About us
The Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures (SEELC) has one of the premier comprehensive graduate programs in the country.
The PhD program is offered in three fields:
- Slavic Literature, Film, and Cultural Studies
- Slavic Linguistics
- Second Language Acquisition
The place strong emphasis on mentoring graduate students in their research, teaching, and professionalization. In addition to completing a set of basic requirements, students are also given the flexibility to develop their own specialized scholarly interests. They are provided with generous financial support, extensive teacher training, and resources for professional development.
SEELC has an excellent record of postgraduate job placement in academia, but is also committed to providing the resources for graduate students to prepare for careers outside of academia, should they desire. We offer workshops on non-university careers and encourage students to earn certificates in translation, education, and other areas. Several graduates have chosen careers in editing, government, secondary school teaching, and translation work.
Our graduate course offerings appeal to a broad range of intellectual interests, with three major areas of concentration: Literature and Culture, Slavic Linguistics, and Second Language Acquisition (SLA). Department have expertise in:
- classical, modernist, Soviet, émigré, and postmodern Russian, Central European, and South Eastern European literatures, film, and interdisciplinary cultural studies
- transpositions of literature into other media
- gender and feminist studies
- digital humanities
- print media
- national identity
- bilingualism
- language and memory
- pedagogy
- the structure and history of the Slavic languages
- Balkan linguistics
- medieval Slavic texts
- morphology
²ÝÁñ¶ÌÊÓƵ State also hosts the annual Midwest Slavic Conference, which enables graduate students to present their research to a national audience right on campus.
The department works closely with the Center for Slavic and East European Studies, which awards a limited number of Title VI Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships for language study. FLAS fellowships are available for advanced Russian study and for intermediate and advanced study of other Slavic/East European languages.