The main objective of the fifth international summer school is to provide its participants with better understanding of the role of the soviet cultural diplomacy's and to explore its function as a space of transnational communication in the time of global political and ideological stand-off. What discoursive strategies were used to shape the cultural politics if the USSR, were there any specificities and compromises? What tools and strategies proved more efficient in the shaping of symbolical communication and cultural diplomacy practices? Are they still working? What were the advantages and shortcomings of the soviet cultural politics? It is our belief that the debates on the current state of art of the Russian self-image making in the international arena will help to refresh and expand the knowledge on the problems of continuity and discreetness of the cultural-diplomatic practices of the past and present.
The course design includes three thematic modules featuring various techniques of learning, knowledge control and intellectual exchange.
Module I: Cultural diplomacy: methodological approaches and historical retrospect
Module II: Soviet cultural diplomacy in the Cold War: the institutes and instruments
Module III: “Internationalism with a human face”: actors, contact groups and target audience of the Soviet cultural diplomacy
The school course design is organized as a discussion platform and will emphasize interactive form of learning and project-making. To improve the skills of archive research the participants will be offered to work in the State Archive of Chelyabinsk with the personal papers of the local people who were “ordinary” envoys of soviet cultural diplomacy, to analyze the personal questionnaires and CVs of those involved in the events and activities of the soviet cultural diplomatic activities and, above all, to conduct live interviews with some of them.
Since one of the main purposes of the school is to encourage scholarly communication of German and Russian students, the project-making activity will be conducted in a small groups consisting of both parties who will be offered a tentative list of topics in the lines of general theme of the school. At the end of the school all the group and individual (if there is any) projects are to be presented at the final seminar.
Above all, course design includes classes of Russian and a cultural program featuring natural and historical landmarks of the South Ural Region.
Target group: Students studying history, social sciences, political science, cultural studies, international relations
Application deadline for German students: 30th Mai 2018
Application: Detailed CV, a completed application form, copy of passport, (if any) abstract of a research project on the subject of the school
Costs: The cost of attending the summer school is 650 Euros and covers the transfer from the airport, language courses, lectures, seminars and workshops as well as a comprehensive excursion program (city tours, museums and art gallery, thematic excursions). This sum excludes the costs of travel, insurance, visa and food. The 10 participants will receive a scholarship from DAAD.
Languages: German, English, Russian
Language course: The focus of the language course is on language practice and subject-specific dictionaries. The language lessons take 1.5 hours a day.