TheAATSEEL NEWSLETTER American Association of Teachers of Slavic & East European Languages Contents Message from the President ...............3 Russian at Work ....................................5 Technology and Language Learning ...............................................7 Special in This Issue: Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Grammar But Were 2005 Preliminary Program Afraid to Ask ......................................8 Employment Opportunities ..............11 Languages in the Czech Corner .......................................15 Summer Language Programs ............................................16 National Interest Psychology of Language Learning .............................................18 Robert A. Maguire Graduate Student Forum ...................19 Belarusica .............................................20 An Appreciation Awards ..................................................22 Professional Opportunities ...............23 Volume 48 Issue 3 October 2005 AATSEEL NEWSLETTER Vol. 48, Issue 3 October 2005 AATSEEL NEWSLETTER EDITORIAL STAFF AATSEEL POINTS OF CONTACT Editor: BETTY LOU LEAVER President: Assistant Editor: ANNA JACOBSON CATHARINE THEIMER NEPOMNYASHCHY Contributing Editors: VALERY BELYANIN Barnard College [email protected] ALINA ISRAELI OLGA LIVSHIN President-Elect: KEITH MEYER-BLASING SIBELAN FORRESTER ALLA NEDASHKIVSKA Swarthmore College JEANETTE OWEN [email protected] MILA SASKOVA-PIERCE Past President: LINDA SCATTON BENJAMIN RIFKIN CURT WOOLHISER University of Wisconsin [email protected] NL Coordinates: Vice Presidents: Editor: [email protected] EMILY JOHNSON Assistant Editor: [email protected] University of Oklahoma Layout/Advertising: [email protected] [email protected] TODD GOLDING AATSEEL Office: Jefferson High School KATHLEEN DILLON [email protected] Executive Director, AATSEEL STEVE FRANKS P. O. Box 7039 Indiana University Berkeley, CA 94707-2306 USA [email protected] Phone/fax: 510-526-6614 MARY NICHOLAS E-mail: [email protected] Lehigh University Layout/Advertising: CDL Services, Amman, Jordan [email protected] JANE HACKING Submitting Copy: University of Utah (1) Foreign languages are accommodated if prepared on Ma- [email protected] cIntosh with a truetype or postscript font that can be shared. TODD ARMSTRONG (2) Eps or pdf with embedded fonts, Indesign, PageMaker, Grinnell College and Quark Express documents can be accommodated. [email protected] (3) Please do not double-space between sentences in elec- Program Coordinator: tronic submissions. WILLIAM COMER (4) Please query the editor about formatting, content, graph- University of Kansas ics, or language. [email protected] (5) Since the newsletter is produced in part in Jordan, submis- sions must be sent by fax or email by deadlines given on the Editor, Slavic and East European Journal: back cover and on the AATSEEL website. GERALD JANECEK (6) The AATSEEL Newsletter is not copyrighted. Authors University of Kentucky wishing to protect their contributions should copyright their [email protected] materials. Editor, AATSEEL Newsletter: (7) Full specifications are available at the AATSEEL web site. BETTY LOU LEAVER New York Institute of Technology, Jordan [email protected] AATSEEL Web site Executive Director: KATHLEEN DILLON For current online information about [email protected] AATSEEL and its activities, visit AATSEEL Webmaster: on the web: MARTA DEYRUP Seton Hall Univ. http://www.aatseel.org [email protected] 2 October 2005 Vol. 48, Issue 3 AATSEEL NEWSLETTER invited to what is certain to be a memo- to launch a spirited dialogue about our Message from the rable evening. Again this year the con- future. To that end, I would like to issue AATSEEL President ference program will include a number a specially warm welcome to the newest of roundtables devoted to intellectual members of our field, those among you Dear Colleagues, and professional issues of particular who are graduate students who will be I have had occasion to remark in contemporary relevance. I would like attending the AATSEEL national con- previous columns that AATSEEL has especially to highlight the roundtable ference for the first time this year. I look indeed been fortunate over the years on “Policy Relevance and Humanities forward to meeting all of you personally in its executive leadership. And now Grants,” which will feature representa- in Washington. I also look forward to that the search for Kathleen Dillon’s tives from NCEEER, IREX, ACTR, and welcoming back to the conference this successors has been completed, I am the Kennan Institute. Other highlights year colleagues and acquaintances of happy to say that two more excellent of the conference will include a sketch longer standing. A good and worthwhile administrators have come