1

LawrLawrLawrLawrLawrencían Chrencían Chrencían Chrencían Chrencían Chronicle 2006onicle 2006onicle 2006onicle 2006onicle 2006The University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas

Edith W. Clowes, Editorwww.ku.edu/~slavic/

Vol. XVIIINo.1

June 2006

Slavic Faculty Welcomes New Assistant Professor inWest Slavic Languages, Literatures and Cultures

Continued page 8

We are delighted to announce that Pro-fessor Svetlana Vassileva-Karagyozovawill be joining the Slavic Departmentduring Summer, 2006. Prof. Vassileva-Karagyozova was born in 1972 inPleven, Bulgaria. Both her parents spokeRussian, but, she insists, they did notinfluence her decision to go to the localRussian High School. She graduatedwith highest honors in 1990 and wasadmitted to the Department of SlavicStudies at Bulgaria’s oldest and mostprestigious university, the Saint KlimentOchridski University in Sofia. She com-pleted her Master’s Degree in 1995, andin 1996 she was admitted to the PhDprogram in the same Department. Shemarried another Slavist, PanayotKaragyozov, in Prague in 1998. Her son,Dimitar, was born in 1999 in Sofia. In2003 she came to the U.S. and startedstudying something very different –TESOL (Teaching English to Speakersof Other Languages) at the Departmentof Linguistics at Southern Illinois Uni-versity in Carbondale. May, 2006 was aspecial month for her because she re-ceived her Master’s Degree in Linguis-tics and, at the same time, defended herdoctoral thesis on the subject of the

Baroque across the various Slavic lit-eratures. We asked Professor Vassileva-Karagyozova to tell us more about her-self:

LC: You are a very unusual person be-cause you are fully fluent in both Czechand Polish. How did you become inter-ested in both of them?

SVK: When I was admitted to the Slavicprogram I didn’t know that I wouldn’tbe allowed to choose the language I wasgoing to study. I wanted to study Czech,because Czech cinema was very popu-lar in Bulgaria at that time and I was abig fan. I liked the language so muchthat I would memorize dialogues fromthe movies and then repeat them overand over again to enjoy the melody ofthe language. Strangely, I wasn’t disap-pointed when I learned that I was as-signed to study Polish. I just acceptedit as my fate. Very soon after the begin-ning of the academic year I realized thatI was lucky to be a Polish major, becauseit was the most prestigious specializa-tion in the Department.

At the third year, the students ingood academic standing were allowedto choose a second major. I decided tofollow my dream and chose Czech. Itwas fun to study Polish and Czech atthe same time. Knowing Polish helpedme a lot and made my acquisition ofCzech faster. However, sometimes it wasconfusing because of the similarity ofthe two languages.

During my graduate studies I had anumber of opportunities to practice Pol-ish and Czech: I attended all kinds ofSummer Institutes in Poland and stud-ied language and literature, as well asthe history and politics of the country.

Those were very pleasant and enrich-ing experiences. From 1998 to 2002 Ilived in Prague, while my husbandtaught as a Visiting Professor at CharlesUniversity. We lived in the same build-ing with lecturers from Russia, Croatia,Serbia, Macedonia, Poland, which wasa very good opportunity to practice ourSlavic languages.

During my graduate studies atSIUC I had two roommates, a Czech anda Pole, who always made fun of me whenI was trying to switch from one languageto another. I am very thankful to them,because they helped me to maintain mySlavic languages while I was activelylearning English.

LC: Why did you decide to become aSlavist?

SVK: Actually, I didn’t decide to becomea Slavist. It happened naturally. I amnative speaker of Bulgarian, I learnedRussian in High School, and Polish andCzech at University. I decided to spe-cialize in Comparative Slavic Literaturesbecause I have reading knowledge in allSlavic languages and a natural inclina-tion towards comparing and contrast-ing. I also believe that through compari-son we can reveal a great deal abouttexts. Literatures are a reflection of thespiritual life of nations. Literary textsinteract with each other across nationalboundaries in fascinating ways. Theyare a part of universal processes, andwe get a better understanding of oneliterature when we see it in a broad in-ternational context. I believe that Slavicliteratures benefit from investigation asa particular entity within world litera-ture. It is my belief that they do form a

2

Dedication of the Parker Library and the Conrad Collection

This spring marks the realization of morethan eighteen years of planning for a de-partmental library, a project begun by Prof.Stephen J. Parker with the generous do-nation of a major collection of Russian lit-erature works from his mother, the late Prof.Fan Parker. A dedication ceremony washeld in the Library on April 7, 2006 withcapacity attendance, including membersof the Parker family – spouse Marie-LuceParker, son Richard Parker, and grandsonBenjamin – and the Conrad family – widowGalina Conrad, daughters Karla Conradand Belinda Schuman. The space for theLibrary was acquired through Prof.Parker’s skillful negotiation in the late

1990s, when he was still Department Chair. Thespace was closed in during 2001 and shelves werecustom built in December 2005 after a substantialdonation from Prof. Parker as well as alumni andfriends of the Department. The library, now offi-cially named the Stephen J. and Fan Parker SlavicLibrary, also houses a very important collection ofRussian literature and Slavic folklore bequeathedby our late colleague, Prof. Joseph L. Conrad, whopassed away in 2003. The Joseph L. Conrad Me-morial Slavic Collection, is marked by special book-plates and a plaque with Prof. Conrad’s picture andbiography. The handsome meeting space and theseimportant collections have quickly become a focalpoint of departmental activity as well as a tool forstudent and faculty research.

