RSACS History

Larisa MIKHAYLOVA, Olga NESMELOVA, Yuri STULOV
50 YEARS OF THE DECEMBER AMERICANIST CONFERENCES IN MOSCOW:
HISTORY AND PROSPECTS OF THE AMERICAN CULTURE STUDIES

Abstract: Based on the experience of the organizers of the December Americanist conferences in Moscow and its long-term participants, the article outlines the history of the academic forum for over fifty years (1975–2025). Three stages are distinguished: the Soviet period, Perestroika, and the contemporary 21st-century period. The programs and materials from the past fifty conferences clearly show the pivotal factors that facilitated or complicated research at every stage: the continuity of studies in Moscow, Leningrad, Kyiv, Tbilisi, Tashkent during the Soviet period; the emergence of new regional centers of American studies (Kazan, Chita, Tomsk) and new conference sections; the appearance of bilingual publications; the beginning of international contacts during the Perestroika; the completion of the academic History of USA Literature (in 6 vols); the challenges of the contemporary period characterized by growing tensions in Russian-American relations. Special attention is paid to the imagological round table “Imprints: The Image of Russia and the Image of America,” which has been held since the early 1990s and now bears the name of its founder, Yassen Zassoursky. The main line of development is marked by an expansion of the research field from a purely philological focus to a cultural studies approach, encompassing the ethnic and gender aspects of American and Canadian culture. Keywords: conference, Russian Society of American Culture Studies (RSACS), Yassen Zassursky, American literature and culture, Russian American studies.

Mikhaylova, Larisa, Nesmelova, Olga, and Yuri Stulov. “50 Years of the December Americanist Conferences in Moscow: History and Prospects of the American Culture Studies.” Literature of the Americas, no. 19 (2025): 296–315. https://doi.org/10.22455/25417894-2025-19-296-315

Our History

Larisa MIKHAYLOVA, Olga NESMELOVA, Yuri STULOV

50 YEARS OF THE DECEMBER AMERICANIST CONFERENCES IN MOSCOW:

HISTORY AND PROSPECTS OF THE AMERICAN CULTURE STUDIES

Abstract: Based on the experience of the organizers of the December Americanist conferences in Moscow and its long-term participants, the article outlines the history of the academic forum for over fifty years (1975–2025). Three stages are distinguished: the Soviet period, Perestroika, and the contemporary 21st-century period. The programs and materials from the past fifty conferences clearly show the pivotal factors that facilitated or complicated research at every stage: the continuity of studies in Moscow, Leningrad, Kyiv, Tbilisi, Tashkent during the Soviet period; the emergence of new regional centers of American studies (Kazan, Chita, Tomsk) and new conference sections; the appearance of bilingual publications; the beginning of international contacts during the Perestroika; the completion of the academic History of USA Literature (in 6 vols); the challenges of the contemporary period characterized by growing tensions in Russian-American relations. Special attention is paid to the imagological round table “Imprints: The Image of Russia and the Image of America,” which has been held since the early 1990s and now bears the name of its founder, Yassen Zassoursky. The main line of development is marked by an expansion of the research field from a purely philological focus to a cultural studies approach, encompassing the ethnic and gender aspects of American and Canadian culture. Keywords: conference, Russian Society of American Culture Studies (RSACS), Yassen Zassursky, American literature and culture, Russian American studies.

Mikhaylova, Larisa, Nesmelova, Olga, and Yuri Stulov. “50 Years of the December Americanist Conferences in Moscow: History and Prospects of the American Culture Studies.” Literature of the Americas, no. 19 (2025): 296–315. https://doi.org/10.22455/25417894-2025-19-296-315

Abstracts of the RSACS LI International conference «The Concepts of «America» and «American» in Literature and Culture of the USA: Historical and Modern Connotations»

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 Georgy Arbatov Institute for U.S. and Canada Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences

Maxim Gorky Institute of World Literature

Russian Society of American Culture Studies

 

Abstracts of the RSACS  LI International Conference

 «The Concepts of «America» and «American» in Literature and Culture of the USA: Historical and Modern Connotations» 

December 2-6, 2025, Moscow

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RSACS LI International Conference Program 2025

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Georgy Arbatov Institute for U.S. and Canada Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences
Maxim Gorky Institute of World Literature, RAS
The Society of American Culture Studies

