IALLT Interview Project Episode 12: Interview about OER “Diverse Russian”, with Shannon Donnally Quinn and Anna Tumarkin
DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.69732/CAVM3142
In this episode, Jeff discusses a new online Russian textbook with its authors, Shannon Donnally Quinn and Anna Tumarkin. The Open Educational Resource (OER) is available at https://wisc.pb.unizin.org/diverserussian. The authors explain their decision to center the textbook’s content on cultural themes and to highlight the diversity of the language in regions around the world. A brief demonstration focuses on the chapter on Georgia (Sakartvelo), through which the viewer can see the structure of the online book and its consistent design elements. Resources for educators, separate from the student view, can be accessed and instructors can even contribute learning activities. The authors discuss the technology that underpins the book and their decision to use Pressbooks and H5P. Other topics include possible uses of artificial intelligence (AI) in further iterations of Diverse Russian: A Multicultural Exploration and the plan to continually and periodically revise and update this resource.
The reason anyone can refer to “diverse Russian” is that Russia has colonized non-Russian areas and built an empire that intentionally denied or degraded the local cultures and languages. That Georgians, Tatars, Uzbeks,Tajiks, Kazakhs, Armenians, Chechens or Ukrainians speak Russian is hardly something to celebrate: it is the result of conquest, explotation and oppression.
Thank you for sharing these thoughts. You are absolutely right that Russian’s presence in many regions has complex historical roots, including colonization, conquest, and the suppression of local languages and cultures. Diverse Russian is rooted in an awareness of these histories and aims to reflect critically on them, rather than to celebrate or ignore them.
The purpose of this textbook is to present Russian as it exists today—a language spoken by many people from diverse backgrounds, who use it in ways that reflect their unique cultural identities and lived experiences. We aim to bring visibility to voices within and outside of Russia, emphasizing that Russian is not solely the language of ethnic Russians or the state, but also of individuals who negotiate and reshape it according to their own perspectives.
This approach allows students to encounter Russian as a dynamic language that encompasses stories of resilience, adaptation, and self-expression. We believe this broadens their understanding of both Russian and the historical forces behind its spread, as well as the diverse identities of people who use it today.
-Shannon Quinn and Anna Tumarkin