reed.edu/russian

Learn more about

RUSSIAN

“The Russian department

stands out because it is

cozy. Besides courses in

literature, the department

offers its students entry

into a Russian family of

students, professors, and

language scholars. This

family has shown me the

depths of Russian culture

beyond the written word.”

BRANDON MARROW ’18

THE RUSSIAN DEPARTMENT at Reed is designed to

meet the twofold objective of providing training in the Russian

language and developing in students a critical appreciation of

Russia’s diverse literary and cultural traditions.

The language courses, from introductory through advanced

levels, are taught in Russian and offer supplementary drill

opportunities through Reed’s language laboratory and weekly

conversations with a native speaker. In the second year, students

continue their study of grammar and consolidate their language

skills with reading, discussion, and written commentary on

Russian lyrical poetry and texts on Russian cultural history. The

third-year level offers extensive reading of the Russian short

story, writing, and conversation, while continuing formal language

training. The unique feature of the Russian program at Reed is

the sequence of three courses that together cover the history

of Russian literature from the Middle Ages to the present. In

addition, the department offers thematic and monographic

courses on Russian literature, culture, film, and East European

Jewish studies.

Students can also build their language skills and cultural

appreciation at the Russian House, which serves as both a

residence hall and a cultural center. Each week residents host

a cultural event: films, dinners and teas, board games, poetry

readings, musical performances, and much more.

Professor Lena LenčekLANGUAGE, LINGUISTICS, AND LETTERSLena Lenček believes that a classroom is a community, so she begins her Humanities 110 conference with what she calls “rituals of welcome and hospitality.” In addition to teaching courses in her areas of interest—medieval East Slavic literature; Russian romanticism in its west European context; Russian modernism; and literary theory (formalism, structuralism, semiotics)—she has taught seminars on South and West Slavic literatures; the culture of the book in Russia; prose of the 1920s; Russian theater of the avant-garde; epic poetry of the Russian Revolution; and instruction in Old Church Slavonic.

Lena’s research and publications extend beyond Slavic philology. She has authored and co-authored books on Portland architecture, the cultural history of the swimsuit in America, and the iconic significance of beaches.

RECENT FULBRIGHTS

Isabel Meigs ’16 (Russian) traveled to

Ukraine to serve as a Fulbright English

Teaching Assistant; Madeline Kinkel ’14

(Russian) won a Fulbright to teach English

in Azerbaijan; and Auden Lincoln-Vogel

’13 (Russian/Art) served as a Fulbright

Scholar in Estonia, working on a narrative

animation project.

RECENT THESIS TITLES

• “In Memory of Memory: The Poetry of Maria Stepanova” Timmy Straw Beezhold ’18

• “Vladimir Putin’s Winged Troika: The Role of Sanctions, Oil Price, and Weak Economic Institutions in the Russian Ruble Crisis of 2014” Carlo D’Amato ’16 (Economics / Russian)

• “Gorenshtein in Berdichev: Finding the Mundane in the Meaningful” Isabel Meigs ’16

• “Nostalgia, Deferred: An Evenki Poetics of Cultural Incubation” Orla O’Sullivan ’16

• “The Absolute from Nothing: Vladimir Kobrin’s Film Art” Edmond Soun ’15

EVENTS AND LECTURES

Environment and Power in the

Soviet Arctic

Andy Bruno ’03, Associate Professor of

History, Northern Illinois University

Poetry Reading (in Russian and English)

Polina Barskova, Associate Professor of

Russian Literature, Hampshire College

Understanding Putinism: Illiberal Russia

through the Liberal Arts

Symposium

The Storming of the Winter Palace

Nikolai Evreinov, 1920, USSR

Film screening, with introduction and

commentary by Professor Yuri Tsivian

(University of Chicago) and Professor

Daria Khitrova (Harvard)

RUSSIAN

reed.edu/russian

Global Health & Wellness Coordinator Intel Corporation Ella Smith ’16

Filmmaker, Director Liminal Films LLC Sara Lafleur-Vetter ’05

Co-Founder Switchboard Mara Zepeda ’02

Associate Professor, Russian Language and Literature Amherst College Michael Kunichika ’99

What do alumni do?

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