the lawrencian chronicle
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The KU Slavic Department Newsletter (2005)TRANSCRIPT
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LawrLawrLawrLawrLawrencían Chrencían Chrencían Chrencían Chrencían Chronicle 2005onicle 2005onicle 2005onicle 2005onicle 2005The University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
Edith W. Clowes, Editorwww.ku.edu/~slavic/
Vol. XVIINo.1
June 2005
Slavic Faculty Welcomes New Colleague in Nineteenth-Century Russian Literature
LC: Why did you decide to enter gradu-ate school in Slavic?
KS: After graduating from college I de-cided to take time off from academia inorder to determine if it was the right pathfor me. After working in an office en-vironment for several years, I learned alot about time management, customerservice, and how to handle non-aca-demic stress. After a while, though, Ifound myself wanting new challenges,even hoping for a difficult problem orconfrontation, and realized how boredI had become. Then I knew that I wasready to go back to academia in pursuitof those challenges.
LC: What are your main areas of inter-est in teaching?
KS: I am particularly passionate aboutlanguage teaching, because it encour-ages creativity, presents challenges (nomatter how many times you’ve taughtthe course), and allows students to bondwith each other and the teacher. I’mlooking forward to teaching literatureand culture-oriented classes at KU andhope to have the opportunity to team-teach a course someday.
LC: Tell us a little bit about your dis-sertation. What are your main areas ofinterest in research?
KS: My dissertation addresses the im-portance of individual fame in Russianculture as expressed in literary texts. Iwork primarily with nineteenth-centuryliterature, a period of rapid change inliterary and cultural movements. Mydiscussion incorporates a variety of au-thors, including Pushkin, Gogol,Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, and
Goncharov. In addition, I consider bothecclesiastical and secular texts of OldRussian literature in order to create abase for a broader consideration of thetreatment of fame in literature. With theadvent of Romanticism, many nine-teenth-century writers looked toRussia’s cultural and historical past intheir quest to shape a national and per-sonal identity.
In the nineteenth century Russianwriters encountered what I call the West-ern “fame text,” a tension-laden dis-course comprised of Greek and Romanvalues as well as Old and New Testa-ment writings on earthly fame. By thistime, Russians brought to the table theirown strong “counter-tradition” born ofand shaped by their experience of East-ern Christianity. Ambiguous biblicalpassages on earthly fame, writings ofWestern philosophers and religiousthinkers—such as Augustine, ThomasAquinas, and the Protestant Reform-ers—suggested that praise or fame fromone’s fellow man could be deemed vir-tuous if based on good deeds that mightserve as an example to others and ifGod’s role in all acts was honored. Rus-sian Orthodoxy never accepted this in-terpretation of the Gospel; instead vir-tue was forged through rejection ofworldly deeds.
My dissertation explores the ten-sion between imported and native viewsof fame in literary texts. In my view, anumber of religious concepts moldedthe Russian outlook—humility, an em-phasis on the ephemeral nature ofearthly life, and the otherworldly, asceticideal embodied in the monastic life, theicon, and the figure of the “holy fool”(an ascetic figure who feigns madnessin order to reject social norms in favor
This fall wewill welcomeP r o f e s s o rKerry Sabbag(PhD 2005,Brown) to theSlavic Facultyat the Univer-sity of Kan-sas. In orderto acquaintthe KU com-
munity with Professor Sabbag and herwork, the Lawrencian Chronicle con-ducted an interview with her.
LC: How did you become interested inRussian?
KS: I knew in high school that when Igot to college I wanted to study Rus-sian, probably because it seemed exotic.During my senior year our final assign-ment for English class was to choose abook (from a list) and write on it. Mostof the class chose Albert Camus’ TheStranger; as soon as I saw AnnaKarenina on the list I knew it was timeto take the plunge into Russian litera-ture. Once I figured out how to dealwith all of the long, strange names, Ireally enjoyed the book; that is, until Igot to the end. I was absolutely devas-tated by the final scene with Anna, andran to my teacher to ask if maybe I hadread a bad translation or somehow notunderstood the scene. I think the im-pression that moment of contrast be-tween elation and despair made on meprobably sealed my fate. I began study-ing Russian language my first year incollege, and, as my interest grew, soondiscovered that I had become a Russianmajor.
