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