News and Opinions
The Destruction of the Faculty Continues
"Paper": at least 35 teachers left former Smolny college since the start of the war.
Closing Speech in Сourt by Smolny Graduate Sasha Skochilenko
Smolny graduate Sasha Skochilenko sentenced to 8 years in prison for an anti-war artistic campaign.
An Article About the Fate of Smolny College
An article by Danila Raskov and Denis Skopin about the fate of Smolny.
Experimental Feminist Poetry with Galina Rymbu
A new mini-course by the famous poet Galina Rymbu. Apply until November 14.
Semester Courses Spring 2024
Contemporary Cultural and Literary Theories
Ilya Kalinin | S24 M W
Diary Film, Autoethnography, and Poetic Film Writing
Masha Godovannaya | S24 M W
Does Might Make Right? Ancient Perspectives on an Enduring Dilemma
Thomas Bartscherer | S24 Tu
French Modernism
Larissa Muravieva | S24 Fr
Homo Medievalis: Culture and the Individual and in the Middle Ages
Victor Apryshchenko | S24 M W
How Did Math Begin to Rule?
Andrei Rodin | S24 T T
Political Economy in Retrospect
Danila Raskov | S24 T T
Putinism as an Ideology
Ilia Veniavkin | S24 M TH
Qualitative Research Methods
Victor Apryshchenko | S24 Tu
Soviet Origins of Contemporary Russia
Aleksey Gilev | S24 M W
Understanding Human Behavior
Michael Allakhverdov | S24 T T
Mini-courses Spring 2024
Disability Representation in the Cultural Institutions
Vera Shengeliya | FEB15 – APR18 | TH
Empowering People with Disabilities: Community Support and Advocacy
Vera Shengeliya | FEB12 – APR15 | M
Political History of Documentary Photography in Russia
Denis Skopin | FEB19 – MAR21 | M TH
Graduate Courses Spring 2024
Machines of No More War
Natalia Fedorova | S24 T T
Philosophy of War and Peace
Artemy Magun | S24 W
Archive
Public Events
Queer Partisaning: Traces of Queer Relationality as Cinematic Errantry
November, 14, Masha Godovannaya's PhD Defense
Rituals of Queer Relatedness
November, 10, 14:00, Exhibition by Masha Godovannaya and Polina Zaslavskaya
Reading and Discussion of the Play “Crime” by Esther Bol
November 9, Reading and Discussion of the Play 'Crime' by...
Film Program ‘From “Etudes” to Necrocinema’ in the Austrian Film Museum
November 5, Film Program by Masha Godovannaya in the Austrian...
Faculty
About
A group of former Smolny College faculty with the support of Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, and Bard College Berlin (BCB) established Smolny Beyond Borders (SBB) in November 2022, a liberal arts initiative that continues and builds upon the legacy of Smolny College (formerly a joint program of St. Petersburg State University and Bard College), the longest-running dual degree program between any Russian and American institution.
Smolny Beyond Borders aims to recreate Smolny institutionally, but independently of St.Petersburg State, and establish not only a structure of support for the faculty who left Russia, but provide opportunities to attract, teach, and recruit new students and to sustain the successful practices formerly recognized at Smonly College to build the Russia of the future. The program will provide multi-level educational and research opportunities to equip the next generation of students and faculty with the tools to rebuild and promote a different trajectory for Russia that holds the country responsible as part of the global community.
About Smolny College
Smolny College was a long-term collaboration between St. Petersburg State University and Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. After its founding in 1997, it became both the largest liberal arts program in Russia and the most robust Russian-American partnership in the higher education sphere. In the summer of 2021, the Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation declared that Bard College is an undesirable organization, the first college or university to be so named. This began the dismantling of Smolny, which has since undergone the loss of faculty and curricular changes that have rejected the very idea of liberal arts and sciences education.
The Gagarin Center for the Study of Civil Society and Human Rights (Gagarin Center at Bard College) allows Russian scholars forced to leave Russia as a result of the war on Ukraine, and risks of political persecution, continue to pursue research and educational activities focused on contemporary social, economic, and human rights issues in Russia. Previously, the Gagarin Center, supported by the Gagarin Trust, was a core component of Smolny College. The Center and its fellows offered courses, prepared research on vital issues, offered public programming, and served as a venue for the critical exchange of ideas.