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Roza Simkhovich, Senior Lecturer, won the Joe Mailk, Jr. Arizona Slavic Studies Award for Teaching Achievement.  

(Past Events)  

Spring 2008 Speaker Events

Arizona AATSEEL and Drama Presentation - April 19, 2008
Chekhov's one-act farce "The Bear" performed by Kenneth Cargill, Jeremy Kraft, and Susan Sidenstricker.
Dobro Slovo nominations and graduate presentations.  Please see pictures in the gallery. 

DOCUMENTARY FILM SHOWING

“Nazi Skinheads:  Hate Crime in Ukraine”

Sunday, March 30, Modern Languages Auditorium  3pm-7pm

Daniel Reynold’s documentary begins in the past but brings the story up to the present--it includes footage of neo-Nazi skinhead groups in modern Zhitomir, Berdichev, and Kiev, speaking openly to the camera about their activities.  The Zhitomir group will go on trial for murdering a foreigner in 2008.

An opening talk by director Daniel Reynold, a Peace Corps worker in Ukraine at the time he became interested in the film’s subject, will be followed by an introduction to the documentary by Drs. John and Carol Garrard. Questions and refreshments will follow the viewing.

ANNA SENARSLAN

Co-sponsored by Russian & Slavic Studies Department, Centre for         Middle Eastern Studies, Near Eastern Studies Department, and the COH Office of the Dean

Tuesday, February  12:   “Research in Azerbaijan: A Report from the Field” 12-2pm (CMES Lecture Series; public talk) Marshall 490.

Wednesday, February 13: Topic: women singers of traditional Kazakh music  11-11:50 (class lecture) Chavez Bldg 109.

Anna Oldfield Senarslan earned an MA from the UA department of Russian and
Slavic Languages and went on to a PhD in Turkic Languages and Cultures at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison with a specialty in the Caucasus and Central
Asia. She spent 2004-2006 as a Fulbright fellow researching folklore in
Azerbaijan. Her research on women poet-minstrels led to her dissertation and
forthcoming book, Singing the Past, Calling the Future: The Women Ashiqs of
Azerbaijan. Recent projects include translations and liner notes for
Smithsonian Folkways Music of Central Asia volumes 4 and 6, entries in the
Encyclopedia of Women in Islamic Cultures, and a British Library Endangered
Archive grant in collaboration with the Azerbaijan State Archive of Sound
Recordings. She is currently teaching Turkish/Azeri at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison.

ARTEMY TROITSKY

Co- sponsored by the Dept of Russian and Slavic Studies and the COH Dean’s Office

Talks on Russian Rock and Roll by Russia’s most famous cultural commentator

Monday, February 18^:  “Between Putin and Piracy: Russian Pop and the Music Industry in the 21^st Century” (class lecture with available seating for public)  1-1:50 in Music 146

Monday, February 18^: “Back in the USSR: the History of Soviet Rock" (public talk) 4-6pm in Music 146.  

Tuesday, February 19: "Women in the World of Russian Pop" (class lecture with available seating for public) 4-6pm    Check back for room information. 

Talks will be in English

Artemy Troitsky entered Moscow State University in the early 1970s under Brezhnev, where he became notorious for hosting illicit discos from one of the university canteens. His professional career continued in the same vein, with underground assessments of the Beatles and Deep Purple in illegal samizdat journals. By the mid-‘80s, however, he had entered the mainstream as editor of the Soviet Union’s most influential music papers. Troitsky’s views grew increasingly important and, as a consequence, he was promoted to even more noteworthy publications as the USSR collapsed.

He famously worked at the Novaya Gazeta in the 1990s, the brave newspaper that regularly published the work of Anna Politkovskaya (tragically murdered last year for her reporting on the Chechnya conflict). Disturbed and yet intrigued by the changing nature of modern Russian journalism, he even – with pronounced irony – accepted the position of editor at Playboy for a short while.

The end of communism also meant the explosion of corporate TV, and here Troitsky’s influence grew beyond the printed page. He hosted the hugely significant media show “Programma A” that served to promote and explain a sudden diversity of culture(s) in the wake of state-controlled entertainment. Subsequent projects on other stations (NTV, Rossiia, and others) have served to keep him at the forefront of public attention today.

