265 MTSU SERVES AS HOST UNIVERSITY FOR FULBRIGHT SCHOLAR FROM RUSSIA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Feb. 7, 2008
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Lisa L. Rollins, 615-898-2919

MTSU SERVES AS HOST UNIVERSITY FOR FULBRIGHT SCHOLAR FROM RUSSIA
Sociology Researcher Vladimir Ilin Hopes to Study American Consumerism, He Says

(MURFREESBORO)—MTSU recently was selected to serve as the host institution for Dr. Vladimir Ilin, a Fulbright Visiting Scholar for the 2007-2008 academic year.
Ilin, who is a professor of sociology at St. Petersburg State University in Russia, is one of about 800 outstanding foreign faculty and professionals who will teach and do research this year in the U.S. through the Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program, which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
Dr. William Badley, assistant vice provost for academic affairs, said, “Since there are only four Tennessee universities participating (in the Fulbright program), it is a great honor for MTSU to be hosting a Fulbright Visiting Scholar. … Professor Ilin’s visit is a great opportunity for mutual scholarly exchanges.”
Ilin, who arrived at MTSU in January, “will be providing occasional lectures on global inequality and conducting research on consumption patterns in the U.S.” during his visit, which will end in October, said Dr. Ron Aday, interim chairman of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology.
In addition to his work as a research professor at St. Petersburg State University, Ilin has authored several books and studied consumption patterns in different parts of the world.
“One of my books is about miners movement in a very remote Arctic city in Russia,” he explained. “I did research (on) labor relations at transport and industrial enterprises in one of regional centers of Northern Russia. My field research on immigration (has) been conducted in Germany. I have been doing the field research of transformation of traditional local communities under influence of global tourism in Nepal, Vietnam and India for the last several years.”
Although his research areas focus on varied topics, he added, “they have one common subject—structures of everyday life.”
During his stay in Murfreesboro, Ilin said he hopes to conduct research on
the typical life of America’s consumer society. Related to this, he noted, “I hope to find here people who will help me to better understand this country. I will appreciate if some faculty and students will meet me to have a talk about different aspects of American everyday life.”
As for his initial impressions regarding the MTSU community, “The most amazing side of local life that impressed me more than anything else are faculty and staff at MTSU,” he said. “They help me to solve numerous problems that any newcomer meets in (a) new social environment and which are often so difficult for foreigners. They spend so much time and energy helping me to enter into American life with … a clear understanding of its logic.
The James E. Walker Library and Campus Recreation Center, too, have been a much-welcomed surprise, Ilin observed.

“I am impressed by the rational organization of the university’s library,” remarked the researcher. “It is a real pleasure to work there … and the rec center is the best complex of this type (that) I (have) ever seen in the universities of Russia, Europe and America. I think that students of MTSU must be happy to study here.”
Founded in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Sen. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the Fulbright Program is considered America’s flagship international educational exchange program.
Heidi Manley, a representative for the Office of Academic Exchange Programs in Washington, D.C., said that since its establishment, the program has provided about 279,500 people, including 104,500 Americans who have studied, taught or researched abroad and 174,100 students, scholars and teachers from other countries who have engaged in similar activities in the U.S.
For more information about the Fulbright Program, please access http://exchanges.state.gov or call Manley at 202-453-8534.



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