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2025

June

Awards 2024 - 2025 Graduate Excellence

June 30, 2025

Congratulations to our outstanding graduate students!

Slavic Departmental Awards 2024-2025
RADULOVAKI AWARD
Sam Jayasi
Jiwon Jung
Klaudia Cierluk

2024 - 2025 Awards: Undergraduate Excellence

June 30, 2025

Congratulations to our undergraduate award winners for the 2024-2025 academic year!

 

Graduating seniors majoring in Slavic, from L-R: Izzy Mroczek, Henry Patton, Chris Skawiniak, Pete Wang, Kasia Ostrowski 

KULTURA I LINGVISTIKA HONOR IN RUSSIAN WINNERS
Chloe Hurd
Andi Mayne Griñé
Alexandria Kautzman
Kylie Caroline Callender
Aaron Baltaytis
KULTURA I LINGWISTYKA HONOR IN POLISH WINNERS
Hyrum Rich
Izzy Claudia Mroczek
IRWIN WEIL AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING ESSAYS IN SLAVIC LITERATURES AND CULTURES

Andi Griñé for essay Superfluous Men in Fantastical Circumstances: The Supernatural as a Vehicle for Social Criticism in Pushkin, Gogol, and Lermontov

Ainsley Lauer for essay Screening Sacrilege: Ashes and Diamonds and Ida on Catholicism in Poland 

RADULOVAKI AWARD 
Henry Patton
Evelyn Rushell

May

Spring 2025 Pysanky Workshop

May 30, 2025

After a three year hiatus, the Slavic department was thrilled to once again invite the Northwestern community to take part in the Ancient Art of Pysanky.  On a Saturday morning in May, we all rolled up our sleeves and settled in for a spiritual and almost meditative 8hr experience. Phones were put away, and hollow eggs came alive with intricate hand-drawn designs - some inspired by traditional Ukrainian designs-, layers of beeswax and dyes while workshop participants from age 18 to 80 enjoyed the soothing chants of monks and each others' company.

Pysanky (pes-un-kee) is an ancient matriarchal folk art from Ukraine that uses eggs as a canvas.  Artist, Janet Hundrieser, led the workshop in a cultural presentation that grounded us all in the history and meaning of this rich Ukrainian folk art before moving onto the creative process of decorating our eggs. 

Some came to dive deeper into Slavic culture after taking Russian or Polish language classes, others because they had seen family Pysanka but hadn't taken part in it themselves, still others thought it just sounded fun.  Whatever the reason, workshop participants had a great time together celebrating the Ancient Art of Pysanky.

 

Photos above show student Vani Bansal's progression in making her Pysanka: pattern is drawn onto egg with wax, dipped into dye, pattern is added to with more wax and dipped into different colored dye.  When layered pattern is finished, the egg is warmed up to melt the wax off to reveal the final Pysanka.

Photos above show student Sophia Mitton Fry's dual design celebrating Spring.

Egg by Hyrum Rich

Egg by Katya Nogin

Eggs by Andi Griñé

Egg by Micah Sandy

Eggs by Deanne Puloka

Egg by Zeta Whitmer

Egg by Sophia Mitton-Fry

Eggs by Zeta Whitmer

This cultural workshop was made possible by the Xenia Youhon Memorial Fund.

Look out for our next Pysanky workshop and be added to the Slavic listserv by emailing slavic@northwestern.edu.  We'd love to see you there!

Polish 208 fieldtrip

May 22, 2025

Professor Wilczewski and students from Intermediate Polish (POLISH 208) recently visited Staropolska Restaurant where they enjoyed authentic Polish food and practiced their language skills.

April

Northwestern co-hosts "Evil in Russian Thought and Literature" conference at Cambridge, July 2025

April 22, 2025
To register for the conference, please visit here.

Nowruz Celebration: Persian and Central Asian New Year Celebration

April 16, 2025

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 Middle East and North African Studies (MENA) and the South Asia Research Forum (SARF). 

The event aimed to introduce the cultural and historical significance of Nowruz and showcase how it is celebrated. Guests enjoyed a vibrant program featuring live music and dance performances from Azerbaijan and Tajikistan, traditional Persian food, and activities such as egg painting, one of the cherished customs of the Nowruz. A beautifully arranged Haft-Seen table welcomed attendees, symbolizing hopes for prosperity, renewal, and joy in the new year. The celebration brought together students, faculty, and community members to honor cultural diversity and build cross-cultural connections through music, food, and shared tradition.

Dancersdancersenjoying live music and joining in the dancingPerformers with their families

 Some of the Slavic faculty and staff enjoying Nowruz

February

Slavic 328 explores authentic Czech cuisine

February 6, 2025
Smiling students and professor sit around a long dining table at a restaurantSlavic 328 (City of Cultures, City of Conflict: Prague) exploring authentic Czech cuisine with Prof. Kerlova on the outskirts of Chicago in late January 2024. The evening in Café Prague was hosted by our Slavic alum, Rob Fojtik, the Vice President of Neighborhood Strategy at Choose Chicago, uplifted by the presence of our very recent Slavic alumna, Sydney Matrisciano, currently in her last semester at NU Law School, and facing her double-bar exams in February! She will then start practicing for DLA Piper.

January

New Journal Launched

January 13, 2025

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the full editorial team, I am pleased to present the inaugural issue of Northwestern University Studies in Russian Philosophy, Literature and Religious Thought, the annual online, open-access journal of the Northwestern University Research Initiative in Russian Philosophy, Literature, and Religious Thought. Published by Northwestern University Libraries as an important digital humanities initiative, the journal will be distributed electronically to research libraries around the world. The journal is posted to our main website "Journal" tab here and has its own dedicated webpage.

The journal's publication is another significant milestone for the NU RPLRT Research Initiative. We have already begun work on the second volume (2025), which will feature articles first presented at our November 2024 conference co-sponsored by the Hamilton Center at the University of Florida: Religion, Human Dignity, and Human Rights: New Paradigms for Russia and the West. We hope that the third volume (2026) will feature articles from our summer 2025 conference at the University of Cambridge, Evil in Russian Thought and Literature.

We welcome submissions for research articles, critical and interpretive essays, reviews, and translations. Please send submissions to Susan McReynolds and Randall Poole.

 

Best wishes,

Brad Underwood

Associate Editor