Graduate Degree in Slavic Languages and Literature

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The Department of Slavic Languages and Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is one of the nation's leading doctoral programs in Russian literature. We do not currently accept students seeking the PhD in Slavic linguistics. We have tenured or tenure-track faculty members in Russian literature, Polish literature, Serbo-Croatian literature, Slavic folklore, Slavic linguistics, and pedagogy/second language acquisition, allowing us to offer graduate students both breadth and depth in their studies. Faculty regularly win awards from the university and from professional associations, including prizes for "best book in the area of Russian literature" and serve as officers and on the editorial boards of major Slavic professional associations and journals. A review of faculty professional activities shows that we are very productive scholars: in the last 10 years we published 14 books (with 10 more in press), 236 book chapters and articles in refereed journals (with 19 more in press), and edited 10 volumes. UW-Madison Slavic Department faculty are very well connected to the Slavic field and hold office in numerous professional associations (including AATSEEL, AAASS, and MLA) and serve on editorial boards including SEEJ and Slavic Review. We have won numerous grants and internal and external awards. But we are not only a research department: all the faculty are dedicated teachers. Our department is a warm, friendly community in which everyone feels included. Graduate students typically take courses for three years and take preliminary examinations in their fourth year, after which they begin to write their dissertations. Required courses included the introduction to literary theory and the methods course (on the teaching of Slavic languages).

All students are required to demonstrate proficiency in Russian by the beginning of their fifth semester in our program. Most students have some kind of funding in the form of fellowships, teaching assistantships or research assistantships. The department has a thriving undergraduate program in Slavic languages, with strong enrollments in Russian, which has three major tracks (tracks for language and literature, language and civilization, and a track for native speakers.) There is also a Polish major (the oldest in the country) and courses in Czech and Serbo-Croatian. Our department works together to provide interdisciplinary courses; our links with other programs, including Jewish Studies, Women's Studies, are important opportunities for our graduate students. The UW-Madison Center for Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia (CREECA) is a Title VI National Language Resource Center and provides funding for cultural opportunities on campus, as well as student scholarships (FLAS fellowships). We encourage applications from students with the BA or MA with experience and training in the area of literature who are interested in a doctoral degree in Russian literature; we do not currently accept students seeking the PhD in Slavic linguistics.