The Slavic Connexion

On this episode, Tom and Matt speak with two of our favorite EU experts on the upcoming December 12th vote in the UK which looms large and uncertainly on the European horizon. What exactly will become of the EU without Britain? Has its usefulness declined in the world? What does the EU today have to offer European states that might be lost without it? As Dr. Mosser so aptly put it: "The EU is like a drunk, stumbling around, but never quite falling." In this case, will Brexit have any real effect at all on the institution?

Thank you to Dr. Lorinc Redei and Dr. Michael Mosser for joining us and giving us their invaluable insights!

EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT: Attention Austinites INVITATION FROM LBJ'S MIRTA BASELOVIC to join graduate students for the Interntional Relations and Human Rights panel which will be held on UT campus November 22nd, 2019 from 12pm to 2pm in UTC 3.104. If you can't make it, the event should be featured on this podcast and/or livestreamed. For more information email: [email protected] . Food provided for attendees! Be sure to register here!

RECORDING NOTE: Episode recorded November 8th, 2019 at the University of Texas at Austin in the Liberal Arts Instructional Technology Services (LAITS) studios. Special thanks to LAITS audio studios director Jacob Weiss and audio specialist Wiliam Kurzner for being exceptionally awesome and welcoming the Slavic Connexion into their recording space.

CREDITS

Follow The Slavic Connexion on Instagram: @slavxradio, Twitter: @SlavXRadio, and on Facebook: facebook.com/slavxradio . Visit www.slavxradio.com for more episodes and information.

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Special Guests: Lorinc Redei and Michael W. Mosser.

Our guest today is Czech professor Petra Dominková, from Prague, who has stepped into our studio to talk about the upcoming demonstration led by Million Moments for Democracy against the current controversial Prime Minister who is both rich in controversy and currency. The demonstration will take place in just a few days on November 16th! Listen and also find out whether the country is branding itself the Czech Republic or Czechia or even... "Bohemia".

To read more about the historic Czech protest that took place in June 2019, see the Washington Post article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/06/25/prague-protesters-demand-resignation-prime-minister-andrej-babi/ and similar sources.

ABOUT THE GUEST: Petra Dominková is the manager of the Cinematography Department at FAMU in Prague. She teaches the Theory of Cinematography class where students learn various theoretical approaches to the aspects of the cameraman’s work they already know from first-hand experience. In addition, she teaches foreign students within the FAMU International program and has also lectured at the Department of Scriptwriting and Dramaturgy and CAS. She received her PhD from CAS FAMU in 2008. As a Fulbright scholar, she spent one year at UCLA. Besides FAMU, she teaches international students at CIEE and CET. Her main research interests include Czech and East European cinematography and film noir.

Attention Austinites INVITATION FROM LBJ'S MIRTA BASELOVIC to join graduate students for the Interntional Relations and Human Rights panel which will be held on UT campus November 22nd, 2019 from 12pm to 2pm in UTC 3.104. If you can't make it, the event should be featured on this podcast and/or livestreamed. For more information email: [email protected] . Food provided for attendees!

RECORDING NOTE: Episode recorded November 7th, 2019 at the University of Texas at Austin.

CREDITS

Follow The Slavic Connexion on Instagram: @slavxradio, Twitter: @SlavXRadio, and on Facebook: facebook.com/slavxradio . Visit www.slavxradio.com for more episodes and information.

Special Guest: Petra Dominková.

In the next few episodes, we are excited to have an intimate look into Central Asian countries thanks to a rare visit from several wonderful journalists who were competitively selected for a US State Department-sponsored exchange program, which was made possible through the Meridian International Center (see the press release here: https://www.meridian.org/news/texas-international-education-consortium-brings-u-s-state-departments-central-asian-journalist-in-residence-program-for-month-long-mentorship-and-residency-program-in-texas/).

On this episode, Matt and Tom speak with Erkinbek and Aigul, two media professionals from Kyrgyzstan who are wrapping up internships at main media outlets here in Austin, Texas. Thanks to their insights, we gain a glimpse of the media landscape in their country and the differences between US and Kyrgyzstan media and the various issues that crop up in each space.

PRODUCER'S NOTE: Our guests today appear courtesy of Texas International Education Consortium (www.tiec.org) and Meridian International Center (www.meridian.org). Special thanks to Sonia McLaughlin at TIEC, Professor Mark Pomar from the School of Journalism at UT, and the CAJIR program for providing funding.

Attention Austinites INVITATION FROM LBJ'S MIRTA BASELOVIC to join graduate students for the Interntional Relations and Human Rights panel which will be held on UT campus November 22nd, 2019 from 12pm to 2pm in UTC 3.104. If you can't make it, the event should be featured on this podcast and/or livestreamed. For more information email: [email protected] . Food provided for attendees!