Continued page 6
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Losses to the KU Slavic Family
published both in Croatia and the U.S. He served during the1988–89 and 1989–90 academic years as a Fulbright visitingscholar, teaching Croatian language and literature at theUniversity of Kansas and University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. His courses were extremely popular, which played arole in the exceptional renewal of his Fulbright contract for asecond year. In the following years he collaborated with theSlavic Department as a summer-school teacher for the KUCroatian language program in Zagreb under the auspices ofthe Croatian Heritage Foundation. Since 2002 he served as apartner in developing a new summer Croatian-languageprogram in Zagreb and Dubrovnik with the Center, KU StudyAbroad and the KU Slavic Department. The latter programhas been particularly successful in the training of advancedgraduate students from many leading universities in the UnitedStates, and Miljenko’s contributions will be greatly missed.
Miljenko leaves his wife, Mirna Jemric, and a teenagedaughter, Ana. Mirna is currently preparing a bilingual editionof Miljenko’s as yet unpublished poems.
—MLG
Herbert Galton (1917-2004), professor in the SlavicDepartment from 1962-1988, passed away on December 9,2004. He received his PhD in 1951, and published extensivelyon topics of Slavic synchronic and diachronic linguistics. HisMain Functions of the Slavic Verbal Aspect (Skopje, 1976)was ahead of its time.
Miljenko Kovacicek (1955–2004)The Slavic Department lost a dear friend and colleague inDecember 7, 2004 when Miljenko Kovacicek passed awaysuddenly and unexpectedly at his home in Zagreb, Croatia.Miljenko had worked since 1979 at the Center for ForeignLanguages as a teacher of English and Croatian. He earned aBA in English Language and Literature from the Universityof Zagreb in 1979 and completed an MA in American literaturein 1992, also from Zagreb University. His MA thesis concernedCharacters in the Novels of Saul Bellow for which heconducted interviews with Mr. Bellow in Chicago. Miljenkowas also a prominent poet and translator on the literary scenein Croatia whose translations of poetry both into Croatian andEnglish have been widely acclaimed, and his poetry has been
AKO ME NE BUDE | IF I’M NOT HEREMiljenko Kovacicek
Ako me ne bude If I’m not herejedne …udesne ve…eri na moru one marvelous evening at the seakad odlaze ribari s mrežama nade when the fishermen go out of their nets of hopeneka samo odu nepomuƒene noƒi. just let them go out into the impassive night.
Ako mene bude If I am hererecite im samo just tell them toneka tiho pletu vrijeme. plait the time quietly.Ja spavam. I’m sleeping.
A ako me bude And if they wake mejedne …udesne ve…eri na moru one marvelous evening at the seakad odlaze ribari s mrežama nade when the fishermen go out with their nets of hopeu njihove o…i into their eyesstavio bih zvijezde. I’d put stars.
English translation MLG*
* The poem was sent to Marc L. Greenberg by Mirna Jemric from Miljenko’s e-mail account the day following hisdeath with the subject line “Good-bye from Miljenko.” In response to this touching farewell from a sensitive andtalented poetic soul Marc offers this translation as his farewell to Miljenko.
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SLAVIC HONORS RECEPTIONApril 6, 2005
Intermediate Polish
Albert Chmielewski, Professor Andrzej Karcz
Elementary Polish
Michael Johnson, Anna Slomka
Advanced Polish
Maria Kamanska, Professor Karcz Molly Mackinnon, Professor Karcz
Recognition for Excellence in Polish
In this issue:
New Faculty Welcome ... 1
Losses to KU Slavic ....... 2
Honors Reception ....... 3-6
Student News ..................... 7
Graduate Student News ... 7
KU Alumni News .............. 7
Faculty News ..................... 8
Chairman’s Corner ........ 11
Upcoming Events ............ 12
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Recognition for Excellence in Ukrainian
Danon Park, Ms. Yaroslava Tsiovkh
Sidney Dement, Erin Moulton, Professor Stephen Parker
Outstanding Graduate Students
Outstanding student in elementaryTurkish: Eric De Rutherford.
