University of Manitoba - Faculty of Arts - German and Slavic Studies - Department News and Events
Department News and Events

German and Slavic Awards Reception

Department of German and Slavic Studies will be having our annual awards reception will be in a virtual format this year. Students, please be reminded to use your full names when you attend so we can welcome you in to the awards reception quickly.

What: We honour our Award Winning Students
Who: German and Slavic Studies
Where: Zoom Call (link below)
When: Thursday, March 4th, 2021
Time: 5:00pm - 6:00pm

Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/94553169967?pwd=RVVhYU9QdEtHZGdmcy9JbDJGZVY5UT09
Meeting ID: 945 5316 9967
Passcode: 142025

German and Slavic Awards Poster


Culture Week


The Language Centre is kicking off its annual Culture Weeks starting this Monday, February 22, 2021. In the next couple of months, a wide variety of Language Programs will introduce themselves and present fun and interactive cultural Zoom events. Learn fun facts about their culture, food, and traditions. From a German Kahoot! game where you can win a prize, to Chinese writing, Arabian Art, and Ukrainian cartoons there will be something for everybody. Take a little study break and see how global our university is. 

Join us on February 25th on Zoom to explore fun facts about Germany in a competitive Kahoot! game for a chance to win a $25 Amazon gift card.

Time: Feb 25, 2021 11:58 AM
https://zoom.us/j/98007329228?pwd=VzgrcFc3R2NnejJCUG96UnNDbVdLdz09
Meeting ID: 980 0732 9228
Passcode: 737667

Come join us on February 25th at 2:00pm on Zoom to explore Ukrainian Culture.

Time: Feb 25, 2021 2:00 PM
https://zoom.us/j/98927610394?pwd=V1lZSkRERTNGSExBUmdjVC8zOHdVQT09
Meeting ID: 980 0732 9228
Passcode: 737667

Join us on Feb 26th on Zoom to learn how to write your name in Russian, say ‘Hello’, ‘Good-bye’ and other common phrases in Russian, and maybe even learn the Russian alphabet so that you can read Russian!

Time: Feb 26, 2021 01:00 PM
https://zoom.us/j/93368651479?pwd=Y2VGdmxiS2NSUjhZWHJxYnJReHJXQT09
Meeting ID: 933 6865 1479
Passcode: 058726

Join us on Mar 5th to Learning Russian through songs, poems and cartoons.

Time: Mar 5, 2021 10:30 AM
https://zoom.us/j/93663768611
Meeting ID: 936 6376 8611
Passcode: 510994


Central and East European Program Lecture Series 2020 - 2021 - Dr. Elena Baraban and Dr. Stephan M. Norris

Please click on the link below to register:

https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJAkc-2rrTsvGNWKF9Jf9Lgffxzi7WK4QQy7

Book Launch: Thursday, February 25, 2021, 2:00 – 3:30 PM (Central Time) Winnipeg, MB

Dr. Elena V. Baraban, Associate Professor of Russian at the University  of Manitoba;
Professor Stephen M. Norris, Walter E. Havighurst Professor of Russian History and Director of the Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet Studies at Miami University (OH)

Moderator: Prof. Eliot Borenstein, Professor of Russian; Collegiate Professor, New York University (NYU).

The Akunin Project: The Mysteries and Histories of Russia’s Bestselling Author, eds. Elena V. Baraban and Stephen M. Norris (U of Toronto Press, 2021)

A bestselling author in Russia whose works have been translated into many languages, Boris Akunin is mostly known for his stylish mystery novels starring the tsarist secret policeman Erast Fandorin. Yet, under this and other pen names, Grigorii Chkhartishvili has also written dozens of books of popular histories and fiction. An outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin, Chkhartishvili left Russia for Western Europe in 2014. Bringing together scholars of literature, history, and culture, The Akunin Project is the first major scholarly work devoted to this fascinating author.

Elena V. Baraban’s publications focus on detective fiction, representations of the Second World War, as well as Russian cinema and literature. The Akunin Project is her second co-edited volume.

