Russian Language Intern Position, Russian and Eurasian Studies Program at Colgate University

The Russian and Eurasian Studies Program at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, USA invites applications for a Russian Language Intern position in the Russian and Eurasian Studies Program for the 2024-2025 academic year. The Russian Language Intern will be provided by the university with a $13,400 annual living stipend, as well as the following benefits:

• A private room in a shared apartment with other language interns, within walking distance of campus
• Health insurance
• A partial university meal plan ($2,400 value)
• Access to athletics facilities
• Up to $2,500 toward travel to/from their home country.
• Enrollment in up to two Colgate university classes for credit each semester

The successful candidate is expected to be fluent in Russian and sufficiently proficient in English to function in an English-speaking environment. Candidates should either hold or be actively persuing a degree at the either the undergraduate or graduate level. Colgate will support a J-1 visa for this position.

Language interns work on a part-time basis, usually contributing about 20 hours per week. Language interns will assist lead instructors in language courses and will not be responsible for teaching their own courses or for assigning grades for student work.

Interested applicants should submit:

• CV written in English
• Application letter written in English, in which the candidate explains the reasons for applying, addresses how the candidate is qualified for the position, and indicates any extra-curricular activities that may be helpful for the position
• Two letters of recommendation that address the candidate’s teaching

All application materials must be submitted through Interfolio. Review of applications will begin on May 10, 2024 and continue until the position is filled. Shortlisted candidates will be interviewed by Zoom. 

Kennan Institute Research Internship - Kennan Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Description
The Kennan Institute offers paid Research Internships lasting two to nine months for undergraduate, graduate, and prospective graduate students. Each intern works with a scholar in residence at the Institute over a period of 2 months, starting in late June or early July 2024. The intern will commit to working 10-15 hours per week on a flexible schedule. 

Qualifications
Applicants should have a good command of the Russian or Ukrainian language and ability to conduct independent research. Reading fluency in Russian and/or Ukrainian is essential for this role.

The selected intern will conduct directed but independent research in keyword-searchable online collections of historical Russian- and/or Ukrainian-language newspapers from the interwar period. Themes researched will fall primarily in the areas of economics and security, with specific topics to include smuggling, espionage, border control, natural resources, and international relations.

Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States. International students are eligible for Wilson Center internships, but they must hold a valid F-1 or J-1 visa and appropriate work authorization. All international students must obtain written permission from their Designated School Official or Responsible Visa Officer at their university stating that they are in valid immigration status and eligible to do an internship at the Center.

Title VIII Research Scholar, Title VIII Combined Research & Language Training Programs, American Councils for International Education

American Councils for International Education is pleased to announce that that the American Councils Title VIII Research Scholar and Title VIII Combined Research & Language Training Programs applications are now open.  Designed to expand the accessibility of overseas research while increasing U.S. knowledge and expertise on Eastern Europe and Eurasia, the programs support fellows seeking to complete overseas, policy-relevant research.

Research can be conducted in the following countries: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan. 

Eligibility

• Applicants must be U.S. citizens 

• Graduate students, Ph.D. candidates, faculty, and post-doctoral scholars 

• Applicants must be at least 18 years old by the application deadline 

Fellowships last three to nine consecutive months and include:

• Round-trip international travel 

• Housing and living stipends 

• Visa support 

• Overseas health, accident, and evacuation insurance 

• Archive access 

• Pre-departure informational materials 

• In-country logistical support 

• 24/7 emergency contact 

Following the completion of the research term, fellows will return to the U.S. and share their findings through presentations, articles, and lectures in order to strengthen and broaden current scholarship on the region.

Application deadline: October 1, 2024

Please contact Max Shelton for additional information at mshelton@americancouncils.org

2024 AWSS Patricia Herlihy Graduate Research Prize

The Association for Women in Slavic Studies is pleased to announce the call for nominations for the Patricia Herlihy Graduate Research Prize, awarded annually to fund promising graduate-level research (a) in any field of Slavic/East European/Central Asian studies by a woman or (b) on a topic in Women’s or Gender Studies related to Slavic Studies/East Europe/Central Asia by a scholar of any gender. The Prize is supported by a recent endowment established in the name of Dr. Patricia Herlihy by her colleagues, students, and family. Dr. Herlihy made incredible contributions to the study of Ukraine and supported and mentored generations of scholars across disciplines engaged in study on Ukraine and its neighbors.

