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The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KansasEditor: Edith W. Clowes

www.ku.edu/~slavic/

Heinrich A. Stammler1912-2006

In memoriam

Continued page 5

Vol. XIXNo.1

Fall, 2007

LawrLawrLawrLawrLawrencían Chrencían Chrencían Chrencían Chrencían Chronicle 2007onicle 2007onicle 2007onicle 2007onicle 2007

Heinrich A. Stammler was born De-cember 15, 1912, in Jena, Germany. Hepassed away November 29, 2006, inLawrence, Kansas, surrounded by hisfamily, his wife Ursula HofmannStammler, his daughter Andrea Lewisand her husband Patrick, his son Chris-topher Stammler and his wife Kathren,and three grandchildren, Annika andAidan Lewis and Elijah Stammler.

Having received a classical educa-tion at gymnasium in Hanover andGreifswald, Professor Stammler studiedSlavic languages and literatures at theUniversities of Greifswald (while still atgymnasium), Munich, and Prague.While in Prague he met the famousEurasianist thinker, Petr Savitsky, whourged the young student to dedicatehimself wholly to Russian. During theacademic year 1934-1935 he worked atthe German Embassy in Moscow. In 1937he completed his Ph.D. in Slavic on Rus-sian folk poetry (“Die russischegeistliche Volksdichtung”) at the Uni-versity of Munich. The same year Pro-fessor Stammler moved to Bulgariawhere he taught at the Svishtov Busi-ness College until 1940. During thesehappy three years he perfected his Bul-garian language skills and becamefriends with a number of Bulgarian po-ets like Teodor Trajanov. Between 1940and 1942, when he was drafted into thearmy, he worked briefly in the GermanEmbassy in Sofia. In 1945 he became aprisoner of war under the Americans.

After the war Professor Stammlerreturned to Munich and taught Englishand Russian to future interpreters at theDolmetscher Institut. In 1953 he cameto the United States where he taught atNorthwestern University in Evanston,

Illinois. He and his wife moved to theUniversity of Kansas in 1960, and in1962 he became the first chair of the newDepartment of Slavic Languages andLiteratures. A Slavic scholar with deepknowledge of continental philosophyand Eastern Orthodox thought, Profes-sor Stammler made the Department fa-mous for its offerings in Russian andSlavic intellectual history, a tradition thatcontinues even today.

Professor Stammler was theepitome of the philologist and human-ist: he studied, interpreted, and passedon to later generations the broad pic-ture of the achievements of centuries ofhuman culture. Anyone who conversedfor more than a few minutes with himrapidly appreciated his encyclopedicknowledge of languages (he knew atleast eight), linguistics, literature, phi-losophy, and history.

As a Slavist, Professor Stammlerpublished articles in all three branchesof the Slavic language family—South,West, and East Slavic. In addition, hetranslated Bulgarian and Russian poetry

into exquisite German. Most recently, in2000, his outstanding translations ofBaratynskii were republished in a sec-ond edition. He may have enjoyed oneof the longer publication track recordsin memory, extending over sixty yearsfrom 1939 to 2006. In May of last yearhe re-issued a small but rich booklet ofhaiku that he had composed.

With his usual modesty ProfessorStammler once said that he felt he lackedthe “langer Atem” (the stamina) to writemonographs and books. This assess-ment had little to do with reality. Hisbook-length translation of the Russianphilosopher and critic, Vasilii Rozanov,his monograph on Rozanov, his lengthywork on the poet Nikolai Kliuev, and hisarticles on Merezhkovsky and Solovyovbroke new ground. Professor Stammleraddressed issues in literature and cul-ture that might not have been very popu-lar at the moment, but which laterattracted a great deal of attention andstimulated further work. Such was hiswork with the older generation of Rus-sian symbolists, Russian philosophy,and his work with the Bulgarian sym-bolist, Teodor Trajanov.

Professor Stammler represented anessential link in the chain of generationsthrough which the Russian cultural re-naissance extending from 1890 to 1930has been kept alive. He studied inMunich with the well-known philoso-pher and cultural historian, FedorStepun, who himself played a part in thatflowering of Russian philosophical andreligious culture. Professor Stammlerbrought those intellectual riches withhim when he moved to the United Statesin the early 1950s and to Kansas in theearly 1960s. That there are currentlythree faculty in the Slavic Departmentand one in the Philosophy Departmentwho write and teach on philosophicaland intellectual-historical themes, and

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Chair’s Corner

The 2006–07 academic year hasbeen a busy and eventful one for theSlavic Department. First and foremostwe are very glad to have had a new col-league member join our ranks, Prof.Svetlana Petkova Vassileva-Karagyozova, who earned her Ph.D. inSlavic literatures at the KlimentOkhridski University in Sofia, Bulgaria,and also holds an M.A. in TESL fromSouthern Illinois University. In additionto holding a record for having the long-est name in the Slavic Department’s his-tory (perhaps even KU’s!), Prof.Vassileva-Karagyozova brings with hera long list of accomplishments and tal-ents, including near-native fluency inPolish, Czech, and Russian, alongsideher native Bulgarian. She has severallines of research under way, includingcapping off her research on the Baroquein Slavic literature as she prepares herPh.D. dissertation for publication, aswell as a new project on the theme of“surviving communism” as reflected inWest Slavic literature. Recently she trav-eled to Warsaw as an invited guest ofthe Warsaw University Institute of Pol-ish Language and Culture for Foreign-ers “Polonicum,” during which time shebegan negotiations for a new summerPolish-language program for KU StudyAbroad.