Richard Parker, Prof. Marc L. Greenberg,Prof. Marie-Luce Parker, Prof. Stephen J. Parker

Galina and Karla Conrad, Belinda Schuman

Prof. William J. Comer, Prof. Kerry Sabbag, Prof. Maria Carlson, Rae Ann Brown, Galina Conrad,Belinda Schuman, Richard Parker, Sidney Dement, Laura Price.

3

Slavic Events on Campus and Across Kansas

Professor Emerita of Polish, JadwigaMaurer, and former President of Poland,Lech Wal“sa. during Mr. Wal“sa’s visitto KU, September 22, 2005. Photocourtesy of Dobroslawa M. Grzymala-Busse.

CONGRATULATIONS toStephen M. Dickey for his pro-motion to Associate Professorand to Eve Levin (History), cour-tesy professor of Slavic, for herpromotion to Full Professor.

WELCOME to Jon Giullian, thenew Slavic Librarian at WatsonLibrary, back to Lawrence. Jonwas a graduate student in theSlavic Department between 1995and 2002. He returned this sum-mer to the University of Kansaswith a new MLS degree in Libraryand Information Science from In-diana University in Bloomington,where he specialized in Slavic bib-liography, library technology, andinternational informational is-sues. Jon replaces the irreplace-able Brad Schaffner, who movedon to Harvard.

Jon trained with IU’s SlavicBibliographer, Murlin Croucher,and is experienced in reference,collection development, and in-struction in database and re-source exploitation (specializedworkshops, instructional ses-sions). Jon has excellent Russianlanguage skills, but also knowsPolish, Croatian, Romanian, Ger-man, and Portuguese. He haslived and worked in Russia. Hisexcellent teaching skills, first de-veloped in SLL, have not gone towaste, and Jon has quickly be-come an important member of the“teaching team” in both theDepartment’s general educationcourses and research seminars.And he’s a whiz with the technol-ogy—a skill greatly appreciatedby both students and faculty.

Czech students meet the Czech cast of “Die Fledermaus” after a sparkling performanceof the Strauss opera at the Lied Center, October 22, 2005. Left to right: ProfessorSabbag, Jaromir Novotný (Alfred), Martin Mazik (conductor), unknown, AnnaKlamová-Janotová (Adele), OldÍich KÍiñ (Dr. Falke), Tetyana Boryak, JoshuaMitchell, Susan Zvacek, Andrew Soukup, Jitka Svobodová (Rosalinde), Jan Jeñek(Eisenstein), Diane Princ, Jerry Koukol, Jeffrey Shouse, Professor Clowes.

In this issue:

New Faculty Welcome ....... 1

Dedication .......................... 2

Slavic Events ................... 3-5

Slavic HonorReception ........................ 6-8

Student News ..................... 9

Graduate Student News ... 10

KU Alumni News .............. 10

Losses to Slavic Family ... 12

Faculty News .................... 12

Chairman’s Corner .......... 14

4

Prof. John Burt Foster, Jr., from George Mason University, visitedcampus March 27-28, 2006. He gave a noon brownbag lecture atREES on “Hadji-Murad: From Russian to Western to World Litera-ture.” Prof. Foster teaches English and comparative literature andis the author of a large number of books and articles, most recentlyon Vladimir Nabokov, Nabokov’s Art of Memory and EuropeanModernism.

Professor Foster discusses Tolstoy’s“Hadji Murat” in the REES library.

October 27, 2005, students meet with Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev after a talk atKansas State, Manhattan, KS. Left to right are: Jenny Geide, Yana Grigortchouk,Marcy Rutan, Mikhail Sergeevich, Ingrid Perez, Robert Blaney; 2nd row: unknown,Guzman Garcia, Rebekah Heacock, Tyler Cammock, Katie Loper, Jeff Dutton, KateZickuhr, Alexander Melin, and Laura Price.

Archaeologist Mark R. Stefanovich visited the KU campus inMarch 2006, where he gave two presentations, “TheEarliest Gold in Europe and its Social Implications: RecentDiscoveries in Bulgaria” and “Recent Thracian Archaeologi-cal Discoveries in Bulgaria from the 1st Millennium BC andWhat they Mean for the Ancient Greek World,” on March 2and March 3, respectively. Dr. Mark R. Stefanovich teaches atthe American University, Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, where he isProfessor of Anthropology and European Archaeology andDirector of the University’s Southeastern European StudiesCenter.

Professor Stefanovich and Professor Greenbergshare a lighter moment.

5

On April 14, the Slavic Graduate Student Organization hosted a UkrainianEaster Egg (pysanki) party. Using the traditional wax-resist method, stu-dents created their own versions of this folk art form. First, a design isdrawn on the egg, then different portions of the design are covered withwax in order to protect the design from the next bath of dye. In this way,layer by layer, the pattern takes shapes and acquires additional colors.Finally, the egg is heated over a candle, and the melted wax is wiped awayto reveal the intricate pattern. Ukrainian easter eggs draw from pre-Chris-tian pagan traditions, including traditions of folk-magic, and folk materialculture. Although they are beautiful, pysanki do not serve purely decora-tive purposes, but are important magical items thought to protect the housefrom evil spirits or ensure a good harvest. Students learned about thisfascinating art form while taking a break from studying.