Advanced Croatian and Serbian
Ms. Pirnat-Greenberg, Sidney Dement, Professor Steve Dickey
Omur Yilmaz, Ms. Marta Pirnat-Greenberg
Recognition for Excellence in Croatian and SerbianElementary Croatian and Serbian
Erin Moulton, Ms. Marta Pirnat-Greenberg
Kelly Knickmeier, Ms. Marta Pirnat-Greenberg
Intermediate Croatian and Serbian
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Intermediate Russian
Danon Park, Alexander Melin, Robert Blaney, Ms. Yanina Grigorchuk, Professor Comer
Fourth-Year Russian
Bekah Heacock, Professor Edith Clowes(Joy Stortvedt was absent.)
DOBRO SLOVORussian Honorary Society
Kurt Harper, Bekah Heacock, Terri Pohl, Professor Clowes
Recognition of Excellence in RussianElementary Russian
Kelly Logan, Ms. Kelly Barringer, John Kuhn, Katie Loper, Heidi Mehl, Paul Szpyrka, Ms. Adrienne Harris-Boggess,Professor William Comer
Advanced Russian
Terri Pohl, Nathan Mack, Ms. Irina Fedyunina-Six Connor Klamann
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of the spiritual aspect of Christ’s teach-ings). I believe that each of those con-cepts is inherently connected to the con-cept of fame, as they address social andethical issues of recognition, bearingwitness, understanding one’s place inthe world, presentation of self and per-ception of others, and the value of one’sdeeds.
As a result of the interconnectedness ofreligion and culture in Russia, Russianliterature emphasizes faith over reason,intention over result, spiritual redemp-tion over good acts, and, consequently,relatively less emphasis on the exter-nal—on appearance and social values,which are the building blocks of fame.We see this contrast in the religious andcultural status of the holy fool, the cel-ebration of outward humiliation and in-ner glory, the perception of the earthlyrealm as temporary and even unrealcompared to the heavenly realm, theOrthodox monk’s conflict over how best
New Colleague Continued from page 1to serve God—through selfless actionor quiet contemplation—and the silenticon that is truly seen with the heartrather than the eye.
LC: Nationwide interest in Russian de-clined after 1991. How do you see thefuture of Russian study in the US?
KS: I strongly believe that Russian lan-guage and culture have an important roleto play in U.S. colleges and universi-ties. Every day I see students learningmore about themselves and the worldas a whole through the medium of lan-guage learning. In order to ensure aposition of importance in higher educa-tion, Russian studies will have to main-tain and expand its place in interdisci-plinary studies. I support this approachand look forward to playing a more ac-tive role in making it happen. At thesame time, however, the value of spend-ing even one semester concentratingspecifically on a period of Russian lit-erature should not be underestimated.
It may introduce you to interests younever knew you had!
LC: What is your favorite spot (or spots)in Russia?
KS: I feel most connected to Moscow.I lived there for a year and thereforehave memories of friends, events, andholidays that are all very much rootedin the city. In 1992 I had the opportu-nity to see Lake Baikal in the early win-ter, and to this day it is the most beauti-ful place I have ever been. I have takenshort trips to Petersburg, but would loveto get to know that region better.
LC: What do you like to do when youaren’t doing Russian? Hobbies, pas-times?
KS: Cycling, yoga, reading non-schol-arly Russian detective novels. Rightnow, with finishing my dissertation, Ihave only a vague memory of enjoyingthese things!
2005 Outstanding AlumnusKurt Harper, Professor Clowes
Celebration of Joseph Conrad Collection
Galina Conrad, Belinda J. Schuman,Professor Marc Greenberg, Karla Conrad
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STUDENT NEWS
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR2005-2006 NELSON SCHOLAR,Rebekah Heacock!
CONGRATULATIONS to our Winnersin the 2005 Russian Essay Contest spon-sored by the American Council ofTeachers of Russian!!Alexander Melin, 3rd place, Level 2,Non-Heritage SpeakerNathan Mack, 3rd place, Level 3, Non-Heritage Speaker
CONGRATULATIONS to Slavic mi-nor, Lauren Stewart, for winning theBlakiston Memorial Fellowship for$1000 from the KU Chapter of PhiKappa Phi.
Moving on:James Sneed (BA, Slavic, May, 2005)will be continuing at KU in pursuit ofhis MA in French. We hope to see himaround the Slavic Department, too!
Joy Stortvedt (BA, Slavic, May, 2005)plans to enter the University of Ne-braska in pursuit of her Masters in Li-brary Science.
