Prof. Emeritus Norman Pereira has given a talk on "Stephen Cohen and Soviet Alternatives" at the Southern Slavic Conference meeting in Alexandria, Virginia on April 15, 2011.
Prof. Yuri Leving has recently published two books: "Vospitanie optikoi" ["Upbringing by Optics: Book Illustration, Animation, and Text"] (Moscow: New Literary Observer, 2010) and "Keys to The Gift. A Guide to V. Nabokov's Novel" (Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2011).
Prof. John Barnstead has received a SSHRC grant for a workshop to be held in Halifax on the poet Elizabeth Bishop. Prof. Barnstead has been recently elected President of the Elizabeth Bishop Society of Nova Scotia.
Dr. Shannon Spasova has published an article in the Centre for Learning and Teaching newsletter, "Real-life Tasks in a Virtual World" (FOCUS, Volume 19 Number 1, Spring 2011), about learning Russian in the electronic environment.
2009-2010
Dr. Yuri Leving has given his talk on "Reputation in Fragments: Nabokov’s last Incomplete Novel The Original of Laura" at the Canadian Association of Slavists, Annual Meeting, Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Concordia University, Montreal, May 28-30, 2010
Emeritus Professor Norman Pereira has given his talk on "Autobiographical Reflections" at the Annual Meeting of the Southern Slavic Conference in Gainesville, Florida, 27 March, 2010.
Emeritus Professor Norman Pereira has published his article on "Revisiting the Revisionists and their Critics," The Historian (2010), 72, no. 1, pp. 23-37.
Dr. Yuri Leving has given his talk on Nabokov at the International Nabokov Conference in Kyoto, Japan, March 24-27, 2010
Kudos to our colleague, Professor Norman G. O. Pereira! For his service to the organization, Professor Pereira has been elected Honorary President of Canadian Association of Slavists for the year 2009-2010. Recently he presented a paper titled "Martin Malia versus the Revisionists" at the Southern Slavic Conference in Virginia, 24 March 2009. Prof. Pereira's article "The Thought and Teachings of Michael Karpovich" is in the May issue of Russian History/Histoire Russe and another titled "Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Anti-Semitism" was just published as part of a collection on the New Anti-Semitism by the University of Delaware Press (2009).
2008-2009
During Canadian Association of Slavists which took place in Ottawa, 22-25 May, 2009, Prof. John Barnstead gave a paper on “Nabokov in English Canadian Poetry” and chaired the panel entitled “Art, Truth and Memory.” Dr. Inna Tigountsova gave a talk on “Ry Nikonova’s 1992 and 1999 ‘Architextural’ Poems: a Close Reading,” as well as organized the panel “In Word We Trust: Experiments in Literature and Cinema.” Norman Pereira served as discussant on the panel “The New Cold War: Scholarly Perspectives” and chair for the panel “In Word We Trust: Experiments in Literature and Cinema.”
Dr. Shannon Spasova gave a lecture at Georgia State University, “Virtual Simulations in the Russian-language classroom,” during the IALLT conference, May 25-30, 2009.
Prof. Yuri Leving presented a paper at Princeton University, May 15-17, 2009, at the interdisciplinary conference, Totalitarian Laughter: Cultures of the Comic under Socialism. The talk was entitled “‘Mr. Twister in the Land of Bolsheviks:’ The Ideology of Laughter and Auto-Censorship in Marshak’s Poem.”
Prof. Denis Kozlov gave three talks at Harvard University this year: "Legends and Facts: Novyi mir and the Epistemology of the Thaw" (Russian and Eastern European History Workshop, April 16, 2009); "Thick Literary Journals in Late Soviet History, 1945-1991" (Soviet Union Seminar, February 5, 2009), and "Histories of the Thaw" (guest lecture at the workshop "Visual Culture of Totalitarianism," Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, January 15, 2009)
Language Pedagogy Award - Congratulations to Dr. Shannon Spasova for winning 2008 AATSEEL Best Contribution to Language Pedagogy award (along with Benjamin Rifkin, Viktoria Thorstensson, Nina Familiant, and Dianna Murphy)! American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages is one of the leading professional organizations in the field of Slavic studies outside Russia.