Graduate students who are currently enrolled and at any stage of master’s or doctoral level research are eligible. The award carries a cash prize of $1000 that may be used to support expenses related to completion of a thesis or dissertation, as well as travel, services, and/or materials. Nominations and self-nominations are welcome. Recipients must be members of AWSS and, if not current AWSS members, must join as a condition of the award. Winning recipients should submit a report on their use of the funds to the Committee Chair by August of the year following the receipt of the award.

A completed application consists of: (1) a 2-3 page proposal that explains the project, how the funds will be used, and why this funding is necessary for continued progress on the project; (2) a current curriculum vitae; (3) a detailed budget and timeline; (4) two letters of recommendation. Application materials in MSWord or PDF, letters of recommendation, and any questions regarding the prize should be sent directly to the Committee Chair: aorzoff@nmsu.edu.

Applications must be complete by September 1, 2024 to be considered for the award. 

The Association for Women in Slavic Studies 2024 Undergraduate & Graduate Essay Prize
The Undergraduate Essay Prize recognizes outstanding essays in Slavic/East European/Eurasian women’s and gender studies written by an undergraduate student in any discipline based at any tertiary institution worldwide. Submissions must: (1) be in English, (2) have been written while the author was a degree-seeking
undergraduate, (3) have been submitted and assessed for an undergraduate class between August 1, 2023 and August 31, 2024, (4) be of 3,000-5,000 words in length, (5) be accompanied by a nomination letter from the instructor of the course for which the essay was written. The instructor must be a current member of AWSS. Letters of nomination, accompanied by an electronic copy of the essay in either Word or PDF, should be sent electronically to each of the committee members listed below. Be sure to include both the permanent mailing address and email contact information for the student.

The Graduate Essay Prize is awarded to the author of a chapter or article-length essay on any topic in any field or area of Slavic/East European/Eurasian Studies written by a woman-identifying scholar, or on a topic in Slavic/East European/Eurasian Women’s or Gender Studies written by a scholar of any gender. The Graduate Essay Prize carries an award of $500. This competition is open to current doctoral students and to those who defended a doctoral dissertation in 2023-2024. If the submission is a seminar paper, it must have been written during the 2023-2024 academic year; if a dissertation chapter, it should be accompanied by the dissertation abstract and table of contents. Previous submissions and published materials are ineligible. Essays should be no longer than 50 double-spaced pages, including reference matter, and in English (quoted text in any other language should be translated). Please send a copy of the essay and an updated CV to each member of the Prize Committee as email attachment.

Deadline for both prizes: Completed submissions must be received by September 1, 2024.
Please direct any questions to Student Essay Prize Committee Chair, Dr. Melissa Bokovoy: mbokovoy@unm.edu

2025–26 HRI Fellowships: “Story and Place”
HRI is pleased to announce that its 2025–26 fellowship year theme will be “Story and Place.”

In spite of the impact of global economic and culture forces on our lives—and of course because of it—attention to the particularity of place remains key to how humanists and artists think about the world. How does your work engage with place-based experiences, histories, performative cultures, languages, politics, literatures? What does storytelling that emerges from specific places and spaces contribute to how we apprehend the visual, the material, the political, the queer, or the orthodox?

Place often takes root through story, but it is as often made in the telling. How can storytelling and story-making create place and its attachments—or unravel it, or make it legible to new audiences? What is the role of place-based story in how we grapple with war, social movements, equity work, fantasy, political ideology, art practice, social media, ecological crisis, and/or the land grant university itself? And what is “place” beyond the local, exactly?

HRI invites proposals which engage the intersection of place and story in a variety of mediums— narrative, textual, maker-oriented, graphic, and more. We look forward to learning from humanities- and arts-based researchers who are working with place at any scale and in any number of forms. We’re interested in the geography closest in or the farthest out; in stories that stick close to home or those that carry home with them as they move.

