MIR and CNS Students Attend Red Horizon Exercise at Harvard University
| by Theodora Kelly McGee
On September 11, the Graduate Initiative in Russian Studies (GIRS) hosted Matthew Rojansky, director of the Kennan Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center, and Jill Dougherty, former CNN correspondent and instructor at Georgetown University, to lead a workshop entitled “How to Do a Television Interview.”
The workshop was part of the 400 and 500-level Russian Studies curriculum. Pulling from years of on-air experience as both interviewers and interviewees, Dougherty and Rojansky gave a masterclass on how to make your policy point quickly yet effectively on TV. After an hour of lecture and Q&A, the GIRS students split into breakout rooms and each recorded two mock television interviews. In an interview with Rojansky, Ben Mattern MANPTS ‘20, a third semester Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies student, came up with the impromptu catchphrase, “Suffering is strength” to explain the importance of historical memory in Russian society.
In the other breakout room, Dougherty pressed Julius Moyes MANPTS/MAITED ‘21, a second-year dual-degree International Trade and Economic Development and Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies student with experience in leveraging social media, on the foreign policy implications of shutting down the video-sharing social network Tik Tok.
| by Theodora Kelly McGee
| by By Boris Boukhonine
Over the course of two lectures, Dr. Gaman-Golutvina explored the historical, geographical and political conditions that engendered a state-centered model of development in Russia and used this conceptual framework to explain the workings of the Russian elite.
On November 8, Dr. Lev Gudkov, director of the Levada Center, met with GIRS fellows to discuss the image of the “West” in Russian public opinion from the fall of the Soviet Union to today.