We wish both James and Joy the verybest of luck!
GRADUATE STUDENTNEWS
KU ALUMNI NEWS
Craig Barto (BA, 1976) writes that:“After retiring from a career as acryptology and intelligence officer in theUnited States Navy, a field where mydegree obviously served me well, I amnow a professor of English at Charles-ton Southern University in CharlestonSC. The course that I found most valu-able and applicable in my career in theintelligence community was Prof.Stammler’s “Main Currents of RussianThought.”
Jared Carter (MA, 1999) reports that:“we moved back to the States about ayear ago. I am working at Gold Bankin Kansas City. My title is Anti-Money-Laundering Rep. It is a pretty good andinteresting job. I make sure that all ofthe new customers of the bank are onthe up and up. I also monitor accountsand make sure that there is no fraudgoing on in the bank. It is interestingbecause no two days are the same, andI get to do quite a bit of research on ac-counts. One down side, however, is thatI don’t get a chance to speak any Rus-sian at work, except when I talk on thephone with my wife. In September, wehad another girl!! That makes three!!We named her Amelia Nicole. She is areally sweet girl. Our other ones aredoing well also. They are 4 and 2.Sometimes they are a real handful, butevery now and then they are fun (justkidding). Ira is staying home with themand enjoys the time that she gets to playwith them. Eden’s English is reallycoming along, and we have to get onher about speaking Russian more athome.
I just hope that she won’t forget it.Christina is picking up a hodge-podgeof English and Russian. It is funny tohear her speak. She seems to understandboth pretty well . . . that is, when sheactually listens to us!!”
Lindsey Collier (BA, 2004, Slavic andREES) emailed her “two favorite de-partments at KU” to say that: “I am leav-
CONGRATULATIONS to our newMAs and PhDs!
Callie Barringer (BA 2002, MA 2005)is in the final stages of applying for ajob in government service. We wish herall the very best in her further pursuits!
Sidney Dement (MA, 2005) plans topursue his PhD in Slavic at KU.
Leann Keefe defended her PhD disser-tation “The Place and Pedagogy ofReading in the Russian Language Cur-riculum,” in August 2004, and nowworks for the US Department of De-fense.
Kelly Knickmeier (MA, 2005) plans topursue her PhD in Slavic at KU.
Molly Mackinnon (MA, 2005) is look-ing forward to taking a break from herstudies and devoting time to translatingPolish literature.
Matt McGarry (BA, 1999, MA, 2004),who passed his PhD qualifying examsin Fall, 2004, and is now on his way tothe Slavic program at the University ofWisconsin to complete the PhD inSlavic Languages and Literatures. Wewish him good luck!
Erin Moulton (MA, 2005) looks for-ward to a year off before she continueson her way toward the PhD.
Adrienne Harris Boggess (MA, 2001)won an ACTR Research Scholar Fel-lowship, funded by the U.S. Departmentof State, Program for Research andTraining on Eastern Europe and the In-dependent States of the Former SovietUnion (Title VIII) for a year of researchin 2005-2006 in Moscow, St. Peters-burg, and Elabuga on the topic of herdissertation, “The Archetype of theWoman Warrior in Russian Literatureand Culture.”
Michael Johnson was awarded aFulbright-Hays Fellowship for 2005-2006 to pursue archival research inMoscow, St. Petersburg, and Penza onhis dissertation topic, “Of Suicides andFairy Tales: Przybyszewski and theRussian Stage (1902-1912).”
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FACULTY NEWS
ing in a few weeks to attend MiddleburyCollege. There I will develop my lan-guage skills while working on my MA,and hopefully I will be able to study atRGGU in Moscow either this fall semes-ter or spring semester of 2006. I’m stillwaiting to hear back about my financialaid for the study abroad stretch, but I’vereceived a healthy grant for this sum-mer so I’m hoping that’s indicative ofwhat I can expect for the school year.”
Agnieszka Critchlow (BA 2000, MAREES 2001) is currently a lecturer withthe Institute of Linguistic and Prepara-tory Studies at Charles University,Prague. She is also currently coordinat-ing the Fifth International Student Sym-posium to take place in late June inPrague.
