Carnegie Fellowships at Smolny Collegium

STATEMENT

Need

Social sciences in Russia suffered both from isolation from Western thought 
and from internal segmentation during Soviet times. Such segmentation traces 
its roots to the lack of an attractive theory that would encourage scholars 
to look beyond their limited fields of empirical study or engage in cultural 
life and public debates. Due to the disintegration of traditional academic 
networks in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet regime and the widening 
gap between the few large cities and the rest of the country this internal 
segmentation has perhaps even increased.

With the support of western foundations including the Carnegie Corporation 
of New York, the collaboration between scholars within Russia and the CIS 
and scholars in the West has been initiated. To support and institutionalize 
the resulting networks the social sciences and humanities are becoming 
issues of crucial importance.

Rationale

The goal of the Carnegie Fellowship funded by the Carnegie Corporation of 
New York is to contribute to the reconstruction of a national academic 
network in Russia and to facilitate Russian academics’ (including those from 
Russian regions) access to the international intellectual community and to 
modern technological and intellectual resources.  Consequently, the 
Fellowship will serve to increase the quality of their research and help to 
bridge the widening gap between the “capital” and “provincial” Russian 
cities and universities.

The Carnegie Fellowship seeks to foster connections between research and 
education in Russia. It is intended to bring a new generation of Russian 
students closer to the international intellectual milieu and the 
international community of researchers; to make researchers more conscious 
of students’ interests and needs and more responsive to their demands; to 
support various initiatives aimed at developing innovative projects in 
higher education emerging on the disciplinary boundaries of social studies, 
the humanities, literature, and arts.

The Carnegie Fellowship aims to increase and facilitate contacts, to improve 
mutual understanding between Russian and Western academics, to create 
conditions for the development of scientific cooperation and hence to 
contribute to the better integration of Russian and Western scholarly 
communities.

The Carnegie Fellowship strives for innovative and methodologically oriented 
research projects. One of its major goals is to help overcome disciplinary 
barriers and the isolation of researchers from contemporary cultural and 
public life; and to contribute, through the broadening of the intellectual 
and cultural horizons of the researchers, to the improvement of research in 
the domains of the social sciences and humanities. The Carnegie


Carnegie Fellowships served as the basis for creation of Smolny Collegium - 
an International Institute for Interdisciplinary Advanced Studies. Smolny 
Collegium is an academic research program of Smolny College of Liberal Arts 
and Sciences which is an autonomous part of Saint-Petersburg State 
University. Joint venture with Bard College (New York) and the first liberal 
arts college in Russia, Smolny College grants both Bachelor of Arts diploma 
from Bard College and a degree of Bachelor of Arts and Humanities from 
Saint-Petersburg State University. Smolny College is one of the most 
innovative educational initiatives in Russia (www.smolny.nw.ru 
<http://www.smolny.nw.ru> ).

Regulations and procedures

First Carnegie Fellows were invited to Smolny Collegium for four months of 
the spring semester of the academic year 2003/04. Three Fellows are invited 
and currently working on their projects in the fall semester of the academic 
year 2004/05.  Competition for the spring semester 2004/05 is announced, one 
fellowship will be allocated. Fellows are  required to present their 
research at the Fellows’ seminar and to give no less than one lecture to 
Smolny College students.  They are encouraged to develop focus and 
discussion groups within the Collegium and to use the resources of the 
Collegium to initiate public debate.  Fellows may, at their discretion, 
choose to participate in other teaching and research activities of Smolny 
College and SPU.

The applicants should be scholars who are preferably under 40 years old from 
Russian regional Universities and higher learning institutions who have 
recently defended their PhDs. Priority will be given to applicants 
specializing in the following fields of social sciences: history, sociology, 
anthropology, political science, human rights and linguistics (residence in 
St Petersburg is required).

The application should contain a description of the project the applicant is 
planning to work out during his stay at the Collegium, emphasizing the 
methodological novelty of the proposed research, outlining the goals, 
objectives, research plan and timetable, preliminary bibliography and 
fieldwork description (if needed), and planned project outcome. The 
application should be submitted in English. Two letters of references are 
required (preferably one from a Russian and one from an international 
colleague). Statement of purposes is required outlining the need and 
objectives of one semester stay at Smolny Collegium.

A one semester (4 months) Carnegie Fellowship will cover travel costs, 
living stipend, accommodations, and research allowances. Fellows will be 
provided with an office space, institutional and secretarial support. 
Fellows will be encouraged to participate in the intellectual and social 
activities of Smolny Collegium and Smolny College.

The Fellows will be selected by a process of open competition. The selection 
will be conducted by the International Academic Board of Smolny Collegium. 
The deadline for submitting applications for the spring semester 2004/05 is 
December 20, 2004.