We recently came to end of a(nother) challenging academic year, and once again the pandemic prevented us from gathering together, as is our tradition, to celebrate our many successes and to recognize a number of individuals for their specific achievements. A summary post is a poor substitute for an in-person celebration, but we adapt to the situation as best we can.
I would like to extend thanks to all members of the Slavic unit—faculty and academic staff, teaching and project assistants, graduate and undergraduate students—for their dedication and commitment over the last two semesters. We’ve all become proficient in Zooming (whether we wanted to or not), which has allowed us to continue to carry out our mission. One high note of this past semester was, in fact, the Zoom-mediated Wisconsin Slavic Conference, organized by our talented and undaunted Graduate Student Organization—many thanks to Brian Kilgour, Assel Almuratova, and Alexandra Portice!
To our donors who continue to support Slavic Studies at UW-Madison in myriad ways, I can only extend our thanks yet again. UW-Madison was hard hit by the economic impact of the pandemic, and funds donated in support of small programs like those in Slavic have mattered even more than they usually do. We are grateful for that support. For those who would still like to make a donation to Slavic Studies, you may do so via this website: https://secure.supportuw.org/give/.
Below you will find recognitions of specific achievements in Slavic Studies over this academic year—congratulations to all! You’ll also find some information about current graduate and faculty research as well as new course offerings in our unit (over this past year and for next fall).
I wish everyone continued health and look forward to returning to our annual in-person celebration in May 2022.
David S. Danaher, Professor and Head of Unit
Slavic Studies, Department of German, Nordic, and Slavic
New course in Slavic Studies
New courses taught this past year
“Performance and Power” (Maksim Hanukai)
“Literature and Revolution” (Maksim Hanukai)
“Modernism and Time” (Łukasz Wodzyński)
“History and Ethics on Film: Polish Cinema” (Łukasz Wodzyński)
“Escaping Utopia: Cultures after Communism” (Łukasz Wodzyński)
“Living at the End Times: Contemporary Polish Culture” (Łukasz Wodzyński)
“Stories Cities Tell” (Kirill Ospovat)
“From Napoleon to Tolstoy’s War and Peace: Myths and Concepts of the Napoleonic Wars (Kirill Ospovat)
“Migrant Nation: The Polish-American Experience” (Krzysztof Borowski)
“The Politics of Laughter: Polish Comedy Culture” (Krzysztof Borowski)
New courses upcoming in Fall 2021
“Moscow Conceptualism” (Maksim Hanukai)
“Adventure in Literature and Film” (Łukasz Wodzyński)
“Soviet, Émigré, and Post-Soviet Literature” (Andrews Reynolds)