He is the author of six books, translated and published all over the world; in the US he has been represented by Faber and Faber. His most famous monograph, on the role of rock music in the late Soviet Union, has just been republished this summer. For Troitsky’s most recent project, a web-based endeavor entitled “TV Click,” go to www.tvclick.ru/channel - and (quite fittingly) click on the striped TV.

Club News and Current Business

Join the new Kazakhstan Club!  For more information email the club president Saltanat Satabayeva .

The Russian Club meets most Monday evenings in LSB 309. You can join the Russian Club listserv by emailing Sarah Monks.

Translation Certification will only be done for University-related purposes.  You may leave your documents off M-F 8am-5pm in LSB 305. 

The Russian Proficiency/Placement Exam will be held in the beginning of the Fall 2008 semester in the Humanities Computer Lab in Modern Languages room 511. 
All new and continuing UA students needing to take the exam should go to the College of Humanities Dean's Office, M LNG 345 as soon as possible.  There is a form that needs to be processed before you take the exam.  To take the exam, you must be registered to attend the UofA in the Fall 2008 semester.  All high school students needing to take the exam, must email Sarah Monks . 

Past Events

TRAD 103 YouTube Russian Presidential Election Debates
Wed., Feb. 27, 3-4:15 p.m. in  EDUC 211 ("Kiva Room")
Including: Medvedev, Zhirinovsky, Zyuganov, Kasyanov, Politkovskaya (yes, we know she's dead), Khakamada, and Tymoshenko (yes, we know she's Ukrainian.)
Plus, campaign managers, YouTube ad teams, speechwriters, celebrity endorsers, an executive committee, and smear teams. 
Come watch the student presentations and enjoy the display of research and creativity.  

Please join us for an opening gala:
TRAD 103 Honor Students' Art Exhibit
Monday, Nov. 26, 4:30-5:30, in LSB 305
Meet the artists and enjoy light refreshments.  The exhibit will run all week (Nov. 26-Dec. 1).  For more information, please contact Professor Romy Taylor.

Russian 350 Students Invite You to "CNN's Revolutionary Party Iowa Primary YouTube Debates: Choose Me as your Revolutionary Party Candidate!"  Based on the YouTube Democratic debates.  Tuesday, October 16, 3:30-4:30. Hosted by Romy Taylor, with special guest mediator Sarah Monks. EDUC 351. Light refreshments.

Undergraduates Zak Friedman (Mahatma Ghandi), Kevin Turousky( Vladimir Lenin), Joel Shooster(Hugo Chavez), Julio Valdiviezo(Che Guevara), and Dmitriy Aminov(Joseph Smith)

UA Russian Dept. Alumna Ms. Arlissa Reynolds, currently a Foreign Service Officer with the US State Department, will be on campus on Wednesday, July 25 to speak with UA students about her career in the Foreign Service.  The talk will be held 12:30-1:30 in Social Sciences 332.  Ms. Reynolds is a Political Affairs Officer at the US Embassy in Moscow.  During her time in Moscow she has served as the Special assistant to US Ambassador William Burns.  Since entering the Foreign Service in 1998 Arlissa has served at several other posts including: Guangzhou, China; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and the US Mission to the United Nations In New York.  Arlissa speaks Russian, Spanish and Chinese, and is the recipient of two Meritorious Honor Awards from the Department of State.  Arlissa graduated with a BA in Russian from the University of Arizona.

Suzanne Stringfield was awarded the College of Humanities' 2007 Graduate Student Teacher Award for her achievements teaching our 101b class in Spring 2007 and to honor all her hard work as one of our best graduate teachers.   

The Drama Club wins first place in the So. Arizona Language Fair, April 2007 with their production of "Utro."

The Shostakovich Festival begins Saturday, Sept 9, at 10:38am with a broadcast of Dmitri Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2 in F, Op. 102 on KUAT.  This will be a year long celebration for the 100th anniversary of this composer's birth.

The Outstanding Senior Award for the College of Humanities went to Kenneth Cargill, a Russian and Slavic Studies major, pictured here with Professor Adele Barker, who nominated him, and Teresa  Polowy, head of Russian and Slavic Studies.

Karen Peirce, English and James Romenesko, Russian and Slavic Studies, received the College's Outstanding Graduate Teaching Awards and are pictured with Dean Tatum.

Student Outcomes Document (for BA and MA students)