Сотрудники летней программы
First-Year Russian
Julia Titus, a native of Moscow and a Senior Lector II in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Yale University, where she has been teaching since 1992. Over the course of her career, she has taught all levels of Russian, beginning to advanced, including intensive Russian and Russian for bilinguals, as well as courses on Russian theater. She has also taught in the Yale Summer Session since its inception in 2001. 
Second-Year Russian
Nana Kajaia, Ph.D., is a native of Georgia. She is a professor of European Studies and Russian Language and Literature at Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University where she has taught since 1998. She teaches Russian as a second language as well as courses on Russian Literature and intercultural connections. She has taught Second-Year Russian at the Yale Summer Session in Georgia since 2022.
Third-Year Russian, Program Director
Constantine Muravnik is a native of Moscow. He has a Ph.D. from the Slavic Department of Yale, where he has been teaching since 1995. He has taught in the summer program since its inception in 2001 and has directed it since 2003.
Advanced Russian, Program Coordinator
Anna Kondratenko was born and raised in Moscow where she received her undergraduate degree at the prestigious Literary Institute. She received her Ph. D. in Russian Studies from Tbilisi State University in 2020. She has lived in Tbilisi, Georgia, since 2008. Anna has been the Local Coordinator of the Yale Summer Program in Georgia and taught Advanced Russian Conversation through Contemporary Media since 2022. She also teaches Russian as a second and native Language at the Russian Language School “SkySmart.”
Georgia, Russia, and the Caucasus in Literature, Cinema, and Visual Arts
Nikolai Firtich was born and raised in Saint Petersburg, Russia, where he received a degree in fine arts. After moving to the US in 1983, Nikolai pursued the study of Russian Literature, earning a Ph.D. from Yale in 2001. Since then, he has been a professor of Russian Studies at Vassar College where he teaches a variety of courses on many aspects of Russian culture, including literature, film, and visual arts.
Assistant Coordinator
Denis was born and raised in Russia in the city of Taganrog by the Sea of Azov. He has lived in Georgia since 2018. He works for the Brazilian company EBAC Online as Senior Software Engineer. He has been the assistance coordinator in the YSS: Russian in Georgia since the summer of 2003.
Elementary Georgian (not graded, non-credit)
Maya Kikvadze is a native of Georgia. She studied Georgian language and literature at Tbilisi State University and received her Ph.D. at the Institute of Linguistics of the Georgian Academy of Sciences. She is a professor in the Department of Georgian Philology at Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University. She teaches the following undergraduate and graduate courses: Modern Georgian Language, Language and Culture, Name in Georgian, and Academic Writing. She is also the head of two educational programs at Batumi University: Georgian for Ethnic Minorities of Georgia (Azeris, Armenians, Abkhazians, Ossetians, and others) and Georgian as a Second Language. In these programs, she teaches two lecture courses: Practical Grammar of the Georgian Language and Communicative Aspects of the Georgian Language; Speaking. Professor Kikvadze has taught Georgian in the Yale Summer Session since 2023.