We’re curious, in short, about multi-form ways of exploring the places, real and imagined, that help us reckon with the world as we know it, tell it, and want it to be told. If place is a backdrop to how you are communicating your work, this is an opportunity, in the context of a yearlong interdisciplinary seminar, to converse with colleagues interested in experimenting with how to bring place and storytelling into sharper relation.

The projects proposed to HRI for 2025–26 fellowships will be evaluated on the scholarly excellence and promise of the project, the applicant’s preparation/readiness to undertake the proposed research, the quality of the narrative proposal, the relationship to the annual theme, the case made for how the interdisciplinary experience offered by the Fellows Seminar would be beneficial to the project, and the letters of support.

HRI welcomes applications from all disciplines and departments with an interest in humanities and humanities-inflected research. HRI is especially interested in fostering interdisciplinary work, both within the humanistic disciplines, and between the humanities and the arts.

See the links available here for specific guidelines. The submission portal will open on September 1, 2024.

The Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia (WCEE) Postdoctoral Fellowship - University of Michigan

The Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia (WCEE) at the University of Michigan invites scholars with a recent PhD in social sciences, humanities, public policy, and related fields with expertise in Ukraine and Ukrainian affairs to apply for a two-year WCEE Postdoctoral Fellowship, from August 2025 to July 2027.

WCEE Postdoctoral Fellows are expected to focus on their own research, participate in the center’s events, present at least one public lecture during their two-year fellowship, and teach one course per year at the University of Michigan while in full-time residency. 

Eligibility
Eligibility is restricted to applicants who have obtained their PhD no earlier than January 1, 2023. Current doctoral candidates are eligible to apply but must have defended and filed their dissertations by July 31, 2025.

Benefits
Fellowships carry an annual salary of $60,000 and up to $10,000 in research funds during the postdoctoral appointment. Fellowship recipients will be eligible for U-M health, dental, and life insurance options (beginning August 1, 2025 through July 31, 2027). Fellows have full access to U-M library resources.  

Application Materials
Candidates should submit the following via Interfolio:

• A research proposal (2000 words maximum) that describes your intellectual objectives and concrete plan for the fellowship duration
• Curriculum Vitae
• A scholarly writing sample, such as a dissertation chapter or peer-reviewed journal article (50 pages maximum)
• Teaching statement with potential course topics
• DEI statement
• Two letters of recommendation

To be assured full consideration, fellowship applications should be received by October 15, 2024, 11:59 PM EST. Successful applicants will be notified by December 2024. 

Please contact the Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia for additional information at weiseraward@umich.edu.

Ukrainian Research in Switzerland Fellowship, University of Basel

The initiative ‘Ukrainian Research in Switzerland’ (URIS) invites applications for a URIS Fellowship for a six-month research and teaching stay at the University of Basel for the spring semester 2025 (February – July 2025) and the autumn semester 2025 (August 2025 – January 2026). The objectives of the initiative are to make a long-term contribution to furthering Ukrainian expertise in Switzerland, to foster the next generation of scholars, and to contribute to the international networks of Switzerland-based university research on Ukraine. URIS contributes to these objectives through the teaching and research of our fellows, through regular events such as our Ukrainian language courses, public and academic events, workshops, or summer schools.

• The initiative is looking for internationally recognized researchers who are prepared to be involved in the network of Swiss-Ukraine research and to offer a Ukraine-related course at the University of Basel during their stay in Switzerland.

• The main working focus of URIS in the spring semester 2025 and autumn semester 2025 will be on "Ukraine. A nation between war and reconstruction".

• The URIS fellowship entails a monthly allowance of CHF 4000. In addition, costs will be reimbursed for visa fees, accident and health insurance coverage in Switzerland, for one round trip to and from Basel from the country of origin, for a subscription entitling the holder to half-price travel on the Swiss Federal Railways, and for all work travels within Switzerland.

• The recipients are obliged to reside in Basel for the duration of the fellowship.

• The awarding of the fellowships will be decided by an academic advisory board.

• *The URIS fellowships are awarded subject to approval of the funding credit by the Federal Assembly and the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI).

Application deadline: July 29, 2024.

Application materials and submission link can be found here. 

