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An important goal of this project is the creation of significant and enduring website that functions as an interactive, multimedia course resource site for a course on Central and Eastern European Literature, scheduled as part of the regular course offerings at Grinnell College, starting Spring 2002. A second, no less important goal of the Central and Eastern European Resource Portal is as an ongoing resource site for students and faculty that are interested in or who hail from Central and Eastern Europe. This site, which is maintained and updated on a regular basis, is seen as a means to bolster the presence of Central/Eastern Europe in our Russian and Eastern European Studies Concentration. It also builds on our connection with the ACM Central European Studies Program at Palacky University, in Olomouc, Czech Republic. The site will also be linked to activities related to the Global Partners Project, which is currently organizing a faculty development seminar in Central Europe in June of 2001.
ABOUT US
Todd Patrick Armstrong is Associate Professor and Chair of the Russian Department at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa. He received his Ph. D. in Russian with a secondary specialization in Polish literature at the Ohio State University in 1993. His research and teaching interests, in addition to Russian language and literature, focus on the literature of Poland, with particular emphasis on the poetry and prose of Czeslaw Milosz; the works of contemporary Czech author Ivan Klima; and on broader issues in modern Central and Eastern European literature and culture. The editor of and contributor to Perspectives in Modern Central and East European Literature: Quests for Identity: 5th World Congress Proceedings, International Council for Central and East European Studies, he has also contributed to a companion guide to the English translation of Henryk SienkiewiczÕs Ogniem i mieczem (With Fire and Sword).
At Grinnell College he has been active in interdisciplinary approaches to international studies, participating in one Ford funded Bridging Project in International Studies in Summer 1994 ("Women's Social and Political Roles in Russia, Germany and the US") and co-organizing and convening another, in Summer 1997 ("Models of Empire and Colony: The Case of Russia and Chechnya"). He has recently been chosen as Facilitator for the ACM Global Partner's Project Faculty Development Seminar, "The Human and Physical Enironment in Central and Eastern Europe." He was recently named as Director of Grinnell's new Center for International Studies.
He has extensive in-country experience in Central and Eastern Europe, including study in Russia, Poland and Bulgaria, work with the Associated Press at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo in the former Yugoslavia, and travel throughout the region. The leader of two study tours in Russia (1990 and 1996), most recently he was the Director of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest Central European Studies Program at Palacky University in Olomouc, Czech Republic in Fall 1999.
Richelle Brafford '01 is a graduate of Grinnell College. Richele majored in Russian, and also did extensive work in the area of Central and Eastern European studies.