Click on the links below to access each series of lessons. To orient yourself to the lesson interface, make sure to read the About the Lessons page, which is the first page of each lesson series.
New RAILS lessons on Kazakh history and culture
- Lessons based on a lecture by Dr. Alima Bissenova, assistant professor of Anthropology, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Nazarbayev University:
- Kazakh Marriage Traditions
- Contemporary Discourse on the Salvation of ‘Women of the East’
- Lesson about domestic violence and understandings of the ‘east’ in Kazakhstan (under development)
- Lessons based on an interview with Aigerim Kapar, interdependent curator, cultural activist, and initiator of the Artcom Platform and Art Collider School:
- Time and Astana After the Future
- The Legacy of Political Repressions
- Lesson on environmental issues in Kazakhstan (under development)
Original RAILS lessons (developed in 2003-6; updated in 2021-22):
- Lessons based on an interview with Russian actor, director, and writer Veniamin Smekhov (3 lessons)
- Lessons based on an interview with Maria Tendriakova, Associate Professor of Social Anthropology, RGGU and Scholar at the Ethnology and Anthropology Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (4 lessons)
- Lessons based on the films Solovky Power and Children of Ivan Kuzmich by Marina Goldovskaya, and on interviews with the filmmaker (9 lessons)
- Lessons based on an interview with Irina Khakamada, Russian politician and former Presidential candidate (4 lessons)
- Lessons based on an interview with Aleksandr Logunov, Professor and Dean, Faculty of Law and History, RGGU (5 lessons)
- Capstone RAILS lessons based on interviews with Sergei Khrushchev, son of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev; Senior Fellow, Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University; Sergei Enikolopov, Head of the Department of Clinical Psychology, Center for Psychological Health, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences; Viktor Loshak, former Editor-in-Chief of Ogonek; Evgenii Aksenov, General Director, Energetika Main Computing Center; and Aleksandr Asmolov, Professor and Head of the Department of Psychology and Personality, Faculty of Psychology, MGU (5 lessons)