CREES

Coursework will include intensive Belarusian language instruction (beginning and intermediate levels and individual advanced-level tutorials) and lectures in English and Belarusian on Belarusian history, literature and culture, contemporary politics and society. The program will also include a regional studies component, with lectures and events focusing on the history, culture and current status of the Belarusian minority in Poland, as well as of the Podlasie region’s other ethnic groups, including Poles, Jews, Tatars, Lithuanians, and Russian Old Believers.

The Summer School faculty will include instructors from Bialystok University and the Belarusian Lyceum in Hajnowka, as well as visiting instructors from a number of Belarusian universities. Additional guest lectures on Belarusian history, politics, society and culture will be given by leading researchers in the field of Belarusian studies from Europe and North America.

Participants will have a choice of hotel accommodations at the Belarusian Cultural Center, or homestays with Belarusian-speaking families in Hajnowka.

Coursework will be supplemented by a rich and diverse cultural program, including visits to Belarusian minority cultural organizations and media outlets, meetings with Belarusian writers and artists, films, concerts, and excursions to important sites related to Belarusian culture and the other cultures of the Podlasie region: the city of Bialystok, the recently restored Orthodox monastery and Museum of Icons in Suprasl, the Bialowieza (Belavezha) National Park (the largest and ecologically most diverse remnant of the primeval forests of the Northern European plain), the historic town of Bielsk Podlaski, the Holy Mountain of Grabarka (the most important Eastern Orthodox pilgrimage site in Poland), the 17th-century Great Synagogue in Tykocin, the Tatar mosque in Kruszyniany, and the Borderland Center in Sejny, a unique institution dedicated to preserving the rich multicultural heritage of the borderland region and promoting dialogue and mutual understanding between its many ethnic groups and cultures. In mid-July students will also have the opportunity to attend Basovishcha, the annual festival of Belarusian rock music organized by the Belarusian Students’ Association in the town of Grodek (Haradok) east of Bialystok.

At the end of the program, from August 6-20, students will have the option of traveling to Belarus on a guided tour including Hrodna, Slonim, Navahrudak, Mir, Niasvizh, Minsk, Polatsk, Vitsebsk, Mahilou, Pinsk and Brest. The trip will end with a tour of the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, including important sites related to the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the modern Belarusian national movement.

The program cost is $4200. This covers:

-4 hours of graduate credit in Belarusian language/area studies;
-Room and board at Hajnowka site;
-On-site expenses for program-related excursions.

Travel expenses from the U.S., Canada or Europe to Hajnowka are not included. The cost of the optional tour of Belarus and eastern Lithuania at the end of the program will be announced as details become available.

For further information and application materials, please visit the CBS website (http://belarusiancenter.org/ ) or contact the Program Director, Amb. David Swartz (david.swartz@sckans.edu) and/or Associate Program Director, Dr. Curt Woolhiser (Brandeis University): cwoolhis@brandeis.edu.

Please note that the deadline for all applications is May 1, 2012.