Laura Price and Kelly Knickmeier Eva Hruska and Olena Chervonik-Bearden

Professor Masing-Delic (r.) in the Parker Library

On May 4, we enjoyed an absorbing talk by Professor Irene Masing-Delic, Ohio State University onher new research, “Larissa—Lolita, or Catharsis and Dolor, in Doktor Zhivago and Lolita.”

The final product!

6

SLAVIC HONORS RECEPTIONApril 19, 2006

Excellence in Bosnian, Croatian, Servian

Prof. Stephen Dickey, Kelly Knickmeyer (advanced BCS),Alphilde Rees, Alexander Melin, Ms. Marta Pirnat-Greenberg

Excellence in Elementary Polish

Anna Schrader, Prof. Marc Greenberg

Mark Lanfranca, Ms. Marta Pirnat-Greenberg Lynne Yengulalp, Safiye Manguoglu,Dennis Chanay, Dr. Mubeccel Taneri

Excellence in Elementary Slovene Excellence in Elementary Turkish

Excellence in Ukrainian

Mike Nelson, Dr. Yaroslava Tsiovkh, Brian Frank

7

Excellence in Intermediate Russian

Paul Szpyrka, Katie Loper, Kelly Logan, Guzman Garcia Rodriguez, Ms. Yana Grigortchouk,Prof. William Comer

DOBRO SLOVORussian Honorary Society

Prof. Edith Clowes, Jeffrey Shouse (Polish and Czech), Prof. Marc Greenberg, Marcy Rutan (Russian),Alexander Melin (Russian), Robert Blaney (Russian), Mark Lanfranca (Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian and Slovenian)

Excellence in Elementary Russian

Stephanie Smiros, Sarah Garner, William Frager, Ms. Olena Chervonik-Bearden,Ms. Natalia Jensen, Prof. William Comer

Excellence in Advanced Russian

Dr. Irina Fedyunina-Six, Marina Havach, Nathan Mack, Prof. Kerry Sabbag, Nathan Gerth, Alexander Melin

8

Harley Nelson Scholar, 2006-2007 Silver Medalist in the 7th Annual

National Russian Essay Contest organized by theAmerican Council of Teachers of Russian

Prof. Marc Greenberg, Nathan Mack, Prof. Edith Clowes

Outstanding Graduate Student Award

Prof. Maria Carlson, Jonathan Perkins, Prof. Stephen Parker

Outstanding Service Award

Prof. Marc Greenberg, Eugenia Kapsomera Amditis,Prof. Stephen Parker

New Colleague Continued from page 1

unique subculture because of the simi-larities in the historical developmentsof Slavic peoples.

LC: What are your main areas of inter-est in teaching?

SVK: I always enjoy teaching Slavic lan-guages, especially Polish. The two yearsI spent in the TESOL program at South-ern Illinois University strengthened anddeepened my interest in language teach-ing methodology and radically changedmy perspective towards it. There are sig-nificant differences between Europeanand American language teaching meth-odology and pedagogy. Although it mayseem that the European School is moreeffective (Europeans tend to be multi-lingual, unlike Americans), that is actu-ally a false impression. What makes Eu-ropean foreign language teaching moresuccessful is the higher motivation ofthe learners, the early start and the highvalue European societies attach tomultilinguism. In fact, in my opinion,American language teaching methodol-ogy is better than the European becauseit is based on experimental studies noton abstract ideas and because it focusesmore on the learner than on the teacher.

Because my specialization is inComparative Slavic Literatures, I alsolike to teach courses based on the com-parison of literary works, movies andother artifacts from different cultures.Comparison is a good way to demon-strate how history shapes national men-tality and how the mentality itself is re-flected in the national cultural products.

Although, my dissertation dealswith the Baroque, I rather prefer to teachmore recent periods of Slavic literaryhistory because students respond tothem with more enthusiasm. However,in my opinion, knowledge of the past isessential because without it we can’treally explain present events. Moreover,Slavic people are past-oriented; theirdialogue with the past never ends andit is best represented in the differentforms of their art.

9

STUDENT NEWS

LC: Tell us about your dissertation.What are your plans for publishing thematerial in your dissertation? Whatdo you think your main areas of re-search will be, as you go forward?

SVK: My dissertation is entitled “TheBaroque in Slavic Literatures with a Spe-cial Focus on the Changes in the GenreSystem of Orthodox Slavic Literatures.”It is a comprehensive study comparingthe reception of Baroque in twelveSlavic Literatures and its consequencesfor their genre system. I argue thatwithin Slavic Literatures three typologi-cal Baroque models can be identified:post-humanistic (Polish and Dubrovnik-Dalmatian Literature), post-Reformation(Czech, Slovak and Slovenian Literature)and post-medieval (Ukrainian,Belorussian, Russian, Serbian and Bul-garian). This classification is based onthe nature of the “previous tradition,”because the particular tradition playeda major role in shaping the profile ofSlavic literatures during the Baroqueperiod. I chose to focus on the Ortho-dox Slavic Literatures because the re-ception of the Baroque caused a veryinteresting paradigm shift in them. Be-cause of its dual (theological-rational-istic) nature, Baroque served as a cata-lyst in the process of their transition froma syncretic to a modern type of literarysystem.

I have already published a great dealof my dissertation in the form of articlesin European Slavic journals, proceed-ings from conferences, and books. Un-fortunately, most of the articles are writ-ten in Bulgarian. Therefore, in the nearfuture, I plan to concentrate on makingavailable the findings of my research toEnglish-speaking audiences. After thedefense I want to give myself a periodof broad reading to delineate a researchproblem that will occupy my attentionfor the next few years.