The LI International conference 

«The Concepts of «America» and «American»
in Literature and Culture of the USA:
historical and modern connotations»

Moscow, December 2-5, 2025

 PROGRAM

Оpening Session

December 2, 6.30 pm – 8 pm

 

Plenary  Papers


  1. Dr. Andrew Wiget 

Professor Emeritus, New Mexico State University

“I, Too, Sing America”:

When A Spring Wind Arose in America and the Soviet Union

 

 

The theme of this conference — «The Сoncepts of «America» and «American» in Literature and Culture of the USA” –is not only timely but urgent.  Today the ways in which Americans and America are represented not only to the world but to themselves is more than an academic question.   We are in a reactionary moment.  The idea of American exceptionalism has taken a bizarre and dangerous turn.  In both the United States and abroad, attempts are being made to invalidate the idea of America as a complex historical mosaic of experience.  Instead, there is official pressure to revert to an older, less complicated idea of America and an American national character.   In this talk I want to argue for two points.

First, that this is, in fact, a genuinely reactionary response to the actual success of promoting that more complex vision of America through law, literature, and public discourse.  I draw on my own personal and academic experience.  I was raised and educated in that simpler notion of American national character, but my later career has been shaped by demonstrating the shallowness and inadequacy of such a simple notion.

Second, there are dangerous consequences to seizing this reactionary moment as a way to reassert bizarre notions of American exceptionalism and national character.  In the US, the present government believes that ideologically reshaping public discourse on national identity and history is necessary step towards forging a unified national identity.   However, experience shows that such a policy marginalizes large segments of the population and  will inevitably lead to resistance, which will be used to justify violent suppression.  In short, such steps ultimately undermine the goal of national unity that they aim to promote by showing that such exclusionary national identities have no inherent truth and can only be maintained by force.

For me personally–and I believe it is true for all of us all of us positioned socially as academics–the dangers of this reactionary moment can only be resolved by restoring a concept of  national identity based on a truthful vision of national history and culture as complicated  and inclusive.  For me, a transformative moment in this regard was a 1991 seminar I organized in Moscow in which American and Russian scholars of American literature met to discuss the shape of the new, second edition of The Literary History of the United States then being developed at IMLI.

Тема этой конференции — «Понятие «Америки» и «американского» в литературе и культуре США» — не только актуальна, но и крайне важна. Сегодня то, как американцы и Америка представлены не только миру, но и самим себе, — больше, чем просто академический вопрос. Мы переживаем реакционный период. Идея американской исключительности приняла странный и опасный оборот. Как в Соединенных Штатах, так и за рубежом предпринимаются попытки опровергнуть представление об Америке как о сложной исторической мозаике. Вместо этого официально оказывается давление, чтобы вернуться к старой, менее сложной идее Америки и американского национального характера. В этом докладе я хочу обосновать два момента.

 

2 Dr. Carolyn Calloway-Thomas

Professor and Director of Graduate Studies

Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies

World Council on Intercultural and Global Competence

Past President, World Communication Association

Indiana University, Bloomington, USA

The Otherness of the Other: Ethnic Diversity, Tribalism, and Empathy

On June 5, 2009, Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel, who was imprisoned at Buchenwald concentration camp as a 16-year-old boy, toured the site with President Barack Obama during the latter’s trip to Germany.  In commenting on the barbarism  resident at Buchenwald and in reflecting on other terrible and evil acts that are  “meant to diminish the humanity of other human beings,” from Cambodia to Bosnia, Nobelist Wiesel asked a  compelling question, ”Will the world ever learn?”  And then he offered, we human beings must “stop hating the otherness of the other” and “respect it.”

In my talk, I will argue first that genuine efforts to foster ethnic and racial inclusion are leading to an ossification of discourses and a troubling specie of tribalism (Us versus Them), which undermine sociability and civil society. Second, drawing on Yuval Noah Harari’s concepts of subjectivity and inter-subjectivity, as well as on Kantian, Stoic and other notions of a respect for human dignity, I will offer a pedagogy of empathy as a humanizing way for deepening intercultural relationships among human beings in the United States.  Finally, I will discuss how a pedagogy of empathy (a toolbox), fused with reasoned discourse and thoughtfulness can promote more compassion in the world.  If not now, then, when?

