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Grace Lee, a candidate for May graduation from Hamilton, has been awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Russia.  A Russian studies major, she spent the 2011-12 academic year studying at Bard-Smolny College in St. Petersburg, Russia, where she served as an English tutor.

Erin Sullivan ’13 has been awarded a Fulbright Teaching Assistantship to Russia.  A Russian studies major, she spent the spring 2012 semester studying at Bard-Smolny College in St. Petersburg, Russia. Sullivan is a Dean’s List student at Hamilton, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in February.

In commemoration of the 20th anniversary of Audre Lorde’s death, Visiting Instructor of German & Russian Studies Peggy Piesche published a new anthology, Eurer Schweigen nützt euch nichts:  Audre Lorde und die Schwarze Frauenbewegung in Deutschland (Your Silence Will Not Protect You:  Audre Lorde and the Black Women’s Movement in Germany). The book was launched with a discussion and reading on Nov. 21 in one of the main theaters in Berlin (Volksbühne).

Peggy Piesche, visiting instructor of German and Russian Studies, presented  papers at the University of Bayreuth and Humboldt University of Berlin this summer.

With an interest in Russian that began in high school, Grace Lee ’13 spent the past year studying in St. Petersburg where she was surprised by the prevalence of Russian folklore symbols even in the busy city.  This summer she pursued a research project on the interplay between Russian folktales, culture and politics with the support of an Emerson Foundation Summer Research Grant.

Professor of English Naomi Guttman and Associate Professor of Russian Studies Franklin Sciacca were presenters at the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford, U.K. July 6-8. Their paper, titled “The Magic of Dumplings: Bringing Pierogi into the (New) World,” offered an early example of globalization, the migration of a foodstuff from the Ukraine along the Silk Route across the Eurasian plain and ultimately to the U.S.

Philip Maier ’12 co-authored a paper in the June, 2012, issue of the journal Civil Wars, published through the University of Birmingham. The forthcoming journal is a special issue – “Assessing the Capabilities of Regional and International Organizations in Civil Wars” – that examines the ability of various organizations to deal with internal conflicts, such as the African Union in Burundi and NATO in Afghanistan.

Visiting Instructor of German and Russian Studies Peggy Piesche was interviewed by Deutsche Welle Arts and Culture for an article on the ongoing nationwide debate about the use of blackface makeup on German theatre stages.

Visiting Instructor of German and Russian Studies Peggy Piesche was featured in White Charity: Blackness and whiteness on charity donation posters, a documentary about German charity aid posters. Piesche contributed research for the film by Carolin Philipp and Timo Kiesel that analyzes the posters from a postcolonial perspective.

Five Hamilton students participated in the 10th annual Upstate New York Russian Language “Olympics,” held at Union College on April 9. Caroline Epstein, Erin Sullivan, Linda Zhang, Peter Wheelwright (all ’13), and Tara Collins ’11, joined undergraduates from the host institution as well as Hobart-William Smith, Binghamton University, The University at Albany and the United States Military Academy at West Point for a friendly competition in various Russian language activities.