LC: Where are your favorite spots tovisit in Central Europe? Why?

I feel emotionally connected to Praguebecause I got married and lived therefor five years. It is a metropolitan citywith unique atmosphere, combiningmemory of the past with the dynamics

of modernity. It is a multilingual andmulticultural city. Walking on Praguestreets, one can see tourists from allover the world and hear an interestingmix of languages. It is a surprisingly safecity. I never feel threatened when com-ing home late or walking on the narrowstreets of downtown Prague, where mostof the robberies in other European cit-ies take place. It is amazing how Praguepolice manage to maintain order giventhe flow of tourists. Prague is also fa-mous for its beer and restaurants. Eachof them has something unique to offer–the interior, a rare kind of beer, a sophis-ticated dish.

My favorite Polish cities are thepresent and the old capitals of Poland–Warsaw and Krakow. Everybody knowsthat there is a long-lived competition be-tween them. I prefer not to comparethem, because I like Warsaw and Krakoweach for different reasons. Everybodywho has been in Krakow falls in lovewith it. This city is the museum of Pol-ish history. It is a home of one of theoldest universities in Europe, theJagiellonian University. Krakow’s artis-tic atmosphere attracts Polish intellec-tuals – many contemporary writers, po-ets, scholars, etc. live there. What I enjoymost in Krakow is sitting in a café in theOld Town, eating good Polish pastriesand looking at nicely dressed people.Polish women are famous for theirbeauty and good taste. They alwaysinspire my creativity and my desire tolook good. In contrast, Warsaw has allthe advantages and disadvantages of abig modern city. It is more dynamic andrough, but it offers more opportunities–social, educational, professional, andcultural.

When I am in Warsaw I usuallymake a trip to all the bookstores I know.I value Polish literary critics highly. Iwish Polish bookstores were as com-fortable as American Barnes & Nobel,so I could sit in an armchair and readnewly published book for hours. I alsomake a lot of visits when I am in War-saw, because my best friends live there.All Slavs are very hospitable, but in myhierarchy Polish people occupy firstplace. I am probably biased, but I don’tknow more generous and warmer peoplethan my Polish friends in Warsaw.

LC: How do you like to spend your timewhen you are not pursuing Polish andCzech and other Slavic languages andcultures? What are your favorite hob-bies and pastimes?

I am a very lucky person, because myjob is my hobby. I enjoy reading fiction,poetry, literary criticism, and linguisticstudies. My favorite place to spend timeis the library. I have been to many librar-ies in Europe, Asia and America and italways surprises me how differentlythey are organized. I still remember myshocking experience when I first cameto the USA and went to the Library ofthe University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It took me an hour to un-derstand that the librarian wouldn’tbring my books to the Slavic room andthat I had to go and look for them on theshelves. This is unthinkable in Europe.Is it a matter of trust or better means forprotection?

I also enjoy watching good moviesand going to the theater. I miss my stu-dent years when I would go everyevening to see either an old Europeanmovie in the Retro Movie Theater or anew play in one of Sofia’s many the-aters.

CONGRATULATIONS TO OURSLAVIC BAs!Brian Alfers (Polish) plans to take abusiness internship with AIESEC in Po-land.Robert Blaney (Russian) is entering anMA program in Russian area-studies.Alan Boyd (Russian) is spending the2005-2006 academic year in Krakow, Po-land, teaching English as a second lan-guage at the Berlitz School.Rebekah Heacock (Russian) completedher Slavic degree with honors. The titleof her thesis is: “Shades of Pushkin: ThePoet and His African Heritage.” She willbe working with orphans in Kampala,Uganda before pursuing an MA inInterrnational Peace and Conflict Reso-lution.

10

Craig Barto (BA, 1976) reports that heis teaching general linguistics and pho-netics at Charleston Southern Univer-sity in Charleston, South Carolina.

Having completed two lengthy tours ofduty in Iraq as a Marine lieutenant, JohnBidwell (BA, 2003), has received ahighly competitive Olmsted fellowshipfor a 3-year study program at the Uni-versity of Sarajevo, Bosnia andHerzegovina, where he will be pursuinga degree in area studies. He will be ac-companied by his wife and two daugh-ters, ages 6 and 8.

Robin Bongers (BA, 2000) is currentlyattending the University of Arizona,hoping to finish the MA program inRussian Language and Literature thisspring. She was recently awarded theFLAS fellowship through Duke Univer-sity to spend May and June, 2006, in St.Petersburg, Russia. In the meantime,she is job hunting.

Heather Coates (MA, 1998) received hertheology degree at Weston Jesuit Semi-

GRADUATE STUDENTNEWS

ALUMNI/AE NEWS

Eugenia Kapsomera Amditis success-fully defended her dissertation,“Women, Society, Conformity, andPower in Dostoevsky’s Idiot andFlaubert’s Madame Bovary,” in Febru-ary. She attended the American Asso-ciation for the Advancement of SlavicStudies conference in Salt Lake City andpresented a paper on the relationshipbetween the work of Dostoevskyand Chernyshevsky at the AmericanAssociation of Teachers of Slavic andEast European Languages Conferencein Washington, DC. In spring, 2006, thedepartment awarded her the Award forOutstanding Service to the Depart-ment by a Graduate Student award. Dr.Amditis will expand several researchprojects this summer, including furtherstudy of Dostoevsky and French litera-ture and the symbol of the spider in turn-of-the-century Russian art and literature.We are happy to report that Dr. Amditishas been offered and has accepted ateaching position at Dickinson Collegein Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Michael D. Johnson was awarded oneof three $1,000 Louis and Nellie SkalnyScholarships for 2005. This award rec-ognizes Michael’s continuing interestin Polish culture while a student at KUand, in particular, his doctoral research

nary of Theology in Cambridge, Mas-sachusetts, and has moved back to thefair city of Lawrence, KS, to serve aspastoral associate at St. John’s.

