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Graduate



The KU Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures (SLL) offers programs leading to the Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in the field of Slavic languages and literatures.

Our graduate programs prepare students for a variety of professional positions. While most KU SLL students choose to remain in the academic sector, others have gone on to careers in government service, NGOs [non-governmental organizations], other public-sector positions, administration, high-school and community-college teaching, and professional-education support, among other career paths. Our graduate faculty and their colleagues are ready to mentor students to succeed on whatever path they choose to pursue.

Master of Arts (MA)

Work toward the MA degree at the University of Kansas consists of a traditional curriculum that provides students with important foundational knowledge. Our curriculum includes historical surveys of the major literary periods and genres, understanding of the structure and function of Slavic languages, knowledge of disciplinary methodologies employed in our field, development of appropriate language capacity, and control of writing and research strategies.

The MA degree is offered in Slavic Languages & Literatures

Students pursuing the MA in Slavic Languages & Literatures may choose as their primary language and culture Russian, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, or Polish.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Doctoral Program Profile (statistical overview of the SLL PhD program)

Building on the MA foundational base, the KU PhD degree program encourages students to develop their particular intellectual interests in collaboration with KU faculty and their areas of specialization. PhD students also learn a second Slavic language and develop knowledge of a secondary field (we encourage our students to choose from philosophy, linguistics, religion, history, theatre and cinema, literary theory, comparative literature, and folklore).

Two concentrations are offered in the PhD Program:

  • Russian Literature
  • Slavic Linguistics

PhD students who pursue the traditional study of Russian literature and Slavic linguistics have a full-service curriculum from which to choose their courses.

PhD students interested in Russian culture, intellectual history, Slavic folklore, or interdisciplinary humanities studies track through the Russian literature PhD option.

PhD students interested in working in the field of Slavic language pedagogy track through the Slavic linguistics PhD option.

For more information about the academic program or about any aspect of the application process, please contact:

Dr. Maria Carlson
Professor and Director of Graduate Studies
2139 Wescoe Hall
785.864.2350
mcarlson@ku.edu
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Application for Graduate Study

KU SLL accepts applications for graduate study year-round. Students may begin our graduate program in either the fall or spring semester. Applications asking for financial support, however, have a 1 January deadline for August matriculation. Our Graduate Faculty finalizes GTA (Graduate Teaching Assistantship) decisions by 1 March or shortly therafter. Please indicate in your letter of intent or in the on-line application form that you wish to be considered for a GTA position.

Submit an application to the Office of Research and Graduate Studies (RGS). Go to the RGS Application and follow the instructions. The link takes you step by step through the entire institutional application process.

Please be aware that:

In order to complete your on-line application to KU SLL, you will need to prepare the following items for upload:

1a. GRE scores, if you are a North American applicant. While you may enter your scores on the general data sheet, confirmation of scores will need to come from GRE: KU's GRE institutional code is 6871. International applicants do not need to submit GRE scores.

1b. TOEFL scores, if you are an international student and a non-native speaker of English who has not gone through the American or Canadian public education system. See the TOEFL information at the International Programs website. International students must meet the minimum requirement for "regular" admission (all part scores at least 53 on the paper TOEFL; see the chart at this link for other equivalents). KU's TOEFL institutional code is 6871. Native English speakers do not need to submit TOEFL scores.

The on-line application will also ask you to submit:

2. one official copy of all academic transcripts, issued by the registrar, covering all post-secondary study you have undertaken;

3. a letter of intent (this statement should provide the graduate faculty with a sense of what you hope to encounter in the graduate school experience, your general research interests at this point in your career, what skills you most need to work on, and what shape you think your career might take--in the academy or outside of it);

4. a short essay in the target language you intend to study (Russian, Polish, or Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian);

5. a sample research paper from one of your courses, preferably on a relevant topic (to demonstrate your writing skills and basic research capacity);

6. the names and contact information of three references (who will be contacted for letters of recommendation directly by KU). Please alert your referees;

7. transcripts from all institutions attended (these may come electronically or by mail);

8. general information about your applications for funding (please apply for FLAS funding if your profile is suitable; the deadline is 1 February)

We encourage you to look at the faculty page and see which faculty members do research or teach in your areas of interest.

The Department cannot complete the processing of your portfolio until you have submitted a completed institutional application to the Office of Research and Graduate Studies.

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Interdisciplinary Themes

The Slavic Department faculty have unique linkages that allow the study of special areas across disciplines. Note, however, that these are not degree concentrations, majors, or minors.

Russian Intellectual History

  • Prof. Maria Carlson (SLL): Russian culture, intellectual history, 18th- and 20th-c. Russian literature, Silver Age; occult and speculative philosophies
  • Prof. Edith W. Clowes (SLL): 19th- and 20th-c. Russian literature and culture, Russian philosophy, intellectual history, comparative literature, especially German and Russian, theory
  • Prof. William J. Comer (SLL): Russian culture, literature, and religious sectarianism
  • Prof. Eve Levin (History): Gender, sexuality, popular culture, Orthodox Christianity, and medicine, focusing on Russia and the Balkans
  • Prof. Ani Kokoboo (SLL): Nineteenth-century Russian literature, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Pushki
  • Prof. Renee Perelmutter (Jewish Studies, SLL): Yiddish and Jewish literature in Russia and the former Soviet Union.

Slavic civilization in the former Habsburg and Ottoman Empires

  • Prof. Stephen M. Dickey (SLL): BCS language, literature, and culture, esp. Bosnia and Croatia
  • Prof. Marc L. Greenberg (SLL): BCS, Slovene, Slavic prehistory, language and nationalism
  • Ms. Marta Pirnat-Greenberg (SLL): BCS, Slovene language
  • Prof. Ivana Radovanovic (Anthropology): Slavic prehistory and its relationship to Slavic nationalisms
  • Prof. Nathan D. Wood (History): 19th and 20th-Cent. Eastern Europe, Poland, modern Europe, urban and cultural history, the popular press
  • Prof. Svetlana P. Vassileva-Karagyozova (SLL): Polish and Czech language, comparative Slavic literatures, Baroque in Orthodox Slavic literatures, 20th c. Polish and Czech prose

Slavic and East European folklore, prehistory and the Indo-European context

Jewish culture in Eastern Europe

  • Prof. Renee Perelmutter (SLL): Yiddish language and Jewish secular culture and literature in Eastern Europe
  • Prof. Rebecca Rovit (Theatre, Jewish Studies): Cultural heritage of the Holocaust (1933-1945)

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