 

Section 1. Journalism

Coordinator Dr. Andrey Ruskin
 (Journalism Department, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia)
December 2, 2025,  Tuesday, 10 am – 1 pm (MSK)

  1. Nikolai Zykov
    Lomonosov Moscow State University, Journalism Department, Russia
    Everyday life of Americans as covered by The Voice of America
  1. Irina Isakova
    Independent researcher,  Moscow, Russia
    Changing Image Perceptions of America: civil-military relations – traditions and current realities
  1. Arseniy Kanidyev
    State Academic University of Humanities, Moscow, Russia
    Algorithmic Constitutionalism and Freedom of the Press: Redefining the First Amendment in the Age of Artificial Intelligence and Content Moderation
  1. Nikita Litvinov
    The HigherSchool of Economics – The NationalResearchUniversity, Moscow, Russia
    Contemporary Russian-language Media of America and Russian-speaking-Americans: Features and difficulties of interaction
  1. Maxim Razmyarchik , Artem Lipov 
    Lomonosov Moscow State University, Journalism Department, Russia
    Countering the Spread of Disinformation and “Deepfakes”: the experience of American Fox News and CNN TV channels in 2025 
  1. Maria Sargsyan
    Southern Federal University, Institute of History and International Relations, Rostov-on-Don, Russia
    The Dynamics of American Media Discourse on Latin American Migration during Donald Trump’s Second Presidential Term

 7. Fedor Serdotetsky
Lomonosov Moscow State University, Journalism Department, Russia
The Image of America and Americans in Digital Culture: Representations in the Telegram Discourse of International Media 

  1. Yegor Akimov
    High School #1, Yoshkar-Ola, Mari-El, Russia
    The Political Culture of the «Deep South» through the Prism of Pachine politics: the phenomenon of Harry Byrd Sr.
  1. Polina Minailenko
    Saint-Petersburg State University, Political Sciences Department, Russia
    From Civil Religion to Narrative Identity: The Image of America in Presidential Holiday Proclamations 

10.  Konstantin Romanov
Department of Foreign Languages and Area Studies, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia
“Canada Strong” vs. “Canada First”: Conceptualizing “Canada” and “Canadians” in Canadian Socio-Political Discourse of 2025

 Section 2. American Culture of the 17th-19th Centuries

Coordinator Dr. Boris Maksimov
(Journalism Department, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia)
 December 2, Tuesday 2.00 pm-5.00 pm MSK

  1. Helen Lioznova
    Lomonosov Moscow State University School of Public Administration, Russia
    The Concept of “America” in the North American Colonies at the Turn of the 17th to 18th Centuries: the contribution of New England Puritanism to the formation of regional identity and American self-awareness

 2. Savelii Iakhnovets
Lomonosov Moscow State University Law Department, Russia
Philosophy of the Age of Enlightenment as the basis of XVIII century’s culture. Civilizational Analysis of T. Jefferson and T. Paine views 

  1. Narine Shakhnazarova
    Belarusian State University, Minsk, Belarus
    America in the Perception of English Romanticists

4. Boris Maximov
Lomonosov Moscow State University Journalism Department, Russia
The American Face of Edgar Allan Poe

  1. Andrey Taigildin
    Mari State University, Yoshkar-Ola, Mari-El, Russia
    «The Norman» Southerners or the Development of National Identity of the White Population in the Slave-owning States of the United States before the Civil War of 1861-1865
  1. Tatyana Belova
    Lomonosov Moscow State University, Philology Department, Russia
    National Identity of Americans in the Novella Daisy Miller by H. James (1878) in Historical Connotations

7. Nikita Leonov
Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow, Russia
The Genesis of the Myth of the West in American Culture 

 8. Eugenia Andreyeva
Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, Russia
Alaska in the Works of American Artists in the Context of Regional Exploration in the 19th–20th centuries

 9. Peter Korolyov
Kursk Liceum # 1, Russia
Facets and tendencies of American culture of the 17th – 19th centuries in the research of the Kursk scientific school (in the works of T.V. Alentyeva and M.A. Filimonova)

  1. Eugenia Pogadayeva
    Perm State National Research University, Russia
    Images of America and Americans in the Poetry of Walt Whitman and Pablo Neruda: Ontological and Typological Similarities and National Originality 

  Section 3. American Culture of the 20th and 21st Centuries

Coordinator Prof. Dr. Elena Kornilova
(Journalism Department, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia
 December 3, Wednesday, 10 am – 1.30 pm (MSK)

