Today we’d like to introduce you to Rosina Neginsky.
Rosina, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I started as being passionately in love with literature and arts. My university career began in France. I studied at the University of Paris-Sorbonne, visited museums, wrote poetry and taught at the Center of Russian Studies that belonged to Jesuits. When I began my doctoral degree at Paris-Sorbonne, I was invited to spend a year at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana as an exchange student. Why Champaign-Urbana? A pure accident. For many of us, coming from Europe and not knowing a lot about America, its spaces, its areas, and even its universities, sometimes the questions are even not asked. It is just America… and here it goes: it does not matter where you go, you go to America. In retrospective, it was not a good decision, but then it was interesting, new and exciting. During that year, I was offered a fellowship, a possibility to teach at U of I as a Graduate Assistant and was waved tuition and fees. Coming from France, where the university studies are free, I was not able to fully appreciate the importance of waived tuition, but I was excited about teaching. Instead of going back to France and finishing my Ph.D. at the University of Paris, I stayed in the USA, choosing to finish my Ph.D. at U of I. Two years later I was offered a tenure-track position at Grinnell College in Iowa. I was 26 years old. Although the location was terrible, I was excited. This was the beginning of my academic career. A Flash forward: After a few years at Grinnell I went back to Paris and taught there at Ecole Politechnique. But America was calling me back, and I came to America again, a second time, to start my career anew. During these years of a search for a “right” “physical” place, I was also searching for my “right” creative, artistic and intellectual place. I realized that my passion is in writing, that I feel a true and deep pleasure and find joy in doing research, writing scholarly books. I am the author of a book, Salome: The Image of a Woman Who Never Was, about the biblical figure, Salome in art, literature, and sociology, whose dance was partially responsible for a death of John the Baptist; and of a book Zinaida Vengerova: In Search of Beauty. A Literary Ambassador between East and West, on Russian literary critic, translator, a propagator of Western European culture of the end of the 19th century in Russia. In the process, like in my youth, I was compelled to write poetry, and I published a few collections of poetry, among which the most recent is Juggler and In the Garden of Luxembourg. My poetry’s topic is the human soul, and it’s wandering through the world, its stories, its complexity, human emotions, and inner life. One day, I woke up and felt that I was ready to write a novel, and I have just finished writing a novel. It has been a new and exciting adventure that helped me understand myself better, determine more where my talents lay, and perhaps to see the direction of my future career. In between, however, I founded an international, interdisciplinary organization, a Research Center on Symbolist Movement, Art, literature, and Music in Symbolism and Decadence (ALMSD, http://www.uis.edu/hosted-orgs/almsd/index.html). In the frame of this organization, I organized two large conferences in Illinois. They were attended by people from 11 countries and by faculty and students from three University of Illinois campuses. (I ended up as a professor at one of U of I campuses). It was a success, but then our activities moved to Europe, wherein the frame of this organization I co-organized three international conferences in collaboration with the University of Paris-Sorbonne, and edited and co-edited four volumes based on conference presentations in America and France. These books were published under the following titles: Symbolism, Its Origins and Its Consequences; Light and Obscurity in Symbolism; Mental Illnesses in Symbolism and Angst in European Symbolism (forthcoming).
One of my most exciting activities was discovering Russian artists living and creating in Western Europe and the United States. As a result of this process, I organized a few art exhibits and published a few catalogs. The latest exhibit was the exhibit of an artist, Lyubov Momot, originally from Kiev, and now living and creating in Chicago.
One might ask, what is next? This is to see, but that will be for the next time.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
No, the road was not smooth. The second time in America has not been easy. I went back to school, received an additional degree in Information Science, and ended up as a professor of Liberal and Integrative Studies, an interdisciplinary department, at the University of Illinois at Springfield. It was rewarding in the end. However, the state of Illinois politics, changes in administration at the University of Illinois Springfield, changes in the atmosphere at the university due to the changes in administration, moving within the university made life less pleasant than it should and could have been.
Nonetheless, when one is creative, his/her life is elsewhere, and this is something that should never be forgotten. It makes a life ride much smoother and allows to ignore what is better not to see. If we cannot change the world around us, we can change it within us. This is my slogan, and it helps me go through life.
We’d love to hear more about your work.
I have explained earlier, that I founded an international, interdisciplinary organization, a Research Center on Symbolist Movement, Art, literature, and Music in Symbolism and Decadence (ALMSD, http://www.uis.edu/hosted-orgs/almsd/index.html).
The purpose of ALMSD is to promote art, literature, and music from the second part of the 19th century to the early 20th century in European culture. The organization is interested in exploring the origins of the Symbolist movement – such as revival and the reinterpretation of classical ideas, of art, literature, and music of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance – and of the consequences of the Symbolist movement – the connection between Symbolism and subsequent movements, like Surrealism. As an interdisciplinary international organization, its purpose is to demonstrate the philosophical connection between arts in the latter part of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century in different countries that were affected by Symbolist ideas and to examine how that connection manifested itself in different artistic forms – visual arts, literature, and music. The organization strives to encourage and to facilitate the exchange of ideas between scholars working in the areas mentioned above nationally and internationally.
The mission of the ALMSD is unique in its scholarly and educational activities. Its publications demonstrate the breath of Symbolist movement and its undying role in our contemporary culture.
There are many organizations, but there aren’t organizations whose purpose is to
In the frame of this organization, I organized two large conferences in Illinois. They were attended by people from 11 countries and by faculty and students from three University of Illinois campuses. (I ended up as a professor at one of U of I campuses). It was a success, but then our activities moved to Europe, wherein the frame of this organization I co-organized three international conferences in collaboration with the University of Paris-Sorbonne, and edited and co-edited four volumes based on conference presentations in America and France. These books were published under the following titles: Symbolism, Its Origins and Its Consequences; Light and Obscurity in Symbolism; Mental Illnesses in Symbolism and Angst in European Symbolism (forthcoming).
What were you like growing up?
I learned how to read when I was three years old. My grandmother was a professor of literature, and she began to discuss books with me when I was four. At the same age, I began to learn how to play the piano. I played for 15 years but never became a pianist to my parents’ disappointment. I played in the theater since I was five years old and some predicted me (unsuccessfully) a great future in the performance. I still perform, but not in the theater. I played chess, did an artistic skating.
I was a lively and lovely child and was very loved by my parents, grandparents and the world around. It is difficult to accept that the love we receive at home we do not always get outside of the home. But we learn it, and I had to learn it pretty early, although the love and a great education I received have been serving me well on my life path.
Pricing:
- We accept donations. If you would like to help the culture and our organization, please go to http://www.uis.edu/hosted-orgs/almsd/index.html
- and click on “donate.” If you would like to become a member, please go to the same website, to memberships, scroll down, click on “pay” and pay $30 to become a member.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.uis.edu/hosted-orgs/almsd/index.html
- Email: z1941v@yahoo.com
Image Credit:
Boris Guessel
Eric Hadley-Ives
Eugene Ogibenin
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