Upper row of 6 photos (left to right): St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Odessa, Saint Malo, Kodiak, Tallinn (all photos by O. Kobtzeff). Second row (of 3 photos) Left: a 1987, major tsunami alert on Kodiak Island, Alaska, forces to evacuate the St. Herman Theological Seminary. OK (circled), carries early 19th century Russian manuscripts to safety. Middle: OK with his students from the American University of Paris "Waters of the Globe" class (Roscoff, Britanny, France). Left: with Jane Goodall, AUP Doctor honoris causa and OK's heroine since childhood, subject of several of his classes,
Oleg Kobtzeff is Associate Professor of Geopolitics at the American University of Paris.
O.K. is a regular and frequent panelist and guest on French national radio and television political talk shows (mostly LCI, France 24, and RFI). He has also been regularly interviewed on Algerian national radio, and has appeared in numerous international radio, TV and newspapers, including the front pages of USA Today and La Repubblica. A comparatist above all, his passion since adolescence are the changes in the natural and cultural environments of the Russian, American and French areas of influence. O.K. connects all three countries through his study of the historic geography of extreme environments (oceans, the Arctic regions and outer space exploration). Religion, culture and conflicts involving representations of identity, is another dimension of the cultures studied by O.K. The common denominator of O.K.s interdisciplinary and comparatist approach: the relationship between human communities and nature around them and the upheavals brought about by modernity as a cause of tensions. nO.K. was born in Jackson Heights, New York and spent his childhood spent following his parents in their professional and leisurely travels around the United States which he now compares to the travels of Vladimir Nabokov's family (just like the Nabokovs, O.K. parents spent their first days after their moving to New York in the appartment of a common friend). Before his ninth birthday, just before his parents moved back to France, he had visited 30 states and most of the country's major National Parks.
In Paris, after uneventful years in the French secondary educational public school system in a rural environment, OK pursued two undergraduate diplomas at the same time at the Sorbonne (Paris IV, then Paris I) and the Saint Sergius Institute of Orthodox Theology, home to the constellation of famous exiles from the early 20th century Soviet Union known as "the School of Paris". At the Sorbonne, he spent several years as an undergraduate, then a graduate student under the guidance of Pierre Chaunu, in French and global 16th-18th century history and historic geography. He then became a graduate student of François-Xavier Coquin in Russian and Soviet history, specializing in the former Soviet bloc and the geopolitics of the Pacific (where the borderlands of Russia and USA overlap). As early as his years in secondary education, O.K. was intensely involved in the cultural life of Russian émigré circles. Among the many giants of Russian culture in exile that he crossed paths with, were the prima-ballerina Mathilde Kschessinska, Pierre Kovalewsky, the Schmemann family, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Mstislav Rostropovitch (with whom he had many hours of rehearsal sessions and quasi-master classes as a member of an opera choir), Nicolas Miletitch (a cub reporter at the time) and many others. O.K. was particularly marked by the friendship generously granted to him by dissident painter Serge Essaian. O.K. also worked as a translator (French-Russian-English) for the CNES - the French Space agency, French television, and, upon returning to the U.S., for the U.S. National Parks and U.S. Fish & Game Services.
In Rome, O.K. accepted the impossible task of being curator of the historic Gogol Library (now the Russian section of the National Library of Italy). While helping to save the the library from ruin, waiting for grants, he supported himself by teaching history, geography and Russian at the prestigious Castelli and St. Stephens International Schools. The Rome office of an NGO, the Tolstoy Foundation (founded by Alexandra, the daughter of Leo Tolstoy), overwhelmed by thousands of refugees pouring in from Ethiopia and from Central and Eastern Europe during the collapse of communism "volunteered" O.K. to resolve the cases of hundreds of these refugees. After his relations with Soviet dissidents in the 1970s and witnessing the condition of minorities in the American Great North in the 1980s, O.K. experienced a new form of education in the politics of human rights while intensely working with refugees in Italy. He also enjoyed a unique experience in inter-faith dialog meeting directly with Pope Jean-Paul II and other major personalities of Roman Catholicism.
