Welcome

Department Statement on the Anniversary of Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

On the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the faculty and students at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures reassert their condemnation of this brutal and unjust war. We mourn its victims. We are appalled at Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian civilians and reports of human rights violations. We call for an end to Russia’s illegal occupation of Ukraine and express our hopes for imminent and lasting peace.

Department Statement on Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

The Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures joins colleagues at ASEEES, AATSEEL, other Slavic departments, and the global academic community, in strongly condemning Russia’s unprovoked military invasion of Ukraine. We are appalled by mounting human losses and the suffering of civilians. We stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine bravely defending their sovereignty and their democratically elected government. We support all those who oppose Russia’s aggression, including the citizens of Russia who do so at great personal risk. We call for the return of peace and safety to our colleagues, friends, and families in the region, and hope for the restoration of open dialogue, cultural links, and intellectual exchange that is vitally threatened by this global crisis.

For information about ways to help Ukraine, see the list compiled by Prof. Timothy Snyder

Resources for journalists, scholars, and the general public are also available through the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute

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The Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Yale University, which is one of the oldest programs of its kind in the United States, was born of the vision of two of the most remarkable figures in the University’s twentieth-century history. In 1946, William Clyde DeVane, the eminent long-term Dean of Yale College and Professor of English, established the Department at the urging of René Wellek, who was appointed Professor of Slavic and Comparative Literature that year and who was soon to emerge as one of the greatest figures in twentieth-century literary studies. Professor Wellek took over the chairmanship of the Department from Dean DeVane in 1948, and following a series of new appointments in the early 1950s, the Department began its ascent to national prominence.

The current members of the Department continue its traditions of engaging in innovative teaching and scholarship on the literatures, languages, and cultures of the Slavic peoples. The Department offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees, with several possible tracks in each, but with a primary emphasis on Russian literature and culture, and especially film.

Slavic department faculty are recognized leaders in their scholarly fields both nationally and internationally, and have established themselves as popular and influential teachers on campus. The Department’s varied course offerings are enriched by the extensive Slavic holdings in the Yale University Library system, which is one of the greatest research collections in the world.

News

Congratulations to Molly Brunson - 2025 Guggenheim Fellow

April 2025

Please join us in offering a round of congratulations to Molly Brunson, Associate Professor in Slavic Languages and Literatures and History of Art, on being awarded a 2025 Guggenheim Fellowship! She joins the 100th class of Guggenheim Fellows.

The Guggenheim Fellowship program aims to provide financial support for artists, scholars in the humanities and social sciences, and scientific researchers “who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts.”

Professor Brunson was selected to join the Guggenheim Fellows in the field of Slavic Studies. Professor Brunson is a leading scholar of modern Russian literature and visual culture. Molly Brunson will be working on two book projects during the fellowship: The Underground: Mining and Matter in Russian and Soviet Culture and The Russian Point of View: Perspective and the Birth of Modern Russian Culture. This is both an enormous honor for Molly and for our department.

Congratulations, Professor Brunson!

Yale Students at New England Russian Olympiada

April 2025

Three undergraduate students, Aubrey Luu, Kylie Mirra, and George Grube earned top honors at this year’s New England Russian Olympiada at Harvard University this Sunday.

Aubrey was awarded second place in the speech contest, George won second place in the poetry reading contest, and Kylie received first prize in the song contest—an impressive accomplishment for all students who are in their first years of study at Yale, and a proud moment for our program.

New Faculty Publication - Finding the ‘universal’: How Chinese aesthetics shaped the Russian modernists

March 2025

In the period that would come to be known as fin-de-siècle Russia — a French descriptor that refers to the late 19th and early 20th centuries — Chinese products, art motifs, and imagery became ubiquitous in Russian cosmopolitan society. At the time, most representations of Chinese people in theater and on packaging were stereotypical caricatures, and the Chinese characters in dime novels were frequently portrayed negatively.

But in his new book “Fin-de-Siècle Russia and Chinese Aesthetics: The Other is the Universal” (Oxford University Press), Yale’s Jinyi Chu argues that modernists of the time did not go along with that mainstream discourse. Rather, he shows how many Russian writers and artists turned to Chinese art, literature, and philosophy as a way of rethinking European norms and expanding their understanding of the universal.