After taking a year off, Caroline Curry(MA, 1998), then entered law school atthe University of Arkansas inFayetteville. She graduated in May, 2002,passed the bar, and began working forU.S. District Judge William (Bill) Wilsonin December 2002. In October 2004, sheaccepted a position at the Roberts LawFirm, where she initially drafted all oftheir appellate briefs. She reports thatshe even argued one case before theUnited States Eighth Circuit Court ofAppeals in St. Louis. Currently, she isdoing antitrust/commercial litigation,and she enjoys it immensely.

Daniel Doughty (BA, 2002) writes thathe is working at Sprint in Kansas City,where he received a promotion last year.He reports that “Sprint seems very re-luctant to try and go into the interna-tional wireless business so I have littleuse for my language skills. I have be-come a regular attendee of the Contem-porary Fiction Discussion Group, whichmeets on The Plaza monthly. I did get abit athletic last year and completed twoHalf-Ironman competitions, one inOceanside, CA, and another in St. Louis,MO, but it’s not like I set any land speedrecords or anything.” He is interestedin any recommendations of exciting re-cent Russian novelists whom he couldtalk about in his book club. Send yourrecommendations!

Adrian Erlinger (BA, 2002, REES MA,2004) has had an exciting two years. He

Conor Klamann (Russian) plans to pur-sue an MA in the Slavic Department atKU.Mark Lanfranca (BCS) is entering theMA program in Slavic linguistics at KU.Scott McClellan (Russian) is planningto pursue a career in banking or finance.Alexander Melin (Russian) is enteringthe MA program in REES at KU.Marcy Rutan (Russian) plans to studyfor an MA in international relations andthen enter a law school with strengthsin international law.Jeff Shouse (Polish, with two years ofCzech) plans to enter an MA program inlinguistics.Jack Stejskal (Russian) plans to enterthe Peace Corps.

John in Iraq

on the writer Stanislaw Przybyszewski.The Skalny scholarships are adminis-tered by the American Council for Pol-ish Culture (ACPC), a national confed-eration of 38 affiliate and supportingorganizations that seek to foster an in-terest in Polish culture, and are fundedby grants from the Louis Skalny Foun-dation.

11

writes that after five months of gruelingjob search and rejection, he finallyfound gainful employment as an Inter-national Affairs Writer, European andMiddle East region for a private researchfirm (TWSA, a division of AFA Press).This firm creates advertising supple-ments of countries for major interna-tional newspapers. They look for politi-cal developments and economic trendsthat might interest foreign investors.Adrian wrote a focus report about thenew Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline,which will be handed to on-the-groundpeople in the countries who will try tosell the focus report to companies orgovernment ministries. If they buy it, itgets printed in the New York Times, LATimes, Telegraph, Observer, or Interna-tional Herald Tribune. Adrian says thejob is basically a free education andentails reading economic, business, andfinance developments in newspapersand writing reports with strict deadlines.

In addition, Adrian had a photog-raphy exhibit, entitled “An Orange Mo-ment between Past and Present,” No-vember 18-December 16, 2005, at theWoodrow Wilson International Centerin Washington, DC. He just finished upan internship at the Kennan Instituteworking with scholar Jessica Allina-Pisano who is writing a book on landtenure in Russia and Ukraine during the1990s. He held another internship waswith Lyudmilla Pavliuk from Ivan FrankoUniversity in Lviv, who is completing abook on extreme rhetoric and public dis-course in the mass media.

Mary Hermanson Greff (MA, 1999)writes: “All is well here in Austin. Itaught at Austin Community College (1st

and 2nd semester Russian) during the2004-2005 school year, and I absolutelyloved it! I had to take this semester offbecause my second child (a second girl)arrived August 22. I’m looking forwardto teaching again in the fall.

Angela D. Warren Hood (BA 1997) re-ceived a MA in Russian Area Studiesfrom the School of Foreign Service atGeorgetown University in May 1999.Next she spent a few years working toimprove healthcare in Eurasia with thenon-governmental organization The

American International Health Alliancein Washington, DC. In 2005 Angiemoved to Moscow to serve at the Ameri-can Embassy as a Foreign Service Of-ficer, where she will remain until 2007.She married Matt Hood on Sept. 23,2000, after meeting him in beginningRussian class at KU in 1993 and againin 1997 in Washington, DC.

In fall 2005 Mark R. Lauersdorf (PhD,1995) was appointed Associate Profes-sor in the Department of Modern andClassical Languages at the Universityof Kentucky, where he also serves asdirector of the language technologylaboratory.

In spring 2005 Grant H. Lundberg (PhD,1999) was promoted to Associate Pro-fessor with tenure at Brigham YoungUniversity.

Lyle McMillan (BA 2004) writes fromhis post in Minsk, Belarus: “Let’s justsay [Minsk] is an interesting place tolive. Work is going great, though thereis a lot of it. I finally got all of us KUalumni together for a photo at the U.S.Ambassador’s residence during our 4thof July celebration. Major Pilloni, nowlives in Leavenworth, insisted that thisphoto be included in the alumni flyerthat he receives on a constant basis.”

