Summer 2013 Letter from Chair Katarzyna Dziwirek research institute developing couple accomplishments. One diagnostics, vaccines, and of them is Professor Gordana treatments for neglected diseases) Crnković’s promotion from who remains very close to her alma associate to full professor this mater. She has served on the Board winter. Congratulations!! of Directors of the UW Foundation Another is the work of the since 1999 and is currently also department’s Advisory Board. I serving as the chair of the College am very grateful for the of Arts and Sciences Advisory members’ dedication and Board. Stewart’s amusing and service to the department and inspiring speech was organized am looking forward to our around her favorite quotes from working together next year. Russian literature and reflected on Dear Friends of the Slavic the value of a liberal arts education. Speaking of next year, we Department, are planning to host two For over 20 years, Polish Fulbright Lecturers. Dr. Angel June is the most emotional Ladies’ Auxiliary of the Polish Angelov, coming to us from St. month in the academic calendar, Home Association has been funding Kliment Ohridski University of as this is the time when many of a monetary award for Best UW Sofia, will teach Bulgarian our students finish up their Polish Student of the year. This studies, defend their theses, year other communities followed graduate, and leave. While we the lead of the Polish ladies and the Contents: are very proud of them for best students of 1-2 Letter from the Chair achieving their milestones (BAs, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, Czech, MAs, and PhDs), we also Polish, Russian, and Slovenian 2-3 Past Events prepare to miss them. This received awards. Of particular note 4-5 Convocation year’s convocation was a is the B/C/S award: a scholarship bittersweet occasion as usual: check made possible by the 6 Faculty News we said good-bye to the class of fundraising efforts of Ivana Orlović, 6 Student News 2013 but also reconnected with a high school student and daughter an illustrious alumna and of Advisory Board member Sonja 7-8 Remembering Reid recognized the accomplishments Orlović. Thank you, Ivana! Also, 9 Student Colloquium of continuing students. this year the department re- established excellence prizes for the 10-12 Exploring Russia Our keynote speaker was best undergraduate and graduate 13 Polish Studies one of the department’s most papers and these were awarded to 14 Ukrainian Studies distinguished alumni: H. Stewart Alison Knight and Veronica Parker, class of 1979. Stewart is Muskheli respectively. 14-15 Romanian Studies an entrepreneur (currently Chief Congratulations!! News from You Executive Officer of the 16-22 Infectious Disease Research Looking back at the academic 23-24 Gifts Institute, a global health year 2012/13, I want to highlight a Slavic News Summer 2013 introductory language and culture classes in autumn and winter. The last class in the language series will then be taught in spring quarter by Professor James Augerot. The Polish Fulbright lecturer, who will be teaching for us winter and spring 2014, has not yet been selected. I hope everyone reading this has a fun and restful summer. As always, please stay in touch with us. Best wishes, PAST EVENTS January 17 – “Jazz on the Cover” – Lecture by renowned painter and illustrator Rafal Olbinski and exhibit of his cover illustrations for the Polish jazz magazine, “Jazz Forum.” February 10 – Celebration of Slovene Cultural Day – Screening of the Slovenian film, The Last Boat: Lake Cerknica, Slovenia’s Vanishing Lake*, with English subtitles, followed by a Q&A session with Aleks Markovčič, current Seattlite and native Cerkničan, recitations of favorite classic and contemporary Slovene writing and potluck social hour. Sponsored by Slovene Society Slovenska Miza. February 14 – FIUTS CulturalFest – A huge thanks go out to Leah Jirova and Mary Sherhart, Veronika Muskheli and Lia Shartava, and Jacek Mikołajczyk for their roles in organizing the Bulgarian, Georgian and Polish booths. March 10 – Annual Maslenitsa celebration with blini, games, skits, and a live musical performance by the Russian vocal ensemble, Pava. April 10 – “Two Fatherlands? Zionist Youth and the Politics of Belonging in 1930s Poland” – In his lecture Dr. Daniel Heller, Hazel D. Cole Fellow in Jewish Studies, provided a vivid portrait of Polish-Jewish relations and the world of Polish Jewish youth on the eve of the Second World War. April 25 – “Challenges in Face Transplantation” – Lecture by Dr. Maria Siemionow, world-renowned Polish scientist and microsurgeon and head of the Cleveland Clinic’s Plastic Surgery Section. She gained public attention in December 2008, when she led a team of six surgeons in a 22-hour surgery, performing the first face transplant in the United States. May 4 – Annual Olympiada of Spoken Russian May 7 – “The Guardian of the