Stephen M. Norris has published widely on Russian nineteenth- and twentieth-century history and culture. His third monograph, The History Painters: Art, History, and the Making of Russian National Identity, is coming out in 2021 with Bloomsbury Press.

Sponsored by: German and Slavic Studies Department, Central and East European Studies Program (University of Manitoba, Canada), U of Toronto Press


Central and East European Program Lecture Series 2020 - 2021 - Dr. Katherine Zubovich


Please click on the link below to register:

https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIpdumhqTktG9PjfepxLs4SzccCNvf8IHh7

Book Presentation: Thursday, February 11, 202, 1:00 – 2:30 PM (Central Time)

Dr. Katherine Zubovich, Assistant Professor, History, The State University of New York Buffalo (SUNY Buffalo)

Moderator: Dr. Elena Baraban, Associate Professor of Russian, German and Slavic Studies, University of Manitoba

Moscow Monumental: Soviet Skyscrapers and Urban Life in Stalin’s Capital  (Princeton University Press, 2020)

In the early years of the Cold War, the skyline of Moscow was forever transformed by a citywide skyscraper building project. As the steel girders of the monumental towers went up, the centuries-old metropolis was reinvented to embody the greatness of Stalinist society. Moscow Monumental explores how the quintessential architectural works of the late Stalin era fundamentally reshaped daily life in the Soviet capital.

Short bio: Dr. Zubovich researches the history of cities and urban planning, the history of architecture and visual culture, and modern transnational history. She completed her PhD in 2016 at the University of California, Berkeley, and also holds an MA from the University of Toronto and a BA from the University of Victoria.

Sponsored by: German and Slavic Studies Department, Central and East European Studies Program (University of Manitoba, Canada)

Central and East European Program Lecture Series 2020 - 2021 - Dr. Molly Pucci


Please click on the link below to register:

https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMvfuirrDMjHt2LoRk50e0sHjSwNgzDg0cd

Thursday, January 28, 2021
1:00 – 2:30 PM (Central Time)

Dr. Molly Pucci, Assistant Professor of European History, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, Ireland

Moderator: Dr. Orysia Kulick, Assistant Professor, German and Slavic Studies, Political Science, University of Manitoba

Dreams and Nightmares of Bolshevism: Marxist Reactions to the Russian Revolution


This talk examines encounters between West European Marxists and Soviet Russia in the years following the Russian revolution with a focus on the case study of Czechoslovakia. By covering new sources and topics, including literature, poetry, letters, workers' delegations, and Czech agricultural communes, it explores the ways early Bolshevik Russia was understood in, and propagated to, Western Europe during the years of the New Economic Policy.

Short bio: Before joining the Department of History at the Trinity College Dublin, Dr. Pucci was a Max Weber Postdoctoral Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence and a Geballe Dissertation Prize Fellow at the Stanford Humanities Center. She holds a PhD in history from Stanford University and an MA in Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies from Harvard University. Dr. Pucci's research interests include the history of communism, legal history, and the history of policing in twentieth century Europe. Her book, Security Empire: The Secret Police in Communist Eastern Europe, came out with Yale University Press in 2020. Dr. Pucci's current book project is a history of communism in Central Europe in the interwar period.


Sponsored by: German and Slavic Studies Department, Central and East European Studies
Program, Political Science (University of Manitoba, Canada)


Central and East European Program Lecture Series 2020 - 2021 - Dr. Megan Swift

Please click on the link below to register:

https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMldOCqqzwrHdCUxFr6xX8dftSQW_JiHV6M

Book Presentation: Thursday, December 3, 2020 via Zoom at 1:00-2:30pm (Central Time)

Dr. Megan Swift, Associate Professor, Germanic and Slavic Studies, University of Victoria

Moderator: Dr. Elena Baraban, Associate Professor of Russian, German and Slavic Studies, University of Manitoba

Picturing the Page: Illustrated Children’s Reading and Literature Under Lenin and Stalin

