I Have To Make A Really Good Effort To Build Up A Professional Network

Ashley Squires, Assistant Professor at the New Economic School (NES) and Director of the NES Writing and Communication Center, answers Joint BA program student Victoria Zimina's questions on living and working in Russia as an American

Do you feel any kind of professional loneliness at the Joint program or in Russia? Or is this always the case with academia?

Sometimes, I think I do. But I have found ways to overcome some of the limitations of being so far away from the center of my discipline in the US. The disadvantage of being here is that I am pretty much the only person at NES who does exactly what I do. I do not necessarily work with scholars whose experience I can draw on, to whom I can go with questions about research, or even who I can look for the models of teaching, because, though we have a lot of teachers in the Humanities and Languages Department, all of us do something different. And so, I have to make a really good effort to build up a professional network outside of NES. And it is really international. And I think I have been pretty successful at doing that. Now I know a number of people who I can reach out to if I want somebody to read a draft of something or if I just have an idea I want to discuss with somebody. And I have also developed a good network here in Russia. Through academic writing, I have had the opportunity to meet and work with other teachers and scholars here and to build some really exciting collaborative projects. So, I think that the answer is yes, especially at first, but I have been rewarded by efforts to try to find partners and collaborators on my own.

Does the Russian academic environment differ from the American one?

The Joint program for me does not seem to be that representative in terms of Russian higher education. But all my experience in Russia consists of teaching in the Joint program.

Was it difficult for you to get used to life in Russia?

I have to kind of go back to who I was five years ago. If ten is terribly difficult, and one is as a piece of cake, I would put it someone in the middle: five or six even. You know, Moscow is a nice, beautiful, interesting city, but the language barrier was for me the most difficult part. I have been studying Russian for the whole time I have been here, but there are still things that I am afraid to do, because I sound like an idiot, or at least, I think I sound foolish to people. But it is the last remaining thing. I have all my favorite places to eat, all my favorite foods, I have my routine here, so I feel pretty adjusted, I don't really experience any kind of culture shock anymore. But I think that a couple of years there were some challenging parts, mostly related to language, many practical processes took a lot longer than it used to back home. I did not know everything that was expected of me everywhere. Sometimes I experienced moments when I felt like everybody hated me, but those moments were not frequent, I would say, and I think they are normal for anyone who has moved to another country.

Do you have any hobbies or other activities outside of your job?

A couple of years ago I had to force myself to acquire some hobbies because I did nothing but work. And it was not a good way to live. So, I like to do crafts sometimes; I am knitting a sweater for my sister now. I also recently got a piano from my friend who gave it away when she was moving. I used to play the piano when I was in the university, and I have not practiced for a long time, but I have started to do it again recently. These things really help me to take a break from my work.

I think, maybe, I am the type of person who easily gets obsessed with some little details of her/his work, that obviously in the grand scale of the universe are not important. And if I am just working all the time, it is quite like I am standing in a box, and maybe it is a rather nice box, with furniture and a lot of other stuff that makes it comfortable, but after a while I become convinced that the whole world is certainly only that box. And having a hobby that makes you socialize is like opening a window or even a door that lets you step out of this box for a couple of hours. And afterwards I feel more refreshed, more relaxed, and it makes me more creative, more imaginative, when I get back to my work.