Mark Scott (BA, 1970) writes that histranslation of stories by KonstantinPaustovsky, White Rainbow and OtherRomantic Tales, has just been publishedby the Edwin Mellen Press. The volumeis dedicated to the late Sam Anderson,“mentor and friend.” Mark is currentlyProfessor of History and Humanities atPepperdine University. His other publi-

cations include translations of storiesby Ivan Bunin, Wolves and Other LoveStories, and a memoir from World War IIby Ann Stringer, Bravo, Amerikanski!and Other Stories from World War II.Congratulations, Mark!

Lauren Stewart (Slavic cultures in trans-lation minor, 2005) was accepted in theMS program in English Language at theUniversity of Edinburgh, Scotland, forthe 2005-2006 academic year. She re-ceived the national Phi Kappa PhiGraduate Fellowship and the KU KateStevens Award to help cover tuition.

Laura Wilhelm (PhD, with honors,1994) is now teaching advanced-levelESL part-time to Russian-speaking andother immigrants at LA ORT. She ex-pects to do likewise for senior research-ers at The Milken Institute in SantaMonica beginning in May, 2006. Shealso does private language tutoring andintercultural consulting.

Sabra Volek Wormington (BA, 2003)reports that she has been living andworking in Washington, DC, for the lasttwo years. She spent the first fivemonths of 2005 in St. Petersburg withher husband, Jeff Wormington (BA,2003), completing intensive Russian lan-guage study and living with a wonder-ful host family. Since then, she has beenat the Africa Center for Strategic Stud-ies, a part of the National Defense Uni-versity. As of May 30 of this year shewill be taking a position in the Office ofthe Secretary of Defense, Policy Divi-sion—Eurasia as a contract employee.She will be planning the bilateral defensecooperation meetings between CIScountries and the United States.

left to right: Lyle N. McMillan (BA, Slavic), Political Officer; Major JohnPilloni (REES, MA), Defense Attache, out-going; Lieutenant Colonel KeithDetwiler (REES, MA), Defense Attache, incoming; Marc Nordberg (REES,MA, Political Science, MA), Political Chief.

12

FACULTY NEWS

Losses to the KU SlavicFamily

We are saddened to report that PauletteK. Falk (BA, 1986) died in a car accidentin icy weather November 29, 2005, inArgyle, Wisconsin. Her husband, TonyEastham, wrote this note to rememberher, and we want to share it with you:“Paulette was a wonderful woman. Sheknew so much about so many things,that she was always surprising me witha fact or an explanation. She wasblessed with a great many fine anddecent friends and relatives, and I didn’tknow how blessed I was to have marriedher.” Our thoughts go out to you, Tony.

Professor Maria Carlson continues herresearch on the Symbolist writer andthinker Andrei Belyi: a new article,“Theosophy and History in AndreiBelyi’s Peterburg: Life in the AstralCity,” will appear in Russian Literaturethis year. She will present her currentresearch on Russian neo-paganism atthe ICCEES Conference in Berlin in July,and will participate in two conferencesin Moscow in October 2005, one at theinvitation of the Andrei Belyi Museum,commemorating the 125th anniversaryof the author’s birth, and another on theimpact of Vekhi (Landmarks; 1909). Shehas also been invited to be a keynotespeaker at a special conference on“Magic” at Princeton University earlyin 2006. Other of Prof. Carlson’s manyactivities over the past year or so includethe direction of a Hall HumanitiesCenter grant-writing workshop forjunior faculty, the development of a new,graduate-level course in Slavic Folklore,and a guest lecture for the Hall Center’s“Philosophy and Literature Seminar” (on“Why Some Russians Don’t LikeKant”). In December, 2005, she receivedthe award for Excellence in Post-Secondary Teaching from the AmericanAssociation of Teachers of Slavic and

East European Languages. Theceremony was held at the RussianEmbassy in Washington, DC. May 8,2006, she presented a paper, entitled “X-10: The Sphinx (10) (99 Wands)’: TheAlphabet of the Magi and ‘The Word’Made Text in Andrei Belyi’s SilverDove,” at Princeton University as partof Princeton’s year-long celebration ofThe World of Art.

Professor Edith Clowes’ article,“Constructing the Memory of theHolocaust: The Ambiguous Treatmentof Babii Yar in Soviet Literature”appeared in 2005 in Partial Answers(Israel)). She was a co-organizer of aninternational conference on “Vekhi(Landmarks, 1909) and RussianCulture” at the Losev Archive inMoscow, October 10-14, 2005. DuringFall, 2005, she participated in the HallCenter for the Humanities FacultySeminar on “Capitalism and Culture”where she delivered a paper on“Panikin’s Microworlds: Building aPositive Image of the GrassrootsEntrepreneur.” In March, 2006, shereceived the 2006 Phi Beta Delta FacultyAward for Outstanding Contributionsto International Education. The awardceremony was held at the InternationalStudies Conference in San Diego. Thisspring Prof. Clowes finished a five-yearterm as director of the faculty seminaron Philosophy and Literature at the HallCenter. In late May she spoke at theplenary session of an internationalcongress organized through the RussianAcademy of Sciences on the Russiancritic and philosopher, Vasilii Rozanov.Her topic was “Ekstsentrichnoesamosoznanie: Rozanov glazamiAbrama Tertsa i Venedikta Erofeeva.”