Based on sources from rare book libraries in Russia and around the world, Picturing the Page offers a vivid exploration of illustrated children’s literature and reading under Lenin and Stalin - a period when mass publishing for children and universal public education became available for the first time in Russia. By analyzing the illustrations in fairy tales, classic “adult” literature reformatted for children, and wartime picture books, Megan Swift elucidates the vital and multifaceted function of illustrated children’s literature in repurposing the past. Picturing the Page demonstrates that while the texts of the past remained fixed, illustrations could slip between the pages to mediate and annotate that past, as well as connect with anti-religious, patriotic, and other campaigns that were central for Soviet children’s culture after the 1917 Revolution.

Short bio:
Dr. Megan Swift is an Associate Professor in the Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies at the University of Victoria. Her book Picturing the Page: Illustrated Children’s Literature and Reading under Lenin and Stalin was published by University of Toronto Press in 2020 and her edited volume on memorialization of the 1917 revolution, Revolutionary Aftereffects: Material, Social and Cultural Legacies of 1917 in Russia Today, is forthcoming, also with University of Toronto Press. Megan was the winner of the University of Victoria’s REACH award for research-inspired teaching in 2019 and is currently a faculty fellow at Uvic’s Center for Global Studies.

Sponsored by: German and Slavic Studies Department, Central and East European Studies Program (University of Manitoba, Canada); University of Toronto Press


Central and East European Program Lecture Series 2020 - 2021 - Dr. Stephan Jaeger


Please click on the link below to register:

https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMsc-mprTsvH9DQ0KiPvOZBVY5Lk9gblvRg

Book Presentation: Tuesday, November 17, 2020 via Zoom at 1:00-2:30pm (Central Time)

Dr. Stephan Jaeger, Professor, German Studies, University of Manitoba

Moderator: Dr. Adam Muller, Professor, Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Manitoba

The Second World War in the Twenty-First-Century Museum: From Memory, Narrative, and Experience to Experientiality

Dr. Jaeger’s new book with the same title was published with De Gruyter in 2020 as part of the series Media and Cultural Memory. It is available as hard copy (ISBN 978-3-11-066106-4’) as well as open access book:

PDF: https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/title/558132;
EPub: https://www.degruyter.com/downloadepub/title/558132.

The Second World War is omnipresent in contemporary global memory debates. This is the first study to systematically analyze on a global scale how museums allow today’s visitors to comprehend and experience the history of the war. It analyzes twelve permanent exhibitions located in Europe and North America in order to understand the cognitive, ethical, and emotional potential and effects of Second World War exhibitions today.

Short bio:
Dr. Stephan Jaeger researches on narratives, representations and memory of war and genocide. He has also published two other monographs and nine co-edited books, including Views of Violence: Representing the Second World War in German and European Museums and Memorials (Berghahn 2019). He is co-editor of the newly inaugurated book series “Museums and Narrative” (with De Gruyter).

Sponsored by: German and Slavic Studies Department, Central and East European Studies Program (University of Manitoba, Canada); De Gruyter publishers.


Dr. Stephan Jaeger, Department Head, Department of German and Slavic Studies

September 8, 2020: Dr. Stephan Jaeger, Professor of German and Slavic Studies in our Department, received a 2019 University of Manitoba Merit Award in the category "Research, Scholarly Work and Creative Activities" for outstanding research activities and publications in the year 2019.

UMLearn article - Dr. Stephan Jaeger

Personal homepage: http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~jaeger

New book publications:

-[authored book]: The Second World War in the Twenty-First-Century Museum: From Memory, Narrative, and Experience to Experientiality. Media and Cultural Memory 26. De Gruyter, 2020.

-Views of Violence: Representing the Second World War in German and European Museums and Memorials. Ed. Jörg Echternkamp & Stephan Jaeger. Spektrum 19. Berghahn 2019.

-Romanhaftes Erzählen von Geschichte: Vergegenwärtigte Vergangenheiten im beginnenden 21. Jahrhundert. Ed. Daniel Fulda & Stephan Jaeger. Studien und Texte zur Sozialgeschichte der Literatur 148. De Gruyter, 2019.

