Russian Association of American Studies
Moscow University, Moscow, February 5-6, 2001

"Us/ Others in the American Cultural Experience"

    At the conference we plan to discuss the idea of Otherness and the historical experience of engaging Others in the American culture, to consider its similarities to and differences from the relevant experience of other cultures, its productive as well as its problematic aspects.
The four major sections/ conversations will concentrate on the following subjects:

  1. The Problem of Us/ Others in Contemporary Social Science - political, international, social, ethnic, gender etc. dimensions; nation and nationalism, sub- and transnational formations in the context of globalization.
  2. "Us/Others" in American History: Cultural Reflection of the Experience. History of the nation as product of the Us/Others relationship. How universal is American experience, how adaptable and open to the contemporary global context?
  3. Representations of Us and Others in the American Public Opinion, Media and Popular Culture. "Taming" the Other by and through the market. Political correctness, its function and effectiveness. Image of the Other as enemy, partner, scapegoat, double, commodity, etc.
  4. Theorizing Us and Others. Difference, cultural divisions and border crossing as object of theoretical reflection. American high culture, cultural mainstream and alternative culture - self-definitions and interrelationship.

    5. Production, dissemination and social functioning of knowledge about America within and outside the US. American studies as a field of research and an academic discipline in America, in Russia, worldwide.

For more information contact Tatiana Venediktova vened@philol.msu.ru