Past” – Screening of a documentary about Borys Voznytsky, long-time director of the Lviv National Art Gallery who devoted his life to saving thousands of icons and other liturgical objects from abandoned churches which otherwise would have been destroyed as part of the Soviet campaign against religion. Sponsored by the Polish Studies Endowment Committee and the Ukrainian Studies Endowment Committee. May 16 – “Memory Wars on the Silver Screen: Ukraine and Russia Look Back at the Second World War” – Lecture by Professor Serhy Yekelchyk of the University of Victoria. Under Putin’s rule Russian cinema has engaged in a well- funded mythmaking effort aimed at re-establishing the old Soviet image of the Great Patriotic War as the foundation of the new official memory, and many of the latest Russian war films pointedly include negative Ukrainian characters. For years, however, the nearly moribund Ukrainian film industry has not been able to produce a successful answer to the spate of Russian war films – a movie that would engage the opponent by using the same tools of mass culture. It was only in 2012 that Mykhailo Illienko in his Firecrosser found a way to link new and old myths of the war in a film crafted in the Hollywood tradition and with elements of fantasy. Often called “the first Ukrainian blockbuster,” this movie found its way into the mainstream film distribution system and was even released in Russia (on DVD and television). In this talk, Prof. Yekelchyk made sense of this success story by positioning it in the context of post-Soviet memory struggles and global cultural trends. Organized by the Ukrainian Studies Endowment Committee. 2 Slavic News Summer 2013 Slavic Dept. Booths at FIUTS Cultural Fest 3 Slavic News Summer 2013 CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR 2013 GRADUATES! Ian G. Barrere Katarina F. Batina Artour V. Cherski Jeremy A. Coppock (graduating with Departmental Honors) Ivan Krylov Anna K. Moroz (graduating with Departmental Honors) Teyloure A. Ring Carole E. Stoddard Jason Garneau (Master of the Arts) David Richardson (Master of the Arts) Veronika Egorova (Doctor of Philosophy) The annual Slavic Department Convocation ceremony took place in the Parrington Commons on Friday, June 14. Five of our bachelor’s degree candidates, two master’s degree candidates, and our Ph.D. candidate attended with their family and friends. Our chair, Professor Katarzyna Dziwirek, welcomed us as the Master of Ceremonies, and our keynote speaker, H. Stewart Parker (B.A. Russian, 1979), CEO of the Infectious Disease Research Institute, shared some humorous stories about her Russian helped her locate a hard-to-find dressing room at Loehmann’s and deal with a young man on a plane who had improperly stored his suitcase under his seat, preventing her from using that space for her own carry-on luggage. On a more serious note, she shared some of her favorite quotes from Russian literature and how they have informed her and the path she’s taken: “We can know only that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom.” Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace “Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.” Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” Leo Tolstoy “If you look for perfection, you’ll never be content.” Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina “Any idiot can face a crisis; it’s this day-to-day living that wears you out.” Anton Chekhov “I say let the world go to hell, but I should always have my tea.” Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from the Underground “In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.” Leo Tolstoy After the keynote address, awards were presented to this year’s best language students: Kevin Spivey (in absentia) was awarded as best BCS language student by Dr. Bojan Belic, receiving a scholarship made possible by the fundraising efforts of community member Ivana Orlovic; Mikhail Balasyuk, Deanne Greaves, Jeremy Coppock, and Clara Summers were awarded as best 1st-, 2nd-, 3rd- and 4th-year Czech language students by Lecturer Jaroslava Soldanova, with each receiving a book; Anatoliy Klots and Bonnie Layne were awarded as the best Polish language students by Wanda Cieslar-Pawluskiewicz of the Polish Home Ladies Auxiliary, and each will receive a check; Margaret Babayan, Brian Jacoby-McCurdy, Michelle Lie, and Teyloure Ring were awarded as best 1st-, 2nd-, 3rd- and 4th-year Russian language students by Lecturer Valentina Zaitseva, and earlier this quarter each received concert tickets made possible by a generous donation from the Seattle Symphony; Jeremy Coppock was selected as our all-around Best Russian Student for 2013 and received a certificate of recognition from the American Council of Teachers of Russian; and Veronica Muskheli was awarded as best Slovenian language student for 2013 and received a book donated by Slavic librarian Michael Biggins.