This year was filled with a number of special achievements among our faculty. While we believe every day our faculty and students create excellent work that makes us the best department on campus, these achievements deserve special recognition!
Please join us in congratulating our professors, whose work makes us proud and grateful to be together as instructors, mentors, and colleagues.
Dr. Brian Joseph Retires From SEELC
Appointed the first Kenneth E. Naylor Professor of South Slavic Linguistics in 1997, Prof. Joseph saw his five-year term renewed five times with a split appointment in Slavic and Linguistics before retiring in May 2024. As a historical linguist, Brian taught many courses in the Slavic Department over the years, with his final two iterations of East European Languages and Linguistics 5627 focusing on Albanian--external and internal history, the structure of the language (phonology, morphology, and syntax), the sociolinguistics of the language, and Albanian dialectology--and Old Irish, which he co-taught with SEELC's Dr. Daniel Collins. Among his many publications, Brian is also editing a series of what he calls "booklets" that feature the lectures of the twenty-five experts from across the globe who have been invited Naylor lecturers over the years. Brian's c.v. is almost seventy pages long (!) -- you can explore it in detail and keep track of his post-retirement activities on his professional website. We will miss his contributions to our enterprise but know he is only a phone call away--even when he's in Greece, Albania or elsewhere!
Dr. Alexander Burry Promoted to Full Professor
At the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures, we believe we have some of the best faculty at the University. Today, we have another reason to celebrate that fact!
Join us in giving our Dr. Alex Burry a warm congratulations on his promotion from Associate to Full Professor. Dr. Burry is a beloved member of our Department, giving our students new insights into Russian and Slavic literature every semester.
For more information on Dr. Burry, see our "People" page. See below information on Dr. Burry's new book!
Legacies of the Stone Guest: The Don Juan Legend in Russian Literature, by Alexander Burry (University of Wisconsin Press, 2023)
The story of Don Juan first appeared in writing in seventeenth-century Spain, reaching Russia about a century later. Its real impact, however, was delayed until Russia’s most famous poet, Alexander Pushkin, put his own, unique, and uniquely inspirational, spin on the tale. Published in 1830, The Stone Guest is now recognized, with other Pushkin masterpieces, as part of the Russian literary canon. Alexander Burry traces the influence of Pushkin’s brilliant innovations to the legend, which he shows have proven repeatedly fruitful through successive ages of Russian literature, from the Realist to the Silver Age, Soviet, and contemporary periods. Burry shows that, rather than creating a simple retelling of an originally religious tale about a sinful, consummate seducer, Pushkin offered open-ended scenes, re-envisioned and complicated characters, and new motifs that became recursive and productive parts of Russian literature, in ways that even Pushkin himself could never have predicted.
You can see other OSU promotion and tenure approvals at the Office of Academic Affairs website.
Dr. Sunnie Rucker-Chang Appointed Kenneth E. Naylor Professor of South Slavic Cultures
Two New Appointments as Assistant Teaching Professors
The SEELC is honored to announce that the College of Arts and Sciences has appointed two of our faculty members, Dr. Matthew Boyd and Dr. Diana Sacilowski as assistant teaching professors in SEELC for an initial five year term.
We congratulate Dr. Boyd and Dr. Sacilowski on their magnificent achievement as a recognition of their hard work and contributions to the academic success of the Department! Through this appointment we look forward to the continued service and scholarly contribution they bring to our work at the Department, and to the success of our students.
Join us in a warm congratulations to Dr. Boyd and Dr. Sacilowski!
Learn more about our faculty at the Department's People Page on our website:
Dr. Matthew Boyd teaches as the Department's Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian instructor, and his expertise includes youth culture, music, and politics in the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, and punk, ideology, and ethics on the global post-socialist stage.
Dr. Diana Sacilowski is our Polish language instructor, and her areas of expertise include Polish literature and culture, postmodernism, and memory studies.
Dr. Philip Gleissner Receives the James Beard Award for His New Book
"Immigrants have left their mark on the great melting pot of American cuisine, and they have continued working hard to keep America’s kitchens running, even during times of crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic. For some immigrant cooks, the pandemic brought home the lack of protection for essential workers in the American food system. For others, cooking was a way of reconnecting with homelands they could not visit during periods of lockdown.
Resilient Kitchens: American Immigrant Cooking in a Time of Crisis is a stimulating collection of essays about the lives of immigrants in the United States before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, told through the lens of food. It includes a vibrant mix of perspectives from professional food writers, restaurateurs, scholars, and activists, whose stories range from emotional reflections on hardship, loss, and resilience to journalistic investigations of racism in the American food system. Each contribution is accompanied by a recipe of special importance to the author, giving readers a taste of cuisines from around the world. Every essay is accompanied by gorgeous food photography, the authors’ snapshots of pandemic life, and hand-drawn illustrations by Filipino American artist Angelo Dolojan."
