From Russia with love:

Professor gives talks on what it means to be American at Russian university

By: Johnathan Skidmore
Copy Layout Editor

One of Monmouth College’s own English professors has just recently returned from teaching at the Russian State University for the Humanities (RSUH) in Moscow. Bruce was selected to teach American Studies as a result of a chance encounter.

“Last April, I went to a conference on Russia and Eastern Europe in Richmond, Va.,” Bruce stated. “That Friday night in the hotel lounge, I struck up a conversation with a man (Irwin Weil, a founder of RSUH’s American Studies Center) who came in late but said he was also attending the conference. He was so interesting that we talked a long time. The next day I found out he was the keynote speaker. When the conference ended, he invited me to meet Svetlana Sokolova, assistant director of RSUH, who was going to be in Chicago that next week. She and Dr. Weil must have collaborated, for the next thing I knew, they asked me if I would like to go there to teach American studies.”

As part of her duties abroad, Bruce taught an English composition course and also gave twelve 90-minute lectures entitled, “What Makes an American ‘American.’” These lectures touched on historical and literary elements of America as well as our culture.

No stranger to international travel, Bruce has traveled to Africa on several occasions for academic reasons, as well. Recently, in 2002, Bruce attended a conference in Africa to give a similar discussion regarding American culture, having this to say: “There are so many misconceptions about the U.S., so I tried to break some of them down. What they think of America comes mainly from watching our R-rated movies. They have a Sodom-and-Gomorrah idea about America, and, let’s face it, we have ‘Tarzan complexes’ about Africa … The more familiar you are with something, the less afraid you’ll be.”

Bruce was fiscally able to teach at RSUH by applying for her third U.S. Fulbright Scholarship. As a result, Bruce received a Senior Specialist Grant, providing much needed funding to take the opportunity.

According to information provided on the website for the Council for International Exchange of Scholars, “the U.S. Fulbright Scholar Program sends 800 scholars and professionals each year to more than 140 countries, where they lecture or conduct research in a wide variety of academic and professional fields. Now the U.S. government’s flagship program in international educational exchange, it was proposed to the U.S. Congress in 1945 by Sen. J. William Fulbright. In the aftermath of World War II, Fulbright viewed the proposed program as a much-needed vehicle for promoting mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of the other countries of the world.”

Bruce was well received in Russia for her two month visit. “The people are wonderful … It is far different from what I expected. It’s an ancient culture overlaid with the very rapid transition to capitalism (a transition that is not completely successful, as far as I am concerned). On weekends I traveled to St. Petersburg and to the towns of the ‘Golden Ring.’ As one Russian told me, ‘Moscow is Europe, but the villages in the Golden Ring are the true Russia.’”

Bruce, who has been on staff as a full professor of English at Monmouth College since 1985, received her B.A. from Arlington State College in 1965, received her M.A. from Southern Methodist University in 1968 and her Ph.D. from Arizona State University in 1986. Bruce teaches creative writing and American survey at Monmouth College and is most known for her novel, set in Africa, entitled “Dr. Sally’s Voodoo Man.”