Our other new faculty member Prof.Kerry Sabbag (Ph.D., Brown Univer-sity), who joined the Slavic Dept. in 2005,completed her second year in the ten-ure track. Her course on Russian Ro-manticism has already become a hitamong the graduate students in Rus-sian literature. She, too, is busy writingarticles from her dissertation on thetheme of “fame” in Russian nineteenth-century literature. She has begun a sec-ond project on Russian book culture inthe Romantic period.

Two of our colleagues are workingon the important problem of Russianidentity in the post-Soviet period. Prof.Edith W. Clowes received a fellowshipfrom the American Council of Learned

Societies to undertake research on herproject “The Center at the Periphery:Symbolic Geographies and the Debateabout Identity in Post-Soviet RussianWriting Culture.” Prof. Maria Carlson’sresearch deals with several aspects ofRussian identity, both broadly as re-flected in her Hall Center Lecture Seriestalk on April 10, 2007, “Culture and His-tory Matter: Russia’s Search for Iden-tity after the Fall” and more specificallyin her investigation into neo-paganismin Russia. The work of these two schol-ars demonstrates the engagement of ourfaculty in topical aspects of Russian in-tellectual history, one of the mainstrengths of our Department.

The spring semester highlightedthe South Slavic strengths of the SlavicDepartment with the CREEES “BalkanSemester.” Guests sponsored by theDepartment and CREEES included poetand culturologist Prof. Aleš Debeljak(University of Ljubljana), who spokeabout popular culture in the Balkans.Prof. Andrew Wachtel (NorthwesternUniversity), who spoke on the “End ofthe Balkans,” with commentary by Prof.Nathan Wood, Prof. Stephen M. Dickey,

In this issue:

Heinrich A. Stammler:In Memoriam ..................... 1

Chair’s Corner ................... 2

Spring BalkanSemester ............................ 3

A Gift .................................. 4

10th Anniversary ................ 4

Outstanding Senior ............ 4

Slavic Honors Reception ... 6

Chekhov Players .............. 10

Student News ................... 13

Graduate Students ........... 13

Alumni .............................. 13

Friends of Slavic .............. 14

Faculty News .................... 14

and Prof. Marc L. Greenberg. Ambas-sador of the Republic of SloveniaSamuel ðððððbogar gave a talk about“Slovenia in the EU and NATO”).

In addition to helping organizethese many activities, Profs. Dickey andGreenberg have been collaborating ona project on verbs of motion in Slavic,for which they have given a conferencepaper and published a joint article.

We are proud of the recent suc-cesses of our PhDs, including EugeniaK. Amditis (2006), who is currently teach-ing at Dickinson College and MatthewFeeney (2003), who is teaching at Cor-pus Christi College. Grant Lundberg(1999) has been promoted to AssociateProfessor and tenured at Brigham YoungUniversity, as has Mark Lauersdorf(1995) at the University of Kentucky.Jonathan Perkins (2006) has beennamed director of KU’s Ermal Garingermedia center.

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Spring Balkan Semester Showcases Unique KU South Slavic Strengths

Aleš Debeljak speaking at the Hall Center, January 30, 2007

Honorary Consul of the Republic of Slovenia in Kansas City Barbara K. Nelson, Assistant Dean for International ProgramsProf. Thomas Heilke, Ambassador Samuel ðbogar, Prof. Marc L. Greenberg,

Slovene instructor Ms. Marta Pirnat-Greenberg, Prof. Erik Herron (CREEES), 28 March 2007.

Wachtel (Northwestern University),who spoke on “The End of the Balkans”on April 16. On March 29 theAmbassador Samuel ðððððbogar of theRepublic of Slovenia visited KU as aguest of the Department and theChancellor. In addition to informinghimself about KU’s unique offerings inSlovene, which prompted his visit,

Under the aegis of and with co-sponsorship of CREEES, the SlavicDepartment organized several events tohighlight its unique strengths in thewestern South Slavic languages,Slovene and Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian(BCS). Professors Stephen M. Dickeyand Marc L. Greenberg were theprincipal organizers as well asparticipants from the Slavic Department.Prof. Dickey participated in a roundtable“Conflict Resolution in the Balkans—Lessons Learned” on March 8, 2007,along with Major Robert Verli…(Slovenian Army and graduate student,CGSC), and faculty from the Commandand General Staff College, Ft.Leavenworth; and gave a presentation“…More than they Could ConsumeLocally: History in the Balkans” (March27). Prof. Greenberg spoke on“Language and Identity in the Balkans”at Workshop “Conflict and Creativity inthe Balkans” on Saturday, April 14.Guests of the Slavic Departmentincluded Prof. Aleš Debeljak (Universityof Ljubljana), who spoke at the HallCenter on January 30 on “Representingthe Balkans: Varieties of Ex-YugoslavPop Cultures,” and Prof. Andrew

Ambassador ðbogar gave a public talkon “Slovenia in the EU and NATO.”Finally, Croatian-language student andM.A. Candidate in Music Chris Krampegave a special performance ofcontemporary Croatian organ music atthe Bales Recital Hall on May 1, 2007.