Adrian Erlinger (BA, 2001, MA,REES, 2003) wrote to us in November,2004, from Ukraine: “I thought I woulddrop you a line amidst all of the politi-cal turmoil to let you know how I amdoing. Many are comparing the currentpolitical situation in Ukraine to the Vel-vet Revolution. Lech Walesa was justin Kyiv speaking with Yushchenko...Meanwhile, my wife and I are in L’vivglued to the television, listening topeople in the streets shouting‘Yushchenko!’ and honking their hornsat 2 a.m. I had the wonderful, but ex-tremely challenging, experience work-ing as a translator with the OSCE Elec-tion Monitoring Mission on 31 Octo-ber, the first round. I felt out of place,but the mission went well. I also wrotea piece about the student movement, andyou may read it on www.tol.cz. It’s alittle outdated, but I was glad to con-tribute. Take care, and Slava Ukraini!”
Matthew Feeney (PhD, 2003) reportsthat: “I presented a paper in Slavic lin-guistics at the AATSEEL conference inPhiladelphia in December, 2004, and apaper in Russian linguistics (dialectol-ogy) at the CARTA conference in SanAntonio, at UTSA, in April, 2005”.
Mary (Hermanson) Greff (MA, 1999)writes that: “I just found out last week(after 7 months of waiting) that I got anadjunct faculty position at Austin (TX)
Community College. I’ll be teaching1st-year Russian. I am so excited to beteaching Russian again!
I have been busy creating a sylla-bus and making lesson plans. I havebeen referring a lot to my notes fromthe year I taught Russian at KU and amfinding them to be very helpful. All ofthe information on language pedagogythat is interspersed throughout my les-son plans is very useful. I have a lot ofpreparation to complete, but I am reallylooking forward to the challenge.” Con-gratulations, Mary!
Randy Masten, who studied Polish fortwo years in the Slavic Departmentwhile working on his MA at REES(2003) wrote last December that: “I willbe headed to Iraq for one-year and willdeploy in January. . . . My time at KUwill prove to be very useful. I will serveas the liaison (LNO) between the 82ndAirborne Division and the Polish Bri-gade. As the LNO, I will live with thePoles and work in their operations sec-tion as a representative for the US andthe 82nd. It will be a great experience(all politics and political decisions sur-rounding the war aside)”. We include aphoto above. Stay well, Randy!
Maureen Morton (BA, 2003) has justfinished her first year of graduate schoolin mathematics at Michigan State Uni-
Randy Masten (right) in Baghdad
This year Professor Maria Carlsonserved as co-chair of the Department,with Stephen J. Parker, while SLL ChairProf. Marc L. Greenberg enjoyed hismuch-deserved sabbatical. One of hermajor achievements this year is thecompletion of a three-year, U.S. Depart-ment of Education “Technological In-novation and Cooperation for ForeignInformation Access” (TICFIA) Grant.Prof. Carlson, Brad Schaffner (formerHead of Slavics at KU Libraries, andnow Head of the Slavic Collection atHarvard University), and KirillFesenko, Eastview, received $255,000to support the digitization of theRosArkhiv guides to the 270-plus ar-chives in Russia. Prof. Carlson and hercolleagues presented the project at theTICFIA Conference in Charlottesville,VA, in April 2005. The entirely search-able site, which will be hosted by KU’sDigital Library Initiative and mirroredby Eastview and eventually RosArkhiv,may be used at no cost by archival re-searchers both in the US and abroad.The site will be available in November2005.
Professor Edith Clowes spent summer,2004, with her family in Heidelberg,Germany. She held a grant from the
versity. She reports that when she wentfor her foreign language reading examin Russian, the secretary in the MathDept. did a double take and mumbledsomething about how students “nevertake the Russian exam”! Maureen fin-ished the exam with flying colors. Shenow uses her Russian regularly in con-versation with Russian speakers in theMath Dept. Maureen also remembersthat, as a math tutor at KU’s athleticdepartment, she spoke to basketballplayer Sasha Kaun when he came for acampus visit. At the athletic departmentshe was credited with convincing Sashato come to KU!