Prof. Clowes has started a new bookproject, currently entitled, “The Centerat the Periphery: Eccentric Identities inContemporary Russian WritingCulture.” This work is devoted tocontemporary reconsiderations of thespaces of empire and the Russiancultural heritage. With support of a 2005NEH Summer Stipend, she has drafted achapter on the popular novelist, ViktorPelevin. During her sabbatical in thecoming year she is looking forward to

making significant progress on thisproject, for which she received aFellowship from the American Councilof Learned Societies.

In the past year Professor William J.Comer has been working on a specialedition of Viktoria Tokareva’s story“),>\ $,2 &Da>\b.” The story is beingprepared with vocabulary, an audiosupplement, commentaries, andexercises for intermediate-level Russianlanguage students. One big change inthe language program in the past yearis our switch to the Nachalo textbookfor first year Russian. To implement thechange and assess its impact on thefuture shape of the curriculum,Professor Comer stepped in to teach asection of first year Russian. It’s beenfun (and challenging and sometimesinspiring) to see the students’ progressover the year in learning everythingfrom the first letters of the Cyrillicalphabet through expressing indirectcommands with RH@$Z. At the sametime Professor Comer continues to chairthe Program Committee for the AnnualNational meeting of AATSEEL, whichincludes review of paper proposals,scheduling of panels and events andoverseeing the quality of the annualmeeting.

Professor Marc L. Greenberg publishedtwo articles: “Dialect Variation along theMura,” Croatica et Slavica Iadertina 1(Zadar), to whose editorial board he wasappointed, and “On the Possible UralicSource for the Slavic Gen. Sg. ~-StemDesinence in Slavic,” !‰HJa:\>Z,BD@$:,<Z L4>>@ -J(@DF‰@6L4:@:@(44 (Yoshkar-Ola). He alsopublished his keynote address to the2005 Slavistic Congress, which he haddelivered (in Hungarian and Slovene) inLendava, Slovenia, in October 2005:“Jezik, identiteta in miselne meje(Pou…evanje o jeziku in »vzhodniEvropi« na ameriški univerzi)”[Language, identity and borders of themind: Teaching about language and“Eastern Europe” at an Americanuniversity], Zbornik slavisti…negadruštva Slovenije 16: Vloga meje. Hisencyclopedia article, “Slovene,”published with multimedia additions,

13

appeared in Encyclopedia of Languageand Linguistics, 2nd Edition (print andelectronic), vol. 11 (Oxford: Elsevier). Healso reviewed O. %. #,:@&a (ed.),E&@6 4:4 RJr@ß? +&D,4 4 F:a&b>,(:a2a<4 *DJ( *DJ(a in Ab Imperio 3(Kazan, 2005), and Josip Lisac, Hrvatskadijalektologija 1. Hrvatski dijalekti igovori štokavskog narje…ja i hrvatskigovori torla…kog narje…ja, for Slavicand East European Journal. In thesummer the latest volume of his journalappeared, Slovenski jezik/SloveneLinguistic Studies 5. In June he lecturedat the first Summer School of AmericanStudies, Maribor, Slovenia, where hegave the inaugural lecture on “Languageand Identity” to students from Croatia,the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland,and the United States. In July heattended the International Workshop onBalto-Slavic Accentology, where hepresented “Phonetic evidence for thedevelopment of the ‘acute’ tone inSlavic,” at the Filozofski fakultet,University of Zagreb. Also during thesummer he conducted fieldwork on theUpper Carniolan dialect of Slovene witha grant from the American PhilosophicalSociety. Most of his time, however, hasbeen devoted to chairing the SlavicDepartment and he counts among hismore significant accomplishments thisyear the finalization of the Parker Libraryand Conrad Memorial Collection. Inaddition to Slavic duties, Prof.Greenberg also performed onrenaissance lute, which, along withperformances by the KU CollegiumMusicum, provided musical illustrationsfor Prof. Roberta Schwartz’ Hall Centerlecture on the Music of the SpanishDucal Courts on September 27, 2005.

Marta Pirnat-Greenberg has beenworking on developing first- andsecond-year Bosnian/Croatian/Serbianteaching materials based on authenticsources. After focusing on readingmaterials in the academic year 2004/05,this academic year most of her effortswent into development of listeningmaterials as well as of speaking andwriting activities based on photographsand paintings from the BCS area. In thesummer of ‘05 she went on a couple of“photo missions” to Croatia to acquire

her own picture materials for use in hercourses. They have been usedeffectively in the first-year BCS class,particularly in conveying culturalinformation. She has been excited to beable to teach Slovene besides BCS thisacademic year—the current semestershe has two students.

This has been a busy but productiveyear for new Assistant Professor KerrySabbag – getting acquainted with theundergraduate majors and graduatestudents, learning more about KU, andfinding her way around Lawrence! Shewas awarded a New Faculty ResearchGrant for Summer 2006 and willparticipate in the University of IllinoisSummer Research Laboratory on Russia,Eastern Europe, and Eurasia. Inaddition, she collaborated with Prof.William Comer on a Center for TeachingExcellence grant for the revision of theAdvanced Russian course and wasrecently honored by her students at the

Celebration of Teaching receptionsponsored by CTE.

