About the Department
The University of Kansas is the only university in the Great Plains to offer the doctoral degree, as well as bachelor's and master's degrees, in Slavic Languages and Literatures. The department has a full array of language, literature, and linguistics courses for students interested in the study of Russian, Czech, Polish, and
Croatian/Serbian, and occasionally offers courses and independent study in
Slovene, Ukrainian, and other Slavic languages and literatures. In addition, the Department offers
Turkish language instruction. While working in a department that offers an uncommonly supportive and congenial atmosphere, students are given considerable latitude to plan programs of study that fit their individual needs.
Special strengths
Both in terms of breadth and quality of the areas it covers, the KU Slavic Department is among the finest in the United States. The Department focuses mainly on
Russian literature, Russian culture and intellectual history, language pedagogy, and
Slavic linguistics. Within the Russian literature and intellectual history areas,
faculty specializations include
Pushkin and Romanticism (
Sabbag),
19th-century and 20th-century Russian prose through Nabokov (
Parker),
Slavic folklore and the Silver Age (
Carlson),
philosophy and Russian literature (
Clowes),
Russian culture, sectarianism and Symbolist culture (
Comer). Within the Slavic linguistics area there is a unique concentration of expertise on
Western South Slavic languages (i.e., Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian and Slovene) (
Dickey,
Greenberg), as well as
cognitive linguistics and Slavic verbal aspect (
Dickey) and
Slavic historical linguistics (
Greenberg). The newest member of the faculty, Prof.
Vassileva-Karagyozova, brings expertise in
Czech and Polish language pedagogy and literary study. Language courses are taught by faculty, instructors with decades of experience (
Pirnat-Greenberg -
BCS,
Slovene,
Six - Russian,
Tsiovkh - Ukrainian), and graduate teaching assistants.
The department by itself and in conjunction with the
Center for Russian, Eurasian, and East European Studies (CREEES) offers an array of Slavic-related events throughout the year, including visiting distinguished lecturers, exhibits, and musical and theatrical performances. The area studies program, one of only 12 such federally funded national resource centers, provides a wide range of Slavic courses offered by more than
50 faculty members in 16 departments.
Interdisciplinary possibilities
The Slavic Department also collaborates with faculty in other departments and programs, including Anthropology, Art History, CREEES, History, Jewish Studies, Linguistics, and Religious Studies. These
interdisciplinary linkages, though not leading to separate degrees or concentrations, nevertheless constitute a number of coherent themes, including Russian intellectual history, Slavic civilization in the former Habsburg and Ottoman Empires, Slavic folklore, prehistory and the Indo-European context, and Jewish culture in Eastern Europe. (
More information.)
Study abroad
All students are encouraged to partake of a full range of
study abroad programs offered through the department. These include summer or academic-year study at St. Petersburg University, Russia, summer study in Zadar, Croatia, summer study in Poland, and summer study in Lviv, Ukraine. (
More information.)