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A Gift fromPan……………evo, Serbia

The Slavic Department gratefullyaccepted the gift of an original piece ofartwork by academic painter VlastimirMadiƒ of Pan…evo, Serbia, a vibrant styl-ized landscape scene depicting fields ofgrass—a fitting homage to the Kansasprairie. In addition, Mr. Madiƒ also do-nated a restored seascape and a collec-tion of stamps dating to the time of theFirst Yugoslavia. The gifts were donatedin commemoration of the artist’s son’sacceptance to the Slavic Departmentseveral years earlier, an acceptance thatwas declined in favor of the lure of thebusiness world. Mr. Madiƒ has partici-pated in over 200 group exhibitions informer Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Hisartwork is in private and institutionalcollections in Yugoslavia, Macedonia,Greece, France, the United States, Ger-many and Austria. The Slavic Depart-ment is honored to display his work inthe new Parker Library. The artist’swebsite demonstrates the full range ofMr. Madiƒ’s painterly gifts: http://www.vlastimir-madic.com/

10th Anniversary of thejournal Slovenski jezik/

Slovene LinguisticStudies

With its first issue appearing in 1997,Prof. Greenberg co-founded the journalSlovenski jezik/Slovene LinguisticStudies with Dr. Marko Snoj of theSlovenian Academy of Arts and Sci-ences in the early years following thecollapse of Yugoslavia. Since then, thejournal has grown and fostered a solidinternational following for Slovene lin-guistics, with authors contributing fromItaly, Austria, the Netherlands, Russia,Estonia, Bulgaria, Canada, Britain, andIsrael, as well as the United States andSlovenia. An indication of the successof Slovenski jezik/Slovene LinguisticStudies in reaching a wide internationalaudience of both Slavic and general lin-guists with consistently high-qualityresearch is reflected, for example, in the

fact that the recent publication of Sus-sex and Cubberley’s The Slavic Lan-guages in the prestigious “green” Cam-bridge Language Surveys series notesSlovenski jezik/Slovene LinguisticStudies as an “authoritative national lan-guage journal.”

KU Slavic DepartmentCelebrates Outstanding

Senior

Among this year’s graduating se-niors in Slavic Languages and Litera-tures is Michelle Tran, an unusuallygifted and energetic leader for the fu-ture, whose accomplishments deservespecial commendation. As Michellestarts the next step of her career, atHarvard University’s Kennedy Schoolof Government, we take a moment tocelebrate her many successes.

Even as a school student in Derby,KS, and then Philips Exeter Academy inExeter, New Hampshire, Michelle wasbringing people together for importantcauses. From 1994 to the present shehas logged over 500 hours as a volun-teer for the Department of Veterans Af-fairs, which helped her to win a VA ser-vice scholarship. In the summer of 2001she taught English and entrepreneur-ship to at-risk students in the Los An-

geles area through the SummerbridgeLos Angeles program. PerhapsMichelle’s greatest passion was and re-mains the appreciation of cultural diver-sity. As a high school student sheworked for Kansas Public Television,hosting a show about cultural diversitycalled “Zygo.” At Exeter she started thePen Pal Exchange, a community serviceprogram to mentor elementary schoolstudents about cultural diversity. In2002 Michelle was chosen to participatein the U.S.-Russia Youth LeadershipSummit in Moscow, organized by theLibrary of Congress. This event tookher to Russia for the first time.

Michelle has contributed in innu-merable ways to student life at KU andhas won seemingly every award andrecognition in sight. One of her projectsis to promote fair trade. She has workedon campus for Oxfam America as aCHANGE Initiatives Leader and a par-ticipant in Youth Exchange for TradeJustice. She has served for the last twoyears as the coordinator for LawrenceFair Trade, organizing events such asthe Hunger Banquet and the Fair TradeHoliday Sale to promote awareness offair trade issues. In Student Union Ac-tivities she served on the Social IssuesCommittee and coordinated CulturalArts events, such as art gallery exhib-its, the Poetry Slam, and Tea Time. Dur-ing her junior year Michelle was presi-dent of Dennis E. Rieger ScholarshipHall. Another of the projects to whichMichelle made an important contribu-tion on campus is the greening of theKU environment. In 2005 she foundedKU Carpool. She developed a websiteto help commuting students conservegas by coordinating carpools. In addi-tion, she volunteered at the KU Cam-pus Garden, helping to build a gardenand grow produce for local soup kitch-ens feeding those in need. Her first andsecond years at KU she was a memberof ENVIRONS for which she wrote andpublished a green consumer guide aboutrecycling and environmental issues inLawrence. Finally, Michelle was activeon the Slavic scene at KU, serving forone year as vice president of RussianClub, facilitating weekly Russian lan-guage table discussions and clubevents such as the Bliny Bash.Michelle Tran, 2007 BA, Slavic