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Deutscher Akademischer Austausch-dienst for research with colleagues at theUniversity of Heidelberg. During herstay she completed an article, “Con-structing the Memory of the Holocaust:The Ambiguous Treatment of Babii Yarin Soviet Literature” (to appear June,2005, in Partial Answers (Hebrew Uni-versity)). Co-organizing an internationalconference on “Vekhi (Landmarks,1909) and Russian Culture” at the LosevArchive in Moscow, planned for Octo-ber 10-14, 2005, has been exciting andchallenging, given the stricter rules onapplying for a Russian visa. ProfessorClowes continues to serve as directorof the faculty seminar on Philosophyand Literature at the Hall Center for theHumanities. Two highlights of thisyear’s seminar were a visit in Octoberfrom Prof. Caryl Emerson (Princeton),who spoke to a large audience on the“Post-Soviet Literature Wars,” and asymposium on the theory of emotions,which included presentations from Prof.Catherine Schwoerer, a psychologistworking in KU’s School of Business,and philosophy doctoral student, EvanKreider.
Professor William Comer andMeghan Murphy-Lee (PhD, 2003)coauthored the article, “Letter-SoundCorrespondence Acquisition in FirstSemester Russian,” which appeared inCanadian Slavonic Papers in 2004. Heshared his experience in re-designingthe intermediate Russian sequence atKU in “Language Curriculum Design:Rethinking Assumptions,” that appearedin the AAASS NewsNet in January 2005.In addition to conference presentations,2004 was his first year as chair of theProgram Committee for the AATSEELNational Meeting in Philadelphia. Intwo more years he will be happy to passthe reins on. Professor Comer was alsovery busy overseeing two remodelingprojects at the Ermal Garinger Aca-demic Resource Center. The Centernow houses an entirely digital interac-tive “language lab” and has an expandedpatron reception area (check out the pic-tures at: www.ku.edu/~egarc).
Professor Stephen Dickey began di-recting the KU Summer Program for
Croatian Language in Zagreb andDubrovnik. He presented “Where DoesMetaphor End? The Development ofDelimitative/Perfectivizing PO- in Rus-sian” at the Perspectives on Slavisticsconference, Leuven, Belgium, 18 Sep-tember 2004 and chaired the “Parti-ciples” panel at the same conference. Healso gave a talk “Empty Prefixes and theGrammaticalization of Slavic Aspect”at the KU Linguistics Colloquium, 8November 2004. His translation ofBorislav Pekiç’s How to Quiet a Vam-pire has just appeared with Northwest-ern University Press.
Professor Marc Greenberg spent the2004-05 year on sabbatical working onvarious projects connected with his re-search on Slavic historical linguistics.Among them is a paper on the recon-struction of pitch-accent in westernSouth Slavic dialects, which he has beeninvited to present at the InternationalWorkshop on Balto-Slavic Accentologyat the University of Zagreb in July, 2005.He was also appointed to the editorialboard of the new journal Croatica etSlavica Iadertina, the Croatian andSlavic journal of the University of Zadar(Croatia). His paper “Dialect Variationalong the Mura” on Croatian andSlovene dialects is to appear in the in-augural issue later in 2005. In October,2004, at the Slovenian Slavic Congressin Novo mesto, Slovenia, he wasawarded a plaque for “OutstandingAchievement in Slovene Studies” by theSlavic Studies Society of Slovenia. Hecontinues his work as editor of the jour-nal Slovenski jezik/Slovene LinguisticStudies which he co-founded withMarko Snoj (Slovenian Academy ofSciences) in 1995. He is preparing thetenth-anniversary volume to appear inJune of this year. The volume will con-tain an important paper by departmen-tal colleague Prof. Stephen Dickey(s.n.).
During the fall semester Prof.Greenberg fundamentally rewrote hiscourse Language and Identity in East-Central Europe and the Former SovietUnion. In connection with this projecthe has been teaching himself Yiddish,which Paul Wexler calls “the 15th Slaviclanguage.” In spring 2005 he received
a Franklin Research Grant from theAmerican Philosophical Society to con-duct fieldwork on the dialect of UpperCarniola, Slovenia. On a lighter note—Prof. Greenberg performed on guitaragain this year in April with theMandofest Orchestra at Liberty Hall.His performance as departmental chairwill continue in fall, 2005.