RECORDING NOTE: Episode recorded November 1st, 2019 at the University of Texas at Austin.

CREDITS

Follow The Slavic Connexion on Instagram: @slavxradio, Twitter: @SlavXRadio, and on Facebook: facebook.com/slavxradio . Visit www.slavxradio.com for more episodes and information.

Special Guests: Aigulya Adjieva (Айгуля Аджиева) and Erkinbek Kamalov.

Returning to the studio, Tom Garza joins us to discuss not vampires but Russian rock, from the years prior to the fall of the USSR to today itself. And this is not just an academic subject for him, it's his lived experience. Featuring snippets with legendary music critic Artemy Troitsky, who launched the first discotheque in Soviet Russia, this episode (not to overstate the theme) truly ROCKS.

For more on the impact of rock and roll on the USSR, see a feature from PRI:

And check out the book Troitsky mentions: How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin by Leslie Woodhead https://www.amazon.com/How-Beatles-Rocked-Kremlin-Revolution-ebook/dp/B009SJZKFY/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1WXAE8411Y28M&keywords=how+the+beatles+rocked+the+kremlin&qid=1572282790&sprefix=the+beatles+rocked%2Caps%2C175&sr=8-1

(Below) A picture of Garza and Troitsky taken this summer in Moscow at the Russian language release of Subkultura.

Music credits:

RECORDING NOTE: Episode recorded October 11th, 2019 at the University of Texas at Austin. Clips with Artemy Troitsky recorded on July 2019 in Moscow, Russia.

CREDITS

Follow The Slavic Connexion on Instagram: @slavxradio, Twitter: @SlavXRadio, and on Facebook: facebook.com/slavxradio . Visit www.slavxradio.com for more episodes and information.

Special Guest: Thomas Garza.

Александр Генис присоединяется к нам, чтобы обсудить русскую литературу, от Довлатова до Пелевина.

RECORDING NOTE: Episode recorded September 30th, 2019 at the University of Texas at Austin.

CREDITS

Follow The Slavic Connexion on Instagram: @slavxradio, Twitter: @SlavXRadio, and on Facebook: facebook.com/slavxradio . Visit www.slavxradio.com for more episodes and information.

Special Guest: Alexander Genis.

In this episode, Matt talks with Marina Alexandrova about her challenges coming to America from Russia, and the art of teaching Russian culture as a talented and creative professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

ABOUT THE GUEST: Voted one of UT's Top Ten Professors (which is a big deal), Dr. Marina Alexandrova was born and raised in Saratov, Russia. She received her MA equivalent in English from Saratov State University, and her PhD in Comparative Literature (Russian and Spanish American Literatures) from the University of Texas at Austin. Her dissertation analyzes the formation of the literary public spheres in Russia and Argentina, focusing on the avant-garde literary groups and their complex interactions with the state.

Dr. Alexandrova's current research interests include the art and literature of Russian modernism and avant-garde, the history of Russian food production and consumption, and Russian radical and revolutionary movements. During Spring 2018, Dr. Alexandrova taught her new course "Advanced Russian through Drama," which culminated in student production of Vladimir Mayakovsky's controversial comedy "Bedbug" (1928). Watch clips from the performance here: https://utexas.app.box.com/s/c5yxguq40pznz9tg721vea0u0xvqo3w0.

Visit Dr. Alexandrova's guest page on our site https://www.slavxradio.com/guests/marina for more.

NOTE: Episode recorded September 20, 2019 at the University of Texas at Austin.

CREDITS

Follow The Slavic Connexion on Instagram: @slavxradio, Twitter: @SlavXRadio, and on Facebook: facebook.com/slavxradio . Visit www.slavxradio.com for more episodes and information.

Special Guest: Marina Alexandrova (Марина Александрова).

How does one wind up in Northeastern Siberia? Dr. Susan Crate recounts her almost 30 years

ABOUT THE GUEST: Dr. Susan Crate is a professor of Anthropology in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at George Mason University. The bulk of her research centers on environmental and cognitive anthropology and human ecology among Viliui Sakha of Yakutia, Northeastern Siberia, but her research on the effects of unprecedented climate change has expanded to Canada, Mongolia, Peru, Wales, Kiribati, and the ever-so exotic Chesapeake Bay. She is the author of Cows, Kin, and Globalization: An Ethnography of Sustainability (2006), the coeditor of Anthropology and Climate Change: From Encounters to Actions (2009) and its second volume, Anthropology and Climate Change: From Actions to Transformations

From the documentary review by the New York Times: "The film follows Susan Crate, an anthropologist at George Mason University, and her daughter, Katie Yegorov-Crate, as they globe-hop to places where climate change is having a dramatic effect. In Siberia, they see hayfields that are underwater because of the thawing of the permafrost layer. In Kiribati in the South Pacific, they talk to residents grappling with the possibility that their islands will disappear into the sea. (“Right here was the most-populated village on the island,” a man tells Ms. Crate as they stand in water up to the breastbone.)" View the full article here: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/11/movies/the-anthropologist-review.html

NOTE: Episode recorded September 27, 2019 at the University of Texas at Austin.