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When asked whether any experi-ence in particular gave her such a strongdesire to give back to her community,Michelle answers that she has alwaysfelt a sense of commitment and dedica-tion to public service because the com-munity in which she lived was support-ive of her parents and family when theyfirst immigrated to the U.S. from Viet-nam. She writes, that “thanks to thecommunity around us [my parents] wereable to start a new life here in the U.S.The sacrifices my parents made to en-sure a good life for my brothers, sistersand me has definitely inspired my owndedication to make a difference throughpublic service.”

As a freshman at KU Michelle re-ceived a Freshman Scholars Develop-ment Program Scholarship and a Uni-versity Women’s Club Scholarship. Forher sophomore year she won scholar-ships from the Department of Africanand African-American Studies and theWilliam Allen White School of Journal-ism. In 2005 she was named UniversityScholar, one of twenty outstandingsophomores selected. The same year shebecame a Thomas R. Pickering ForeignAffairs Fellow, through the WoodrowWilson National Fellowship Founda-tion. In 2006 she became a Harry S.Truman Scholar and was honored

Heinrich A Stammler: Continued frompage 1

through the Emily Taylor Women’s Re-source Center as a KU Woman of Dis-tinction. Spring 2007 saw Michelle winseveral awards—the Roy and BettyLaird Essay Contest in Russian, East-European, and Eurasian Studies for heressay, “Beyond Disney: The Poetry andMagic of Soviet Animation, 1962-1990,”the Alexis F. Dillard Student Involve-ment Award, and membership in theNational Slavic Honor Society, DobroSlovo.

During her years at KU Michellehas held an intriguingly broad array ofjobs—from rock climbing instructor atthe Student Recreational Gym to officeassistant at the Center for Russian,East-European, and Eurasian Studies totech crew at the Lied Center to medialab instructor and student assistant atthe Dole Institute of Politics, helping tocoordinate visits by such dignitaries asMadeleine Albright.

As a Russian major, a REEES co-major, and Arabic minor at KU, Michellehas taken advantage of every opportu-nity to travel abroad—to the Czech Re-public, China, Costa Rica, and Turkey.She hopes eventually to enter the for-eign service.

We wish Michelle the very best atHarvard Fletcher School and in her lifeand career beyond academia!

particularly the era of the Russian Re-naissance, is a sign that the tradition hebrought to the United States andfounded at the University of Kansas isalive and well.

On the lighter side, ProfessorStammler collected and loved to readand reread P. G. Wodehouse books. In away, he lived that era: to the end of hisdays he was always the impeccablydressed gentleman, coming to even themost informal gathering in a jacket andtie. He had a superior memory, and evento his last days he could quote longpassages of German and Russian po-etry and loved to sing songs and telljokes. In his later years he would rereadAugustine in Latin just to keep thatwonderful memory in shape.

In a very real sense ProfessorStammler represented what the “global-ized” world could be—not the domina-tion of one language and culture overall others but the capacity to functionin many cultures and languages, sup-ported with intimate knowledge anddeep respect for their peoples and tra-ditions.

Your dedication to your Slavic alma mater makes the difference betweengetting by and realizing the full excellence of Slavic at KU. Pleaseconsider a generous gift to one of these funds:

• Slavic Unrestricted Fund

• The Conrad Memorial Fund(undergraduate and graduate grants)

• The Czech Opportunity Fund

• Library Fund

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Award for Excellence in Polish

Erin Moulton, Olena Chervonik-Bearden,Prof. Svetlana Petkova Vassileva-Karagyozova

(absent: Stefan Bergstrom)

Award for Excellence in Czech

Jerry Koukol, Prof. Svetlana Petkova Vassileva-Karagyozova

Award for Excellence in Bosnian, Croatian, Servian

Christina Ray, Ms. Marta Pirnat-Greenberg, Yuki Onogi, Alphilde Rees, Prof. Stephen Dickey

SLAVIC HONORS RECEPTION

(see news release: http://www.news.ku.edu/2007/june/6/slavic.shtml)April 17, 2007 the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures held itsannual celebration of its best and brightest students.

