Alumni and Annual Outreach

The Slavic Department Homecoming is a traditional Homecoming event jointly hosted by the Slavic Alumni Club and the Slavic Department. Each year the focus for the evening is one Slavic culture, and live music and dancing, national cuisine and an engaging keynote speaker make this event a favorite with the department’s many supporters.

Contact Shosh Westen Tel: 206.543.6848.

The University of Washington SlavicFest brings the region’s Slavic communities together for a weekend to celebrate the feast of Saints Cyril and Methodius, Greek missionary priests who in the ninth century translated the Orthodox liturgy and scriptures into the Slavonic language using an alphabet they devised for the purpose. Every year hundreds of enthusiastic participants attend workshops on cooking and crafts, a children’s parade and concert, and an evening celebration with dancing, live music and traditional food and drink.

World Languages Day is a University of Washington Educational Outreach Program for K-12 educators and students, organized annually to show high school juniors and seniors the opportunities the UW provides for learning the languages and becoming familiar with the cultures of our neighbors in a rapidly shrinking world. The Slavic Department participates every year with sample language classes, and presentations on subjects ranging from Polish Customs to Russian Superstitions, Czech Castles and Bulgarian Authenticity. Schools need to register to bring a group.

Contact Tel: 888.469.6499

The ACTR Olympiada of Spoken Russian is a competition hosted every spring quarter by the Slavic Department for students studying Russian in Washington State high schools. The winner receives a partial tuition scholarship to study in the department’s Intensive Summer Language Program, and some of our most successful students have begun their academic careers this way.

Contact Shosh Westen Tel: 206.543.6848

Maslenitsa is the equivalent in Slavic cultures of Fat Tuesday. As a Christian festival, it marks the last week before the beginning of Lent, but its origins are a pagan sun festival, the beginning of the end of winter. The Slavic Department celebrates it every year, late in winter quarter, with mounds of the traditional pancakes as our language students sing, perform skits and teach us about the rituals of spring in Slavic cultures.

Contact Shosh Westen Tel: 206.543.6848.