It's been quite a rollercoaster of a spring semester. Russian Cuisine in Exile is selling pretty well. It dawned on me to (Facebook) "friend" the surviving co-author, Alexander Genis, and then the son of the deceased co-author also friended me. Genis commented to me how ironic it felt that his (real) friends were still the main readers and purchasers of the book--this time Russians buying it for their own English-speaking friends. Konstantin Vail, who lives in New Jersey, wrote a super sweet thank you note to us for translating his father's book.
Tom and I did a video interview in Boston at ASEEES, which the crack staff at Academic Studies Press edited up beautifully. I've also done a couple of interviews which will appear in print or have already online (see here, the U of Wisconsin CREECA interview with Larisa Doroshenko).
And this morning--after spring semester, with my May term study abroad course starting in Budapest, Hungary tomorrow--I finally posted the wrap up of our "mini-tour" in December in Milwaukee and Hyde Park. (At the Seminary Coop Bookstore we were taped, and I keep hoping we'll show up in their podcast, Open Stacks. So far nothing. Sigh.)
I taught another version of my Russian Food and Cuisine course and figured out what I really am interested in teaching: the nexus between food, gender, and everyday life. Which is good--because our book on that topic has now been published. The book I co-edited with Anastasia Lakhtikova and Irina Glushchenko, Seasoned Socialism: Gender and Food in Late Soviet Everyday Life, has eleven essays about food and gender written by historians, anthropologists, lit and film and culture scholars. We are framed by Darra Goldstein's terrific preface and Diane Koenker's insightful afterword. It was a great project (and it, along with RCIE, gobbled up much of my sabbatical in 2016-17). I'm so happy to have it out in the world.
The cover deserves special note. My colleague at Ohio State studied in Russia years ago--indeed, just as the "late Soviet period" we write about was coming to an end. She was invited to a country dacha by an acquaintance, and when she arrived, the hostess had laid out an entire--and characteristically Russian--spread on the table. Pasha took her photo. And then Pasha's mother painted the portrait. So generous of Marjorie Johnson to share with us and our readers. Now the book is beautiful and impressive inside and out (and mostly woman-authored, though we did manage to score one token male!)
Thinking about food and gender--and study abroad--I hung out on Viber yesterday with one of my Leningrad State roommates from when I went abroad in college. I was asking her for photos from back in the day, and she sent me the below: one I will incorporate into my course in future when I talk about International Women's Day.
Tom and I did a video interview in Boston at ASEEES, which the crack staff at Academic Studies Press edited up beautifully. I've also done a couple of interviews which will appear in print or have already online (see here, the U of Wisconsin CREECA interview with Larisa Doroshenko).
And this morning--after spring semester, with my May term study abroad course starting in Budapest, Hungary tomorrow--I finally posted the wrap up of our "mini-tour" in December in Milwaukee and Hyde Park. (At the Seminary Coop Bookstore we were taped, and I keep hoping we'll show up in their podcast, Open Stacks. So far nothing. Sigh.)
I taught another version of my Russian Food and Cuisine course and figured out what I really am interested in teaching: the nexus between food, gender, and everyday life. Which is good--because our book on that topic has now been published. The book I co-edited with Anastasia Lakhtikova and Irina Glushchenko, Seasoned Socialism: Gender and Food in Late Soviet Everyday Life, has eleven essays about food and gender written by historians, anthropologists, lit and film and culture scholars. We are framed by Darra Goldstein's terrific preface and Diane Koenker's insightful afterword. It was a great project (and it, along with RCIE, gobbled up much of my sabbatical in 2016-17). I'm so happy to have it out in the world.The cover deserves special note. My colleague at Ohio State studied in Russia years ago--indeed, just as the "late Soviet period" we write about was coming to an end. She was invited to a country dacha by an acquaintance, and when she arrived, the hostess had laid out an entire--and characteristically Russian--spread on the table. Pasha took her photo. And then Pasha's mother painted the portrait. So generous of Marjorie Johnson to share with us and our readers. Now the book is beautiful and impressive inside and out (and mostly woman-authored, though we did manage to score one token male!)
Thinking about food and gender--and study abroad--I hung out on Viber yesterday with one of my Leningrad State roommates from when I went abroad in college. I was asking her for photos from back in the day, and she sent me the below: one I will incorporate into my course in future when I talk about International Women's Day.
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| International Women's Day, March 8, 1987 |
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