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Mark Lanfranca, Ms. Marta Pirnat-Greenberg

Award for Excellence in Elementary Slovene Award for Excellence in Elementary Turkish

Safiye Manguoglu, Lynne Yengulalp, Dr. Mubeccel Taneri

Award for Excellence in Ukrainian

Dr. Yaroslava Tsiovkh, Brian D. Frank

Award for Excellence in Russian, Elementary Level

Jessica White, Emma Rothbrust, Regis Lucia, Hally Crangle, Rebecca Blackburn, Ms. Eva Hruska, Mr. Conor Klamann,Prof. William J. Comer (absent: Cody Pate)

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Award for Excellence in Russian, Advanced Level

Prof. Kerry Sabbag, Erica Goodoff Conor Klamann, Laura Gerth, Prof. William J. Comer(absent: Nathan Gerth, Denise Kunze)

2007 Chancellor’s Alexis F. Dillard Awardfor Student Involvement

Michelle Tran, Prof. Marc L. Greenberg

2007-2008 Harley NelsonScholarship, awarded to

Kathryn Zickuhr, absent onstudy-abroad semester in

Vladimir, Russia.

Dobro Slovo Induction

Michelle Tran, Adrienne Harris-Boggess, Prof. Kerry Sabbag

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Ms. Galina Conrad, Sidney Dement, Prof. Marc L. Greenberg, Olena Chervonik-Bearden,Ms. Belinda Conrad-Schuman

Conrad Memorial Fund Award

Prof. Stephen J. Parker, Adrienne Harris-Boggess

Graduate Student Outstanding Service Award

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“Before the Eclipse”: The Sun—Zhulieta Kaludova, The Moon—Eva Hruska

The Chekhov Players

At this year’s honor’s reception wewere regaled with three short playsentitled “Three Sketches by a ChekhovClass” by students in Prof. Sabbag’sChekhov seminar. The narrator for theseone-acts was Kelly Knickmeyer-Cummings. We would like to share withour readers some amusing pictures:

The Teacher—Olena Chervonik-Bearden, The Student—Sarah Bumpus

“On the Moon”: First Lunar Astronomer—Kelly Knickmeyer-Cummings, Second Lunar Astronomer—Olena Chervonik-Bearden

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STUDENT NEWS

GRADUATE STUDENTNEWS

Congratulations to our KU Slavic ma-jors who graduated this year: BrianAlfers, Mark Lanfranca, Terri Pohl,Mary Rutan, Jeffrey Shouse, JackStejskal, David Stevens, and MichelleTran,

Marina Havach has completed her firstyear of study in philosophy at St. Pe-tersburg University.

ALUMNI/AE NEWS

Congratulations to Laura Price whoreceived an MA in Slavic in May!Congratulations also to Sidney Dementand Kelly Knickmeyer-Cummings forsuccessfully completing the compre-hensive exams for the PhD.

In fall 2006 Erin Moulton returned toher Slavic PhD studies after a one-yearleave of absence. She began the yearby presenting a paper at the first con-ference of the Slavic Linguistics Soci-ety in Bloomington, IN in September2006. The title of her paper was “Verbsof Communication in Russian andBosnian/Croatian/Serbian: A Compara-tive Study of Verbal Aspect and Prag-matic Contract.” In addition to continu-ing study of BCS, this year she also be-gan study of Polish. In 2007-08 she willcontinue her studies through the sup-port of a Third-Year FLAS and plans totake her PhD Comprehensive exams inSlavic Linguistics in Spring 2008.

Adrienne Harris-Boggess won a sum-mer FLAS, a Truman Award, and a KUGraduate School Summer ResearchAward for summer study in St. Peters-burg and to finish her research for herdissertation on “The Myth of theWoman Warrior and World War II inSoviet Culture.”

Eugenia Amditis (PhD, Slavic, 2006) re-ports that she was nominated for theStudent Senate Faculty of the YearAward at Dickinson College, where shetaught during the 2006-2007. Zhenyaalso received a research grant fromDickinson for her research project,“’The Poisonous Trade’: Women’sReading, Immoral Behavior, and the Fe-male Psyche in Mid-Nineteenth CenturyRussian Thought.” The grant providedher with a budget for a research assis-tant. Zhenya also won a year’s member-ship to AAASS for the graduate stu-dent essay she submitted during spring,2006, entitled “Mamma the Martinet: TheMature Woman’s Power as Guardian ofSocial Mores in The Idiot and MadameBovary.” For summer 2007 she receiveda grant to attend the Inter-InstitutionalRussian Language Pedagogy Work-shop at Middlebury.

Craig Barto (BA, Slavic, 1976; MA,Applied Linguistics, 1980) reports thathe is chairing a national committee, theEnglish/ESL SPIN of the National As-sociation of Developmental Educators.He is also doing some research and get-ting to the cusp of publication. He isworking both in developmental English(his main job) and in linguistics (theschool is too small to have a separatedepartment) and juggling researchprojects in both fields. His comment is:“The former I must do; the latter I love(to paraphrase and launder somethingPushkin said).”

Lindsey Collier (BA, Slavic 2004) writesthat she is getting her MA fromMiddlebury this August (“knock onwood”) and trying to plan a short tripto Uganda next year.

