Russian Language & Area Studies at St. Olaf

Tag: Spring 2026

  • Foraging Workshop in the St. Olaf Natural Lands

    On Friday, May 8, Tim Clemens from Ironwood Foraging visited St. Olaf to lead a foraging workshop in the natural lands.

    Foraging is an important tradition in much of the Russian-speaking world, and represents an engaging cultural touchstone linking the Russian-speaking world and Minnesota’s own indigenous past. During the foraging workshop, Tim shared the Ojibwe names and explained the various uses of many edible plants native to Minnesota. Prof. Morse and Russian Language Community President, Yasmina Tsedenova (’27) tried their best to come up with the Russian names for related species found in Southern Russia and Central Asia.

    Foraging can be extremely dangerous if undertaken without expert supervision. Never forage on your own!

  • Russian Studies Majors Present their Work at Undergraduate Conferences

    Emily Kleiber (’26) and Cayla Chun (’26) presented papers they wrote in Prof. Dossi’s course on Queer Russian Literature (Fall 2026) at national undergraduate conferences.

    Emily presented at the European and Eurasian Undergraduate Research Symposium (Pittsburgh University) and Cayla presented at the 2026 Jordan Center Masters and Undergraduate Research Symposium (NYU).

    Emily and Cayla were also inducted into Dobro Slovo this year. Congratulations, Emily and Cayla — we’re so proud of you!

  • Oles Perform Musical Accompaniment at Screening of Salt for Svenetsia (1930)

    As part of the Muslim in Russian Literature film festival, Emily Kleiber (’26), Shalizeh Takloobighash (’29), Zlata Krutova (’29), Hayden Williams, and Michael Oaks provided live musical accompaniment to Mikhail Kalatozov’s silent film masterpiece, Salt for Svenetsia (1930).

    The film portrays the Svan people living in the mountains of Soviet Georgia, where they have been cut off from the outside world pretty much year round due to harsh winters and dangerous peaks of the mountains. Among many things they lack, salt is the most important. Without salt, their livestock can die and their survival can be at risk. When the Soviet engineers arrive to build a road to connect Svanetia to the lower land, everything changes.

    You can learn more about the film festival here. The RLAS department plans to organize further silent film screenings with live musical accompaniment on an annual basis.

  • Dr. Adeeb Khalid Visits St. Olaf

    On March 26, the Russian Language and Area Studies Department invited Dr. Adeeb Khalid to St. Olaf to give a public lecture title “Muslims in/and Russia: Histories of Coexistence and Contention. Dr. Khalid’s lecture was followed by a lively Q & A and dinner.

    Dr. Khalid also gave a guest lecture in Prof. Dossi’s course, “The Muslim in Russian Literature.”

    Support for Dr. Khalid’s visit was provided by the Walter and Betty Stromseth fund for Intercultural and Interreligious Education.

  • The Muslim in Russian Literature

    Empress Catherine II undertook her “Taurian Voyage” (1787) to visit Crimea and New Russia, two provinces that the Russian Empire had recently acquired from the Ottoman Turks in the settlement of the Russo-Turkish War (1768-74). Upon her arrival in Crimea, the Empress proclaimed it a “fairy tale from The Thousand and One Nights.” In referencing this famous collection of “Oriental” fairy tales, Catherine drew on a long-standing habit in Russia of depicting their Muslim neighbors, and subjects as exotic characters from stories and fables — as Orientalized Others — and more often than not, enemies. This course will examine texts spanning more than a thousand years of Russian and Eurasian history, to examine the figure of the “Muslim” in the Russian imaginary. In so doing, we will gain a sense for the ever-changing relations between Christian and Muslim communities in Eurasia through the lens of their interactions in literature.

    Offered Spring 2026.