Internationalization-at-Home: Innovative Initiatives in Language Immersion Training

• In Event: Highlighted Session: Russian Language Immersion Programs: Protesting the Conflict in Ukraine and the Response to Calls for Decolonization

Proposal

This presentation delves into the adaptive measures taken by U.S. universities in response to the unprecedented convergence of public health and global security crises. Specifically, the focus centers on study abroad programming for U.S. learners of Russian, highlighting innovative "internationalization-at-home" initiatives and the pursuit of secure overseas immersion sites amidst Russia's aggressive invasion of Ukraine in the post-pandemic world.

The speaker will share the process of designing, implementing, and administering a new overseas site in Latvia—a strategic NATO country – in the light of its history of occupation by Soviet Russia and the ensuing geopolitics, language policies, ideologies, and attitudes towards the Russian language. The presentation addresses a comprehensive range of critical considerations in the program's design, encompassing curricular, pedagogical, political, national security, capacity building, and moral dimensions. The presenter aims to generate a thoughtful dialogue around the efforts to enable U.S. students pursuing Russian studies in Latvia with a transformative experience of learning Russian, understanding who the Russian speakers are in the region, and the experience of navigating the complexities of intercultural communication in the multilingual and multicultural communities in the Baltics.

Author

• Victoria Hasko, University of Georgia - Athens, GA