Recent Activities

Ph.D. Defense

September 2001

Jonathan Bolton successfully defended his dissertation, entitled "Ordinary Epiphanies: Everyday Life in Czech and Russian Autobiography of the 1970s."  The defense took place in MLB and was well-attended.  Mr Bolton gave a spirited and informative presentation, following which a number of bottles of champagne were consumed.

Click here for the photographic evidence

Conferences and Symposia

Winter 2000

• Graduate Symposium: speaker Minjin Hashbat, 'The Mongol Theme in Russian Literature"; speaker Marina Madorskaya, "Film Adaptations of Uncle Vanya: A Bazinian Approach," (March 2000).
• Graduate Symposium: speaker Jonathan Bolton, "Sentence Structure and Power Structures: Ludvik Vaculik's Czech Dream Book"; speaker Jindrich Toman, "When Shoemakers Start Writing Poems: The Culture of Bata's Zlin," (February 2000).
• Lecture: speaker Victor A. Friedman, Professor of Balkan and Slavic Linguistics, The Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Chicago, "Barrels of Gunpowder and Mountains of Languages: Comparative Perspectives on Macedonia and Daghestan," (February 2000).

Fall 1999

• Symposium — The Works of Yuri Lotman in an Interdisciplinary Context: Impact and Applicability (October 1999).

Winter 1999

• Michigan/Ohio State Graduate Slavic Conference: keynote speaker Prof. Irene Masing-Delic (OSU), "The Impotent Demon and Prurient Tamara: Dostoevsky's 'Besy' as a Parody of Lermontov's 'Demon'"; hosted by Prof. Bogdana Carpenter (UM); organized by Eugenia Gresta (UM), Beth Myers (UM), Ona Renner-Fahey (OSU) and Shannon White (UM), (March 1999).

Fall 1998

• Graduate Colloquium: speaker Laura Miller-Purrenhage, "'Sivilla' and Felicja: Bodies in Search of Self"; speaker John Hope, several film and literary versions of "The Prisoner of the Caucasus; hosted by Ewa Wampuszyc. (November 1998)
• Graduate Symposium: speaker Joe Peschio, "A Reconsideration of Parodic Function in Barkov's 'Odes'"; speaker Elizabeth Yellen, "Both Here and There: The Paradox of Gaito Gazdanov." (November 12, 1998)
• Graduate Colloquium: speaker Elizabeth Yellen, "Images of Russia in the Prose of the First-Wave Emigration in Paris." (October 1998)

Winter 1998

• Symposium: speaker Boris Kats, "Zametki o poezii Nabokova." (April 16, 1998)
• Graduate Discussion: "Preparing for Future Employment;" Speakers: Michael Makin, Herb Eagle, Bogdana Carpenter and Andreas Schonle. (Organized by Margarita Nafpaktitis, April 8, 1998)
• Workshop: "Making Russian Real: Teaching, Testing, and Learning," organized by Mila Vergunova, Nathan Longan and Elena Ovcharenko. (March 14-15, 1998)
• Dramatic Performance: Les Kurbas Theater, "An Evening of Poetry and Song: 'Prayer to the Stars.'" (March 13, 1998, Sponsored by the Slavic Department and the Ukrainian Student Association.)
• Symposium: Bruno Schulz's "Under the Hourglass"; Panel Discussion: speakers Herb Eagle, "Sanatorium Under the Hourglass: Visual Style," Theodosia Robertson, "Bruno Schulz & Theater" and Andreas Schonle, "On Sublimity, Shrinkage, and Selfhood in the Works of Bruno Schulz," moderated by Bogdana Carpenter; Film Screening: Wojciech Has', "Sanatorium Under the Hourglass." (March 11-12, 1998)
• Speaker: Alaina Lemon, from the Dept of Anthropology and The Society of Fellows, "Talking Transit and Speculating Transition: The Moscow Metro." (February 25, 1998)
• Speaker: Hilde Hoogenboom, from Stetson University, "Gogol's Mother and Aksakov's Father: How Nadezhda Sokhanskaia Found the Mother Tongue." (February 6, 1998)
• Symposium: speakers Piotr Westwalewicz, "The Russian Press in Warsaw, 1918-1924" and Bogdana Carpenter, "Polish Poetry Today." (Hosted by Bogdana Carpenter, February 4, 1998)
• Speaker: Gabriella Safran, from Princeton University, "Jew as Text, Jew as Reader: Nikolaj Leskov's Espiscopal Justice." (January 29, 1998)
• Poetry Reading and Lecture: Anatoly Naiman, "Russian Poema as a Social and Political Phenomenon." (January 12, 1998)

