GREAL Department

The five-week summer program in St. Petersburg (9 cr.) is still taking applications.
It begins on 9 June 2008. Contact Irina Stakhanova about the
2008 or 2009 summer program.

At the annual awards evening on 24 April members of the Russian drama course presented selections from Blok, Bulgakov, Chekhov, Gorky, and other Russian playwrights. Students and Russian Club members were recognized during the evening. Five students were inducted into the Dobro Slovo National Slavic Honor Society.

BGSU RUSSIAN STUDENT ONCE AGAIN TAKES TOP HONORS
BGSU senior JoAnne Stein was one of four first-place winners, highest level (3), in a national composition contest organized by the American Council of Teachers of Russian. A BGSU student won in the same category in 2006. In first place this year were JoAnne Stein (BGSU), Josh Pennington (Ohio State), Jason Cieply (Kenyon), and Marino Auffant (Harvard). Approximately 750 students of Russian from over 50 institutions took part in the competition.

The Russian music and poetry evening on 27 March was a great success. FLYER There were performances by College of Musical Arts students from Russia and students of Russian.

The Russian Club observed Maslenitsa — tasty Russian bliny! — on 25 March.

Russkii kovcheg (Russian Ark) was part of the spring 2008 International Film Series, as was Sergei Loznitsky's documentary Portret.

The Russian program is developing distance courses on reading, translation, and journalistic Russian.

Faculty notes

Timothy Pogacar gave a presentation on the Soviet Russian journalist Boris Polevoi at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial, 1945-46, during the Midwest Slavic Conference

Irina Stakhanova spoke on "Murder and Death in Medieval Russia" at the 28 February-1 March "Beholding Violence Conference" at BGSU.

Irina Stakhanova will give a presentation on subjectivity and reality in Andrei Zviagintsev's film The Return at the Institute for Culture and Society in January. Dr. Stakhanova has organized a session on "Teaching Less Commonly Taught Languages in Oho: Challenges and Expectation," at Ohio Foreign Language conference, 3-5 April 20008.

Irina Stakhanova took part in a panel entitled "Self as a Theoretical Category" at the 15-18 November convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies.

Anastasia Alexandrova attended the ACTFL annual convention and World Languages Expo, 16-18 November, where she attended workshops on technological innovations in teaching foreign languages.

Anastasia Alexandrova presented "The Functioning of Russian as a Foreign Language, Heritage Language, and Medium of International Communication in Business, Government, and Science: Current
Theoretical and Practical Issues in the Study and Teaching of Russian in the North American Context" at a conference hosted by the American Councils for International Education and Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace, 15-17 October 2007.

Irina Stakhanova and Anastasia Alexandrova took part in a professional development workshop
presented by the Toledo Area Foreign Language Association and the Ohio Department
of Education, September 20, 2007. The workshop was in part devoted to use of LinguaFolio, a self-reflecting tool that helps students track their own language learning.

BGSU student Anna Glett places first in spring 2007 national Russian essay competition. Full story.

Revised Russian major requirements are now in effect. They mean more selection, more opportunity for study abroad, and more timely completion of required courses.

Student Organizations

New Russian Club officers, for 2007-2008

Brittany Anne Boulton, president
Darya Ruble, vice-president
Adam Blake, treasurer
Danny Burns, public relations
Ash Albridge, secretary
Andy McSherry, web designer

To get on the Russian club listproc, send a message to listproc@listproc.bgsu.edu. In the text area (not subject line!), write: "subsribe BGSURUSSIANCLUB [your name]"

More information, contact:
brittany.anne.boulton@gmail.com

Dobro Slovo National Slavic Honor Society , Gamma Sigma chapter is accepting applications. Contact Dr. Timothy Pogacar, moderator.

Sample Alumni News

Darrell Kendall (2005) received the Joseph Velikonja Undergraduate Essay Contest prize from the Society for Slovene Studies for his paper on Estonian and Slovene economic development. He is in graduate school at the University of Kansas.

Sara Raterman (1999 French and Russian) is enrolled in graduate school in Washington, D.C. and working at the Council on International Education. Her area of specialization is Ukainian affairs. She visited the Caucasus region in the summer and traveled to Kiev in October.

Pamela Dixon (1999 Russian) is a special education teacher in a central Ohio district.

Danielle Kamal (1994 Russian and International Studies) earned an M.A. in Russian from the University of Maryland and is currently employed with Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick LLP, Toledo, as a training and software support specialist.

Steven Smiraldo (1998 Biology; 1999 Russian) has become an officer in the U.S. Navy.

Joseph Timchenko (2006) is enrolled in graduate school at Pepperdine University, CA (The Master of Public Policy program).

Andrea Ward (1992 Russian & International Studies) has defended her doctoral proposal on budgeting in institutions of higher education at Ohio University and moved recently to North Carolina.

Michelle Gavin (1992, Russian & International Studies) has left the staff of Heartland International, an international civic organization fostering democratic institutions worldwide, after two years. Previous to that Ms. Gavin spent extensive time in the CIS and Bohemia. She was in East Africa in fall 1999.

Amy L. Craft (1990 German and Russian) is proprietor of an upscale gift shop, For Keeps, in Bowling Green. Ms. Craft's husband, Todd Ahrens, is also a graduate of the BGSU German program and Salzburg alumnus.

Anthony Weselowski (2000) completed an M.A. in translation at Kent University in 2005.

Matthew Zahler (2000) has joined the Air Force and will be based as a navigator in Texas.