika, to build a library of materials related to race and decolonization in the Soviet Union. Recent acquisitions include Claude McKay’s A Long Way from Home and the first Soviet edition of James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk. A digital humanities platform is being developed by Claudia Lonkin and Erica Drennan. The project will be released in Spring '24.
Michael Kunichika, "Russia and the Representation of Race," offered regularly.
The ACRC boasts a rich collection of materials related to Russian poetry, including the Tarasenkov Collection, a large collection of first and rare editions of Russian emigré poetry, and the archival collections of Konstantin Kuzminsky, which include materials related to The Blue Lagoon Anthology, Kuzminsky’s monumental nine-volume anthology of contemporary Russian poetry. The ACRC builds on this collection strength by hosting poetry reading series and supporting innovative scholarly research focused on the study of Russian poetry of all periods. This initiative is led by Prof. Catherine Ciepiela.
Spearheaded by Prof. Boris Wolfson, the ACRC aims to develop new histories and critical studies of performance in Russian culture. The ACRC holds the Alma Law Archive, an enormous collection of books, periodicals, archival documents, and audiovisual materials related to two fascinating periods in Russian and Soviet theater: the 1920s-1930s, during the height of Vsevold Meyerhold’s avant-garde theater; and the 1970s-1990s, a period of revival of experimental theater in the late Soviet and immediate post-Soviet years. Research in this area have also benefitted from a major book donation by Peter and Monika Greenleaf, which includes a remarkable range of work related to contemporary theater.
Amherst College undergraduates actively engage with ACRC materials through class visits, internships, and research projects, including senior theses and capstone projects. ACRC interns catalog books, process archival materials, research the collections, write blog posts, and prepare materials for exhibitions in the Reading Room. Students majoring in Russian analyze an object from the Center's collections as part of their capstone projects.