Last summer, I spent two weeks as an interpreter for the US-Russia Peer-to-Peer Program in the southern Muslim-majority region of Karachaevo-Cherkesiа in Arkhyz. The program united University of Oregon and North-Caucasus Federal University students in a cultural exchange of ideas about civil society and healthy life choices for youth in both countries. Together, we toured Russia’s modest, but developing, civil society scene. It was my job to translate museum tours, student lectures, ...