  1. Olga Antsyferova
    Saint-Petersburg State University, Russia
    Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy: A Century Later

 2. Natalia Petrovskaya
Georgy Arbatov Institute for U.S. and Canada Studies, RAS, Moscow, Russia
Americans and Work: 250 Years of Transformation from Farmer to Freelancer

  1. Olga Nesmelova, Zhanna Konovalova
    Kazan Federal University, Russia
    “Why They Don’t Write Great American Novels Anymore?”  A genre in crisis in the 1960-1970s

 4. Anna Aleinik
Moscow State Pedagogical University, Russia
The Neon Emptiness of the American Dream in A. Ginsberg’s poem A Supermarket in California 

 5. Kirill Ignatov
Department of Foreign Languages and Area Studies, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia
Ideological revisionism” in contemporary US literature

 6. Natalia Kopytko

Minsk State Linguistic University, Belarus

America and Americans Through the Prismatic Lens of Otherness in J.C. Oates’s Novel The Gravedigger’s Daughter

7. Irina Kudryavtseva
Minsk State Linguistic University, Belarus
Phenomena of American mass culture in the collection of short stories Flash Fiction America

 8. Alla Nikoulina
Akmulla Bashkir State Pedagogical University, Ufa, Russia
The U.S. South, North and West in Walker Percy’s Philosophical novels

9. Anastasia Korolyova
Research Institute of Theory and History of Fine Arts, Moscow, Russia
American Alternative: Edward Hopper’s Magical Realism

 10. Olga Lyubimskaya
Independent Researcher, Tyumen, Russia
The Image of Holly Golightly in Truman Capote’s Novel Breakfast at Tiffany’s: The Escape of the Holy Spirit 

 11. Sofia Semenova
Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia
The Narrator Figure and Narrative Techniques in L. M. Miranda’s musical Hamilton: An American Musical 

 

Section 4. Ethnic Aspects of American Culture

 Coordinator Dr.Oksana Danchevskaya
(Moscow State Pedagogical University, Russia)
December 3, Wednesday, 3.00 am – 7.00 pm (MSK)

  1. Tatiana Alenkina
    Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Russia
    The Contemporary Epistolary Novel about Indians and the Search for Hybrid Identity
  1. Dmitry Popov
    Nicholas Roerich Museum, New York, USA
    Mary Austin as a Singer and Herald of the Native American’s Poetic Tradition: At the Origins of Modern American Poetry

 3. Oksana Danchevskaya
Moscow State Pedagogical University, Russia
Spider Woman as a Symbol of Femininity and Wisdom in North American Indian Mythology: Historical Roots and Modern Interpretations

  1. Dmitry Vorobyev
    Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia
    The Problem of the Emergence of African-American Identity in W.E.B. Du Bois’s Work “The Souls of Black Folk”
  1. Tatiana Voronchenko
    Transbaikal State University, Chita, Russia
    “Chicano” in Search of Identity: A Complex of ‘Latinofuturism’ Ideas in the Poetry of Mexican-American Authors
  1. Elena Gladkyh
    Transbaikal State University, Chita, Russia
    The Representation of Regional Identity in Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton’s Novel The Squatter and the Don

7. Ekaterina Fyodorova
Transbaikal State University, Chita, Russia
The Problem of Self-identification in the Historical Novel by Mexican-American (Chicano) Writer A. Morales The Brick People

  1. Tatiana Ivanova
    University of Science and Technology MISIS, Russia
    Roadside Memorials in the USA: National Character Through the Lens of a Utilitarian Approach to Memory Preservation
  1. Kristina Korobko
    Lugansk State Pedagogical University
    The Female Perspective on the “American Dream” within Chinese Immigrant Discourse in the United States (A Case Study of Amy Tan’s “The Joy Luck Club”)
  1. Yuri Stulov
    Independent researcher, Belarus
    America Imagined and Real in the Conscience of Chinese immigrants (on the basis of Gish Jens’ dilogy)
  1. Maxim Ochkalov
    Lomonosov Moscow State University, Sebastopol Branch
    Italian-American Identity as a Narrative: The Evolution of Representations in US Cinema (Mid-20th – Early 21st Centuries)
  1. Elena Shabashova
    Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Russia
    American University: Salad Bowl or Melting Pot?