CREDITS

Follow The Slavic Connexion on Instagram: @slavxradio, Twitter: @SlavXRadio, and on Facebook: facebook.com/slavxradio . Visit www.slavxradio.com for more episodes and information.

Special Guest: Susan Crate.

Literary critic, broadcaster, and writer Alexander Genis privileges Matt and Tom with an interview on coming to America during the 70s, his impression of Texas, his longtime career in radio, and his take on the future.

ABOUT THE GUEST: Alexander Genis (born February 11, 1953) is a Russian–American writer, broadcaster, and cultural critic. He has written more than a dozen books that are non-fiction bestsellers in Russia. Genis, an American citizen, resides in the New York City area. He is the father of Daniel Genis, writer and journalist.

NOTE: Episode recorded on September 30th, 2019 at the University of Texas at Austin.

CREDITS

Follow The Slavic Connexion on Instagram: @slavxradio, Twitter: @SlavXRadio, and on Facebook: facebook.com/slavxradio . Visit www.slavxradio.com for more episodes and information.

Special Guest: Alexander Genis.

Cultural geographer and linguist Bella Jordan returns to the SlavX studio to discuss languages, indigenous peoples of the former Russian Empire, and the process of "de-Russification" that is the tendency now of many societies in the post-Soviet space.

ABOUT THE GUEST: A native of Sakha (Yakutia), an ethnic republic located in northeast Siberia, Bella grew up in a multicultural and multilinguial environment that inspired her interest in different cultures and traditions. She began to study Germanic languages quite early and got a Bachelor's degree in English Philology from Yakutsk State University in 1986. In 1987-91 she studied Linguistics and Text Stylistics at the Moscow Institute of Foreign Languages after Moris Torez (now Moscow Lingusitics University). Afterwards she worked as an official translator for the government of Sakha (Yakutia) and was instrumental in translating important documents and treaties into English and participated in the rough diamonds trade negotiations between the local government and DeBeers. In 1995 Bella began Master's program at the University of Texas at Austin in the Geography department and defended her doctoral dissertaion in 2002. The focus of her PhD was the ethnogenesis of the Sakha (Yakut) people and creation of their homeland since the 14th century.

Currently Dr. Jordan teaches Geography of the Former Soviet Union; Northern Lands and Cultures; Regions and Cultures of Europe; Russian Society, Economics and Politics, Advanced Russian Language course "Advanced Comprehension and Composition"; Business Russian; Cultural Geography of Russia; Religion in Eastern Europe and Russia; and the graduate seminar "Geopolitics and Nation-Building in Central Asia".

NOTE: Episode recorded on September 20th, 2019 at the University of Texas at Austin.

CREDITS

Follow The Slavic Connexion on Instagram: @slavxradio, Twitter: @SlavXRadio, and on Facebook: facebook.com/slavxradio . Visit www.slavxradio.com for more episodes and information.

Special Guest: Bella Jordan.

В этом эпизоде ведущие Мэтт и Лера садятся с профессором Мариной Александровой, чтобы рассказать о своем опыте адаптации к жизни в Америке. Марина - очень любимый профессор Техасского университета в Остине. Послушайте и узнайте почему.

ABOUT THE GUEST: Voted one of UT's Top Ten Professors (which is a big deal), Dr. Marina Alexandrova was born and raised in Saratov, Russia. She received her MA equivalent in English from Saratov State University, and her PhD in Comparative Literature (Russian and Spanish American Literatures) from the University of Texas at Austin. Her dissertation analyzes the formation of the literary public spheres in Russia and Argentina, focusing on the avant-garde literary groups and their complex interactions with the state. Dr. Alexandrova's current research interests include the art and literature of Russian modernism and avant-garde, the history of Russian food production and consumption, and Russian radical and revolutionary movements. During Spring 2018, Dr. Alexandrova taught her new course "Advanced Russian through Drama," which culminated in student production of Vladimir Mayakovsky's controversial comedy "Bedbug" (1928). Watch clips from the performance here: https://utexas.app.box.com/s/c5yxguq40pznz9tg721vea0u0xvqo3w0

RECORDING NOTE: Episode recorded September 20th, 2019 at the University of Texas at Austin.

CREDITS

Follow The Slavic Connexion on Instagram: @slavxradio, Twitter: @SlavXRadio, and on Facebook: facebook.com/slavxradio . Visit www.slavxradio.com for more episodes and information.

Special Guest: Marina Alexandrova (Марина Александрова).