CEELBAS Network Projects & Workshops 2008-9

Workshops & Projects 2007-8	Workshops & Projects 2009-10
Workshops & Projects 2010-11	Forthcoming Workshops & Projects

CN08UL-2: Reading Strategies for Postgraduates: the Finno-Ugric Interface

Project leader: Dr Daniel Abondolo
Institution: UCL

Language project to explore the particular difficulties encountered by postgraduate learners of the three largest Finno-Ugric langauges: Hungarian, Estonian and Finnish. The primary aim of this project was to identify key areas of grammar that account for these difficulties and to address these problems by text-based grammar exercises.

Report on Estonian element
Report on the Hungarian and Finnish elements

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CN08OX-3: National Identity in Eurasia: Migrancy and Diaspora

Project leader: Professor Catriona Kelly
Institution: University of Oxford
Conference report

The conference explores a range of different aspects of migration and diaspora in the countries that once formed part of the Soviet Union, as well as those states and cultures that border the former superstate. While the emphasis of the conference is on current, post-Soviet, trends, these are always viewed from a historical perspective, with a strong awareness of the legacies of the Soviet past. 

Gathering together sociologists, anthropologists, historians, geographers and political scientists from France, Germany, Hungary, Norway, Russia, Kazakhstan, Australia, the US, and the UK, the conference offered a uniquely wide-ranging, cross-disciplinary forum for informed discussion of issues that are of enormous topical significance. See conference website for further details.

Publication: Forum for Anthropology and Culture (Antropologicheskii forum): (No. 6) Prestige, Authority, and Dialogue in Contemporary Academia - Special Section on 'Eurasia on the Move'

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CN08CB-1: Methods of Memory Studies: Russia and Eastern Europe

Project leader: Dr Alexander Etkind
Institution: University of Cambridge
Workshop report

This workshop took place on 18 and 19 December 2008 at King's College, Cambridge. Among fifteen speakers there were literary scholars, historians, anthropologists, political scientists and sociologists who came from the UK, US, Russia, Sweden, Estonia and Holland. The workshop was well attended by students and scholars. Discussion was lively and there was a clear determination to continue them in the same or different format in the future. 

The workshop significantly contributed to establishing a new field, Memory Studies in Eastern Europe and in the post-Soviet Space and served as a planning session for further collective applications - these have since included the major 3-year HERA project 'Memory at War: cultural dynamics in Poland, Russia and Ukraine' led by the University of Cambridge since 2010.

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CN08OX-1: The Knowledge-Based Economy: Comparing Effects of Science and Technology Policy Across the CIS

Project leader: Dr Carol Leonard
Institution: University of Oxford
Workshop report

This one and half day workshop on the Science and Innovation Policy in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was held at the University of Oxford on 4 and 5 December 2008. This area was explored from the perspective of growth and restructuring of the CIS towards knowledge based economy (KBE). The first session addressed the CIS in a comparative perspective. The second session was concerned with individual CIS countries (Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, and Kazakhstan). The third session offered for a panel discussion in comparative perspective, especially in drawing comparisons with experiences of the EU NMS from CEE and other catching up economies.

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CN08UL-1: Poland Under Feminist Eyes: One-day Workshop on the Application of Feminist and Gender Perspectives to Polish Literature and Culture

Project leader: Dr. Richard Mole
Institution: UCL
Workshop report

The main objective of this workshop was to demonstrate that feminist approaches - as well as the wider field of gender studies - can fruitfully be applied to the analysis of various aspects of Polish literary and cultural history as well as to Polish contemporary reality, in order to reveal and interpret mechanisms at work that are often not brought out by the mainstream discourse of Polish public life, politics and media, which tend to marginalize women's interests or force women into specific modes of behaviour. The approach was practical and aimed at postgraduate students as well as fellow researchers, including those from other disciplines who may wish to develop their competence in this field.