Professor Andrzej Karcz submitted forpublication two edited volumes. Thefirst is a collection of articles by vari-ous American scholars titledPolonistyka po ameryka½sku. Badanianad literatur• polsk• w AmerycePó»nocnej 1990-2005 [Polish LiteraryStudies in North America 1990-2005],representing recent North Americanscholarship on Polish literature. This co-edited book (with H. Filipowicz and T.Trojanowska) received $6,500 booksubvention and is scheduled for publi-cation in 2005-2006 by the Institute ofLiterary Studies of the Polish Academyof Sciences, Warsaw, Poland. The sec-ond editing project is a book “Mójwile½ski opiekun.“ Listy Czes»awaMi»osza do Manfreda Kridla (1946-1955) [“My Guardian of Wilno”: TheLetters of Czes»aw Mi»osz to ManfredKridl (1946-1955)], presenting an in-valuable, and yet unknown, source ofinformation about the relationship oftwo Polish intellectuals living and work-ing in postwar America. This volumehas been scheduled for publication inearly 2005 by the Nicholas CopernicusUniversity Press in Poland.
Among other endeavors, Prof.Karcz published a book introduction tothe recent new English language editionof one of the great classics of Polish lit-erature, Quo Vadis by HenrykSienkiewicz (Barnes & Noble Books,2004). In December, 2004, Prof. Karczserved as a panel organizer and discus-sant of the roundtable “Models of In-struction in Teaching Polish” and as apanel organizer and chair of the “Issuesin Polish Literature and Culture” panel,both held at the Annual Meeting ofAATSEEL in Philadelphia, PA.
Prof. Karcz has continued to directthe KU Summer Polish Study AbroadProgram in Krakow, Poland. As in pre-vious years, he also organized lectures,
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film presentations, and other events,such as a music recital combined with alecture on Chopin, for the KU PolishClub. The KU Polish Website(www.ku.edu/~polish) lists, amongother things, all the recent and upcom-ing events of the Club. Everyone is in-vited to attend the meetings.
Ms. Marta Pirnat-Greenberg re-ceived a teacher stipend from the Euro-pean Studies Consortium (University ofMinnesota) to attend CARLA summerinstitute workshop Developing Materi-als for Less Commonly Taught Lan-guages. At this week-long workshop(University of Minnesota, August 2-6,2004) she gained a number of new ideasfor the use of authentic materials at alllevels of language instruction and de-veloped a packet of shareable B/C/Steaching materials, which are availableon CARLA’s website: http://www.carla.umn.edu/lctl/materials/b-s-c/summary.html. She has been success-fully using the skills and ideas from the
workshop in her classroom throughoutthis academic year, creating many newteaching materials based on authentictexts for the beginning and intermedi-ate B/C/S courses.
For Dr. Yaroslava Tsiovkh, Instructor,Ukrainian language and literature,2004-05 was a productive year. In con-junction with the publication of her bookModern Ukrainian with a Focus onCivilization, Dr. Yaroslava Tsiovkhmade a promotional tour at the invita-tion of the Ivan Franko National Uni-versity of L’viv, Ukraine. The trip wasfunded by the U.S. Department of StateFreedom Support Act grant for the KU-LU institutional exchange. During thevisit she had the opportunity to meetwith LU colleagues and to coordinatewith them specific techniques and meth-ods of teaching practical Ukrainian inconformity with the strategies employedin the book, as well as professional dis-cussions of the curriculum for all levelsof the Ukrainian language teaching. Thisexchange with LU colleagues was nec-
essary to familiarize them with the U.S.system of modern language teaching forthe undergraduate and graduate studentsso as to develop a more uniform ap-proach to be used by the Ukrainian lan-guage instructors in both universities.
At her students’ request, she alsodeveloped a new course, “Similaritiesand Differences in Ukrainian and Rus-sian Language” specifically for thosestudents who have already taken Inter-mediate and Intensive Ukrainian butwant to continue their studies in Ukrai-nian linguistics.
As part of her CREES service, Dr.Tsiovkh gave a brown-bag talk on “Nug-gets of Ukrainian Folk Art.” In the Kan-sas City community, Dr. Tsiovkh workedas an interpreter for the Program of Edu-cation Administration sponsored by theUnited States Department of State Bu-reau of Educational and Cultural Affairswhen a group of 10 educators fromUkraine came on a two-week trainingand exchange program arranged by theInternational Visitors Council of GreaterKansas City.
