2022-06-30 - Graduate Student Tyler Dolan has been awarded an ASEEES Summer Dissertation Writing Grant for summer 2022. The grants are funded by ASEEES donors and members and offer up to $6000 grants for dissertation writing on any aspect of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian studies in any discipline. Congratulations Tyler and best wishes on your work!

2022-05-16 - Professor Eugene Avrutin (History, affiliate with Slavic) has published an important new study of the history of race and racism in Russia with Bloomsbury. Racism in Modern Russia: From the Romanovs to Putin examines the developing scientific and popular discourses on race in Russia over the past 150 years and the associated prejudice, discrimination, and violence. Read the...

2022-03-04 - Slavic Review, the leading journal in Slavic Studies, edited by Harriet Murav, is hosting a discussion forum with short pieces by experts addressing aspects of the war in Ukraine. We encourage readers to follow the developing discussion there.

2022-02-28 - A large crowd rallied at the Alma Mater on campus on Sunday at noon to show support for Ukraine in an event organized by the Ukrainian Students Association. Many Slavic students, grad students, faculty members, and friends attended to manifest their opposition to the Russian invasion. Student leaders spoke about their ties to Ukraine, their worries for family members there, and their hopes for...

2022-02-28 - The SGSA along with the Slavic Department and REEEC also condemns the unprovoked military assault by the Russian government on Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. We, the SGSA, reject the false narrative that the Russian government has built to undermine Ukrainian sovereignty.  In times of crisis like these, it is easy to forget to take care of ourselves; to be consumed by doom-scrolling,...

2022-02-25 - The Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center and the Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign We Condemn the Military Assault on Ukraine The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is the home of many scholars and students who have dedicated their lives to the study of Russia, East Europe, and Eurasia.  Many people...

2022-02-24 - Yesterday WAND TV interviewed Professor Valeria Sobol and Slavic graduate student Daria Semenova to get their personal perspective on the events unfolding in Ukraine. This was before the invasion commenced. You can watch the segment at this...

2021-12-09 - Congratulations are due to Professor Emeritus Finke on his new book, Freedom from Violence and Lies: Anton Chekhov's Life and Writings, just out from Reaktion Books! The book is described as "An excellent resource for readers new to Chekhov [that] also presents much original scholarship and is an accessible, comprehensive overview of one of the greatest modern dramatists and writers...

2021-11-22 - Lilya Kaganovsky, Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, has received an NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities) Summer Stipend for her project, “Fifty Years of Soviet Women’s Cinema, 1929–1979,” which examines the largely invisible role women filmmakers played in the...

2021-10-29 - Here is a link to the latest department newsletter. If you have news for the next newsletter, please send it to the Department Head, Prof Valeria Sobol.

2021-10-06 - Professor George Gasyna was interviewed recently on the topic of the Polish mid-20th century "angry young man" author Marek Hłasko, for a series called "Encounters with Polish Literature" created by the Polish Cultural Institute in New York. With the interviewer, David Goldfarb, they covered topics such as the socialist production novel and its discontents, exilic institutions and questions...

2021-05-07 - Slavic graduate student Daria Semenova has been awarded a 2021 ASEEES Summer Dissertation Writing Grant in support of her project “At Home and Away: Community Belonging in Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian Adventure Fiction, 1918-1960.” The competitive grants are funded by donors to ASEEES and offer a stipend of maximum $6,000, for the purposes of summer dissertation writing on any...

2021-04-14 - Slavic graduate students LeiAnna Hammel and Daria Semenova are both recipients of competitive support for their dissertation projects. LeiAnna has been named a 2021-22 Program Fellow of the Humanities Research Institute, under the yearly research theme of "Symptoms of Crisis." Her dissertation project is titled “Undisciplined Bodies: Deviant Female Sexuality in Russian and Yiddish...

2021-03-15 - Professor Valeria Sobol has been selected as LAS Dean's Distinguished Professorial Scholar for the academic year 2021-2022. Each year, the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences awards those faculty that have shown exemplary scholarship and teaching amongst those being promoted to Professor. Among her many achievements, Professor Sobol has published a new book,...

2021-03-15 - Russian opposition leader Alexsei Navalny – the main political opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin who has exposed government corruption – recently was sentenced to more than two years in prison. Navalny survived being poisoned in August, which many believe was a state-ordered assassination attempt. Tens of thousands of people across Russia protested after Navalny was taken into custody...