Russian Studies Program of the MLL Department is happy to announce that
The 2014 MLL Outstanding Achievement Award in Russian Studies (formerly MLL Russian Book Award) goes to Sophia Kosar.
The award seeks to recognize a graduating Russian Studies major for her contributions in research and language studies.
Congratulations Sophie!
The RPSS Executive Committee is happy to announce that the RPSS Excellence Awards for the year 2014 went to Jessica Parks and Hannah Kitchen.
The RPSS Excellence Award seeks to provide recognition for the best Russian Studies senior majors and minors who made a major contribution to the Russian Studies program in the areas of research, language and culture studies.
The event will be held on Saturday, March 22nd, 12:00 -4:00 pm, McGlothlin Street 20.
The Russian Language Olympics are a newly born tradition at the College of William and Mary. It gives an opportunity to students taking Russian to demonstrate their language skills in both an engaging and creative atmosphere. Level 1 students will compete with each other in Jeopardy-style games. Level 2 students will act out skits completely in Russian. Level 3 students will recite Russian poems and present on the significance and influence of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin.
Competitors will have a chance to win great prizes such as RLO t-shirts, mugs, and official Sochi Olympics magnets. A fair evaluation of students’ performances will be provided by a panel of judges including:Guest Judge, Pr. Yanni Kotsonis (New York University) and Professors Fred Corney, Bella Ginzbursky-Blum, Alexander Prokhorov, and Lena Prokhorova of The College of William and Mary.
Professor Yanni Kotsonis (Department of History, New York University) will give his presentation on Thursday, March 20, 4:00-5:30 pm, Washington Hall 201.
Taxes secure revenue but taxes are equally tools that reshape societies. In Russia this was a movement away from regimes of privilege where only the lower orders paid, to systems of income and excise taxation where everyone paid, though at flat rates. Soon the demand for equality yielded to the need to tax progressively on income as a form of socioeconomic fairness. Taxes could also produce new kinds of subjectivity as citizens were asked to fill out their tax forms and declare who they are economically, while states used the fiscal tools to encourage certain activities and lifestyles and penalize others. Modern tax systems therefore embody larger modern tensions that are still with us: between political equality and social fairness, between our right to be left alone and our obligation to the society as a whole, between our laissez faire impulses and our expectation that people can be reshaped and improved. This lecture shows how the evolution and the paradox were played out in the diverse historical settings of Imperial Russia, Soviet Russia, Europe, and North America.
Professor Russel Zanca (Northeastern Illinois University) will give a talk on Thursday, March 13th, 5:00pm, Tucker 127A.
Welcome to the Russian House Film Screening about Yuri Gagarin.
March, 12th, 7pm, Russian House.
Our congratulations to Rachel Faith who has been awarded the 2014 National ACTR Post-Secondary Russian Scholar Laureate Award. Way to go, Rachel! 🙂
Our traditional Maslenitsa celebration will be on Saturday, February 22nd at 5 pm. The event will be held in the Russian House. We can promise lots of bliny, interesting games and a great company!
Rachel Faith’14 was recently elected to become a member of Phi Beta Kappa. The Phi Beta Kappa is the nation’s oldest honor society, founded in 1776 at the College of William and Mary. The induction ceremony will be held on December 5th, 2013 in the Wren Chapel. Faith is double-majoring in Russian and Post-Soviet Studies and Chinese Studies. She was previously the recipient of the first Gates scholarship for study abroad and is also a member of Dobro Slovo, the National Slavic Honor Society.