SUNY Global

Center on Russia and the United States :: Programs and Activities :: Special Events and Other Activities

Upcoming Event:

• Opening of SUNY Office at St. Petersburg State University - 2006

Past and Annual Events:

• Moscow State University's 250^th Anniversary - January 2005
• SUNY All Star Baseball Team in Moscow - June 2002
• World Bank Project, Moscow State University - November and December 2001
• College at Cortland Baseball team in Moscow and St. Petersburg - June 2001
• Opening of SUNY Center on Russia and the United States Office at Moscow State University - June 2001
• Summer Institute in Cultural Studies, Moscow State University - annual event
• New York-St. Petersburg Institute for Cognitive and Cultural Studies, St. Petersburg State University - annual event

Moscow State University's 250^th Anniversary - January 2005
In January 2005 Moscow State University celebrated its 250^th anniversary, and the State University of New York sent a delegation to honor the university's achievements. The SUNY delegation included two SUNY Trustees and the staff of the SUNY Center on Russia and the United States.

Back to list

SUNY All Star Baseball team in Moscow - June 2002
The State University of New York was invited to participate in the biannual Matsumae Baseball Tournament held at Moscow State University's stadium in June 2002. A team of players from several SUNY campuses was assembled and spent a week in Moscow. Of eight teams in the tournament, the State University of New York's team finished third, behind two Japanese teams, but ahead of other teams from Japan, South Korea, Russia and Ukraine.

Back to list

World Bank Project, Moscow State University - November and December 2001
Moscow State University's Faculty of Economics received a grant from the World Bank to assist in its curriculum development. The grant made it possible for the Faculty to send four of its senior teaching staff to New York to research contemporary work in selected areas of economics and economics pedagogy at the university level. In fall 2001 Natalya Chagas and Elena Toumanova spent six weeks at Albany, Stony Brook and Cornell.

Back to list

College at Cortland Baseball team in Moscow and St. Petersburg - June 2001
In February 2001 Moscow State University's Rector Victor A. Sadovnichy formally invited The State University of New York to send a baseball team to Moscow. In June 2001 SUNY Cortland's Red Dragons traveled for two weeks to Moscow and St. Petersburg. In Moscow they played against the Russian National Team, and won, but lost to the Moscow State University Tornados. From Moscow the team traveled to St. Petersburg to play against a local team, which was no match for Cortland.

Back to list

Opening of SUNY Center on Russia and the United States Office at Moscow State University - June 2001
In June 2001 Chancellor Robert L. King of The State University of New York and Rector Victor A. Sadovnichy of Moscow State University jointly opened the SUNY-MSU office in the main building of Moscow State University. The office is staffed by two SUNY staff members, and serves as the working office for the SUNY Fulbright professor at MSU each year to serve as the Center co-Director. The SUNY office is open to all faculty and students who are interested in the SUNY-MSU collaboration.

Back to list

Summer Institute in Cultural Studies, Moscow State University - annual event

Several years ago the Moscow State University Faculty of Philology established its Summer Institute in Cultural Studies, under the leadership of Professor Tatiana D. Venediktova. The Institute was partially sponsored by the Moscow office of the Fulbright Commission and the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, and as of 2002 the SUNY Center on Russia and the United States became a co-sponsor. Each summer the Institute brings together between 25 and 30 Russian graduate students and junior university faculty for a week of seminars and discussion on a specific theme. Among the instructors are Russian and US scholars, which includes since 2002 a SUNY faculty member. In 2003 the theme was Popular Literature, and the institute was held at Uzkoye, an aristocratic Russian villa on the outskirts of Moscow. In 2004 the theme was "Reading Everyday Life in Russia and in America: Cultural Semiotics and Intercultural Communication," and the program was held in Yasnaya Polanya, the home of Leo Tolstoi. In 2005 the institute was held in the city of Tver, not far from Moscow, and the theme was America, Imaginary and Virtual: Global Co-Production.

Back to list

New York-St. Petersburg Institute for Cognitive and Cultural Studies, St. Petersburg State University - annual event

July 2003 saw the inauguration of the New York-St. Petersburg Institute of Cognitive and Cultural Studies in St. Petersburg. The Institute is jointly sponsored by St. Petersburg State University's Faculty of Philology and the State University of New York's Center on Russia and the US, with additional support from the American Center in St. Petersburg. SUNY sends a faculty member each year to teach. In 2003 the specific theme was Generative Linguistics and Comparative Cultural Studies. The teaching staff of the Institute consists primarily of Americans, and the participants are Russian graduate students. The prime mover of the Institute is Stony Brook University linguist John Bailyn, who served as Co-Director of the SUNY Center on Russia and the United States in Moscow for the 2002-03 academic year. In summer 2004 and again in 2005 the seminars focused on Cognitive Studies and Cultural Studies.

The New York Institute of Linguistics and Cultural Studies in St. Petersburg has already become one of the highlights of the academic year in St. Petersburg, and one of the most successful of the SUNY Center's collaborative projects.

Back to list