 

Section 5. Gender Aspects of American Culture

Coordinators Dr. Nadezhda Shvedova
(RAS Arbatov Institute of the USA and Canada, Russia) and Dr. Larisa Mikhaylova
 (Journalism Department, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia)
 December 5, Friday 10.00 am – 1.00 pm (MSK)

 1.Nadezda Shvedova
Georgy Arbatov Institute for U.S. and Canada Studies, RAS, Moscow, Russia
The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA): A Long-Awaited Prospect

 2. Maria Zolotukhina
Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow, Russia
Child Reading and National, Ethnic and Racial Identities in the contemporary US

 3.Tatyana Kamarovskaya
M.Tank Belarusian Pedagogical University, Minsk, Belarus
Religious Narratives in M. Gordon’s Novel “Pearl”

 4.Tatjana Srceva-Pavlovska
American University of Europe – AUE, Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia
Female Paranoia as a Symptom of the Postmodern Quest for Meaning – Thomas Pynchon’s Oedipa Maas and The Crying of Lot 49

 5. Yuliya Viarbitskaya
Minsk State Linguistic University, Belarus
Understanding the role of women in the formation of the American nation (based on Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series) 

6.  Ekaterina Markova
Kuban State University, Krasnodar, Russia
The Shapeshifter Called Moses: Harriet Tubman and Gender Ambiguity in James Emanuel’s Mythopoetics

7. Larisa Mikhaylova
Lomonosov Moscow State University, Journalism Department, Russia
Egalitarian Concepts of Saving the World in the popular TV Series  9-1-1 (2017-pres)

 

Section 6. Fantastic in the Arts

Coordinator Dr. Larisa Mikhaylova
(Journalism Department, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia)
 December 5, Friday, 2.15 pm – 5.15pm (MSK)

 1.Larisa Mikhaylova
Lomonosov Moscow State University, Journalism Department, Russia
E Pluribus Unum: Employing the Basic American metaphor in the series Pluribus (2025)

 2. Ekaterina Abramova
HSE University, Moscow, Russia
A Satirical Depiction of the American Backwoods in the Comic Strip Li’l Abner by Al Capp 

  1. Aishat Ostanbekova
    St-Petersburg State University, Russia
    March Music as a Manifestation of Superman’s American Identity (Based on the 1978 Film Superman)

 4. Stanislav Kazachenkov
Rostov State University of Economics , Russia
The “American Mission” Re-Imagined: From Captain America’s WWII to the Avengers’ Global Guardians

 5. Artemy Atamanenko
Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Moscow, Russi
The Political Identity of the Contemporary American Superhero: ‘The American Way’ and Power

 6.Valeria Parfenova
Penza State University, Russia
American Antiutopias of the 20th and 21st Centuries

 7. Helen Kornilova
Lomonosov Moscow State University, Journalism Department
The Future of American Civilization in Bong Joon-ho’s Dystopian Film Mickey 17 based on the novel by Edward Ashton

  1. Osip Kazantsev
    Southern Federal University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia
    How to be an American without America? An answer by J. G. Ballard in Hello, America! (1981)

 9. Darya Mitrokhina
Moscow State Pedagogical University, Russia
An American Nightmare: The Transformation of Lovecraftian Motifs in The Sinking City and Darksiders 2 Video Games as a Reflection of National Identity”

 

Imprints: Image of Russia and Image of America

Round Table In Memoriam of Professor Yassen Zassoursky

Coordinator RSACS Academic Secretary Dr. Larisa Mikhaylova

December 3, Wednesday, 7.30 pm –9 pm  (MSK)

 

 1. Alyona Vanova
Independent researcher, Moscow, Russia
Metaphorical concepts of America and Russia: stereotypes and archetypes

 2. Stanislav Kazachenkov
Rostov State University of Economics, Russia
Redefining the ‘Digital Frontier’:  Russian Innovation Vs. U.S. Tradition in Tax Systems 

 3. Zhang Rong
Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, Department of Foreign Languages, Moscow, Russia
Music as a Medium: The Efficacy of Intercultural Communicative Language Teaching in Chinese Learners’ Perceptions of Russian and American National Images through Foreign Language Song Teaching

 4 .Ljubica Kardaleska – Radojkova
American University of Europe – AUE, Skopje, Republic of North Macedonia
Divergent Paths: Legislating Language in the US and Canada 

 5. Pankaj Kumar
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India
Animation as a Cultural Bridge: Opportunities for Russian–American Co-Productions in Children’s Animation