Gender and Transformation in Central-Eastern Europe and Eurasia Workshop, European Union Studies Center/City University of New York Graduate Center

Founded in 1993, amidst the conflicts in Yugoslavia, this workshop is driven by the exploration of questions related to gender in postcommunist countries of East, South and Central Europe and the former Soviet Union, including the Baltic countries and Central Asia. Centered on debates on communism’s impact on women and gender and on how to converse and theorize across the East-West divide, this workshop strives to include voices from not just the New York City area, but also from the region and around the world. We continue to be an informal and friendly gathering for feminist scholars, activists, and journalists to discuss recent theoretical and/or critical work, empirical research, and critical and scholarly reflections on activism.

We invite papers on any topic related to the themes of communism and postcommunism and gender, but this year, we are particularly thinking about the impact of Russia’s long war against Ukraine and of the threat of anti-gender populism and authoritarianism. We remain especially interested in proposals that consider the impact of Russia’s aggression on gender in the region, state gendered violence inside and outside the state borders, and the role of state propaganda in fostering ultranationalism and war. We are also especially interested in reflecting on our work as scholars of gender and this region, including the continued influence of Russia-centrism and West-based scholarship.  We welcome conversations that put this region in the context of global events and processes, including the Israel-Gaza war.

The workshop meets monthly, usually on Fridays, at the CUNY Grad Center in New York City (with Zoom participation available) or via Zoom only, 2-3 PM New York time (8-9PM Poland time). Presenters share a 10–15-page paper in advance to those who have registered. We ask authors to limit their presentation to 20 minutes to allow maximum time for conversation.

To participate, please fill out this google form with your name, email, location/affiliation, current related interests.  We have also created a space there for you to share your thoughts and suggestions about the workshop as well as to indicate interest in participating in a NYC-based networking session to foster collaboration and mentoring.

If you’d like to present your work/project this next academic year, please also add the following: 

• tentative title for your talk
• abstract of less than 200 words describing your proposed talk
• up to 5 recent publications or information about your activism
• your schedule clarifying which Fridays you could present
• Preferred format: Zoom or in-person

For more details, please follow the link .

Deadline for proposals submission: August 1, 2024.

If you have any questions, please contact Janet Elise Johnson at johnson@brookyn.cuny.edu

Russian Online Language Pedagogy (OLP) Summer Workshop, National Foreign Language Resource Center, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

This professional learning opportunity, designed specifically for online Russian language teachers, will focus on three key areas of teaching Russian online:

1. Adapting materials and resources (Monday, August 5)
2. Teaching writing and reading in Russian (Wednesday, August 7)
3. Learner interaction (Friday, August 9)

These interactive live sessions will be followed by related asynchronous tasks (e.g., sharing of resources, posts related to the day’s topic, etc.), which are to be completed after each live session.

Live panel discussions in Zoom: 9:00-10:45 am Hawai‘i | 12:00-1:45 pm Pacific | 1:00-2:45 pm Mountain | 2:00-3:45 pm Central | 3:00-4:45 pm Eastern

Our invited panelists are:

• Evgeny Dengub (University of Southern California)
• Olga Klimova (University of Pittsburgh)
• Shannon Donnally Quinn (Michigan State University)
• Heather Rice (University of Texas at Austin)
• Larisa Shuvalova (University of Washington & Meridian School District, WA)

Digital badge & CEU credit available for completion of workshop criteria.

Registration: FREE

Deadline: July 31, 2024

For more information or to register, visit https://nflrc.hawaii.edu/events/view/olp2024/

22nd Annual Graduate Student Colloquium in Armenian Studies - UCLA

The UCLA Graduate Student Colloquium in Armenian Studies Committee invites current graduate students and recent graduates (MA or PhD within the last two years) to present their research at the 22nd Annual Graduate Student Colloquium in Armenian Studies on February 21, 2025. Research papers will be accepted on all aspects of Armenian studies, including but not limited to language, literature, history, gender studies, sociology, anthropology, economics, and art history. Papers that make use of comparative themes and interdisciplinary approaches are particularly encouraged.

Applicants are asked to submit an abstract of no more than 250 words and a brief curriculum vitae by 11:59pm (PST) on September 10, 2024. To submit your proposal, please use to the “Apply” button at the top of this page or click here.

