The Irish Association for Russian, Central and East European Studies (IARCEES) held its annual conference at the Long Room Hub in Trinity College this April, in collaboration with the Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies. This year's theme was 'The Collapse of the Soviet Union: Twenty Years On'. With a keynote speech by the renowned political analyst Professor Victor Kuvaldin of Moscow State University and the Gorbachev Foundation, the lively conference hosted 16 papers by scholars from around the world on post-Soviet society, looking at issues such as identity, language, human rights, migration, social change and multiculturalism.
The 2011 Jameson Dublin International Film Festival screened 'The Weather Station', directed by John O'Reilly of Snapshot Films, a graduate of the Trinity Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies. A major international production with a Russian cast and crew, 'The Weather Station' is "a cracking psychological thriller. Inhabited only by two ageing meteorologists and a young teenage cook, three men share the remote outpost with swirling snowstorms and an elusive yeti. When a mysterious couple arrives to explore the caves in the area, their presence brings the underlying tensions to the surface. When the wife returns alone and injured, she reveals that she killed her husband in self defence. Her confession fractures the uneasy balance between the men and sets up each of them against each other." (source: JDIFF website)
We are delighted to report that the film was a sell-out hit of the festival!
Click here to see a video of John discussing his decision to study Russian, and a wider look at cultural career opportunities opened up by Russian.
On 4th November 2010, Dr. Sarah Smyth was presented with the prestigious Medal of Pushkin by the Russian President Dmitri Medvedev in the Moscow Kremlin.
This medal is awarded annually to no more than ten recipients in recognition of their outstanding contribution to the promotion of Russian language and culture in the world.
Dr. Smyth of the Russian & Slavonics Department is also currently Head of the Trinity School of Languages, Literatures and Culture Studies, and the IRCHSS-funded 'Our Languages' project investigating Russian speakers in Ireland.
Dr. Smyth says, "the award highlights a significant shift in Irish-Russian relations and bodes well for future developments.”
A special series of seminars by guest lecturers exploring the history and literature of East Europe:
l8 October 2010 László Kontler (Central European University, Budapest), 'The stakes of discovery in the Enlightenment: astronomy, language and ethnography in an Arctic expedition, l768-l769'
l5 November 2010 Julia Eichenberg (University College Dublin), 'Fighting for peace and benefits. Poles and veterans' internationalism in the interwar period'
29 November 2010 Ewa Stanczyk (Trinity College Dublin), 'Culture and Identity in the Poetry of Jerzy Harasymowicz'
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