One of the first things Moscow-based journalist Alexander Kolbovsky noticed upon walking into the HUB was the television hanging in the center of the entryway. “In the US they also have a show called Good Morning,” he wrote to his colleagues back home, “and just like in Russia they invite guests on the show. Today Robert De Niro is in the studio. This was worth getting up early for.”
Alexander Kolbovskiy is a cultural writer for the Good Morning show on Russia’s Channel One, where he is composes segments on actors and actresses, directors, musicians, and other cultural figures. During his week-long residency at Dickinson he met with students in and out of classes, teaching them about the Russian media, Russian film, and the changes in Russian advertisements since the Soviet years. He also screened the film Name Me by director Nigina Sayfullaeva and led a discussion afterwards.
One of the main events of his visit was his open lecture on television culture called “The Zombie Box: How Contemporary Russian Television Propagandizes, Entertains, and Distracts.”
All events during the residency were conducted entirely in Russian. Fourth-year students from the Workshop in Translation course served as interpreters for those just beginning the language, but even students from Prof. DeBlasio’s second-year Russian course asked and answered questions in Russian, both during their class visit with Alexander and the film discussion.
The seven Dickinson students who will be studying in Russia next semester are looking forwarding to meeting with Alexander again in fall 2016—this time in Moscow.
