The Department of Modern and Contemporary History of the Institute of History, St. Petersburg State University, presents a public lecture by David Goldfield, Robert Lee Bailey Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, speaking on the problems of history of Southern states in the USA. The open lecture "Gone With the Wind" scheduled to be held on the 24th of April, 2017, Institute of History at 3.40 p.m.

The American South has always been different – slavery, secession, poverty, rural, and segregated – seemingly the reverse of American ideals. As William Faulkner noted famously, in the South, the past is not past. Why is this so? How have other regions in the U.S. contributed to this mixture of myth and history? And what does its persistence say about the nation?

The lecture is open for all interested students, teachers and researchers.

The purpose of the master's program:

Master's program reveals the problems of establishing and renovation of modern Western countries. It takes a period of historical development, starting from the time of the bourgeois revolutions in Western Europe and also the Great geographical discoveries, till consideration of the processes that occur in the Western countries today.

Such large-scale study of Western countries history allows a comprehensive approach to study of cause-and-effect relations of their transformation and to disclose the specifics of the current political, economic and cultural forms of development that we can see today.

As a result, master's program creates a complete view on the modern period of social development, and special scientific and practical elaborations of the lectures of our department is primarily aimed at developing innovative methods of educational process, in accordance with needs of the modern historical education, but at the same time based on the rich traditions of teaching of Modern and Contemporary History in St. Petersburg State University.

Masters of the department have the opportunity to learn:
• Modern methods and approaches to the study of Modern and Contemporary history
• Empires in the era of Modern and Contemporary History: actual problems of history and historiography
• European varieties of totalitarianism in their historical context
• World religions in the countries of Europe and America in Modern Times
• Actual problems of the history of the «Cold War»
• The National problems and Europen integration in the XX-XXI centuries
Also, they can focus on the concrete Western countries history topics for discussions, for example: «Northern Empires in the era of Modern history», «The structures of everyday life in Europe and America in the XVI – XXI centuries», «Russian and foreign Latin America Studies», «Typology and historiography of wars», «Iberian world and Russia in XVI – XXI century: the history of relations», «Historical events and characters XIX-XX centuries in literature» etc.

We also propose courses of disciplines that will combine with the general subjects offered for study in master's program at the Faculty of History.

Graduates of the department becoming professionals, who can work as a teacher, highly qualified researchers, serve as consultants and advisors to government and other agencies, work in major libraries, museums, archives and the media.

Graduates of the master program will be able to continue their education in post-graduate courses in Saint Petersburg State University or in other universities of the country.