6. Irvin Weil
Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA
Family Story as an Origin Story for the Country

Information letter about the EAAS conference in Bologna in 2026

1776-2026: Visions of Freedom
EAAS 36th Biennial Conference
Bologna September 1-4, 2026
https://site.unibo.it/visions-of-freedom/en

Call for Panels and Papers
In the introduction to his book The Story of American Freedom (1999), Eric Foner wrote: “Americans’ love of liberty has been represented by poles, caps, and statues, and acted out by burning stamps and draft cards, running away from slavery, and demonstrating for the right to vote. If asked to explain or justify their actions, public or private, Americans are likely to respond, ‘It’s a free country’”. Published at the dawn of the new millennium, this statement poses a lasting challenge, at once historical, cultural, literary and political: what does the idea of freedom here imply? What do a series of images mean, considering that they can be appropriated by different if not opposing perspectives? How many visions of freedom have been pursued, accomplished, abused or exploited in the past 250 years? EAAS 2026 intends to address these questions, investigating the ever-changing reality of the United States.
The Declaration of Independence (1776) famously recognized three main unalienable rights – Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Indeed, after pointing out the “tyranny” of the British Crown, the Declaration described the subjects of the colonies as “free people,” deeming the ruler “unfit,” while urging the Colonies to become “free and independent States.” The newly acquired freedom granted the new federated States the power to levy war, sign peace treaties, contract alliances, establish commerce, paving the way to future colonial/imperialist projects. Since the Revolution, pundits and politicians have celebrated the exceptional character of American freedom (and empire), which they interpreted as a pioneering achievement, capable of inspiring other nations, contributing through their example to the larger cause of “liberty” and “democracy” around the world. From this moment onward, American cultural productions, literature, visual art and film have constituted a precious output to observe, map and question this national mythmaking, each time celebrating or problematizing the nation’s ability to hold on to its promises and premises: from the transcendentalists to the masters of American Renaissance, from the novels and pamphlets of the Gilded Age, to the voices emerging from many margins (African Americans, women, Indigenous people, Asian Americans, among others). American artists of all genres and disciplines have contributed to redefine the very idea of American freedom.
Despite the importance granted to both freedom and liberty, since that beginning, the US articulation of freedom has been exclusive, as gender, race, religion, and class have determined who could benefit from such unalienable rights and in what manner. Notably, in different ways, women, Black and Indigenous people would not be granted the rights promised by the Constitution, and neither the 13th (abolition of slavery), nor the 14th amendments (right to citizenship) passed soon after the Civil War brought about a truly equal and just society. The promises of citizenship granted by the Constitution were quickly
jeopardized. Racial divide was complicated by industrialization, urbanization, and Jim Crow. While class conflicts sometimes led to outbreaks of violence.
Despite such evident contradictions between the universal ideals professed and the law, the centrality of freedom as a defining characteristic of US national identity has been confirmed and renewed by its constant retooling for diverse propaganda purposes. “The land of the free, the home of the brave” is an identity statement proudly sang by a variety of audiences; yet increasingly during the 20th century, it was one that was consistently reappropriated by marginalized groups, as well as by counter-cultural narratives, social movements and discourse, to question the nation’s founding ideals in light of evolving and complex international scenarios. The visions of (American) freedom were problematized after 9/11, affecting not only politics inside and outside the nation, but also the rhetoric of the nation’s ideals, in turn questioning the solidity, as well as the actual meaning of American democracy. “How do we imagine and struggle for a democracy that does not spawn forms of terror, that does not spawn war, that does not need enemies for its sustenance? […] How do we imagine a democracy that does not thrive on this racism, that does not thrive on homophobia, that is not based on the rights of capitalist corporations to plunder the world’s economic and social and physical environments?” asked Angela Davis in The Meaning of Freedom and Other Difficult Dialogues (2012). These questions are even more urgent today in the frame of a growing democratic backsliding, and considering the threat posed by the illiberal regimes around the world.
EAAS 2026 invites scholars to address the above by investigating the role that freedom played/plays in the conceptualization of the United States as a real and an imagined community. Possible topics include but are not limited to:

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26 июня 2025 г. открывается регистрация на 51-ю Международную конференцию ОИКС