Standing L-R: L. Rahjes, J. Kocherov, E. Tanke, C. Cha, A. Long, R. Straka, L. Barber, E. Morissey.Seated L-R: B. Weintraub, L. Kimmel, J. Sheldon-Sherman, A. Harris-Boggess, C. Grimwood, E. Clowes
2005 Prague Winter Institute
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If paying by check, please make payment to: Dept of Slavic Languages and Literatures c/o KUEA
to cover our geographical bailiwick forthe foreseeable future.
I would be remiss if I failed to pointout that, as has been the trend for sometime, the distinction between public andprivate universities continues to blur.We are continually and increasinglydependent on the generosity of donorswho value our educational mission. Somany of our friends and alumni havecontinued to donate to our Department,even in this economically challengingtime, that it is nearly impossible to keepup with the thank yous owed to all theseindividuals. (Not that I am not trying!)This support is meaningful: this year ithas helped us hire students to sort andcatalogue books for the Conrad Collec-tion and to reward student excellence(Slavic books, recordings). We continueto save most of the funds, however, inthe hope that, eventually, we will be ableto provide outright scholarship fundingto select students to further their stud-ies. To all those who have sent in checksearmarked for Slavic Department pro-grams, I extend a heartfelt thank you onbehalf of our faculty and students.Please continue your support and en-courage other like-minded friends andcolleagues to do the same.
Chairman’s Corner
Maria Carlson and Stephen J.Parker, co-chairs during my sabbaticalleave this year, shepherded the Depart-ment through a busy and challengingyear. The Department and I owe them agreat debt for selflessly sharing theirconsiderable administrative experienceand expertise during this time. Theirsuccess in ensuring the future well-be-ing of the Department is in part reflectedin the hire of a new faculty member,Kerry Sabbag, a recent Brown Ph.D.,who was chosen from a field of superbcandidates. You have read about her in-terests elsewhere in this issue, so noneed to reiterate them here. We are look-ing forward to welcoming her, and weand our students look forward to themany contributions she will make to ourmission. I look forward to taking thereins again in Fall 2005 and hope that Iwill be able to serve at least as capablyas my colleagues – it will be a hard actto follow.
I needn’t belabor the point aboutthe continued productivity of our excel-lent faculty, whose exploits you havealso read about in this issue. It is nosmall thing to keep up a steady researchprogram when the tasks of teaching andservice make up a full-time job by them-selves. Their efforts are much appreci-
ated by us all, both for continuing tokeep our unit prominent in the field andfor bringing to the classroom the fruitsof their original insights.
While the Department continues toserve its primary function as a compre-hensive Slavic Department, withcourses in Russian literature, Slavic lan-guages, and Slavic linguistics, it has alsoadapted to the times by meeting demandfor the mentoring in language pedagogyand providing instruction in languagescritical to U.S. security needs. Sadly,this spring we say good-bye to Ms.Berna Örge, our Turkish lecturer, whois returning to Turkey with her husbandand son. We wish her success in her fu-ture endeavors and hope that she willstay in touch; we will miss her presencevery much. But our commitment toTurkish will continue next year withanother Turkish lecturer who will alsobecome part of the contingent of finelanguage teachers in Wescoe Hall. Wecontinue to monitor the needs of thecountry as we plan for the future. Wehave watched carefully the develop-ments in the EU, which expanded in2004 with the addition of several of thecountries some of whose languages weteach, including Polish and Slovene.Croatia cannot be far behind. KU con-tinues to offer unparalleled opportuni-ties within the Plains states to study thelanguages and cultures of Slavs andother peoples of the former SovietUnion. All told, we are well positioned
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The University of KansasThe Lawrencian ChronicleDepartment of Slavic Languages and LiteraturesWescoe Hall1445 Jayhawk Blvd., Room 2133Lawrence, KS 66045-7590
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Lawrence, KSPermit No. 65
2005-2006 Summer StudyAbroad Programs
•University of St. Petersburg
•Ukrainian Language & AreaStudies in L’viv, Ukraine
•Krakow, Poland
•Zagreb & Dubrovnik, Croatia
UPCOMING EVENTS
Saturday, October 22, 2005, 7:30 p.m., Lied Center,“Die Fledermaus,” Czech Opera, Prague
January 3-14, 2006, Winter Institute in Prague
Monday, March 27, 2006, John Burt Foster, Jr.(George Mason U.) on Tolstoy