Results of  the Conference

    On April 19-20, 2001, Moscow's Hotel Belgrade hosted a conference for Fulbright alumni, the first of its kind in Russia. Working under an overall theme of "The Fulbright Program in Russia: Building a Community of Scholars", over 90 participants gathered to debate how to develop a Fulbright alumni network for Russia. They were joined by in-country American Fulbrighters as well as several newly-selected Russian scholars whose grants to the U.S. will begin this autumn. Also present were colleagues from PAS (John Brown, Ilya Levin and Natasha Mitusova), the Ministry of Education (Mikhail Sleptsov and Aleksei Talonov), the Moscow American Center (Marisa Fushille), ACTR (David Patton), IREX (Alexander Knorre), Kennan (Galina Levina), IIE / Ford (Oksana Oracheva), NCEEER (Aleksei Harlamov), Project Harmony (Sam VanDerLip) and the USG alumni association Professionals for Cooperation (Aleksei Barabashev).
    Fulbright Scholarship Board Vice-Chair Caroline Matano Yang delivered the keynote address at the opening plenary session. Ms. Yang drew upon her 22 year experience directing the Japanese Fulbright Commission to provide the Russian alumni present with a broad, global perspective on the Fulbright program; she helped Russian participants see how they might find their own place in the Fulbright alumni world and in general set a very constructive tone for the next two days. After the break, Kathleen Woodward of the University of Washington's Center for the Humanities spoke on "The Humanities as a Communication Network: Developing Interdisciplinary and International Cooperation". Like Ms. Yang, Prof. Woodward encouraged Russian Fulbrighters to constantly be on the lookout for ways to connect with colleagues no matter what their academic disciplines or where they happen to be located. The esteemed Prof. Yasen Zasurskii, dean of the Moscow State University School of Journalism and famous of late for his defense of press freedom, provided a Russian perspective (in excellent English) on "American Studies: A Dialogue Between Two Cultures".
    Papers on more specific topic were delivered in 4 separate sections, two on Thursday the 19th, and two on Friday the 20th. MGU professor of literature Tatyana Venediktova chaired the section on "The Humanities in Russia Today: Individual Initiatives, Collaborative Work, Challenges." Professor Venediktova also organized a display of Fulbright alumni publications. At the same time Professor Olga Vinogradova of RGGU presided over a parallel section on "Comparative Educational Systems: The United States and Russia". On Friday, Professor Yurii Rogulev of MGU ran the section on "American Culture as a Field and as a Way of Perception". Of particular interest were MGU Distinguished Chair of History Sandra Taylor's personal observations on "Teaching American History at a Russian University".
    The most important event of the conference, though, was without question the final Round Table, run by MGU professor of physics Anatolii Yagola. The broad theme -- "Building the Fulbright Program in Russia: Prospects and Challenges for the Community of Scholars" -- concealed a very specific goal: the conference organizers hoped to see a formal alumni association begin to take shape. After an hour of lively discussion -- perhaps the first time ever that FSB Vice-Chair Yang witnessed Russian academic democracy in action -- Natasha Mitusova of the U.S. Embassy helped catalyze the group in the direction of a decision. Prof. Yagola proposed that the alumni present form a Russian Fulbright Alumni, which resolution was duly passed by consensus. Professors Yagola and Venediktova then agreed to head up a steering committee made up of about 20 alumni, with an emphasis on regional representation.
    Two main conclusions can be drawn. First, Russian Fulbright alumni are genuinely eager to play an active role in the Fulbright network. They expressed a virtually unanimous desire to have regular alumni meetings, and we received concrete offers from St. Petersburg, Yaroslavl and Yekaterinburg to host the next Fulbright alumni conference outside of Moscow. And second, we now have the beginnings of a formal Russian Fulbright alumni structure in the form of a steering commitee. For the time being the simplest form of incorporation from the point of view of Russian law would be to register the Russian Fulbright Alumni Association as a part of the already-existing USG alumni body, Professionals for Cooperation. And it would be premature to speak of a governing board with officers, etc.; elections will have to take place at the next alumni conference. But the first, concrete steps have been made.

Photos