The Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures at Indiana University was first organized in 1947 as the Department of Slavic Studies under the leadership of Michael Ginsburg, the university’s first professor of Russian. Today, IU is the only university in the state of Indiana to offer the doctoral degree in Slavic Languages and Literatures. We also offer a master’s degree and an exceptional array of language, literature, culture, and linguistics courses in the study of Russian, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, Czech, Polish, Romanian, and Ukrainian.
IU Slavic department faculty members represent one of the largest and best concentrations of expertise in the United States. Professors Fowler, Franks, Holdeman, Melnyk, Shardakova, and Shrager have particular strength in Slavic Linguistics. Emery, Valentino, Geballe are experts in Russian literature, while Holdeman, Shrager, Shardakova specialize in language pedagogy. Other professors focus on literary and cultural studies: Cravens (Czech); Nizynska, Sicinski (Polish); Emery, Valentino (South Slavic languages); and Melnyk and Asher (Ukrainian).
Indiana University has offered intensive summer training in Russian and other East European languages at IU Bloomington since 1950. Our summer Language Workshop remains the largest program of its kind in the United States, offering students the opportunity to complete a full year of college language instruction during a single eight-week summer session for reduced tuition rates.
Russian and East European Institute (REEI)
Our department coordinates with IU’s Title VI Center, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, to run the Robert F. Byrnes Russian and East European Institute. As one of the country’s leading programs in Russian and East European area studies, REEI assists students in acquiring language proficiency, analytical tools, and area studies knowledge, offering courses and cocurricular programming throughout the year. Special concerts, exhibits, lectures, film showings, pedagogy workshops and other events are usually open to the public and advertised in the REEI section of the main IU Calendar of Events.
The College of Arts