Interview with SAS Graduate ❘ Polina Shishkina

How did you choose a university and direction of study?

To be honest, I didn't want to get higher education at all. My parents insisted on it. My father is a doctor of historical sciences, my mother is a candidate of historical sciences, and I resisted the choice of academy and thought of leaving for Barnaul to study to be a teacher of world art culture at a university with a low passing score. But my parents, having watched an interview with SAS director Andrey Shcherbenok fr om the open day, literally applied to Tyumen State University for me. I succumbed to persuasion and enrolled in the School of Advanced Studies, which I have absolutely no regrets about now. SAS is an amazing place, an amazing experience. The coolest thing is that you can build your trajectory independently and study what you want to study with people who are also interested in a specific topic.

I applied for the profile “Film and Media” because I have always liked art, and my favorite subject at school was World Art Culture. Later I realized that I wanted to do cultural research and analyze art. I liked what impressions senior students share about their studies in this major, what projects they participate in and what internships they choose. I sought to understand why art fascinates people, how it relates to more global social processes and human perception. For these reasons, I chose the Cultural Studies profile at the end of my second year.

Is it difficult to study at SAS?

For the first two or even three years, the school days were very busy. When physical education was on the schedule, we had to go to the sports complex in the morning and then to SAS for classes. At the same time, you didn't just go to classes to “sit out:” you had to read the assigned material, prepare some presentations or do something else a few days before the classes. You ended up leaving the house at seven in the morning and coming back at nine in the evening.

Easy enough for me during the isolation pandemic. Firstly, I could easily organize my day, and secondly, there was no longer a need to set aside time to drive to the university. To stay in touch with my classmates, we texted a lot and had informal video chats, including with professors. Students of the course “Current World Problems” created a Discord platform that imitated SAS: you could come to classrooms, the canteen, or the coffee shop — as if you were never far fr om each other or fr om SAS.

While studying at SAS, I realized that I had formed a kind of cult of productivity. I had to do my assignments not just well, but better than others would, or, before I could go to bed, I had to prepare for class: I had to read everything, underline important things, and write things out. Because of this, writing my thesis at home was not easy: it was hard for me to stop, it seemed that I had not done enough and that I could do better.

Students at SAS are divided into two types: those who come very inspired to do, read, look, search, unfold and connect everything, and those who are satisfied with the minimum. Closer to major selection, it becomes clear who is in which group. There is an intellectual community forming at SAS wh ere people are competing with each other in a good way and want to bring their intellectual contributions to that environment. It's a very cool thing.

Did you feel comfortable studying in English?

I initially paid a lot of attention to learning English. I studied at the first English-medium gymnasium, and then at TyumSU gymnasium in the linguistics class. But SAS is a completely different experience: you get into a language environment wh ere lectures are in English, books are in English, people are also in English (joking, talking and silent). It's a great development.

When you are in SAS for a long time, fr om morning to evening in the classes, you are completely immersed in this environment, and when you go beyond it, you sometimes encounter strange situations. At the checkout of a store, you suddenly don't understand what language they are talking to you in. Or, for example, you can freely explain in English something about Plato's cave or the workings of a nuclear reactor, but feel a little helpless in some everyday dialogues.

Which of the courses you have taken at SAS would you highlight?

In my first year, Julie Rechet's elective on the search for happiness was very useful. I learned a lot about psychoanalysis, trauma and who a psychoanalyst is. It turned out that a psychoanalyst is not necessarily someone who sits in a chair while you lie on the couch, it can be a friend of yours if he or she has certain functions.

I loved working with Erica Wolf. In my second year, she taught the Art History nuclear course. After that, I enrolled in her Photography and Russia elective, wh ere we worked a lot with Soviet photography, studying key photographers and genres of Soviet and world photography. At the end of the course, at a conference, we presented to each other our research about the photographs we had found on our own. It was very interesting to me.

Another memorable course was Erica's Visual Culture course. We read books and studied visual images: how they are constructed, used and perceived by people. The final event of the course was a performance: an exhibition of works combined with another course by Erika and Stanimir Panayotov — “Body, Culture, Personality.” Our team developed a game based on Lacan's idea of “ideal ego and mirror” and the use of social networks. In addition to the game component, there was a theoretical part and tracking of participants' progress with discussion of what happened, why it happened and what it means. We were told it was an interesting product.

