Faculty and
Staff Profiles
 Susan
Downing
Susan Downing,
Senior Lecturer in Russian and Eurasian Studies, has taught
at Mount
Holyoke College since 1987. Ms. Downing wrote her dissertation
on Daniil Xarms, a repressed writer from the Stalinist period,
and
she is particularly interested in the interaction between official
or avant garde literature and officially sanctioned works, including
Socialist Realism. She has taught all levels of Russian language,
and her literature courses include both nineteenth and twentieth
century survey courses, as well as specialty courses. This fall,
Ms. Downing will be teaching her First-Year Seminar, Ivan
the Fool and the Baba Yaga: The Enchanted World of Russian Fairy
Tales. This
course will explore the world of Russian story telling, from
tales collected by Afanasiev. The course will analyze the links
betwen the classic fairy tale genre and several Russian films.
This fall, Ms. Downing will also be teaching
a
third year Russian
course: "From
Lady into Lassie" to "Lady with the Dog."
In Fall 2003, Ms. Downing
led Mount Holyoke's semester abroad
program in Moscow. This program is operated in connection with
Colgate University, and Ms. Downing served as the resident director
in Moscow for the fall 2003 program. See Letters
from Moscow to get an idea of what life in Russian was like
for the 2003 group and, in the fall, for updates from the 2004 group!
In terms of research, Ms. Downing is writing a book about Russia's
most popular young female pop stars. A large number of female singers
and groups enjoys great popularity among young girls, and some of
the performers are only in their late teens themselves. In her interviews,
Ms. Downing particularly focused on how the singers view themselves
as both women and professionals, the challenges of their professions,
and their views on serving as role models for their female fans.
In connection with this work, Ms. Downing spent the early part of
the summer in Moscow, interviewing these women. Her interviews include
Alsou, Zemfira, Propaganda, Gliukoza, Katya Lel', Chicherina, Iulia
Savicheva and the group The Shining Ones. (See our Faculty
Research page for more info about these and other singers!)
Ms. Downing also works
with the large and growing community of Russian immigrants living
in the greater Springfield, Massachusetts area. She has twice taught
a community-based learning course in which students volunteer to
work with these immigrants in Springfield schools and social services
agencies. At present she is beginning work to develop courses in
Russian language for high-school aged heritage speakers in the Springfield
area.
Ms. Downing did her undergraduate
work in Comparative Literature (Russian and French) at the University
of Wisconsin- Madison and received her PhD. in Slavic Languages
and Literatures from the University of California at Berkeley in
1985. She taught in the Russian Department at Smith College for
three years before coming to Mount Holyoke. She also taught intensive
Russian language for four summers at the Middlebury College Russian
School and directed Middlebury's Intensive Elementary Russian Program
in the summer of 1986.
Email
Ms. Downing or call 413-538-2825.
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