Mary-Allen (Pasha) Johnson has been appointed as Assistant Professor and Associate Curator of the Hilandar Research Library (HRL), Special Collections and Area Studies, OSU Libraries.

Lisa Carter, Associate Director for Special Collections and Area Studies, made the official announcement via the News Notes: OSU Libraries news for faculty & staff that Pasha had been hired and that she would begin work on May 1st. Lisa stressed that Pasha “will play a key role in developing and exposing the unique, highly distinctive resources available in the HRL … [and that she] will contribute significantly to collection management, research assistance and engagement activities.” Lisa Carter noted that “she will also provide guidance... for the Libraries’ Eastern European and Slavic activities in Area Studies.”

Medieval Slavic scholars who have utilized the resources of the Hilandar Research Library in the past likely recall Pasha from when she was Assistant Curator of the HRL, and before that a Graduate Research Associate for the Resource Center for Medieval Slavic Studies for several years, while she was a graduate student in the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures.

For the past five years, she has been in her native Louisiana, taking the opportunity to enhance her academic and professional resume. Pasha recently earned a Master's in Library and Information Science from Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge) and then worked as an archivist in the Newcomb Archives, Newcomb College Institute of Tulane University, New Orleans. Her previous work and background as well as her more recent experience and expertise will undoubtedly benefit the work and missions of the HRL, the Special Collections and Area Studies, the OSU Libraries, and the Slavic Department.

Pasha's current research interests include medieval Slavic manuscripts, Slavic and Balkan historical linguistics, women's education of the late 19th and early 20th century, archives, and using technology to promote the study of and access to medieval Slavic manuscripts.

She is one of the editors of Polata knigopis'naia, a journal devoted to the study of early Slavic books, texts and literatures. Previously a print publication, beginning with vol. 38 it is born digital - and available on the OSU Libraries Knowledge Bank. She has also started a blog "ScriptoriaSlavica" for the Hilandar Research Library and the Resource Center for Medieval Slavic Studies: http://library.osu.edu/blogs/medieval-slavic/. (If anyone has topics they would like addressed, they may send requests to hilandar@osu.edu.)

Welcome back to OSU, Pasha!

Thanks to Helene Senecal for the picture and to Predrag Matejic, whose article for the HRL newsletter was the basis for this news story.