Slavic Department Student Grants and Awards: Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures

Slavic Department Student Grants and Awards

The Radulovacki Slavic Studies Fund is used to support travel for graduate and/or undergraduate students to Slavic countries for the purpose of studying Slavic culture, literature and/or language, with a preference for students studying Russian culture, literature, and/or language. For more information on the Radulovacki Slavic Studies Fund, click here. For more information on Study Abroad, click here.

The Irwin Weil Award for Outstanding Slavic Essay is open to any student who took a Slavic course during the current academic year at Northwestern. More information on the 2021-2022 Irwin Weil Award for Outstanding Slavic Essay.

Adam Laten Willson is a second-year PhD student at Northwestern's Department of Slavic Languages and LIteratures. His current research is in Central Asian Socialist Realist literature in Russian. Having come from a more comparative background, one of Adam's main priorities at the beginning of his doctoral program was and continues to be Russian language acquisition. This year, Adam was fortunate to have been accepted to an MA in Russian at Middlebury Language Schools, which he is pursuing in tandem with his studies at Northwestern. Founded in 1945, Middlebury's Russian Language School provides one of the most effective Russian language immersion programs in the world. This past summer, the Radulovacki fund helped supplement Adam's financial aid for 6 weeks of language instruction and practice. In addition to full immersion, Adam attended graduate level courses in Advanced Russian grammar, Russian literary genre, and Russian orientalism, all taught in Russian. In addition to major strides in vocabulary, grammatical acumen, and cultural awareness, the round-the-clock immersive environment at Middlebury helped considerably boost Adam's automatic use of Russian. Next academic year, Adam hopes to take advantage of Middlebury's new year-abroad opportunity in Kazakhstan, not only to continue his Russian language acquisition but also become better acquainted with a cultural context which directly relates to his research.

Alisher Juzgenbayev is a first-year JD/Ph.D. student at Northwestern's Pritzker School of Law and Political Science Department. He studies comparative law and politics in countries of the Former Soviet Union. He is interested in the relationships between politicians, judges, and the legal profession in Ukraine, where he also plans to conduct field research.

Robby Jacobsen

Robby Jacobson is a fourth-year student studying Russian Language, Literature, and Culture at Northwestern. He has always been interested in Russia and loves how the program's flexibility allows him to take relevant classes on varying subjects. He is especially interested in Russian history, literature, and language and looks forward to improving his Russian while in Moscow.

Sydney Matrisciano graduated from the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science prior to attending Northwestern University as a Questbridge Scholar. While there, she began studying Russian under the tutelage of Margaret Henry, a fellow Northwestern alumna. Sydney participated in the 2017 National Security Languages Initiative for Youth in Moldova to further her study of Russian, as well as the 2017 Olympiad of Spoken Russian in Moscow, Russia. Her interest in Russian is rooted in a deep appreciation of the cultural contributions of the Russian people and a desire to foster connections for mutual exchange. Sydney's research interests include memoriality, place-making, and cultural histories of embroidery.

Slavic major Emily Andrey was the first recipient of the Radulovacki Slavic Studies Award for her study in St. Petersburg, Russia, September 3-24, 2019. She participated in the International Summer School program, “The Topography of Imperial Power: The Political and Cultural Space of St. Petersburg,” at the Higher School of Economics (HSE). Emily, a double major in Slavic Languages and Literatures and Art History, with a minor in Chemistry, noted, “This program is a unique intersection of culture and politics that reflects my double major and my interests in art and social/political spaces.” Emily has received a Fulbright to teach in Russia, and is a 2020 NU graduate. Congratulations, Emily!