Research Project Opportunities
Students in the Russian Department have the opportunity to participate in faculty research projects, including several ongoing projects. New projects are developed to align with both the Department's needs and current College initiatives.
Student Position Titles: Digital Scholarship Project Assistant, Critical Making Intern, Digital Scholarship Translation Assistant, Digital Scholarship Graduate Assistant
Irina Walsh and Margaret Strair (German), in collaboration with LITS, the Makerspace, and student assistants, are building virtual and physical, 3D visualizations of Berlin that will be used in Russian and German language classes. This project focuses on daily life on either side of the Berlin Wall.
Student Position Titles: Digital Scholarship Assistant, Digital Scholarship Summer Fellow, Site Developer, Translator
The Encyclopedia of the Dog is a complete and freely accessible bilingual digital edition of Sasha Sokolov’s 1980 novel Between Dog and Wolf. It features both the original Russian text and Alexander Boguslawski’s English translation as well as multiple kinds of annotations to help readers grasp the various meanings, allusions, and layers of the novel. Student collaborators have contributed annotations, translations, and research to the project.
Paul Thomas Annotated: In the Margins
Student Position Titles: Digital Scholarship Project Assistant, Digital Scholarship Summer Fellow, Summer Humanities Research Program Fellow
Paul Thomas Annotated: In the Margins is an open access digital scholarship project devoted to the filmography of Paul Thomas Anderson. The project involves annotating, scene by scene, screenshots from each of his ten narrative films to date with the aim of making PTA’s work more accessible to audiences, including scholars, students, filmmakers, fans, and casual viewers. This is an ongoing project with multiple positions for students who participate in research, annotations, and metadata work and also create supplementary content for the website, including data visualizations, exhibits, and features related to these films.
The Reactor Room: An Immersive Chornobyl Exhibition
Student Position Titles: Digital Scholarship Project Assistant, Digital Scholarship Summer Fellow
In collaboration with the Makerspace, the 2023 Digital Scholarship Summer Fellows program cohort collaborated on designing and building a multi-modal exhibition focused on the 1986 Chornobyl nuclear disaster and its legacies, including the current moment of threat caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Fellows learned the basics of exhibition design, digital publishing, CAD, critical making, fabrication, and woodworking. Guided by faculty and staff mentors, they researched the cultural and ecological history of Chornobyl and created interactive experiences, including a model of reactor room #4 and multimedia digital content. Their work culminated in a winter 2023 installation that also features scholarship by students in Professor Vergara’s course, RUSS220 Chornobyl.