Fall 1997

• Speaker: Greta Slobin, from UC-Santa Cruz, "The Predicament of the Russian Diaspora: 1917-1985." (December 3, 1997)
• Speaker: Marietta Cudakova, "Razrushenie Poezii 1930-1960." (November 17, 1997)
• Symposium: speakers Margarita Nafpaktitis, "Mice, Myth and Modernist Poetry" and Rachel Harrell, "Josef Jungmann and the Cultivation of a Czech National Identity Through Translation." (Hosted by Bogdana Carpenter, November 6, 1997)
• Poetry Reading: Adriana Szymanska, Polish poet (October 24, 1997)
• Symposium: speakers Jonathan Bolton, "Jan Mukarovsky's Theory and Practice of Literary History" and Kelly Miller, "Boris Lapin's Vision of Poem as Dream-Picture." (Hosted by Andreas Schonle, October 8, 1997)

Winter 1997

• Brown Bag Lecture: Rosamund Bartlett, "Sonata Form in the Writings of Anton Caxov." (January 28, 1997)
• Symposium: Bogdana Carpenter discussed Wislawa Szyborska, the 1996 Nobel Prize winner in literature, at "The University of Michigan Nobel Symposium: The Significance of the 1996 Nobel Prizes." (January 14, 1997)

Fall 1996

• Conference: Andreas Schonle presented "The Banality of the Self: Sentimentalism's Containment of the Private" at the University of Michigan conference "Private life in Russia; Medieval Times to the Present." (October 4-6, 1996)
• Conference: "International Commemorative Conference to Honor Joseph Brodsky (1940 - 1996)"

1994

• Symposium: "Shostakovich: The Man and His Age, 1906-75" (Proceedings forthcoming.)
• Mini-course: "Shostakovich and the Evils of Totalitarianism: Russian Culture under Stalin" (Rosamund Bartlett)
• Mini-course: "Contemporary Russian Literature" (Mikhail Aizenberg and Yuri Miloslavsky)
• Workshop seminars: "The New Russian Poetry" (Mikhail Aizenberg)
• Colloquium: "Slavistics and Ideology" (Proceedings to be published by Michigan Slavic Publications.)
• Symposium: "Isaak Babel (1894-1940): Centenary Symposium and Exhibition"

1993

• Symposium: "The Works of Ludmila Petrushevskaya"
• Reading by Ludmila Petrushevskaya
• Poetry reading by Czeslaw Milosz, Noble Laureate
• Armenian Symposium: "Building a Transnational Community: Armenians and their Diaspora"

1992

• Symposium: "The Formation of a National Consciousness: Poland"
• Conference: "Language & Ethnicity: the Case of the Ukrainians"
• Conference: GLAGOL (Great Lakes Graduate Student Conference)
• Mini-course: "Soviet Women - Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow" (Nyusya Milman)
• Workshop: "Functional Categories in Slavic Syntax" (Proceedings published by Michigan Slavic Publications, 1992.

1991

• Mini-course: "Culture and Politics in the Soviet Union Today" (Alla Latynina)
• Symposium: "Diversity and Division: Culture and Minorities in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union"
• Conference: "First North American-Macedonian Conference on Macedonian Studies" (Proceedings published by Michigan Slavic Publications, 1995.)
• Poetry Reading by Joseph Brodsky, Nobel Laureate

1990

• Symposium: "A Day of Dedication/Display/Discussion: Boris Leonidovich Pasternak 1890-1960"
• Poetry reading by Lina Kostenko, Ukrainian poet
• Conference: "Lina Kostenko: the Artist and the Thinker"

Other Events

Fall 1999

• Visiting Professor Boris Katz gave a Brown Bag Lecture: "Alexander Scriabin - The Last Great Challenger of Russian Musical Romanticism," University of Michigan, September 29, 1999.
• Visiting Professor Andrei Zorin gave a lecture: "Formation of Russian Official Ideology in the Early Nineteenth Century and Its German Sources," University of Michigan, December 7, 1999.

Winter 1999

• Visiting Professor Mikhail Gasparov lead a graduate-level workshop on "Poetics of the Verse Text: The Techniques of Analysis and Interpretation."
• Pedagogy workshop: entitled "Language Instruction in the Learner-Centered Classroom," conducted by Frank J. Miller, Associate Professor of Russian and Coordinator of the Russian Language Program at Columbia University. (March 12, 1999)

Fall 1998

• Honored guest: experienced journalist, widely-published poet and erstwhile arctic explorer Vitaly Sentalinsky spoke on "Literary Finds in the Archives of the KGB and the State Prosecutor's Office." (September 17, 1998)
• Late-/Post-Soviet Reading Group: spearheaded by graduate student Jonathan Bolton, this group has discussed prose by Petrushevskaya, Pelevin, Evgenii Popov and Aleksandr Kabakov, as well as poetry by Krivulin, Rubinstein and Tsvetkov.

Updated  09/05/01