Prof. Dr. Galina Zelenina: The culture of the Jewish minority during the Soviet era
As part of a Humboldt Research Fellowship for established researchers, Professor Galina Zelenina will be a guest at the Research Center for East European Studies at the University of Bremen for a whole year. She is a Privatdozentin (since 2013) at the Center for Biblical and Jewish Studies at the State University for the Humanities (RGGU) in Moscow. Her research interests are Jewish history and culture in Russia. Prof. Zelenina’s current research project investigates the Jewish underground movement in the late Soviet period. For source material in the form of letters, memoirs, diaries and documents, she can refer to the comprehensive archive at the Bremen research center. Many of the archived documents come from well-known Jewish dissidents or “refuseniks”, i.e. Jewish Soviet citizens who were denied emigration.
Intensive use of the research center's archive
The focus of her work lies in the paradoxes that can be seen in the lifestyles or the self-image of members of the Jewish community that often shape minorities or groups in the diaspora. How was the relationship to their Jewish tradition or religion affected? What did the spectrum of Jewish life in the Soviet Union encompass? Prof. Zelenina wants to get to the bottom of these questions with her research. “It's wonderful to be able to do research at the Research Center for East European Studies, My work will benefit greatly from the wide variety of topics covered,” she says. During her time in Bremen, Prof. Zelenina will be supported by the director of the research office, Professor Susanne Schattenberg.
Dr. Roman Frolov: “Between the private and the public: Political actors in the Roman Republic”
Russian researcher Dr. Roman Frolov from the State Demidov University Yaroslavl is guest at the Institute of History. During the two years of his Humboldt Research Fellowship, he will investigate the political culture of the Roman Republic. “In order to fully understand the Roman political order one has to distinguish between privatus and publicus. A public official (magistratus) did not act as a “private person” (privatus). The project, though, examines the possibilities that were used prior to taking up office and after their term was finished, although they never admitted to being privatus,” he explains. In addition, he wants to analyze the relationships in which public officials failed to act within their formal rights. Even today, one can observe that the actual role of individuals in politics does not depend only on formal status. Often, there are also other factors that exert a strong influence, such as social prestige.
Expansion of the scientific network
The historian will remain at the University of Bremen until May 2019, after which the University of Bielefeld will then be his host for a further six months. Frolov has known his supervisor in Bremen, Professor Tassilo Schmitt, for a long time. Under his direction, Frolov already carried out a project from 2012 to 2013 on the Roman contiones, a form of non-decision making political assembly. “My alma mater in Yaroslavl and the University of Bremen have had contacts in research and teaching for many years. They are intensively and successfully cultivated in various formats by my doctoral supervisor Professor Vera V. Dement’eva and Professor Schmitt. I am particularly pleased that, based on this, I can pursue my research project and further expand my network,” says Frolov.
Attention editors: Under the following link you can download photos of Galina Zelenina and Roman Frolov: https://seafile.zfn.uni-bremen.de/d/25b703e1d8e341bb8008/
If you would like to have more information on this topic, feel free to contact:
Professor Susanne Schattenberg
University of Bremen
Research Center Eastern Europe
Phone: 0421 218-69624
Email: schattenbergprotect me ?!uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de
Professor Tassilo Schmitt
University of Bremen
Institute of History
Phone: 0421 218-67240
Email: tschmittprotect me ?!uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de