Abstracts should be written in a manner accessible to a broad academic audience (i.e. limit the use of discipline-specific jargon) and should provide a clear, focused description of the topic as well as the paper’s theoretical perspectives. Each abstract will be given a blind review by the committee and will be evaluated based on the originality of the topic and the clarity of the exposition with regard to argument, methodology, and expression. Priority of acceptance will be given to those who have not presented at the colloquium in previous years. Please note that a 20-minute time limit will be strictly enforced for each paper (roughly 7-8 pages, double-spaced). Accepted speakers will be required to submit a draft of their presentation by January 15, 2025.

Please send any questions to the Graduate Student Colloquium in Armenian Studies Committee at agsc@ucla.edu

Virtual Conference - Baltic Sexualities in Global Perspective - Baltic Study Group 

The conference aims to bring together scholars from various disciplines who explore, theorise, and seek to address historical, social, legal, and political aspects of sexuality (of any historical period) within the  present day territories of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Sexuality is broadly defined as a range of emotional, physical, and psychological dimensions, characteristics, behaviours, and attractions that relate to a person's sexual orientation, sexual activity, sexual identity, and sexual desires. Sexuality can involve, but is not limited to, sexual orientation (such as LGBTQ+ and/or asexuality), romantic attraction, and experiences of intimacy and pleasure. In addition, sexuality is inextricably linked to social/cultural norms and values, as well as legal and medical knowledge production.  

Focusing on the region that comprises present-day Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, this conference seeks to examine Baltic sexualties in transnational and global perspective. The prevalence of multiethnic and multilingual societies, significant diaspora populations, and the region’s historic reputation as a borderland and space of heightened mobility make the Baltic lands particularly fruitful for exploring transfers and exchange across borders, as well as the impact of competing cultural, social, and political ideas upon sexualities. 

We take inspiration from a broad range of scholarly work that addresses the transnational exchanges and various aspects of sexuality in a broader CEE context, such as: family planning rights and sexual politics, sex education, (sexual) knowledge production, sex trafficking, sex work, and the gay and lesbian press. We invite contributions exploring transnational flows in historical perspective (e.g. pan-Baltic in the Russian imperial/Soviet context, or between the Baltics and the USSR/socialist world/West), as well as  contemporary studies of connections between the Baltic States and the ‘East’, ’West’ or ‘the Third’ worlds under the broad theme of sexuality. 

We invite submissions of  250-word abstracts for 15-minute papers to be delivered on Zoom at the online conference. We are interested in receiving proposals from scholars working within a wide range of disciplines including, but not limited to:

• History
• Politics and International Relations 
• Sociology and Anthropology
• Psychology
• Media and Communications
• Legal Studies
• Art, Music, and Literature

Contributions may address or go beyond the following themes:

• Rethinking chronologies and timelines of sexual ‘revolutions’
• Entanglements between the global and the local contexts
• Competing forms of knowledge production
• Sexuality and (non)normativity
• Sexuality and procreation
• Sexual health and sex education 
• Mobilities 
• Sexual rights and global politics

Please send abstracts and a short biographical note to Rasa Kamarauskaite rasa.kamarauskaite.15@ucl.ac.uk by 15 September 2024. 

Summer Institute for the Study of East Central and Southeastern Europe (SISECSE)

The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) invites applications for the Summer Institute for the Study of East Central and Southeastern Europe (SISECSE) 2024-25 competition. In partnership with the Centre for Advanced Study Sofia (CAS), ACLS will convene leading scholars from Eastern Europe and North America for a two-week residency in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria from June 5 to June 20, 2025.

SISECSE will provide participating scholars with time and space to dedicate to their own research and writing in a collaborative and interdisciplinary setting. The program covers travel, accommodation, and per diem expenses. Scholars are expected to be in residence and to participate in all planned events for the duration of the institute.