Со 2 по 6 декабря 2025 г.  при поддержке Института США и Канады имени академика Г.А. Арбатова Российской академии наук пройдёт ежегодная  51-я Международная конференция исследователей американской культуры: «Понятия «Америка» и «американцы» в литературе и культуре США: исторические и современные коннотации» «The Сoncepts of «America» and «American» in Literature and Culture of the USA: historical and modern connotations».“ Изменение этих понятий, центральных для самосознания граждан страны и для восприятия Америки в мире, наблюдаемых на протяжении веков, может быть рассмотрено как с применением методов культурологии, филологических, искусствоведческих, исторических, политических и социальных наук, так и междисциплинарно, что при изучении культуры дает наиболее обоснованные результаты. В 2025 году можно было наблюдать, как участники многотысячных демонстраций в США отстаивали право на рассмотрение любых обвинений в суде как неотъемлемое для себя как американцев. Поскольку юридические принципы находят свое отражение в культуре, плодотворным может оказаться и привлечение опыта юридических наук. Возможны иные подходы, но с  обязательным раскрытием рассматриваемых понятий в культуре, а не сугубо в лингвистике или политологии, например. 

Формат проведения – очно/заочный (с возможностью участия онлайн для зарубежных участников).  

Предполагается работа секций:

  • Журналистика США
  • Культура Америки XVII-XIX веков
  • Американская культура ХХ-ХХI веков с Круглым столом по американской драме
  • Этнические аспекты американской культуры
  • Гендерные аспекты американской культуры
  • Фантастическое в искусстве и культуре США
  • Канадское измерение американской культуры
  • Круглый стол «Образ Америки и образ России: взаимовлияние»

До 10 сентября принимаются предложения по проведению дополнительных панельных дискуссий, круглых столов и секций. Отправить заявку можно по адресу: larmih@gmail.com. Для организации дискуссии и круглого стола требуется представить список вопросов по-русски и по-английски и назвать трёх участников (затем при регистрации представив  тезисы их выступлений). Для секции — представить концепцию секции.

Приём тезисов  на русском и английском языках, с указанием названия также на двух языках, будет вестись на портале «Ломоносов»  до 21.00 2 ноября 2025 г включительно. Ссылка для регистрации  https://lomonosov-msu.ru/rus/event/9809/

Оргкомитет принимает решение о включении в программу до 15 ноября 2025г., вызов рассылается в электронном виде. Тезисы включенных в программу докладов публикуются на сайте Общества на русском и английском языках.  

После обсуждения на секциях доклады рекомендуются к публикации в сборнике. Лучшие доклады рекомендуются для публикации в журналах «США И КАНАДА: ЭКОНОМИКА, ПОЛИТИКА, КУЛЬТУРА» и “Россия и Америка XXI век” . Тексты докладов принимаются после конференции. Требования к оформлению будут направлены участникам персонально 

Контакты:

  • Учёный секретарь ОИКС Лариса Григорьевна Михайлова, email: larmih@gmail.com

RSACS LI International Conference Theme Defined

The theme that got 41.9% of the votes is «Понятия «Америка» и «американцы» в литературе и культуре США: исторические и современные коннотации»\ «The concepts of «America» and «American» in literature and culture of the USA: historical and modern connotations».

Preliminary dates of the conference in 2025 are December 3-7. An information letter with details will be posted in April.

It allows presenting research on the evolution of these concepts and their reflection in culture in all our traditional sections.

Other topics from the list might be discussed in panels and round tables, if such sessions gather three or more participants. Suggestions with the list of participants and questions for discussion in Russian and English are to be sent to larmih@gmail.com by May 30.

Тема LI Международной конференции ОИКС 2025 года

8 февраля большинство членов ОИКС во втором туре голосования выбрали темой 51-й конференции  «Понятия «Америка» и «американцы» в литературе и культуре США: исторические и современные коннотации» «The concepts of «America» and «American» in literature and culture of the USA: historical and modern connotations». Она набрала 41,9% голосов.

Даты конференции намечены на 3-7 декабря 2025 года.  Информационное письмо  с возможным уточнением будет размещено в апреле.

Выбранная тема позволяет взглянуть на развитие ключевых понятий в американской культуре в контексте исторической эволюции, а также в современном ключе, что позволит провести  все традиционные секции.

Многие другие предложения также были актуальны и могут послужить темами круглых столов, например. Желающие их организовать могут подать заявки, включающие имена не менее трех участников, с вопросами для обсуждения на русском и английском языках до 30 мая по адресу larmih@gmail.com