Shannon Spasova is presenting her paper, “In Contact: Using Social Networking Sites to Teach Language and Culture” at CAS 2008 Canadian Association of Slavists Annual Conference University of British Columbia, Vancouver, May 31-June 2, 2008
Yuri Leving gives a talk entitled “‘Like rising bread forgotten by the baker…’ The History of the Critical Reception of V. Nabokov’s The Gift,” as well as chairs a panel, “Reflections on Crisis, Change and Conscience in Russian Literature” at CAS 2008
John Barnstead’s paper explores the topic “Dostoevsky in English Canadian Poetry” at CAS 2008.
Norman Pereira was on a panel at the Kennan Institute of the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. on February 1. The title of the panel: "The Historical Legacy of Martin Malia."On March 28-29, 2008, Professor Pereira chairs a panel as well as delivers a paper at the Southern Slavic Conference at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.
2007-2008
27-30 December, 2007 AATSEEL Annual Conference in Chicago, IL. Shannon Spasova took part at the round table discussion "Culture in Language Class: Incorporating Cultural and Linguistic Aspects of Communication."
Yuri Leving presented his paper, "Reading as Challenge: On Textological Problems and Literary Commentary to Nabokov's The Gift," and served as a discussant at the panel "Institutional Spaces in Soviet Culture."
Yuri Leving presented his paper entitled "Text to Music: Nabokov and Rachmaninoff" at Transitional Nabokov, a two day international conference to be held at the Rothermere American Institute, Oxford University, UK on 6th-7th July 2007.
Prof. John Barnstead presented a paper entitled "Two Settings of Mikhail Kuzmin's 'Alexandrian Songs'" at the Sixtieth Annual Kentucky, Foreign Language Conference, University of Kentucky, 21 April 2007.
Award of Excellence for Teaching to the Russian Faculty Member It is our great pleasure to congratulate Dr. Olga Velikanova on receiving a 2007 Sessional and Part-time Instructor Award of Excellence for Teaching in recognition of her outstanding contribution to learning and teaching at Dalhousie University. Larry Maloney, Associate vice-President Academic, noted in making the award to her: “I was particularly struck by one of the nominee’s comments that suggested your own personal experience living in Russia helped you connect the students with Russian history in a much more powerful manner. I was also excited about the thought of participating in your class which simulated the Stalinist trial. What a marvelous way to ensure student engagement in the subject matter!"
2006-2007
Prof. Norman Pereira presented his talk, on "Michael Karpovich and the Defining of American Cold War Policy," at the annual meeting of the Southern Slavic Conference in Montgomery, Alabama on 23 March, 2007.
Prof. Olga Velikanova presented her paper, “War Scare of 1927. Popular Reactions in Perspectives,” at the annual conference of AAASS (American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies) on November 16-19, 2006, in Washington, DC.
Prof. John Barnstead discussed Mikhail Kuzmin’s novel Wings and Dr. Ann Martin (Department of English) spoke about queer approaches to the literary canon. Queer Literature & Discussion, Thursday, November 9, 2006, 8 pm at Dal SUB, room 302.
Prof. Yuri Leving presented “The Phoenix from the Ashes” – the Halifax author Heather Laskey read from and discusses her book “Night Voices: Heard in the Shadow of Hitler and Stalin.” ”Night Voices” tells the little-known story of young Polish Jewish idealists, survivors of the Holocaust, who chose to support Poland's post-war communist government in the belief that socialism offered the path to a more just society. This event was organized by the Holocaust Education Week and the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History. Wednesday, November 8, 2006 at the Museum of Natural History.
Prof. Norman Pereira gave a talk on “Winter War between the USSR and Finland” on Sunday, November 5, 2006 in Dalhousie Law School, 6061 University Avenue. Updated by T.Neklioudova