In her first year of teaching Turkish itseemed to Dr. Mubeccel Taneri, at thevery beginning, that the task mightprove to be too challenging. She isfascinated by the fact that questionsasked by her students lead her to furtherawareness of her mother tongue. Shereceived a grant to attend, along withMs. Pirnat-Greenberg, a workshop ‘ForTeachers of Less Commonly TaughtLanguages’ offered by the Universityof Indiana, March 31-April 1. What wasdiscussed there is that differentapplications of assessments of languagestudents could ultimately contribute tothe learning processes of the student.Together with KU Slavic Librarian GeoffHusic, she received a small grant fromthe Institute of Turkish Studies topurchase library and multimediamaterials in Turkish.

14

of AATSEEL, an award presented at alavish reception hosted by the RussianEmbassy in Washington, D.C., in De-cember. Edith W. Clowes won the na-tional Phi Beta Delta Faculty Award forOutstanding Contributions to Interna-tional Education.

The Department has also enjoyeda large number of events on campus. Ofspecial note is Prof. Stephen M. Dickey’sorganization of the annual meeting ofthe Slavic Cognitive Linguistics Asso-ciation October 2005. In spring 2006 theDepartment was visited by Prof. MarkR. Stefanovich of the American Univer-sity in Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, who gavetwo lectures on his archaeological workon the Thracians.

During the 2005-2006 academic year9 Slavic majors are graduating. TwoABDs Adrienne M. Harris-Boggess andMichael D. Johnson are currently inRussia completing dissertation research.Johnson is in St. Petersburg, Russiaunder the auspices of a a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship, and Harris-Boggessis in Moscow on a ACTR Title VIII Ad-vanced Research Fellowship. JonathanPerkins defended his dissertation withhonors (Carlson, Parker, co-chairs) inDecember 2005 and will continue asAssociate Director of the Ermal GaringerAcademic Resource Center at KU.Eugenia K. Amditis defended in Febru-ary 2006 (Carlson, Parker, co-chairs).Congratulations to all!

Chairman’s Corner

After a sabbatical respite that wentby, as sabbaticals are wont to do, all tooquickly, I am pleased to be back chair-ing the KU Slavic Department. I amgrateful to my colleagues Stephen J.Parker and Maria M. Carlson for step-ping in to handle the chairing duties ofthe Department during the 2004-05 aca-demic year. Their extensive experienceand collegial mindset meant that thetransition went smoothly and that Ineedn’t have worried about a thing. In-deed, the Department is now in aboutthe finest shape it has ever been.

This has been another productiveyear for the Department with many newdevelopments that bode well for its fu-ture. Our faculty has been enriched bythe addition of Assistant ProfessorKerry Sabbag, a specialist in Russian19th-century literature and Russian lan-guage pedagogy, to our faculty (her re-search was the focus of last year’s fea-ture interview). Already she has madeher mark by receiving an Excellence inTeaching Award from the Center forTeaching Excellence at KU, for whichshe was chosen by undergraduate stu-dents in the Slavic program. Stephen M.Dickey has successfully passed thetenure and promotion gauntlet and willofficially be Associate Professor in Au-gust 2006. Cross-disciplinary connec-tions have been made with the hire ofAssistant Professor Nathan Wood, aspecialist in the Habsburg area, in theHistory Department and the Robert M.

Beren Distinguished Professor of Mod-ern Jewish Studies, Jonathan Boyarin,whose work includes an anthropologi-cal study of Polish Jews in Paris. As aservice to the University, the Depart-ment continues to provide a home andprofessional development to the Turk-ish-language lectureship, which thisyear has been filled by Dr. MübeccelTaneri, a 1993 KU Linguistics Ph.D.who had been teaching English at theÇanakkale Onsekiz Mart University inTurkey before beginning work at KU infall 2005. Jon Giullian, SLL MA ’97 andABD, returned to KU this year, afterhaving earned his MLS at Indiana Uni-versity, to join the KU Slaviclibrarianship team. In fall 2006 the De-partment will welcome a new colleague,Assistant Professor Svetlana Vassileva-Karagyozova, a recent Ph.D. fromKliment Ohridski University, Sofia, aspecialist in West Slavic languages andliteratures. Prof. Vassileva-Karagyozovacarries with her not only total fluency inCzech and Polish, but also Russian andher native Bulgarian. She has simulta-neously completed an MA in TESOL atSouthern Illinois University, where shesuccessfully pioneered a new programin less-commonly-taught-languages,using Polish as the pilot language. TheDepartment looks forward to workingwith these multi-talented colleagues inthe years to come.

Not all of our hopes lie in the fu-ture, however. Our senior colleagueMaria M. Carlson was awarded the pres-tigious American Association of Teach-ers of Slavic and East European Lan-guages (AATSEEL) Graduate MentorAward for 2005 at the national meeting

15

Join the KU Friends of Slavic!

I am contributing in the amount of:

_____$25 _____$50 _____$100 _____$250 _____$500 _____$1000 Other ________

TO:

_____Graduate scholarship fund

_____Library fund

_____Undergraduate award fund

_____Unrestricted fund

If paying by check, please make payment to: Dept of Slavic Languages and Literatures c/o KUEA

Please send to: Professor Marc L. Greenberg, ChairDepartment of Slavic Languages and LiteraturesUniversity of Kansas1445 Jayhawk Blvd., Room 2133Lawrence, KS 66045-7590

16

The University of KansasThe Lawrencian ChronicleDepartment of Slavic Languages and LiteraturesWescoe Hall1445 Jayhawk Blvd., Room 2133Lawrence, KS 66045-7590

Nonprofit OrganizationU.S. Postage

PAID

Lawrence, KSPermit No. 65