Publications:

Women's Wrting Online, Issue No. 1, 2009: 'Poland Under Feminist Eyes: Research in Literary and Feminist Studies'

Mapping Experience in Polish and Russian Women’s Writing (Eds.: Marja Rytkönen, Kirsi Kurkijärvi, Urszula Chowaniec and Ursula Phillips), Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Nov 2010

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CN08SF-1: Materials for developing the language research skills of heritage speakers of Polish

Project leader: Karolina Ziolo
Institution: University of Sheffield
Project report

This internet-based language project was aimed at heritage speakers of Polish, who may be studying at post-graduate level and are looking to improve their academic language skills. As an IT-package of self-study materials, it can be used both by students willing to improve their language skills independently and by teachers in the classroom. It can be updated to fit the changing requirements of new students and it can also become a forum for Polish heritage speakers to create a network of students of Polish origin. Website also accessible via the Language Repository.

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CN08BH-1: Midlands Russia seminars: 'Russian Political Thought'

Project leader: Dr Jeremy Smith
Institution: University of Birmingham
Workshop report

This activity consisted of four seminars on the theme of Russian political thought, held at the Universities of Warwick and Birmingham, jointly organised by Dr Jeremy Smith at Birmingham and Professor Christopher Read at Warwick. Each seminar was comprised of the presentation of a pre-circulated paper followed by comments from a discussant and general discussion. The series succeeded in continuing the tradition of high-level seminar discussion on Russia in the Midlands, as well as offering the speakers valuable comments and observations on their papers and providing postgraduate students with an important opportunity to engage in high-level discussion on the subject.

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CN08UL-3: Lithuanian for Research

Project leader: Jurgita Azhar
Institution: UCL
Project report

A langauge project for the development of Lithuanian language teaching materials for ab initio students, focusing on aspects of Lithuanian culture, economics, politics, science and social life in order to compensate for the lack of teaching materials of this type.

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CN08BH-7: Geographies of Nationhood: Landscape and Identity after Communism

Project leader: Professor Mark Bassin
Institution: University of Birmingham
Workshop report

This interdisciplinary workshop was held at the University of Birmingham from 7th-9th September 2009 and investigated the role played by geography and space in the process of identity construction in the nations of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union after 1989 and 1991. It promoted and gave impetus to the formation of a scholarly network for the study of Lanscape and Identity in post-Communist societies and produced a wealth of material dealing with these themes from a variety of intellectual and disciplinary perspectives. The workshop was particularly fruitful in uncovering new dimensions and areas of significance in the study of political change, space and identity.

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CN08OX-2 Applying Innovative Methods and Techniques to Teaching Russian at REES: A Cognitive View

Project leader: Dr Anna Pleshakova
Institution: University of Oxford
Project report

This project investigated how current provision for teaching Russian at REES can be enhanced by adapting applied cognitive linguistics (language pedagogy) methods to the teaching of Russian to postgraduate students. The project has delivered explanations, materials and text analysis modules which have been tested during langauge classes and incorporated into the WebLearn Russian langauge training courses at REES (Oxford), with positive student feedback. Plans are in place to disseminate the results of project across the CEELBAS Network. Materials available in the Language Repository.

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CN08MC-1 Rethinking the state in Central Asia: an anthropological approach

Project leader: Dr Madeleine Reeves
Institution: University of Manchester
Workshop report

This interdisciplinary workshop brought together a group of 23 junior and established scholars, from 12 countires, who have drawn on the theoretical potential of recent political anthropology in their analyses of contemporary Central Asian statehood. This two-and-a-half day event helped to foster a stronger sense of intellectual community among the scholars involved in this disparate field of study and has facilitated the production of research articles and theoretical reflections that together significantly advance the anthropology of the state in Central Asia.

Publication (forthcoming): Performing Politics: Anthropological Perspectives from Central Asia (eds.: Judith Beyer, Johan Rasanayagam and Madeleine Reeves).

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CN08UL-9 The Changing Landscape of East-Central Europe in Transnational Context, c.1700-1989

Project leader: Professor Martyn Rady
Institution: UCL
conference report and project report

This workshop looked at current work on a range of issues relating to the environment, (de)industrialization, urbanization, conservation etc with a focus on the Czech and Slovak lands but with comparative material from elsewhere in Central Europe and beyond, including a British dimension. Environmental history is a fast-growing area of research, spurred by present concerns, but drawing on rich traditions in the study of rural and urban settlement, land management, heavy industries, transportation and communications, historical geography, town planning and cityscapes, attitudes to the natural world, and so on.

