learn more about russian
TRANSCRIPT
reed.edu/russian
Learn more about
RUSSIAN
“The Russian department
stands out because it is
cozy. Besides courses in
literature, the department
offers its students entry
into a Russian family of
students, professors, and
language scholars. This
family has shown me the
depths of Russian culture
beyond the written word.”
BRANDON MARROW ’18
THE RUSSIAN DEPARTMENT at Reed is designed to
meet the twofold objective of providing training in the Russian
language and developing in students a critical appreciation of
Russia’s diverse literary and cultural traditions.
The language courses, from introductory through advanced
levels, are taught in Russian and offer supplementary drill
opportunities through Reed’s language laboratory and weekly
conversations with a native speaker. In the second year, students
continue their study of grammar and consolidate their language
skills with reading, discussion, and written commentary on
Russian lyrical poetry and texts on Russian cultural history. The
third-year level offers extensive reading of the Russian short
story, writing, and conversation, while continuing formal language
training. The unique feature of the Russian program at Reed is
the sequence of three courses that together cover the history
of Russian literature from the Middle Ages to the present. In
addition, the department offers thematic and monographic
courses on Russian literature, culture, film, and East European
Jewish studies.
Students can also build their language skills and cultural
appreciation at the Russian House, which serves as both a
residence hall and a cultural center. Each week residents host
a cultural event: films, dinners and teas, board games, poetry
readings, musical performances, and much more.
Professor Lena LenčekLANGUAGE, LINGUISTICS, AND LETTERSLena Lenček believes that a classroom is a community, so she begins her Humanities 110 conference with what she calls “rituals of welcome and hospitality.” In addition to teaching courses in her areas of interest—medieval East Slavic literature; Russian romanticism in its west European context; Russian modernism; and literary theory (formalism, structuralism, semiotics)—she has taught seminars on South and West Slavic literatures; the culture of the book in Russia; prose of the 1920s; Russian theater of the avant-garde; epic poetry of the Russian Revolution; and instruction in Old Church Slavonic.
Lena’s research and publications extend beyond Slavic philology. She has authored and co-authored books on Portland architecture, the cultural history of the swimsuit in America, and the iconic significance of beaches.
RECENT FULBRIGHTS
Isabel Meigs ’16 (Russian) traveled to
Ukraine to serve as a Fulbright English
Teaching Assistant; Madeline Kinkel ’14
(Russian) won a Fulbright to teach English
in Azerbaijan; and Auden Lincoln-Vogel
’13 (Russian/Art) served as a Fulbright
Scholar in Estonia, working on a narrative
animation project.
RECENT THESIS TITLES
• “In Memory of Memory: The Poetry of Maria Stepanova” Timmy Straw Beezhold ’18
• “Vladimir Putin’s Winged Troika: The Role of Sanctions, Oil Price, and Weak Economic Institutions in the Russian Ruble Crisis of 2014” Carlo D’Amato ’16 (Economics / Russian)
• “Gorenshtein in Berdichev: Finding the Mundane in the Meaningful” Isabel Meigs ’16
• “Nostalgia, Deferred: An Evenki Poetics of Cultural Incubation” Orla O’Sullivan ’16
• “The Absolute from Nothing: Vladimir Kobrin’s Film Art” Edmond Soun ’15
EVENTS AND LECTURES
Environment and Power in the
Soviet Arctic
Andy Bruno ’03, Associate Professor of
History, Northern Illinois University
Poetry Reading (in Russian and English)
Polina Barskova, Associate Professor of
Russian Literature, Hampshire College
Understanding Putinism: Illiberal Russia
through the Liberal Arts
Symposium
The Storming of the Winter Palace
Nikolai Evreinov, 1920, USSR
Film screening, with introduction and
commentary by Professor Yuri Tsivian
(University of Chicago) and Professor
Daria Khitrova (Harvard)
RUSSIAN
reed.edu/russian
Global Health & Wellness Coordinator Intel Corporation Ella Smith ’16
Filmmaker, Director Liminal Films LLC Sara Lafleur-Vetter ’05
Co-Founder Switchboard Mara Zepeda ’02
Associate Professor, Russian Language and Literature Amherst College Michael Kunichika ’99
What do alumni do?
3203 SE Woodstock Blvd., Portland, OR 97202-8199