Priviet & Hello!

My name is Nina, I am a 28 years old student of Political Science (combined with Social and Communication Sciences). As most of us, I am close to my examination.

2 years ago I had the chance to take part in a course held at Rjasan/Russia, which is one of Münster's twin cities. There has been a close relation between the universities of Rjasan and Münster for several years by now.

When I came back to Germany, I decided to learn the Russian language, because I enjoyed 10 great & exciting days in Russia. IT IS THE MOST DIFFICULT LANGUAGE I CAN IMAGINE :-) But nevertheless I am deeply interested in everything what`s going on in & around Russia. That`s the reason why I am looking forward to our distance learning course. Also my M.A. thesis deals with Russia: I am trying to analyse a (well, I think: the most important one!) treaty between the European Union and Russia (it is called: "The partnership and cooperation agreement").

When thinking about it, I realized, that I don`t really have a typical hobby… but I love jogging in the morning, although I am a smoker…I think, that`s a good way to start the day with - sitting in front of my PC thinking about private and public spheres:-)

My name is Georg. Originally I am from a country which doesn't exist anymore and was once called Soviet Union. I am living in Germany for 12 and in Muenster for 5 years by now. Since part of my socialization took place in the former Soviet Union, I'm very interested in all, what happens in my old home country and the new states emerged from it. My interest resulted in studying Slavic Philology and Political Science which I started at the University of Muenster.

As regards this course I'm excited about the possibility of dealing with the Internet (explicitly Runet) and Internet research from interdisciplinary perspectives. Thereby, it seems to me very thrilling to get a survey of the Russian media landscape and its function as a public sphere platform.

My hobbies include the Internet, volleyball, reading and cinema.

My name is Natalia Darsawelidze.

I am a student of the Institute of European Countries in Moscow.
Being a modern person with a first higher philological education I can't stand apart from problems of contemporary culture such as phenomena of consciousness and selfconsciousness in public sphere. I'm especially looking forward to discussions concerning open society as it might be represented in so-called ru-net (as to say the truth I'm still doubting of it's occurrence there).

I was born in Omsk, one of the biggest cities of Western Siberia. After my graduation from the faculty of foreign languages of Omsk State Pedagogical University I was working as an interpretor in the Division of international cooperation of OSPU. As I was dealing with different kinds of international programs and projects I realized that we are living in time, when the globalisation and intercultural process determinate our everyday life, even if we don't pay much attention to it. That is why I decided to continue my education with the concentration on history and modern tendencies of the European cultures.

Now I'm a first-year student in the Institute of European Cultures in Moscow. My academic interests include linguistics and modern literature, but I always try to expand my knowledge by searching for new ways of self-developement. I'm very interested in reading, art and music. I'm also fond of travelling and drawing.

I hope that my participation in this project will contribute to the seminar and give me new possibilities of opening my mind to the new ideas.

My name is Alexandra Engelfried.

I am a student of History of art, Slavonic studies and Spanish at the Ruhr-University in Bochum.

I am very interested in Russian and Sowjet culture. I`ve spent several times in Russia and the Ukraine, joining language-courses, working in museums for praktika and joining conferences. Last year I spent time to study at the IEK in Moscow. I considered special phenomena of Stalinist culture, especially concerning Sowjet painting / art under socialist realism.

Currently I am especially interested in the phenomenon of the spread of President Putins image (in both senses of the word) in several spheres (especially art and popculture, and also TV, printmedia, and internet,…).

I`m looking forward to joining this seminar and I am especially glad that the seminar will provide the possibility of having discussions between students and lecturers from Russia and Germany.

This is me, Julia Martina Heckmann.

I was born 24 years ago in Lippstadt, a small city in Northrhine -Westphalia which is sometimes referred to as the “Venice of Westphalia”.

In 2000, my university career lead me to the city of Münster, where I enjoy living and studying as well as being with my boyfriend whom I got to know here.

I am a student of Communication Studies, Sociology and Political Sciences close to the final exams.

The spare time which is left besides university is filled out with sports (especially Cheerleading and my own team, running and aerobics), photography (especially black&white), reading, going to the movies, listening to music as well visiting friends etc.

I think that I will be able to bring in some experience and contribute to the course’s success. Mass media and its effects on culture are always an important part of my major studies. Major fields of study are structures and principles of mass media- especially concerning advertising and public relations. Also, I have already had the chance to gain profound knowledge in the field of media research (e.g. reception of media). New Media and the Word Wide Web are to be regarded as most fundamental and important part in Communication Studies since the WWW offers several aspects which again offer a variety of feature and qualities which are unique to it. I also worked on several empirical projects so that I am quite familiar with statistics and methods (qualitative as well as quantitative).

The past seven months, I spent as an intern with a major German automotive company, and my responsibilities were in the field of Internet marketing among other things. This “hands on work” experience added to the theoretical background combined with the theoretical background from university should provide me with the “munition” necessary as previous knowledge for this course.