Call for manuscripts for new scholarly book series “Museums & Narrative”: https://blog.degruyter.com/call-for-manuscripts-museums-and-narrative/


Dr. Stephan Jaeger, Department Head, Department of German and Slavic Studies

New Book publication by Dr. Stephan Jaeger, Professor of German Studies (Department of German and Slavic Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Manitoba)

Stephan Jaeger. The Second World War in the Twenty-First-Century Museum: From Memory, Narrative, and Experience to Experientiality. Media and Cultural Memory 26. De Gruyter, 2020.

The book, as the war fades from living memory, is the first to systematically analyze how Second World War museums allow prototypical visitors to comprehend and experience the past. It analyzes twelve permanent exhibitions in Europe and North America – the Bundeswehr Military History Museum in Dresden, the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk, the House of European History in Brussels, the Imperial War Museums in London and Manchester, the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Topography of Terror in Berlin, Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, Bastogne War Museum, German-Russian Museum in Berlin-Karlshorst, Oskar-Schindler Factory in Kraków, Warsaw Rising Museum – in order to show how museums reflect and shape cultural memory, as well as their cognitive, ethical, emotional, and aesthetic potential and effects. This includes a discussion of representations of events such as the Holocaust and air warfare, as well as a discussion of the use of art in Second World War museums. In relation to narrative, memory, and experience, the study develops the concept of experientiality (on a sliding scale between mimetic and structural forms), which provides a new textual-spatial method for reading exhibitions and understanding the experiences of historical individuals and collectives. It is supplemented by concepts like transnational memory, empathy, and encouraging critical thinking through difficult knowledge. See also https://www.degruyter.com/view/title/558132?tab_body=toc-75135 for a detailed table of contents.

The research for this book was generously supported through an Insight Grant by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (2014-2020) and through several internal grants facilitated by the University of Manitoba.

The book also received a major Open Access grant, so that its EBook versions are available for free: Open Access EBook as EPUB: https://www.degruyter.com/downloadepub/title/558132; Open Access EBook as PDF: https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/title/558132.


Stolpersteine Exhibition @ JHCWC in Winnipeg - October 15 - November 15

The Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada (JHCWC) and the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany Toronto invite you to an exhibition on the Stolpersteine (Stumbling Stones) “One Stone. One Name. One Person.”

The Stolpersteine Project (stumbling stones) is a project of German artist Gunter Demnig. The project commemorates people who were persecuted by the Nazis between 1933 and 1945. Stolpersteine are being realized for Jews, Sinti and Roma, people from the political or religious resistance, victims of the “euthanasia”; murders, homosexuals, Jehovahs Witnesses and for people who were persecuted for being declared to be “asocial”.The concrete blocks measuring 10x10cm and are laid into the pavement in front of the last voluntarily chosen places of residence of the victims of the Nazis. Their names and fate are engraved into a brass plate on the top of each Stolperstein. For more than 20 years, they have been part of the urban image of Berlin and many other European cities. Thus, the exhibition wants to introduce the often unknown groundwork and manifold facets of this European art and remembrance project. The Stumbling Stone project has often been described with the term “Social Sculpture” as characterized by Joseph Beuys.

Stolperstein Exhibition

Language Tutor Program


Hello all language learners! You made it through the first couple of weeks on your way to conquer a new language. Learning a language is not easy, but it comes with great rewards and privileges. To help you in the process of learning, the Language Centre started an online tutor program. This program is free and will be supported by student volunteers. If you want to practice your pronunciations or speaking skills, get support with assignments or exam preparations and reviews, please contact the Language Centre and we will match you up with a tutor to support you. The tutor program offers you free one on one sessions or, if you would like to form a study group in your class, group sessions as well.  

For more information please contact the Language Centre or visit our Website for a time schedule.

language.centre@umanitoba.ca

http://umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/departments/language_centre/

We have available tutors in:

Arabic, Chinese ,French, German, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Ukrainian