Valentina Pudano (February - April 2016)

A second-year MA student in International Relations at the University of Bologna, Valentina is specialising in Eastern European Studies and Russia.

Image
Valentina Pudano

Valentina took a BA in Linguistic and Cultural Mediation, studying English and Russian Languages, and focussing on linguistic, communicative, and literary aspects of the dialogue among diverse cultures. The MA she is attending concentrates on Post-socialist states in Central and Eastern Europe and Russia, and enables her to continue with the study of Russian Language. She also spent the last semester (Sep 2015 – Jan 2016) in St Petersburg.

She will graduate in September 2016. Valentina has just joined the Princess Dashkova Russian Centre for a 3-month traineeship (Feb-Apr 2016). At the Centre she will work on her MA dissertation concerning representation of Russian-Ukrainian shared memory in Russian history textbooks.

Russian and Ukrainian history overlaps in some points. The shared memory is constantly source of fierce debates and bitter controversies. This past is sometimes exploited to underline the distance of Ukraine from Russia or, in Russia's viewpoint, to highlight historical communality. Both the perspectives are sometimes adopted to legitimize political choices. Also considering the still ongoing discussions following the Crimean events, it is extremely important to become aware of the current and official Russian narrative about Russian-Ukrainian common history. Russian official school textbooks of history constitute an excellent primary source of analysis.

After situating this case in the wider field of Memory Study, Valentina’s research will focus on a selection of Russian textbooks about Russian history used in the 10th and 11th grades of secondary school. As far as method is concerned, discourse analysis will be performed to examine textbooks. The principal research question behind her study will be: how do Russian history textbooks represent shared Russian-Ukrainian Memory?

At the Dashkova Centre Valentina will also give assistance in the organisation of the Centre’s research seminars, conferences, meetings, festivals, and promotional activities, and will provide administrative support.