LLAS Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies

Building the language base for research: the impact and future of Language-Based Area Studies
Event date: 14 December, 2012
Location: Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre SOAS, London

Teaching on less commonly taught Area Studies
Event date: 14 March, 2003
Location: CiLT

Student award 2007: What advice would you give to students starting your course?
The winner of the Subject Centre's undergraduate student essay competition 2007 was Robert McGinty, a final year student studying Russian and English Studies at the University of Nottingham.

Centres for Excellence in language-based Area Studies

Funding targets greater understanding of China, Japan, Eastern Europe and Arabic-speaking world.

Russian: Keyboard Tsar
Keyboard Tsar is a typing tutor program developed under a University of Leeds Teaching Fellowship project led by Dr Sarah Hudspith, now available as freeware to the public. It teaches touch typing both in English and in Cyrillic. The program consists in a series of exercises that gradually build up familiarity and proficiency in touch typing, in groups of letters according to the keyboard layout. Users are given feedback on speed, accuracy and most common errors at the end of each exercise, and are encouraged to reach a certain level of accuracy before proceeding to the next exercise. Keyboard Tsar has a bright, modern interface which can highlight the required key and the necessary finger to use. Colours, font styles and sizes can be adapted to the user's preferences. The Cyrillic component is specially for non-native speakers of Russian. It includes a glossary of translations for the test words, a review of the Russian alphabet with sound, and it can toggle between English and Cyrillic keyboard layouts in its on-screen display.

Trotsky Collection
An extensive collection of Trotskiana. The originalgift comprised some 1800 editions of Trotsky’s works in 40 languages, together with numerous secondary items and several hundred periodical and newspaper issues containing pieces by Trotsky. The collection hassubsequently been augmented with a small group of papers and published material presented by the widow of Isaac Deutscher (Trotsky’s biographer). Other significant additions include the first Russian edition ofWhere is Britain Going? (1925); copies of two films of Trotsky in Mexico, purchased from the cameraman who shot them; a recording of the speech made on the occasion of the founding of the Fourth International and numerous copies of original Trotsky correspondenceheld in North American libraries. Donated to Glasgow University Library in 1983 by Louis Sinclair, Trotsky’s bibliographer.

ILP Russian Tour Material
The Independent Labour Party Russian Tour Material relates to a tour of the Soviet Union organised by the Independent Labour Party in 1932. Delegates visited Leningrad, Moscow and Kiev. An un-named I.L.P. member produced this notebook, which contains notes about the tour, a brief history of the country, and comments and descriptions of conditions under the Five Year Plan. The notebook is illustrated with photographs and postcards.

Soviet secondary school textbook collection
One of the largest and most important collections of secondary school textbooks outside the former Soviet Union. A wide range of subjects for different age groups are covered. There are ‘spetskursy’ (intensive courses) as well as ordinary courses. Teaching materials used in many of the former republics of the Soviet Union are included, some in Ukrainian.

Soviet Posters - Come the Revolution!
The Baykov Library's collection of posters spans the decades from the 1920s to the 1980s, from workers' rallying calls to the anti-bureaucracy and corruption themes of the Glasnost period. What all 500 have in common is that they are propaganda works casting light on life under the Soviet system and what it meant for individual citizens.

Schlesinger Papers
Papers of Dr Rudolf Schlesinger (1901-1969), Marxist theoretician and co-founder of the Glasgow University's Institute of Soviet and East European Studies. They include editorials, articles, correspondence relating to his editorship of Soviet Studies and Co-existence; lectures, drafts and revisions for books and articles on Soviet history, legal system and political theory; memoirs; some correspondence with leaders of the German Communist Party in the 1930s; part of the records of the German Communist Party during the 1920s and 30s (in very poor condition). In 1991 all of Dr Schlesinger's papers, which after his death had become the property of his close friend and executor, René Beerman, were transferred to the University Library’s Special Collections Department.

Russian and East European Studies
Glasgow University library has one of the most extensive collections in Europe of Russian and East European economics, politics and history. From a modest departmental collection in 1948 it has grown to its present size of about 75,000 items. The collection is particularly strong on the Russian and Soviet economy, especially of the post-war period, but other aspects of the former USSR are well represented. There is, for example, a good series of publications on the history and the economic history of the republics and regions, and a significant number of publications on the history of individual industrial enterprises. There are rapidly expanding sections on foreign policy, politics and law, and considerable holdings of material on pre-Soviet and early Soviet history. The holdings include published collections of historical, statistical, legal, diplomatic and Party documents, dissident materials, archives such as the Schlesinger Papers, special collections (e.g. on Trotsky) and microfilm collections of newly available Russian archives.

Gallacher Memorial library
Based on the library of William Gallacher, last Communist Party M.P. in U.K. The library has grown by further donations since his death in 1965. It contains an extensive, wide-ranging collection of material on almost all aspects of the Soviet Union and CPSU including: the Russian revolution; World War II; politics; literature and art.

Left Pamphlet Collection
The Left Pamphlet Collection consists of printed pamphlets relating to left-wing politics mainly in the 20th century of which a number are from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

Teaching social sciences in area studies programmes
Discusses the origins of different area studies programmes (e.g. of American studies, Russian studies, European studies). Defines the relationship of area studies to social sciences. Assesses the current situation of, and logistical challenges to, social science teaching in area studies. Gives pointers to future developments.

Russian studies in UK universities
An account of offerings and trends in Russian Studies in the UK at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, including a brief history of the field, details of selected modules within key programmes, and of the main centres for study of Russia and the former Soviet Union

Collaboration programme in Modern Languages in higher education