Kara (Smith) Gerwin (BA, Slavic, 2003)writes that she graduated from KU LawSchool in May, 2006, and was admittedto the bar in the state of Kansas lastSeptember. She works as a telecommu-nications tax attorney for Sprint in Over-

land Park, Kansas. She lives in Leawoodwith her husband Torey whom she metwhile studying abroad in Moscow in thefall of 2001 and married in July, 2005 (witha honeymoon in Iceland and Prague!).Kara writes that they are enjoying get-ting settled into their new house, get-ting adjusted to working after so manyyears in school. She loves to travel andremembers fondly a trip backpackingthrough Europe in the summer of 2002,when Torey and she visited five coun-tries in three weeks. They celebrated theend of their graduate work with a trip toJamaica, which they took after gradua-tion and before Kara’s bar exam studiesbegan.

Mary Greff (MA, Slavic, 1999) writesthat things are going well in Austin,Texas, where she lives with her husbandand two daughters, 2 and 4 years old.She is teaching Russian at Austin Com-munity College during fall, 2007.

Jason Merrill (PhD 1997), assistant pro-fessor at Michigan State University, hada feature article in the May, 2007,AAASS NewsNet (vol. 47, no. 3) on“Meeting the Challenges of the GlobalUniversity through Study Abroad: De-veloping a Multi-Disciplinary Study Ex-perience in Russia for All College Stu-dents.”

Allison Smith (BA, Slavic, 2003) cel-ebrated her graduation from KU inspring, 2007, with a masters degree inUrban Planning. She started her careeras a transportation planner directly af-ter graduation. She writes, also, that sheis the “proud mommy of a three yearold!”

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FACULTY NEWS

invited paper at the 5th InternationalConference on Emerging e-LearningTechnologies and Applications, to beheld in the High Tatras Mountains ofthe Slovak Republic. Dr. Zvacek jokesthat she is “a pathetically bad speakerof Czech who apparently looks vaguelyCzech-like and, consequently, has beenasked for directions in every city of theCzech Republic [she has] ever visited.”

On April 10, 2007, Professor MariaCarlson delivered the closing lecture ofthe Hall Center Humanities Lecture Se-ries, an event founded at KU in 1947 topromote dialogue among the University,the community, and national speakers.Each year, the Hall Center for the Hu-manities invites one KU faculty memberto join the prestigious line-up, and thisyear more than 225 people came to Woo-druff Auditorium to hear SLL’s Prof.Carlson explain why “Culture and His-tory Matter” as she explored “Russia’sSearch for Identity After the Fall.”(*Those interested in reading Prof.Carlson’s talk can find it on line at:https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/dspace/handle/1808/1368.) Her other speakingengagements in the last year included apresentation on the future of Slavic de-partments and area studies programs forthe 5th Biennial Slavic Librarians’ Sum-mit, which was held in Lawrence in Fall2006; a presentation to the Library Coun-cil at KU’s Watson Library, on “Humani-ties Research in the New Research Li-brary” in October; and a paper on theSymbolists Andrei Belyi and NinaPetrovskaia, given at the national meet-ing of the AAASS.

Prof. Carlson begins Fall 2007 witha well-earned sabbatical to work on herSlavic mythology and neo-paganismproject, which has grown from her re-cently-developed graduate course inSlavic Folklore. After her sabbatical shewill work with Dr. Charles Eldredge, HallDistinguished Professor of AmericanArt & Culture at KU, to design a team-

taught course to be called “Affinities:American and Russian Art in the 19th

and 20th Centuries.”Prof. Carlson continues as Associ-

ate Chair of SLL. She added a new na-tional service obligation to her existingslate: this year she was named to theBoard of the National Council for EastEuropean and Eurasian Research.

During the past year Professor Edith W.Clowes enjoyed an ACLS-supportedsabbatical devoted to writing a draft ofa new book, “The Center at the Periph-ery: Symbolic Geographies and the De-bate about Russian Identity in Post-So-viet Writing Culture.” The project exam-ines the role of concepts of center, pe-riphery, border, as well as cultural-geo-graphic compass points of south, west,east, and north in the current post-So-viet debate about Russian identity. Pro-fessor Clowes gave a lecture at the Uni-versity of Colorado on her work dealingwith the art of Viktor Pelevin, “IllusoryEmpire? Victor Pelevin’s Chapaev andPost-Soviet Eurasianist Identity.” Shecontinues to explore early twentieth-century philosophy, particularly NikolaiBerdiaev and Lev Shestov, delivering alecture at Suffolk University on “East-ern Orthodox and German ProtestantRoots of the Russian Concept ofPersonhood.” In Spring, 2007, Profes-sor Clowes joined the editorial board ofRussian Review.

Professor Clowes continues to de-vote part of her free time to fundraising,for the causes of the Slavic Depart-ment—particularly, the Conrad Fundand the Czech Opportunity Fund—aswell as those outside of academia. Sheis the co-founder of Music Works!, thefundraising arm for music programs inthe Lawrence Schools Foundation. InJanuary she organized a “Concerto Con-cert” to celebrate the best classical mu-sicians in the Lawrence high schools.In 2007 the music endowment of the LSFwas large enough to be able to an-nounce its first competition for grantsto music teachers.

