This webinar will outline the methodology, share resources, and present pedagogical strategies for integrating into Russian language instruction products of Russian popular culture created in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Through the analysis of anti-war visual arts and propaganda-serving, pro-war shanson music, presenters aim to equip language instructors with critical lenses and explicit strategies to teach media literacy in the Russian language classroom. The objective is to expand students’ cultural perspectives by heightening awareness of wartime culture, developing their ability to interpret images and song lyrics, and sparking interest in civic and social justice. Presenters will share activities designed to enhance language competencies through scaffolded assignments, which allow students to interpret popular culture in the classroom setting while exploring anonymous anti-war street graffiti, stickers, street art, conceptual art, installations, song lyrics, and videos in a variety of formats.

Presenters

Julia Kriventsova Denne is an independent instructor and owner of the “By the Onion Sea” program (www.bytheonionsea.com). She teaches Russian classes for both high-school students, including heritage and bilingual students, and adults in the Chicago area and online. She has also been conducting adult seminars on Russian and world literature, art, history, and culture at the Newberry Library in Chicago for over 15 years.

Anastasia Gordienko is Assistant Professor of Russian and Slavic Studies at the University of Arizona. Her interests lie in the intersection of Russian and Ukrainian history, culture, and identity. Her monograph Outlaw Music in Russia: The Rise of an Unlikely Genre (The University of Wisconsin Press, 2023) explores a paradoxical quid pro quo synergy among Russian criminal music, the shanson, and Putin’s politics. Gordienko has taught a variety of graduate and undergraduate courses at UA, covering subjects such as Ukraine, fairy tales, criminal culture, and the Russian language.