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CN08BH-2 Development of web-based element of Intermediate Russian Oral Course for Postgraduate Students

Project leader: Dr Jeremy Morris
Institution: University of Birmingham
Project report

Project to develop the VLE element of an Intermediate Russian Oral Course for PG students. Materials available in the Language Repository.

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CN08BH-3 Updating and revision of Birmingham postgraduate Russian reading course for beginners

Project leader: Dr Jeremy Morris
Institution: University of Birmingham
Project report

The aim of the project was to revise the contents of Birmingham Graduate Russian 1 Course (CP1 – CREES postgraduate 1) for updated frequency count of words (1997) to reflect changes in culture and society since last revision (1980s). Materials available in the Language Repository.

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CN08BH-4 Form and Content of shared web-space for language materials

Project leader: Dr Jeremy Morris
Institution: University of Birmingham
Project report

Consultation Group within core CEELBAS Institutions to i) explore the implications of a common CEELBAS Moodle platform, when institutions may have WebCT as their platform and ii) identify those around CEELBAS who have materials that can be uploaded. (This project has since led to the development of the open-access CEELBAS Language Repository).

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CN08UL-4 Language Teaching at UCL SSEES and the Common European Framework of Reference

Project leader: Marta Jenkala
Institution: UCL
Project report

The project investigated how current provision for the teaching and testing of East European and Slavonic languages at UCL SSEES maps onto the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), with particular reference to taught postgraduate language courses. View detailed report on the project and its findings.

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CN08BH-5 The Caucasus and Central Asia: Theoretical, Cultural and Political Challenges

Project leader: Dr Galina Yemelianova
Institution: University of Birmingham
Worksop report / Participants / Programme

Two-day workshop brought together academics and PhD students specialising in the Caucasus and Central Asia from across the CEELBAS network, leading international scholars, policy makers and representatives of NGOs who work in the region. Involving 59 participants across 7 different panels, the workshop generated a more comprehensive knowledge of the Caucasus and Central Asia. It enhanced the participation of PhD students in the critical political and academic debates and contributed to the rise in number of PhD and MA students with interests in the region. It also strengthened the links between academics and practitioners and enhanced a better public understanding of the region through the media.

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CN08SF-2 Soviet Culture in Context: Strategies of Historical Interpretation

Project leader: Dr Oliver Johnson
Institution: University of Sheffield
Workshop report

Two questions were central to the theme of this workshop: how can approaches to Soviet culture be placed within their historical context, and what is the value of doing so? This workshop brought together leading academics from a wide range of disciplines in order to share and develop new methodologies for the study of Soviet culture from the perspective of its theorists, producers and consumers.

Publication: Review Article - 'Alternative Histories of Soviet Visual Culture', Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History, Vol. 11, no. 3, Summer 2010.

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CN08SF-3 Masterclass: Experimental Methods in Slavic Linguistics and Language Pedagogy

Project leader: Dr Dagmar Divjak
Institution: University of Sheffield
Workshop report

Following a very successful corpus methods workshop held in Easter 2008 in Chicago, this Masterclass focused on teaching the basics of experimental linguistics. Recent waves of immigration have made it easier for Slavic linguists to work with native speakers of Slavic languages in the UK, making experimental methodology an ideal way of joining the empirical linguistics movement.

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CN08SF-4 Situating Culture

Project leader: Dr Susan Reid
Institution: University of Sheffield
Workshops Report

This series of three linked workshops under the umbrella theme situating culture brought together academics, artistic producers and commentators who share an understanding of music, art, performance etc in (post)socialist societies as a set of everyday cultural practices. 

The series consisted of the following three workshops: Cultures of the Margins, held at the University of Warwick; Home Culture, held at the University of Sheffield; and Deterritorialized Culture, held at the University of Manchester.

Research Poster (click to enlarge):

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