
Russell Scott Valentino
Chair, Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures
Professor, Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures
Associate Dean for International Affairs, College of Arts and Sciences
- russellv@indiana.edu
- GA 4040
Welcome to our new website and the 2021-22 school year in the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures!
We are looking forward to celebrating the department’s 75th anniversary in 2022 and renewing our commitment to studying historically grounded questions about the cultures of Central and Eastern Europe. The department has gone through a few changes over the decades, but our focus on the languages of this dynamic and often politically sensitive region has never wavered. And so today our students learn Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian, Czech, Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian, and they learn to encounter the cultures of the region both on their own terms and in comparative context.
Our students continue to combine majors and minors across the College of Arts and Sciences and beyond -- in anthropology, history, international studies, media, music, political science, and more. The historical experiences of the peoples of Central and Eastern Europe frequently enable us to challenge our students to reflect on their own experiences as they develop real-world critical thinking skills and analytic clarity when faced with sometimes clashing ideologies and cultural norms. We send our students into the world with thorough preparation in the languages and cultures of this immensely rich region, and our alumni include former ambassadors, government analysts, military officers, professional entertainers, translators, scholars, and teachers.
Our commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the department’s founding, its history, and the many accomplishments of its faculty and alumni will be accompanied by due pomp and circumstance. So stay tuned, and as always, don’t hesitate to be in touch. If you’re in Bloomington and would like a tour, a visit to a class, or an immersive hour with current students at one of our regularly held language tables, please drop us a line.
Chair, Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures
Professor, Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures
Associate Dean for International Affairs, College of Arts and Sciences