Spring Break Delight!

FLAS Fellowship Deadline Approaching!!!

Deadline: March 4

FLAS Fellowships can be awarded for the “less commonly taught languages” that are actually taught in the Slavic department. Awards are administered through the East Central Europe Center. Hungarian is also administered through the Center. Awards are usually not made for Russian. Fellowships are normally given for intermediate or advanced level; the Columbia committee that evaluates them does not favor applications for elementary. That is to say, you need to be studying the language already.

Information for undergraduates can be found at http://www.college.columbia.edu/students/fellowships/catalog/foreign-language-area-studies-flas-fellowship, although that site sends students for more information to the graduate site, http://www.columbia.edu/cu/gsas/sub/finaid/cstudents/flas/ay.html

(Information provided by Professor Timberlake)

TURKSOY

(The International Organization of Turkic Culture)
Presents
A Nevruz Celebration in USA

Over 150 musicians and dancers from 11 different Turkic nations will be uniting for the epic US debut concert series Nevruz. The concert celebrates the New Year holiday Nevruz, observed in most part of Eurasia. The word Nevruz is of Persian origin and is a combination of the words “ nev” (new) and “ruz” (day), meaning new day. According to the old Persian calendar, it is the first day of the year and regarded as the start of spring, when the sun enters the house of Aries. Nevruz, which each society celebrates in forms peculiar to itself, still exists with traditional celebrations throughout Anatolia and Central Asia. The countries and regions represented in Nevruz are: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, The Republic of Turkey,Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and regions of the Russian Federation. This US debut concert will be a colorful display of each region’s unique, traditional customs, costumes, music and dance. Nevruz will stage three performances while in the U.S.: March 24^th at the UN General Assembly, the 26^th at New York City’s Town Hall and the 28^th in Washington D.C. at Lincoln Theater.

*Attending States are:

Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Gagauzia (Republic of Moldova), Crimea (Ukraine), Republic of Tatarstan (Russian Federation), The Republic of Bashkortostan (Russian Federation), The Tuva (Russian Federation), Hakkassia (Russian Federation),

The concert is presented by TURKSOY, The International Organization of Turkic Culture, whose primary focus is to maintain and strengthen the existing common cultural presence of Turkic peoples, living in different countries in Eurasia. TURKSOY seeks to support the common language, history, culture among these people.

Nevruz is produced by New York based Serdar Ilhan Presents. Ilhan has presented Turkish, Mediterranean and World music in the US for 15 years.

RSVP @ www.serdarilhan.com!

Study the mysteries of Silk Road in the Heart of Central Asia!

STUDY ABROAD PROGRAM - Open for Columbia University students

Hunter College Study Abroad program presents:

THE HISTORY OF SILK ROAD

(In cooperation with Kazakh National University and

the Geographic Society of Central Asia)

This course surveys the history of the Silk Road, focusing on the cultural and economic exchanges and events in Central Asia. The Silk Road had been a link between China and eastern and western Europe for nearly two millennia, as innumerable caravans moved goods, ideas, cultures, traders, explorers, scholars and adventurers across the Eurasian land mass. The readings, excursions and discussions are designed to explore the mysteries of the Silk Road including: Who were the traders and explores? Why did people use this Road? What role did Central Asian nomads and settlers play in this early global trade? What did Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan and Tamerlane have in common?

Lecturer:Dr. Rafis Abazov, author of The Cultures and Customs of the Central Asian Republics

Office: W1549, Tue. & Fridays, or by appointment
Title of program: The History of Silk Road (Study abroad program)
City, country: Almaty, Kazakhstan
Site of instruction: Campus of Kazakh National University
Excursions: The ancient city of Turkistan and archeological excavation sites in Almaty province.
Dates of the program: June 03-30, 2011
Courses or disciplines: History
Number of credits: 3 credits
Application deadline: March 25, 2011
Type: Summer program

Web page: http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/educationabroad/programs/short-term-programs/summer-2011/kazakhstan

For details and application information check the Education Abroad website
(www.hunter.cuny.edu/educationabroad) at the beginning of Spring semester 2011.

Job Opportunity for Columbia Students!

The Harriman Institute is seeking student workers to provide support to staff and faculty of the Institute and assist with event management. Duties include clerical and administrative functions such as filing, faxing, photocopying, running errands, posting flyers, answering phones and other tasks.

Qualifications: Work-study eligible. Knowledge of Microsoft applications as well as the ability to multitask. Pluses include previous office/clerical experience as well as an interest in Russia, Eurasia, and Eastern Europe.

Hours: Students must be able to work between 10 and 20 hours a week.

Our hours of operation are Monday-Friday 9:00 AM -9:00 PM.

For more information and to apply, please email lch2111@columbia.edu.

Events This Week

"Odessa: Genius and Death in a City of Dreams," 1219 SIPA, 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM (Tuesday)

Join the Harriman Institute for a talk by Charles King.

Charles King is Professor of International Affairs and Government at Georgetown University. He is the author most recently of Odessa: Genius and Death in a City of Dreams (W.W. Norton, 2011) as well as Extreme Politics: Nationalism, Violence, and the End of Eastern Europe (Oxford University Press, 2010), The Ghost of Freedom: A History of the Caucasus* (Oxford University Press, 2008), and other books on the history and politics of eastern Europe and Eurasia. In 2010 he completed two terms as Chair of the Faculty of Georgetown's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service.

