
The Romanian community launched its fundraising efforts in support of Romanian studies with a delightful Romanian Chamber Music Night on May 12, 2013. Works by Enescu, Bartok, and Porumbescu were performed by violinist Cristian Gruber, cellist Cealice Kennison, violist Adam Weiss and pianist Angela Draghicescu. Historical context was provided by Ileana Marin and musical context by Claudia Jensen. Proceeds from the concert were used to establish the department’s latest fund, the Romanian Studies Fund.
On Saturday, May 4 the Slavic Department hosted Foss High School students at the annual ACTR Olympiada of Spoken Russian. After the competition, students, teacher (and alumnus) Daniel Erickson, and judges (alumnus Dimitri Kotlyar, lecturer Valentina Zaitseva and administrator Shosh Westen) posed for photos in the Grieg Garden.
Michelle Lie is the latest recipient of the Vadim Pahn Scholarship. She will be using it to study intensive fourth-year Russian this summer.
Slavic Department graduate student Matt Boyd was recently awarded a Fulbright through ACTR for the summer intensive ACTR Russian Teacher Training Program at Moscow State University.
An article about the Academic Challenge and Engagement Study conceived of by the Office of Educational Assessment quotes undergraduate adviser Megan Styles on her experience interviewing graduating seniors about their experiences in the major.
Grad student Lena Doubivko’s latest film review of Avdot’ia Smirnova’s “Kokoko” appears in Kinokultura.
Two of Galya Diment’s books are out as paperbacks as of spring 2013: A Russian Jew of Bloomsbury (McGill-Queens UP) and Pniniad (UW Press). In addition, effective April 1, 2013, she has been appointed to the Thomas L. & Margo G. Wyckoff Endowed Faculty Fellowship for a three-year term.

Grad student Veronica Muskheli’s research on Russian Jewish folklore was recently featured in the Stroum Jewish Studies Program’s fall 2012 newsletter. A link is also provided to her blog post, “St. Petersburg: New Pride, Old Prejudice?”