|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Return to Natalie
Kononenko's Home Page
RESEARCH AND TEACHING
I have discussed how folklore informs much of what I am and what I do. Research affects my teaching in the traditional way also. I am an active scholar. Now that the Soviet Union is no more, the opportunity to do fieldwork has finally opened up. I have seized this opportunity and am probably the foremost American researcher working in rural Ukraine. I travel at least annually. I bring back field data, my observations, and my joy in being able to do and to see. Because I consider fieldwork so important, I worked hard to arrange fieldwork opportunities for my graduate students and one collected child lore materials in Pskov, Russia, while another recorded data on funeral practices all over Ukraine. This year, I will have an undergraduate traveling with a field team in the area south of Moscow. I hope to expand opportunities of this type and to offer regular field research programs to students at all levels.
Since digital media is a big part of my work now and I will be an associate at the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities next year, I try to go beyond the digital materials of my course web page and to involve students in my digital research. Several undergraduates and one graduate were my assistants in my Teaching and Technology Initiative project. Many will be continuing with me next year and new students will be joining the team. In addition, I will run a number of independent study projects that focus on digital technology and the humanities.