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"Winning LGBT Equality in Russia," Faculty House, Garden Room 2, 5:30 PM (Tuesday)

Join the Harriman Institute for a talk by Nikolai Alekseev (Head of the Russian LGBT Human Rights Project (GayRussia.Ru) and Head of Moscow Pride Organizing Committee.) Alekseev won a ground breaking human rights decision against the mayor of Moscow at the European Court of Human Rights in October 2010, and will speak about the Russian LGBT movement. Adjunct Assistant Professor Tanya Domi, the School of International and Public Affairs will moderate the discussion.

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Maslenitsa Celebration, Lerner East Ramp Lounge, 7-8 PM (Tuesday, TOMORROW!)

Celebrate the beginning of Spring with RIA and The Birch. We will have bliny, caviar, Lady Maslenitsa/Kostroma doll making (sorry, no effigy burning), and matryoshka doll painting. See you there!

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Farewell Gulsary! (Proshchai, Gul'sary!, Kazakhstan, 2008), 703 Hamilton, 7:20 PM (Tuesday)

Join Kamilya Abilova and the undergraduate branch of OASIES (Organization for the Advancement of Studies of Inner Eurasian Societies) for this exciting movie screening!

Farewell Gulsary! (Proshchai, Gulsary!) by the Kazak director Ardak Amirkulov is a nostalgic film, both in tenor and mode. It is the second rendition of the eponymous short story by the famous Kyrgyz writer Chingiz Aitmatov about the love of Tanabai, a devout Kazakh communist and a WWII hero, for his beautiful stallion Gulsary, who is a symbol of freedom and idealism, everything the main character stands to lose to the crash collectivization in the Far East in the 1940s and 50s (Kinokul'tura).

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Russian Movie Night: Брат II, 1219 SIPA, 8:30-10:30 PM (Thursday)

Join the Harriman Undergraduate Initiative! "Last time Брат was a huge success, now they come to Brighton Beach for the sequel!"

Events This Week

"Russia’s Post-Soviet Landscape" 1219 IAB, 12:00pm (Wednesday)

Join the Harriman Institute for a talk by Susan Richards (Author of Lost and Found in Russia). After the fall of communism Susan Richards started chronicling the lives and careers of a group of Russians living far from the capital. She revisited them repeatedly over the course of 16 years, observing the way in which the larger forces unleashed in Russia's politics and economy were being reflected or resisted in their own life decisions, and those of the communities around them. She reflects on what she saw and what it might tell us about the changed nature of Russia today.

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"Illicit Indicators and the Contested Politics of Numbers" 1501 SIPA, 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM (Wednesday)

International policies on issues such as human trafficking, drug smuggling and armed conflict depend upon accurate measures and statistics of these "hidden" problems. Yet, reliable statistics or data regarding these practices are often in short supply, subject to politicization and even deliberate misrepresentation. Exaggerating the numbers of victims of an armed conflict, inflating the value of the transnational drug trade or downplaying patterns of domestic violence are commonplace practices adopted by states and international officials to serve political agendas. This panel on Illicit Numbers, comprised of distinguished scholars and practitioners, will investigate the dangers of using problematic statistics and dubious measures in the formulation and conduct of public policy.

Participants: Peter Andreas (Professor, Department of Political Science, Brown University. Co-Editor of Sex, Drugs and Body Counts: The Politics of Numbers in Global Crime and Conflict (Cornell University Press 2010), Elizabeth Eagen (Program Officer, Human Rights Data Initiative, Human Rights and Governance Grants | Information Program, Open Society Foundations), Sally Merry (Professor of Anthropology and Law and Society, New York University and President-elect of the American Ethnological Society), Lara Nettelfield (Post-Doctoral Fellow, Harriman Institute, Columbia University, and contributor to Sex, Drugs and Body Counts)

This event is part of the “Human Rights in the Post-Communist World: Strategies and Outcomes ” series (Harriman Core Project 2010-2011). This event is free and open to the public. No Tickets, no reservations required. Seating is on a first come, first served basis.

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"Gender Equality and Women’s Rights in Georgia: Opportunities and Challenges" 1219 SIPA, 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM (Thursday)

Join the Harriman Institute and the Program in Economic and Political Development (EPD) for a talk by Rusudan Kervalishvili, Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia Chair of Gender Council

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"Imagining Mazeppa: From Byron to Broadway to Hollywood" 1219 SIPA, 7:00 PM (Thursday)

Mazeppa as a Tatar prince? As an American Indian maiden? Sophia Loren as Mazeppa? Mazeppa on Bonanza? Alexander Motyl, Catharine Nepomnyashchy, Vasyl Lopukh, and Vasyl Makhno take you on a romp through unusual historical representations of the famed Ukrainian Hetman-from the Romantics to 19th-century American and British theatre and dime novels to 20th-century Hollywood Westerns and Broadway musicals. The evening will consist of readings, music, slides, and film. If you think you know Ivan Mazepa-think again.

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Brestskaya Krepost' (Brest Fortress) Hamilton 717, 8:00 PM (Thursday)

Join RIA and watch this movie in honor of Defender of the Fatherland Day. The holiday celebrates people who are serving or were serving in the Russian Armed Forces (both men and women), but nationally it has also more recently come to include the celebration of men as a whole, and to act as a counterpart of International Women's Day on March 8. Brestskaya Krepost' is a war drama set during the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, in which Russian troops held on to a border stronghold for nine days. Here is the link for the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B11CLxzhqPg (133 minutes long). There will be English subtitles!!