Back in Paris, thanks to a suggestion and recommendation by renowned journalist Georges Bortoli, a specialist of the USSR and international relations, contacting his friend Pierre Salinger, chairman of the board of The American University of Paris, O.K. joined its faculty in 1993. While earning his full-time tenure at AUP, O.K. served part-time on the faculties of the Sorbonne, of the Collège de France, of the University of Southern California, and of the University of Paris 11. Until 2000, he also taught history and geography in French secondary schools, which brought O.K. to diversify into more general subjects such as the epistemology of geography, environmental problems, human rights in international relations and the history of war.
O.K. has recently been invited as visiting professor of History of the Russian Church (the chair founded by Anton Kartashov) by the Saint Sergius Institute of Orthodox Theology, home to the constellation of famous exiles from the early 20th century Soviet Union known as "the School of Paris" (Bulgakov, Georges Fedotov, Basile Zenkovsky, Georges Florovsky, Cyprian Kern, Nicholas Afanassieff, Léon Zander), as well as their successors like Alexander Schmemann and John Meyendorff, who were close family friends; (Fr. A. Schmemann had actually "head hunted" O.K., suggesting him for his position in Alaska). What they say about O.K.:
Ramsey Ben-Achour, expert in humanitarian engineering, CEO and founder of International Development Consulting Group: "I studied with professors Rahnema for economics and Kobtzeff for politics. The intimacy that I was able to foster with my professors was the key to my success. Every week I met with them to ask questions and make sure that I understood the lessons of the week. The small class sizes were invaluable". (past official website of the American University of Paris) James Forsyth, Slavic Review, Vol. 59, No. 3, Autumn, 2000, pp. 660-661: “one of the most interesting essays [of the volume]”). (About OK's article on the Orthodox Church and ethnic diversity during the Russian colonial experience in North America in Boris Shichlo' s Siberia II) Roger Comtet, Université de Toulouse-le Mirail, département de slavistique, Slavica Occitania, No. 19, 2004, p. 244 : "The contribution of Oleg Kobzeff is in every way remarkable" (About OK’s article "Spaces and cultures of the Neva Basin: mythical representations and geopolitical realities", in Walter Zidaric, (ed.), Saint-Petersburg: 1703-2003, Nantes, 2004) Heather Price , Deputy Director, Industry Engagement, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition & Sustainment "Professor Kobtzeff was a remarkably engaging professor at AUP who fostered passion in his students. I was very honored to be part of his Politics of Human Rights course, and still utilize concepts I learned from the class. Professor K set the bar high for my graduate studies after I left AUP, and I've found that few can compare." Kristina Keenan, Sgt. U.S. Army, Deputy Director, National Legislative Service, at Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), former Alumni affairs and development coordinator, American University of Paris "I quickly found my place among the students in my political science classes and through Professors Peter Haegel, Oleg Kobtzeff, Stephen Ekovich, and Terrence Murphy, I began to make sense of what I had witnessed in the field." (past official website of the American University of Paris) About the Ashgate Companion to War, collective work edited by Hall Gardner and Oleg Kobtzeff (author of 5 of the chapters): Michael Boyle, Perspectives on Terrorism, Vol. 6, No 3 (2012): "an admirable range of topics"... "If one wishes to adopt or even learn more about the polemological approach, these essays are fascinating"... Dominic Katter, The Australian Defense Force Journal, No 189, October 2012: "The chapters are (unsurprisingly) detailed and well-referenced throughout (...) the reader is rewarded with various innovative topics of a contemporary nature (...) Well-suited to anyone with an interest in polemology (the study of human conflict and war)" David Connery, Deputy Director (Strategy and Development), National Security College, Australian National University, Australian Army Journal, Volume IX, No. 3, 2012: "This is a book for the very serious student of war. (...) Those embarking on the journey through this book will find a number of fascinating—albeit at times dense—chapters covering this broad topic" Marion Birch (2013) "War: origins and prevention", Medicine, Conflict and Survival, 29:2, 158-159 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13623699.2012.743313): "potentially a valuable companion for a health professional working on health and conflict issues who needs background information on the psychological, social and political drivers of conflict.(...) the point that we need to consider conflict in the long-term using several disciplines when working for peace is well made, with a lot of detail provided (...) the factual content is impressive (...) |