Department Highlights
Irwin Weil Award - submissions due 05/12/2025
Upcoming Pysanky Workshop
MA Defense, May 16th
Upcoming conference
On Friday, April 11, the Slavic Department hosted a joyful celebration of Nowruz, the Persian and Central Asian New Year. The event was co-organized by Professor McReynolds, Chair of the Slavic Department, and Bita Takrimi, a PhD student in Slavic Languages and Literatures, with co-sponsorship from MENA and SARF.
Read more here
On Mondays, we speak Russian.
Join us on Tuesdays for Polish Conversation Tables!
Slavic 328 (City of Cultures, City of Conflict: Prague) explored authentic Czech cuisine
Students in Prof. Kerlova's Slavic 328 (City of Cultures, City of Conflict: Prague) explored authentic Czech cuisine recently.
NU launches Russian Philosophy, Literature and Culture research journal
14 January 2024 —Yesterday’s journal launch was a well-attended success, and we invite you to read The Daily Northwestern’s coverage on the event.
The first issue includes articles by Saul Morson, Mikhail Epstein, Caryl Emerson, Rowan Williams, our graduate students Jillian Pignataro and Brad Underwood among others. The Journal is the result of collaboration with the Libraries and with Media and Design and will be distributed around the world.
photo L-R: Aerith Netzer (of NU Libraries), Brad Underwood, Susan McReynolds, Randall Poole, and Sergei Kalugin (of NU Media and Design). photo credit: Liz Cassidy
Cavanagh in the Washington Post
February 26, 2023 — Professor Clare Cavanagh's article on her collaboration with the poet Adam Zagajewski will appear in the Sunday Book World section of the Washington Post. Congratulations, Clare!
Study Polish with Professor Wilczewski
Now is the perfect time to take Polish Studies courses at Northwestern! Between the Slavic Department’s rich course offerings in Polish language, literature, culture, film, and history, and Chicago's deep Polish cultural heritage, there are so many opportunities to embrace and connect with Polish culture.
Pysanky demo held
March 3, 2023 — Ukrainian pysanky artist Janet Hundrieser organized a pysanky event this past Friday, March 3 on the ground floor of Kresge Hall. The event, a demonstration for the day-long workshop April 1, was widely attended and a great success!
Message from the Chair
The entire world is focused on the horrific war on civilians Russia is waging in Ukraine. As scholars in Slavic, we feel a special obligation to serve as a resource in this difficult time. One of our highest obligations is to education: we are committed to supporting all students, scholars, and institutions in Ukraine and Russia who oppose and are suffering the consequences of Putin's aggression and repression. Ani Kokobobo, a Tolstoy scholar and immigrant from eastern Europe, offers a helpful perspective on the devastating impact of war on education.
King Roger at the Chicago Opera Theater
20 students in Professor Michał Wilczewski's "Intermediate Polish" and "Sex in the Slavic World" courses, as well as others from the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, attended Karol Szymanowski’s 1924 opera King Roger at the Chicago Opera Theater. King Roger, which is sung entirely in Polish, is one of Szymanowski’s most important works, and arguably one of Poland’s most important operas. This performance was its Chicago debut.
Pysanky Workshop Reception
Thank you to all who joined us as students showcased the pysanky art they created during a three day workshop with Ukrainian pysanky artist Janet Hundrieser and Professor Michał Wilczewski. Made possible by the generosity of the Irwin & Vivian M. Weil Foundation, the Council on Language Instruction, SelfReliance Federal Credit Union, and the Ukrainian Gift Shop.
New books by two NU Slavic PhDs
Katia Bowers has published Writing Fear: Russian Realism and the Gothic at U. of Toronto Press, and Jenny Kaminer's book Haunted Dreams: Fantasies of Adolescence in Post-Soviet Culture recently came out from Cornell. Congratulations, Katia and Jenny!
Our Programs
Undergraduate
We offer beginning, intermediate and advanced Russian and Polish (and, less often, beginning and intermediate Czech), in addition to Russian and East European literature and film courses. Many of our students are double majors, or are pursuing a minor in Russian and East European Studies to complement their studies. Many of our majors and minors have studied abroad in Russia, Poland or the Czech Republic.
Graduate
Our PhD program ranks among the best in the country. We offer individual attention and the opportunity to pursue a personalized program by way of coursework taken outside the department. Students specialize in Russian literature, but our faculty also includes specialists in Polish, Czech and South Slavic literatures and cultures. Our greatest strengths are in Russian prose and poetry, literary theory, and in the social and intellectual context of literary works.
Undergraduate Student Excellence
Congratulations to our award winners for the 2023–24 academic year!
KULTURA I LINGVISTIKA HONOR IN RUSSIAN WINNERS
Pete Wang, Aliyah Salihah Moad, Ernie Kaye, Julia Marshall, Graham Yarden, and Enrique Sheils
KULTURA I LINGWISTYKA HONOR IN POLISH WINNERS
Julian Jarmula
IRWIN WEIL AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING ESSAYS IN SLAVIC LITERATURES AND CULTURES
Joanna Soltys and Austin Benedetto
Graduate Student Excellence
Congratulations to our outstanding graduate students
Slavic Departmental Awards
IRWIN WEIL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING - LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT
Daniel Lee
Ryan Serrano
IRWIN WEIL AWARD FOR RUSSIAN LANGUAGE TEACHING
Nadia Vinogradova
IRWIN WEIL AWARD FOR FIRST TIME TEACHING ASSISTANT
Elena Poiata
External Awards
Jiwon Jung on her acceptance to the Dissertation Proposal Development Program, for her project titled Picturing beyond the Boundaries: The Question of Mental Illness Represented in A. Chekhov’s Literary Works. In the Dissertation Proposal Program, faculty actively guide 18 humanities and social science PhD students, who are in their second and third years, in designing effective research questions, methodologies, contexts, and interventions.
Adam Willson on the receipt of a scholarship to Middlebury's language program.
Anastasiia Simferovska on the receipt of the Crown Graduate fellowship and the Northwestern Holocaust Educational Foundation Teaching Grant to teach her own course "Document-Image-Text:The Holocaust in East European Art and Literatures." She plans to teach this course at the Ukrainian Catholic University (Lviv, Ukraine) in the academic year 2022-2023.
News and Events
Joint Statement of Opposition to Banning Scholars Based on Citizenship
The statement below, along with its translation in Ukrainian and Russian, can found on the ASEEES website.
As international professional associations that foster the study of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian peoples and cultures, ASEEES, BASEES, and AATSEEL* are committed to promoting international communication among scholars of all countries and identities across the humanities and social sciences. Open exchange and mutual respect among our members are fundamental to our principles.
Upcoming Events
Jun
9
2025
Russian Conversation Tables
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM, Evanston
This Spring quarter, join the Russian Club for Russian Conversation Tables from 5-7pm every Monday in the Slavic lounge (next to Kresge...