Arranging a four-month independent research stay has entailed negotiations, phone calls, and email exchanges with the Russian consulate in San Francisco, the International Admissions office of St. Petersburg State University, and a helpful (if helpless in the face of new regulations) apartment rental agent. At least my visa arrived in time... Stay tuned for updates on the rest of my arrangements and Russian bureaucracy, post-Soviet style.
As many visitors and natives have noted, St. Petersburg is one of the most imagined cities in the world. Writers, scholars, and artists have layered it with character, shape, and myth. I know something about this from my studies of literature and my "training" from many friends and acquaintances. What interests me now is the changing material environment -- how will this affect the image of St. Petersburg cherished by so many?
I have questions about how Chinese investment and immigration will test this self-image; how 'average' Russians are coping with specific changes to the material environment, such as new construction and reduced public transportation; how new architecture leaves traces on the landscape that point out to external influences and new connections to a globalizing world; how people's use of cherished space is changing, and what new attachments they may be forming to modified spaces.
I've enabled commenting on this blog, so please send questions and comments! I will probably not respond directly (I only have four months!) but I will appreciate your thoughts and ideas.
Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of what I saw last August, places and signs that I'll keep observing this fall.
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