forward to from the one-man show “Isaac Babel,” time is sure to be had by all. accept the burden of stewardship of based on Babel’s short stories and per- With best wishes for the coming the organization. When Kathleen steps formed by the writer’s grandson, Andrei semester, down, the responsibilities currently Malaev-Babel, Artistic Director of the shouldered by the Executive Direc- DC-based Stanislavsky Theater Studio tor alone will be distributed between (www.sts-online.org). A roundtable dis- two positions: Executive Director and cussion of Babel’s works is scheduled Conference Manager. Patricia Zody will to accompany the performance. There AATSEEL succeed Kathleen as Executive Direc- will be an optional trip to the Hillwood tor, and Diana Murphy will take on the Museum (www.hillwoodmuseum.org), Newsletter: Why newly created position of Conference which houses Marjorie Merriweather Manager. Both will bring to AATSEEL Post’s renowned collection of Russian Electronic? valuable institutional experience, en- decorative arts, for those who have time Based on a decision at the 2004 thusiasm, creative ideas, and a dedica- and energy to wander farther afield. AATSEEL Board Meeting, the AAT- tion to preserving and strengthening Most important, there is an increase in SEEL Newsletter has gone elec- AATSEEL. Both Pat, whose “day job” the number of conference participants tronic. is Director of the Center for Language across the board—in language, linguis- This is not the first time that we Studies at Beloit College, and Diana, tics, pedagogy, literature, and cultural have published an electronic newslet- who is Associate Director of the Univer- studies. Papers on Chekhov and Nabo- ter. Since 2003, we had experimented sity of Wisconsin-Madison Language kov as well as on contemporary writing, with e-distribution of the newsletter. Institute, come to AATSEEL with strong film, and television are particularly well That experimentation has been quite backgrounds in teaching and adminis- represented on the program. In line with successful. Those members of AAT- tration. Happily, Kathleen will remain recently established tradition, last year’s SEEL who received their copies of the Executive Director until July 1 of next recipient of the AATSEEL Award for newsletter by e-distribution received year and will mentor Pat and Diana in Outstanding Contribution to Scholar- them on the first of the newsletter the coming months as they familiarize ship, Alexander Schenker, will de- month whereas other members have themselves with their responsibilities to liver this year’s keynote lecture entitled had to wait as much as six weeks the organization. “What Are Slavs, Slavists, and Eastern for the printed version to reach their As I write this letter to you and we Europe? The Linguistic and Cultural doors. This is because the printing are savoring the final golden drops of Boundaries of AATSEEL.” Professor process is quite cumbersome: make summer break, the conference Program Schenker’s presentation is certain to plates, make dylux, send proof, get Committee, headed by Bill Comer, is give the conference as a whole a sense okay to print, print, adhere addresses hard at work finalizing the program of definition and a point of departure for sort by zip, bundle, and hand over to for our December gathering in Wash- reconsideration of the parameters of our the USPS, which then goes through a ington, DC. A number of very special field. I urge you all to attend. slow process of delivering: bulk mail events have been made possible by this At a time when the humanities in travels only whenever there is space venue and by the efforts of dedicated general and our field in particular appear available. AATSEEL members. Most notably, the beleaguered on all sides, it is immensely With the e-newsletter, you will annual President’s Reception, co-spon- heartening that so many of you have always have access to your newsletter sored this year by ACTR, will be held at rallied to make this year’s AATSEEL before the information is outdated! the Embassy of the Russian Federation. conference special. It is my hope that, And if you belong to the group of We are grateful to ACTR Director Dan as we head to the nation’s capital on the people who must be able to read on Davidson for his help in organizing eve of our organization’s 65th birthday, paper, you can always print out the the event and to Ambassador Yuri V. we can take energy from the symbolism newsletter. Ushakov for his hospitality. You are all of place and from the fullness of time 3 AATSEEL NEWSLETTER Vol. 48, Issue 3 October 2005 Important Conference Announcement! AATSEEL is pleased to announce a gala President’s Reception this year. The event will take place at the Embassy of the Russian Federation and will