The goal setting of the project sounds very interesting to me since the build-up of “Runet” in a huge country with a diversely split culture is very exciting. The question about the “own” and the “alien”, the processes of differentiation and the role of technology contain numerous interesting aspects. The Internet research or empirical work on the subject of the Internet and interdisciplinary approach also sounds very exciting to me. Applying the different points of views of views of Sociology and Media- & Communication Studies to the Russian Internet may -in my opinion- lead to a better understanding of the new communication channel and create a model which will include the inner and outer perspective.

I am glad to be a part of the seminar, which is going to be some kind of an extraordinary experiment and I hope to be able to contribute to this course the best way possible. In addition to that, I am exciting to get to know all participants and exchange views and knowledge thanks to the possibilities of the interactive distance learning method.

Hello!

I am Anna Lange-Böhmer. I am 23 and I spent the main part of my life in Omsk, a wonderful Siberian city. There I studied philology at the State University, until my enthusiasm for German literature brought me to Germany as an exchange student. Now I am living in Düsseldorf, studying Slavic & German Philology in Bochum.

I am looking forward to join the course because of the mixture of both cultures working on the same topic together.

We all have the problem that we can't ignore the phenomenon internet for our studies, once you started to work with the internet you won't stop.

I was born in Balashikha, Moscow region, and I lived there for 20 years, then I moved to Moscow. I entered the Moscow State Pedagogical University (faculty of Foreign languages) in 1997 and was supposed to become a teacher before I turned my ambitions to getting a scolarship at College Francais de Moscou and to go on with my studies in Paris. Thus I started studying sociology. Presently, I'm a PhD student at EHESS (Paris) and at Pedagogical University (Moscow) - my theses concerns socialisation of teenagers through art education, at the intersection of classics and massculture. At the same time, I'm a first-year student at IEK. What interests me about this seminar, is the possibility of learning more about the Internet and its ways of influencing modern society and culture. And also the possibility of an active exchange of knowledge and points of view.

My name is Aleksandra Letikova.

I was born in Ukraine, in a very small place, called Lubny, Poltavskaya region. I lived in Kazahstan for 6 years, for 2 years - in Odessa (Ukraine). But the most part of my life I have spent in Moscow.

I graduated from Moscow State University, Philological department. I had a
practice teaching Russian in USA (Minnesota State) for an academic year.

I am 24 and I'm the second-year student of the Institute of European Culturies in Moscow.

I am interested in Literature and Linguistics, Film History and Photos, Music and Sociology.

It is the first time I am taking part in such kind of internet project. I suppose, it will be very interesting experience. May be it will help me one day to make up my own internet project.

I have been living in Kursk for all my life (so you can easily guess where I was born). This year I graduated from Kursk State University and got a diploma of a philologist (as I studied Russian literature and languages). Now my scientific interests are in the field of Kulturwissenschaft (I am deeply interested in comparing Goethe’s and Lermontov’s cultural impact). I am working as a secretary in Kursk State University at the chair of kulturologia.

I decided to take part in this learning project after listening to some lectures given by Henrike Schmidt and Katy Teubener in our university. I would like to learn more about the Internet as a cultural phenomenon.

Most of my spare time I spend reading.

Guten Tag! My name is Natalia, I come from Omsk, where I spent most of my 22-year long life - was born, studied, graduated, made friends, fell in love... My first university degree is in teaching foreign languages (English and German, ), but I found teaching not as interesting as life communication, so during 1 year after graduation I was working at the Division of International Cooperation of Omsk State Pedagogical University. I was in charge of developing international projects, promoting academic exchanges, organizing international conferences and, of course, interpreting and translating. Now I'm a student again, obtaining my second university degree at the Institute of Europen Cultures in Moscow since autumn 2004. So I switched the focus of my studies from pure languages to what these languages are supposed to embody and convey, though still keep on learning new languages (French and Italian). I'm very interested in modern culture, society studies and mass media, though can't call myself an expert in this field. I like to listen to good music and read new books (especially by the writers of "modernism" stream, like Joyce and Woofl), to meet new people and new ideas. So this seminar is another opportunity for me to learn something new, maybe to start a research project and of course to meet many new interesting people.

I was born in Orel region but as I entered Kursk State University I moved to Kursk. Now I am studying in the 5th year and living in hostel - great fun as you may know. I am doing research on ancient beliefs.

As I am quite an inexperienced Internet user I gladly agreed to do some Internet studying in order to develop my virtual personality.

My hobby is traveling.

The place of my birth and of my current dwelling is Kursk. In 2002 I graduated from Kursk State Pedagogical University (now it is Kursk State University) where I studied languages (English and French).

I spent a year working as a countryside school teacher. Now I am doing my post graduate education. The field of my research deals with the influence of existential philosophy upon French and German art of the XX century. Now I am also occupied as a assistant teacher at the chair of kulturologia in Kursk State University. I am running such courses as “Sociocultural Anthropology” and “Science in the System of Culture”.

I have been using the Internet for some years. I took part in some indie musical sites creation. But I have never thought about what the Internet really means to culture. And in this part of my ignorance I found my motivation to join this distance learning project.

My hobby is playing, listening to and reviewing independent music.