A final bit of news concerns theSlavic-related successes of ProfessorClowes’s son, Sam Huneke, who wonfirst place at National History Day atthe University of Maryland for his 10-

KU Alumnus Thayer Thompson (KUMPA ’73 in Urban & PublicAdministration, City Management) ofSedalia, Missouri, donated a small butselect collection of Russian literature inEnglish translation to the SlavicDepartment’s Parker Library onNovember 30, 2006. The collectionnumbers 30 books as well as severalhundred articles collected over 40 years,including a special book, The CollectedWorks of Thayer D. Thompson, 1951—2003. Reflecting on his longtimeavocation reading Russian literature, Mr.Thompson said, “A book is like anintellectual music box—open the coverand the author sings to you. I’mreminded of the movie Fahrenheit 451.The forest people memorize a book. Oneperson says: ‘I am War and Peace.’ Insome way I am my books. I give part ofme to you, because of what KU gaveme.”

June 3, 2007, KU Information ServicesLibrarian Brian Rosenblum presenteda paper entitled, “Libraries as Publishers:Partnering with Faculty to IncreaseAccess to Scholarship,” at the 2007Czech and Slovak Library InformationNetwork (CASLIN) Conference inStupava, Slovakia.

Susan M. Zvacek, Director ofInstructional Development and Supportat KU, spent two weeks in the CzechRepublic and Slovakia during the spring,2007 semester. She traveled to severaluniversities throughout the region,where she gave presentations andworkshops on topics related to e-learning, and met with administratorsand faculty members at thoseinstitutions. Dr. Zvacek continues towork with educators in both countriesas she teaches online courses designedto assist professors make the transitionfrom teaching face-to-face to workingin the online environment. She returnedto the area in September to present an

Friends of Slavic

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minute documentary, “Democracy in theHeart of Europe: The Triumph and Trag-edy of the Czechoslovak Republic.”

In June 2007 Professor William Comerstepped down as director of the ErmalGaringer Academic Resource Centerafter nine years of serving in thatcapacity. Before returning to the SlavicDepartment full-time, he will spend the2007-2008 academic year as the ActingDirector of CREES while Erik Herron ison sabbatical.

Professor Comer presented thepaper “A Treatment of One’s Own: TheTeaching and Learning of c&oß inRussian” at the 2006 AATSEELconference in Philadelphia, PA. In April2007 he was invited to the University ofMichigan (Ann Arbor) to conduct aworkshop “Using Tasks Effectively inthe Teaching of Slavic Languages” forgraduate teaching assistants and facultymembers in the Slavic Department. Hisannotated and glossed edition ofViktoria Tokareva’s story )e>\ $e2&pa>\b (A Day without Lying) will bepublished by Slavica, and is due out byNovember 2007.

Stephen M. Dickey presented “Slavic*Jazditi ‘Ride’ and its Implications forthe Development of the Category ofDeterminacy” in collaboration withMarc L. Greenberg at the First Meetingof the Slavic Linguistics Society inBloomington, Indiana; this paper ap-peared subsequently as an article inJezikovna predanost. Akademiku prof.dr. Joñetu ToporiÓi…u ob 80-letnici, andwas the beginning of a collaborativeproject on the rise of indeterminate-de-terminate pairs of motion verbs in Slavic.He ended his term as the president ofthe Slavic Cognitive Linguistics Asso-ciation in April 2007. He helped orga-nize the Balkan Semester in Spring 2007,participating in a roundtable discussionon the post-war Balkans and present-ing a lecture “`More than They CouldConsume Locally: Aspects of BalkanHistory”. He received a course devel-opment grant from the Center for Rus-sian, East European and Eurasian Stud-ies to develop a course on the effects ofOttoman rule on the cultural develop-ment of the South Slavs. Additionally,

he set up a new summer program forCroatian language study in Zadar,Croatia, which has just ended. His trans-lations of poems by Croatian poet DamirSodan recently appeared in AmericanPoetry Review.

Professor Marc L. Greenberg publishedhis Short Reference Grammar of Stan-dard Slovene (183 pp.) in the (http://www.seelrc.org/projects/grammars.ptml) Reference Grammar Networkproject with Duke University / Univer-sity of North Carolina’s Slavic and EastEuropean Language Research Center(SEELRC). He was the only non-Sloveneauthor invited to contribute to a specialretrospective of the last decade inSlovene linguistics with his article “TheSlovene Sound System Through Time”in Slovensko jezikoslovje danes/Slovenian Linguistics Today in a spe-cial issue of Slavistièna revija, issue 54,which appear in late 2006. He also pub-lished a co-authored article withStephen M. Dickey, “Slavic *jazditi ‘toride’ and its Implications for the Devel-opment the Category of(In)determinacy” in Marko Jesenšek andZinka Zorko, eds., Jezikovna predanost,a volume for which he also wrote thecover blurbs. In summer 2006 he gavetwo days of lectures at the Northwest-ern Summer School in Croatia,Dubrovnik, on the topic of language and