Eligibility 

• Applicants must have a PhD degree conferred (officially awarded) by an accredited university by the application deadline. An established scholar who can demonstrate the equivalent of the PhD in publications and professional experience may also qualify.
• The competition is open to scholars in any field or discipline in the humanities or interpretive social sciences pursuing postdoctoral or advanced research in East Central and Southeastern Europe, including Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czechia, Croatia, Hungary, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine.
• Applicants must have an affiliation—a long-term regular research or teaching appointment—with an institution (i.e., college, museum, university) in North America (Canada, Mexico, US) or East Central and Southeastern Europe (see the list above). Applicants who do not have tenure-track or permanent positions should describe their future commitment to working in North America or East Central and Southeastern Europe.
• There are no restrictions as to the citizenship of applicants.
• The application must be submitted in English, but the written work produced may be in any language.

Deadline: October 30, 2024, 9:00 PM EDT

For more information and application guidelines see here.

Beginning Georgian, Harvard Extension School

Harvard Extension School welcomes students to participate in the virtual Beginning Georgian class (GRGN E-1).  

This intensive course provides a comprehensive introduction to the modern Georgian language and culture for those who would like to speak Georgian or use the language for reading and research. Designed for students without any previous knowledge of Georgian, the course stresses all four major communicative skills (speaking, listening and viewing comprehension, reading, and writing). Students are introduced to Georgian culture through readings, screenings, and class discussions. This course prepares students to continue in Georgian at the intermediate level, for future study or travel abroad. For this course our focus is concentrated on vocabulary and pronunciation. Students also listen and comprehend natural spoken language and are exposed to as many of the introductory phrases and sentences as possible. With hard work and enthusiasm, this ancient and notoriously difficult language comes to a perfect, orderly, comprehensible, and beautiful system.

The course will meet twice weekly for two hours, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6-8pm ET. 

Last day to register for the course is August 29, 2024.

Intensive Language Instruction Program (formerly IFLIP)
The Intensive Language Instruction Program (ILIP)—formerly known as the Intensive Foreign Language Instruction Program, or IFLIP—is a unique educational experience designed to accelerate language learning through an immersive classroom atmosphere that is fun and welcoming. ILIP classes combine language and culture through engaging high-quality activities facilitated by our skilled instructors.

ILIP is open to members of the university community and to the general public and offers classes in several languages, including beginner Polish and Ukrainian. Learn more here:

Intensive Language Instruction Program (formerly IFLIP) | School of Literatures, Cultures & Linguistics | UIUC (illinois.edu)

Aspirantum- Armenian School of Languages and Cultures
ASPIRANTUM provides life-changing education for academically-oriented people, students, researchers, and professionals. ASPIRANTUM - School of Languages and Cultures has a long tradition of organizing language schools in the Republic of Armenia.  ASPIRANTUM operates as a separate brand/entity with the aim to offer language courses in Armenian, Persian, Russian, Georgian, Arabic, Turkish, and Kurmanji. Since 2014 we have organized Armenian, Persian and Russian summer and winter schools for students and scholars from around the globe. ASPIRANTUM has already served more than 100 students from more than 20 countries. Current ASPIRANTUM programs include: Persian Language Winter School and Russian Language Winter School. CIEE Study Abroad in Russia

Since 1947, nonprofit study abroad and intercultural exchange organization CIEE has been bringing the world together, advancing peace by building bridges of mutual understanding between different people, different countries, and different cultures. The current programs CIEE offers are: Semester or Year Russian Area Studies, Summer Russian Area Studies, Semester or Year Russian Language, and Summer Russian Language.

Deadlines differ based on program.

Russian Practicum at Columbia University 
The Russian Practicum offers three courses in the Russian language (beginning, intermediate and advanced). The first session is offered June 3–27, and the second session is offered July 1–25. Each Russian session carries four (4) credit points and is offered at a flat payment rate, which is lower than the standard semester per credit rate. It is an excellent opportunity to explore a new language or, if you have taken Russian before, bring it up to the next level of proficiency.

The Russian Practicum provides an opportunity to deepen your knowledge of the Russian language and culture in an immersive and engaging environment. The program is designed to provide you with instruction in speaking and listening, reading and writing. You will have the chance to learn alongside other enthusiastic students who share your passion for the Russian language and culture.

If you have any questions or if you need help with registration, contact Alla Smyslova at as2157@columbia.edu.