Library of Congress Tour and History Lesson
Students learn about James Billington, Russian historian and former Librarian of Congress.
Dumbarton Oaks Museum, One of Washington DC's Hidden Gems
On Saturdays, September 12 and 19, 2026, the Carmel Institute organized tours of one of Washington’s hidden gem museums, Dumbarton Oaks. Dr. Fedyashin guided students through an exploration of the permanent Byzantine art collection. The group examined and discussed the evolution of classical art from the Hellenic period into the Roman Empire and then the Byzantine era. Dr. Fedyashin pointed out the influence of Orthodox Christianity on the portrayal of the human figure through sculpture, sarcophagi, and religious art.
Dr. Fedyashin’s students also read an article by Russian-born Byzantinist Dmitry Obolensky, “Byzantium, Kiev and Moscow: A Study in Ecclesiastical Relations,” which appeared the Dumbarton Oaks Papers in 1957 and explored the nature of historical sources by comparing Rus chronicles with Byzantine records.
As part of the Dumbarton Oaks tour, Dr. Fedyashin always brings the group into the Music Room, which witnessed the American premier of Igor Stravinsky’s “Dumbarton Oaks Quartet” in 1938. The founders of the museum Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss commissioned the piece to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of their wedding and Stravinsky’s autographed photo sits on one of the tables in the room. The students had listened to the concerto before coming to the museum.
The Music Room also hosted the Dumbarton Oaks Conversations in August and September of 1944 where delegations from the US, the USSR, Great Britain, and China began planning the future United Nations Organization. After lunch, Dr. Fedyashin gave the students a private tour of the famous Dumbarton Oaks gardens, which Mildred Bliss designed with renowned American landscape architect Beatrix Farrand. The students also stood on the same steps where the Dumbarton Oaks Conversation delegates stood for their official photograph in 1944.
Museum visits, concert attendance, and class trips have been part of the Carmel Institute’s programming since its inception. As Professor Fedyashin always reminds his students, although our knowledge about the past depends mostly on reading, history must also be walked, seen, and touched. For more about the Dumbarton Oaks, please visit https://www.doaks.org/. To sign up for our museum trips, please e-mail [email protected].
The Culture of Eastern Orthodoxy: Byzantine Influences on Russian Orthodoxy
In June of 2026, the Carmel Institute sponsored a class-trip to Istanbul, Türkiye, for a group of students from AU, Trinity, Harvard, and Miami University of Ohio. It explored the legacy of the Eastern Roman Empire and Byzantine Orthodoxy.
Before arriving in Istanbul, the students read Thomas Madden’s Istanbul: City of Majesty at the Crossroads of the World (2016) and selections from Geffert & Stavrou’s Eastern Orthodox Christianity: The Essential Texts (2016). The course combined discussions of the books with visits to churches, museums, mosques, and archaeological sites in Istanbul and beyond. In the process, the students explored the history of the Byzantine Empire, the evolution of Eastern Orthodoxy, and the interconfessional relations throughout the late classical, medieval, and modern eras.
