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NEW Episode!
Zoos and Animals in Eastern Europe and Russia
This week’s podcast is the third of five events for Nature’s Revenge: Ecology, Animals, and Waste in Eurasia, the Spring 2021 Speakers’ Series at the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. For the entire schedule for the series.
Animals are some of the most impacted living things in the Anthropocene. The presence of humans has fundamentally altered their lives and environment. Humans have used animals for labor, food, sport, commodities, companionship and as objects of scientific knowledge. What does human’s complex relationship with animals say about human society? And is there a particular inflection of these issues in Eastern Europe and Russia under state socialism? I turned to Tracy McDonald and Marianna Szczygielska for some insight on the transformation of animals into objects to be caged, shown, hunted, traded, and studied in Eurasia and the wider world.
Guests:
Tracy McDonald is an historian of Russian and Soviet history at McMaster University. She co-edited a volume of documents on collectivization and is the author of Face to the Village: The Riazan Countryside Under Soviet Rule, 1921-1930 and is co-editor with Daniel Vandersommers of Zoo Studies: A New Humanities (McGill-Queens University Press, 2019). McDonald was one of the three founding members of the independent documentary-film company Chemodan Films.
Marianna Szczygielska is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. Her most recent articles on zoos and colonial encounters are “Elephant empire: zoos and colonial encounters in Eastern Europe” published in Cultural Studies and “Pandas and the Reproduction of Race and Sexuality in the Zoo” in Zoo Studies. A New Humanities. She’s also co-edited a special issue of Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, and Technoscience titled “Plantarium: Human-Vegetal Ecologies” in 2019.
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Open Position: REEES Undergraduate Student Ambassador
Looking for an internship in a field you already care about? Want some extra help paying those tuition bills? You’re in luck! The Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies (REEES) is now accepting applications for an Undergraduate Student Ambassador for the 2021-2022 academic year.
This position is a great way to build your résumé in a way that demonstrates a professional commitment to international education, policy, and research! We are pleased to be able to offer the successful applicant a tuition remission scholarship of $3,500 per semester as compensation. This position is open to Pitt undergraduate students. Students pursuing a REEES credential will receive priority consideration.
Ambassadors are expected to work an average of 10 hours per week, depending on the Center’s needs and the intern’s academic schedule. Responsibilities of the position include:
- Promoting the Certificate in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies, the Related Concentration in European and Eurasian Studies, and other REEES undergraduate credentials through class visits
- Holding weekly office hours
- Serving as the REEES liaison to relevant student groups on campus
- Assisting with REEES and REEES-affiliated events, including student conferences and other gatherings
- Being a resource for other Pitt undergraduates interested in learning about REEES
- Assisting REEES students with the digital portfolio requirement of REEES certificates
- Serving as our Global Ambassador to the University Center for International Studies (UCIS) and ex officio member of the Global Ambassador Committee
The position reports to the REEES Academic Advisor.
To apply, please send the following to Trevor Erlacher, REEES Academic Advisor, at tfe3@pitt.edu by April 9, 2021:
- A cover letter explaining your interest and qualifications for the position; please also note any scholarships you will receive and any other student positions you plan to hold during the 2021-22 academic year, as well as the number hours you will work in those positions
- A résumé
- The name, email address, and phone number of one reference (e.g. professor, advisor, employer), noting their professional relationship to you
Finalists will be invited for an interview via Zoom.
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Call for Applications: Faculty Small Grants
REEES small grants are open on a rolling basis to all Pitt faculty working on topics related to our region. For more information on eligibility requirements and further details about the application process, please see the website. For any additional information, please contact Gina Peirce. Funding for successful proposals submitted in September – December must be spent by June 15, 2021.
Application deadline: Rolling
**COVID-19 Advisory: At this time, the University of Pittsburgh is not allowing any non-essential travel by faculty, students, or staff on University business. Research, conference participation, and most other teaching-related travel qualifies as non-essential travel.
Call for Applications: Course Development Grants
REEES offers faculty small grants on a rolling basis for course development or language module development. Proposals are sought to enhance teaching on the cultures, languages, politics, economies and societies of Central/Eastern Europe/Eurasia, Russia and the former USSR. REEES faculty from all A&S departments and professional schools are eligible to apply. Funds may be requested to support a variety of activities. Examples include, but are not limited to:
- Acquisition of special instructional materials (e.g., databases, monographs, periodicals, films or electronic media).
- Bibliographic searches.
- Payments to students for assistance with any aspect of course development. Note, however, that no payment may be given for any student work unless and until that arrangement has been approved by REEES, due to the possible complexities involved in paying students.
Application Deadline: Rolling
Apply here!
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Climate Clash: Ecological Activism in Russia
A live interview with Konstantin Fokin (Extinction Rebellion, Russia) and Angelina Davydova (Bureau of Environmental Information, Russia).
The existential threat of climate change has inspired renewed intellectual engagement with the Anthropocene. Eurasian Studies are no exception to this trend. In the last decade, studies that grapple with the past, present, and potential future of the human-nature dialectic are on the uptick. These studies have forced us to reconsider intellectual and ideological paradigms, sources, mission, and role of scholar in society.
Nature’s Revenge: Ecology, Animals, and Waste in Eurasia seeks to bring some of this scholarship and activism to a wider public through a series of live-recorded interviews. The goal is to illuminate recent scholarship and complicate our understanding of the Eurasian Anthropocene and its place in our world.
Zoom, 12:00 pm EST, Tuesday, March 23, 2021
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