Rutgers and Kazan State University embark on collaborative program, faculty exchange

By Douglas Frank
Published: Nov 15, 2004

Marina Mogilner and Ilya Gerasimov were Rutgers doctoral students who completed their dissertations in Russian history under Professor Ziva Galili of the New Brunswick department of history.

They returned to their native Russia to teach at Kazan State University where they both edit a highly regarded scholarly journal, "Ab Imperio." The nationally and internationally known quarterly examines the history and theory of nationalism and empire from a post-Soviet perspective.

But the two never forgot their Rutgers' connections, and when they learned of the U.S. Department of State educational partnership grants, they e-mailed their former mentor and wondered if she and Rutgers were interested.

The result, after a subsequent proposal to the government, is a $250,000, three-year faculty exchange and collaboration program with Kazan State University titled "Building Democracy in Multi-Ethnic Societies."

The program will examine historical and current theories and practices of federalism in Russia and abroad, encourage the study of gender and ethnicity (including Jewish Studies), and develop curricula in these areas that fit the needs of students at Kazan State University.

Galili, who is chair of the history department, and Joanna Regulska, professor of women's studies and geography and chair of the department of women's and gender studies, are co-principal investigators of the program. Mogilner and Gerasimov, currently on fellowship at Harvard University, will serve as the program coordinators in Russia.

"The focus will be to help the Kazan faculty establish a Center for Democratic Education to foster interdisciplinary studies and research on federalism, ethnicity, nationalism and gender studies, with the intent of helping all of us to understand aspects of the transition to democracy in multi-ethnic societies," Galili said.

Regulska, on leave this semester, said she believed the program is Rutgers' first attempt to work cooperatively with a Russian university.
Kazan, she said, is "very interested in building an interdisciplinary center that will bring together faculty from different disciplines interested in exploring the implications of social and political changes for Russian society."

Under the program, 10 faculty and advanced graduate students from Rutgers in the fields of sociology, political science, Jewish studies, history and women's studies, and 14 Russian faculty will participate.

Objectives for the Russians include advancing faculty development in those fields through faculty seminars and teaching workshops; expanding curricular offerings through revised and new courses, course development workshops and publications; and developing and enhancing interactive technology and library collections and channels of communication to transfer knowledge to scholars throughout the Russian Federation.

Rutgers will conduct two yearlong. multidisciplinary seminars to foster discussion among faculty and graduate students, first on issues of gender and ethnicity, and second on federalism and ethnicity. Rutgers also plans to reach New Jersey high school teachers through two workshops in cooperation with the Institute for High School Teachers, a unit of the Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis.

The project was kicked off in September in a visit to Rutgers by Sergei Yerofeyev, associate rector for international affairs at Kazan University. In February, Kazan University Rector Miakzium Salakhov will visit Rutgers to discuss contacts between the two universities, including opportunities for Rutgers undergraduate students to participate in a student exchange in the sciences. Kazan is well known for its physics and mathematics departments.

Kazan State University, founded in 1804, is the third oldest university in Russia. It is located in Kazan, a large multiethnic community of Muslims, Russian Christians and Jews, which serves as the capital of Tartarstan, in the Volga region. The city, according to Regulska, is an important intellectual and educational center with more than 16 institutions of higher learning.