What faculty members would you still single out?

SAS professors are a huge part of the School's community. They shape it.

I really liked Melina Aarnikoivu's courses. She taught us Academic Writing. I liked very much the way she structured information, logically organized classes and communication, and the way she treated students. It was simple, clear, and fun.

With Louis Vervoort, I chose courses in philosophy, artificial intelligence or, for example, physics (an unexpected choice for a cultural researcher with zero background). It was very fascinating, clear, and useful. I also liked Stanimir Panayotov's classes about non-mocentrism and theories of disembodiment so much that I chose five of his courses in a row. We studied how we understand that we are individuals, why we understand it, and what it means not to be an individual.

What does SAS mean to you?

In English, SAS can be characterized by the words challenging, spontaneous and unique. But challenging here does not mean “trial,” but “adventure.” Andrei Scherbenok says that SAS is a preparation for real life. It is. You need to be able to quickly adapt to changes and new circumstances, and if you fall down — to get up again and keep going. The main thing is not to lose interest, not to forget why you came and why you need to get some knowledge at all. It is important to understand what knowledge you need and wh ere you will apply it.

What extracurricular activities have you been involved in?

I love photography. I have several cameras — digital and film. I can't say that I am an expert in photography. It's more of a hobby, which is why I became a member of the SAS Photo Club. We did joint photo projects, analysed each other's shots, discussed how to make a shot better. I managed to organize our first exhibition, which was located on the first floor of the School for a long time.

The School also has a small group of like-minded people who like to do distracted things. For example, we cook something or draw common pictures: first you draw your part, and then you pass the picture to the next person, and in the end you end up with something completely strange. Such creative activities help to relax and unload.

What's your thesis about?

The topic of my thesis was suggested to me by Erika Wolf. She was researching the USSR pavilion at the International Printing Exhibition, which was held in Cologne in 1928, and suggested that I join her research group. I agreed. After the third year, we went on an internship to Moscow to work in the archives, where we found a great deal of materials, photographs, minutes of meetings. We first translated them fr om Russian and German into English, and then tried to somehow conceptualize and assemble them into a coherent narrative about the pavilion. Then I found a lot of amazing material for my thesis that hadn't been mentioned anywhere else yet.

This topic may seem a bit abstract and perhaps even boring, but the more I delved into it, the more different details I found. In the twentieth century, there was no internet yet, and people had closer connections: it's very interesting to suddenly find out that, for example, El Lissitzky knew John Heartfield, and maybe they did some projects together, gave each other reviews.

I managed to present my work even before its defense. I spoke at the conference for young researchers “After (post)photography” at the European University in St. Petersburg and received excellent feedback from experts who specialize in Soviet art. They suggested how else the interpretation I was giving could be deployed. I was once again convinced that my work makes sense, that other people understand and agree with me, and that it is possible to continue my research. I left the conference with a long list of literature to study.

I did not have time to cover everything I wanted to in my thesis, so I think I will continue to work on this topic, speak at conferences, and publish my results in a scientific journal in the future.

What do you plan to do after you finish your undergraduate degree?

I want to pursue a PhD in art history. My parents, of course, are very happy that I want to be a researcher and get an academic degree.

I am now enrolled in the School of Arts and Cultural Heritage at EUSPb, wh ere, like SAS, they practice an interdisciplinary approach to teaching, in the Master's program “Languages of Art in Culture: Problems of Interaction”.

I am also interested in museum practices: how a museum works, how visitors perceive it, how museum space can be improved to attract more audiences, so I plan to find a job or internship in a museum. I would like to get into a modern museum to be in the center of events and understand whether this sphere is close to me.

What advice can you give to SAS applicants and students?

I would like to advise everyone not to be lazy to read what is assigned in all courses. At SAS, you have the opportunity to study what you are interested in, and your professors are there to help you along the way: they have already chosen the literature you need to know to be a valuable member of society. When you realize that reading is important, necessary, and interesting, you will start to develop a consciousness, and at some point all knowledge will become interconnected. You can apply them in a complex or, on the contrary, oppose each other. Everything immediately becomes more interesting and understandable, and the discussions at lectures and seminars — more meaningful. So read on!