Tatyana V. Voronchenko
Zabaikalsky State University

Siberia-America: Establishing Bridges

    In spring 1999 when I was a Fullbright Fellow at the University of California/San Diego I received a suggestion from professor Francisco Lomely, Chairman of Literature Department from UC/Santa Barbara to write the article Chicano Literature in the USA: A Russian Audience’s First Contact. It was published in 2000 in US Latino Literatures and Cultures: Transnational Perspectives in Heibelberg, Germany. In introduction editors write "Russian scholar Tatyana Voronchenko, a specialist in American Studies at Zabaikalsky State Pedagogical University in Chita, Trans-Baikal Siberia offers one of the most thought-provoking portray because of the region’s remoteness and unexpected interest in Chicanos. She introduces us to some of the major systematic studies of Chicana/o Literature and Culture and furthermore illustrates how one attempts to establish some literary and sociological parallelism between Siberia and the American Southwest."
    The main idea of my issue is to present East Siberia and American SouthWest as multi-ethnic regions. In March 2001 we are to held a Conference "Siberia-America: Establishing Bridges. Horizons of Complex Subject". We are going to establish American Studies Center in Trans-Baikal as well. My Fulbright experience gives me an opportunity to be an initiator and organizer of it. Fulbright fellowship will contribute to better understanding among Russia and USA.