Professor Raphael Falco from Maryland Visits ASU

From March 18 to April 01, 2017, Professor Raphael Falco from the University of Maryland (Baltimore County, MD United States) gave a course of lectures and seminars for senior students and professors of Astrakhan State University’s Department of Foreign Languages in English, French, and Italian. His visit is a part of the Fulbright Program.

The distinguished guest concerned the following themes: new methodological approaches to develop language, literature, and civilization-related courses; the US university system with its pluses and minuses, its issues and challenges; comparative characteristics of the European (Humboldtian) and American university models (as an optional theme); organization of research activities at US universities; the efficiency assessment system for the faculty staff of US universities; American practice in interpreting and translation as a tool to construct identities.

Prof. Falco also reviewed the cultural trends over the 15th and 16th centuries. Our students obtained new knowledge of the fundamental importance of the Renaissance epoch for the world civilization. Considering with the present-day political and social tension, the US guest emphasized the problems of interaction between the institutional systems of myth, religion, and administration in the countries of Western Europe.

As Prof. Falco confesses, he had a fascinating trip to Astrakhan; our University and its people made a lasting impression on him. He thanked our Chair of Romanic Languages and our Unit of International Relations for their arrangement of his visit.