national identity (reprise in summer 07)and in November 2006 he gave theMarshall Woods Lecture at Brown Uni-versity, “Building a European Commu-nity: South Slavic Uses of Recon-structed Pasts.” In April 2007 he gavethe paper “The prehistory and areal dis-tribution of Slavic *g\l…eti ‘speak’,” co-authored with Joseph Schallert (U. ofToronto), at the Third Southeast Euro-pean Studies Association Conference,Ohio State University. The paper willappear in summer 2007 in the 10th anni-versary issue of Slovenski jezik/Slovene Linguistic Studies. In additionto helping to organize and host a num-ber of guest speakers for the Balkan se-mester, he also gave a talk on languageand identity in the Balkans in the AprilConflict and Creativity Workshop forarea teachers, sponsored by CREEES.He is currently collaborating with vari-ous colleagues on joint projects, includ-ing developing a new course “Lan-guage, Culture and Ethnicity in Prehis-toric Eastern Europe” with IvanaRadovanoviƒ, Dept. of Anthropology,for which the two were awarded a coursedevelopment grant from CREEES, an ar-ticle on phylogeny in Slavic (with AlanRedd, Dept. of Anthropology, KU), andresearching for a larger project on thediachronic development Slavic verbs ofmotion with Professor Stephen Dickey.

Semistrunniki uchastniki i uchitelja, l – r standing: Ross Marn, Erik Ferguson,Vladimir Markushevich (Moscow), Dr. Oleg V. Timofeyev (Iowa City),

Marc L. Greenberg; seated: John Schneiderman (UC Irvine)

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In March Professor Greenberg per-formed on classical guitar with theLawrence Downtown Mandolin Orches-tra and in June participated in the 2ndannual International Russian Guitar Fes-tival (IARGUS) in Iowa City, May 30-June 4, where he played in masterclasses on the Russian seven-stringguitar with artists VladimirMarkushevich (Moscow), DmitriIllarionov (Moscow), Tariel Berimeladze(Tbilisi), John Schneiderman (UC Irvine),and Nadia Borislova (Puebla, Mexico).At IARGUS he also played the Romapiece Vengerka with an ensemble ofRussian guitars led by renownedsemistrunnik Vadim Kolpakov.

Professor Svetlana Vassileva-Karagyozova’s first year at KU was busy

but productive. Her article “Barok\t vb\lgarskata literatura. S\tolaine naproblema” [The Baroque in BulgarianLiterature. Review of Publications] waspublished in Slavia (Czech Republic) in2007. She presented a paper entitledFeminine or Masculine? The Case ofGender Preference in OccupationalTitles in the Bulgarian Language at the2006 AATSEEL annual meeting in Phila-delphia.

In November 2006, Prof. Vassilevawent to Warsaw to start the preliminarynegotiations with Polonicum (WarsawUniversity) for establishing a KU Pol-ish Summer Study Abroad Program. Shealso started a Polish conversation table,which meets every second Monday ofthe month from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m. at TheMarket dining area in the Kansas Union.

Professor Vassileva-Karagyozovawas awarded a teaching grant from CTEfor developing a coherent set of teach-ing materials for the 3rd year Polishcourse, integrating language, literatureand film.

She began working on a KU Newresearch project Communism throughthe Eyes of a Child: The West SlavicInitiation Novel and Film after 1989.With the support of the New FacultyGrant and a grant from the Institute ofCzech Literature at the Czech Academyof Sciences she traveled over the sum-mer to Poland and the Czech Republicto collect material for her new study.

Thanks to all our donors for their generosity in the past year:

AnonymousDonald L. Anderson

Craig J. BartoLarry A. Brey

Edith W. Clowes and Craig HunekeConrad family

Elaine F. DaviesAlice and Dennis Diederich

Sarah Phillips FlemingBradley K. Hansen

Mary Hermanson GreffMarc L. and Marta P. Greenberg

Kurt A. HarperBrenda K. Lewis

Corey MassStephen and Marie-Luce Parker

Tim PogacarPatricia Cain Rodelwald

Kurt C. ShawBethany Keidel and Rick M. Smart

Candan Crawford and Daniel L. SpellmanThayer and Constance Thompson

Sara D. WienerRichard L. and Mary C. Windholz

Susan M. Zvacek

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Join the KU Friends of Slavic!

I am contributing in the amount of:

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_____Library Fund

If paying by check, please make payment to: Dept of Slavic Languages and Literatures c/o KUEA

Please send to: Professor Marc L. Greenberg, ChairDepartment of Slavic Languages and LiteraturesUniversity of Kansas1445 Jayhawk Blvd., Room 2133Lawrence, KS 66045-7590

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The University of KansasDept. of SlavicATTN: LC2008Wescoe Hall1445 Jayhawk Blvd., Room 2133Lawrence, KS 66045-7590