The aim of Individual Studies Module is to provide consultation and mentoring to the individual participants. Under Individual Studies, each participant will work independently under the guidance of a Faculty member to accomplish a pre-approved objective.

It will culminate in a written report that shall evidence a scholarly approach, demonstrate critical and/or creative thinking, and be presented in a style and form acceptable to the seminar's faculty. The results will be presented both on alternativeculture.org website in the form of on-line publication and during the next contact sessions as presentations by participants.

Before registering for an Individual Study Course, the Seminar participant must consult with the faculty staff (this can be done during the Summer Session or through email) on the chosen topic.

The Registration Form must be filled in and be signed by the both the Faculty Supervisor and the Program Director and submitted to: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Focus Groups: Research Project Module

It will focus on providing consultation and mentoring to teams of participants created during summer session. It aims to provide academic partnering among participants and to give teams the opportunity to receive feedback from faculty and other participants for further development of the content and direction of their project. Tentative research themes will be presented by the Faculty during the Summer Session. The participants can also come up with their own ideas and proposals.

Before registering for Focus Groups: Research Project Module, the group must consult with the faculty staff (this can be done during the summer session or through email).

The group is required to write a proposal which indicates the tentative duration of the project, to name a supervisor, and to file interim results and a final report. The results will be published on-line or suggested for publication in academic journals. On-line presentation of interim and final results will allow receive for feedback from colleagues via the on-line forum.

The Registration Form must be filled in and be signed by the both the Faculty Supervisor and the Program Director and submitted to: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Participation in the on-going and further projects

Participants will have an opportunity to participate in on-going and forthcoming research projects. The opportunity for participants to engage in on-going major national and international research projects will give them the opportunity to engage in research, to make connections with new researchers and research teams, and to gain valuable insight into the design and implementation of group research projects.

A. The Samizdat Text Corpora (STC) project
This project aims to create an on-line catalogue of samizdat texts produced in the period of socialism in the countries of Central, Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. STC is envisioned in several phases and sub-projects handled by different teams under auspice of the International Samizdat [Research] Association.
Supervisors: Olga Zaslavskaya, Dr. Ann Komaromi, Kathryn Mathe

B. The COST Action 30: "East of West: Setting a New Central and Eastern European Media Research Agenda" project.
Supervisor: Dr. Miklós Sükösd

C. European Festivals Research Project (Faculty of Creative and Performing Arts, Leiden University)
Supervisor: Dr. Dragan Klaic

D. Anti-Americanism Around the World (McMaster University and University of Toronto, Canada)
This project explores the current wave of anti-Americanism(s) sweeping the globe in order to understand better what it means for contemporary politics, culture and global visions of the future. Why is anti-Americanism today such as easy position to adopt?-a ready-made answer to the question of what ails almost everyone today? What does anti-Americanism reveal and conceal about the true state of culture and politics today, specifically the important and distinctive function played by culture in both securing and undoing a U.S. hegemony that many feel is now on the wane?
Supervisors: Dr. Imre Szeman and Dr. Eric Cazdyn

E. russian-cyberspace.org
A research project settled within the framework of the diverging tendencies of "glocalization", e.g. the formation of regional or national identity and global integration via modern communication systems. With this perspective in mind, it focuses on the complex relationship between the global integration and diversification of contemporary Russian culture.
Supervisor: Dr. Henrike Schmidth

Internships

The participants will have an opportunity to apply for unpaid internships (up to 2 weeks) at several institutions. The participants will gain immeasurably from the work performed, which will give them in-depth knowledge of archival and museum resources relevant to the theme, as well as a sense of the operations of archives, museums, radio stations, etc. Participant reports of their internship experiences will be put on-line; they will also be asked to make short presentations during future contact sessions.

Publications

To contribute, through research and publications to the continuous expansion and critical assessment of the body of knowledge underlying the topics, themes and issues being studied.

Possibility to publish articles at:

• Russian-cyberspace.org
• samizdatportal.org
• Politics and Culture (journal)
• Review of Education, Pedagogy and Cultural Studies
• CLIO (St. Petersburg)

Efforts will also be made to publish a book collection of research emerging from the project with an academic publisher such as Blackwell, University of Toronto Press, etc.

Exchange Visits

Each participant will have an opportunity to deliver lectures, conduct master-classes or participate in workshops at the other institutions where partner participants work.

The activity will be recorded at www.alternativeculture.org, which will also list a schedule of exchange visits, themes, outline and full text of delivered lectures, etc.

This activity will facilitate the dissemination of information and knowledge gained from individual and group research and from project contact sessions, and the exchange of teaching methods, as well as helping to produce both local and international academic communities.

Documentation and Resources

In addition to summer and winter sessions and interim activities, the Seminar aims on generating reference sources, collecting and presenting on-line different types of materials to be used in teaching both the participants, core and visiting faculty. Because the Seminar anticipates working with certain amount and types of information and data which may be difficult to access (recommended literature, published documents, archival, audio and visual materials, and also new material gained through individual and focus groups research) a special page "Documentation and Resources" will be later created at www.alternativeculture.org