Lectures were held on the topics "Modern American literature" and "Russian literature today" (based on the material of the works of L. N. Tolstoy and F. M. Dostoevsky). Students also heard a lecture on artificial intelligence and pondered whether it is good or bad. Besides lectures, T. Beyer also met with faculty from the Department of Foreign Languages. The organizer of the event was the professor of the Department of Foreign Languages of Ijevan Branch of YSU, S. M. Minasyan.
Acting director of Ijevan branch of YSU Anushavan Makaryan welcomed the guest of honor. He thanked Thomas Beyer for his cooperation with the university and hoped for further close cooperation. The meeting was held at a high level, in a productive and friendly atmosphere.
The university organized excursions for Thomas Beyer to the high-altitude Lake Sevan, the masterpieces of Armenian architecture, the medieval monastic complexes of Haghartsni and Gosh. The excursion was conducted by Yelena Shuvayeva, lecturer at Ijevan branch of YSU, ethnographer. Near the walls of Goshavank, literary experts remembered Osip Mandelshtam's fascinating lines.
A country of yelling stones —
Armenia, Armenia!
Calling hoarse mountains to arms —
Armenia, Armenia!
Thomas R., a brilliant translator of Russian literature into English, a specialist in Andrei Bely's works. Beyer first visited the Soviet Union (specifically Moscow, Leningrad and Yerevan) in 1967. At that time, he participated in so-called summer language courses, not yet knowing that he, an American of Norwegian-Irish descent, would forever connect his life with the Russian language and literature. He visited Russia more than once, worked a lot in archives, participated in conferences. He is in Armenia for the third time. As he says, he has seen the republic during different important historical periods.
Professor Thomas Beyer, in addition to working on Russian classical literature, met with many Russian writers of the "sixties": Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Andrei Voznesensky, Robert Rozhdestvensky and others. That is why the memories that he presented to the students of the educational program "Russian language and literature" aroused lively and sincere interest.
Saying farewell, associate professor of the Department of Foreign Languages of YSU, Ph.D., head of the Ijevan branch of the Russian Science and Culture Center in Gyumri, Marat Zurabyan presented the guest with the book "How steel was tempered" by Nikolai Ostrovsky (it turned out that Thomas Beyer is familiar with the novel) , and student Mariam Darbinyan recited her poem dedicated to the poet Andrei Bely.
The initiator of this cooperation, Professor Svetlana Minasyan of the Department of Foreign Languages of Ijevan branch of YSU, expressed her hope that professional, including international, cooperation between the universities will develop. According to her, Ijevan branch of YSU has long been perceived as a favorable environment, which allows us to judge its level of competitiveness and compliance with modern standards.
