Languages and Culture Staff Recent Publications, Public Engagement and Activity

Details of recent public engagement, outreach, media appearances and activities of SSEES Languages and Culture colleagues

April 2024

• On April 24, Ramona Gonczol, Yordanka Velkova and Olga Volosova hosted 58 GCSE students from three high schools at UCL, as a culmination of the Proficiency in East European Languages (PEEL) project. Students had language classes in their heritage language, a tour of UCL and heard about what studying a language at university could lead to. 

March 2024

• On March 28, Dr Riitta Valijarvi, Associate Professor of Finnish and Minority Languages, was a guest on the BBC Radio 4 programme In Our Time, to discuss Finland's epic The Kalevala. Riitta was also joined by retired SSEES Professor, Daniel Abondolo (Reader in Hungarian). Listen to the episode (BBC)
• Dr Anna Ponomareva had a chapter published: 'The Visibility of the Translator: A Case of Telugu Section in Progress Publishers and Raduga'  in Murieann Maguire and Cathy McAteer (eds) Translating Russian Literature in the Global Context, pp.429-435. Available at https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0340
• Dr Uilleam Blacker was interviewed for the European Resiliance Initiative podcast on Ukrainian literature's history of resistance: Watch on YouTube.
• Ana Ilievska Završni and Macedonian short course students visited the Republic of North Macedonia in UK Embassy to meet with the Ambassador Ms.Katerina Stavreska
• Dr Uilleam Blacker participated in a public discussion on 'How Wars End' at the Cambridge Union alongside Sir Richard Evans, Ayse Zarakol and Kristin Bakke. Part of the Cambridge Festival. Watch the recording on YouTube.
• On 20 March, Dr Jelena Calic chaired a Book launch: Utopia of the Uniform, joined by Dr Jessie Barton-Hroneseva as a speaker.
• Dr Uiileam Blacker participated in a panel organised by the Ukrainian Book Institute at the London Book Fair on promoting Ukrainian literature in wartime alongside Ukrainian writers Nina Kuriata and Tania Goriushina.
• Dr Anna Ponomareva presented her paper, 'The Black and the White',  at The Challenges and Consequences of Cultural Misunderstanding: Linguistic, Legal and Translational Perspectives, an international symposium organised by Universite Polytechnique Hauts-de-France in cooperation with the University of Applied Sciences (Zwickau) and Sorbonne University, in Valenciennes, France 14-16 March 2024.
• On 15 March, Prof Alena Ledeneva, Dr Iryna Petrova and Dr Jakub Benes took part in a panel event at the IAS celebrating the legacy of Professor Teodor Shanin.
• On 11 March, Dr Uilleam Blacker chaired an event with International Booker Prize winner, Georgi Gospodinov and his translator Angela Rodel on his book 'Time Shelter' at the event: Does the Past have an Expiry Date? A conversation with Georgi Gospodinov and Angela Rodel. Dr Blacker was on the Booker Prize judging panel. A recording of the event is now available on YouTube. 
• On March 5th, PROLang ran a successful Postgraduate event on Romanian language with 12 PhD candidates presenting their ongoing research, from UK Universities ( UCL, Exeter, Kent, Cambridge, Oxford) as well as from abroad: Timisoara, Romania, Jena, Germany and Beijing. Prof Emeritus Dennis Deletant opened the event. Prof Adam Ledgeway from Cambridge and  Prof Martin Maiden from Oxford were also present. The event was convened by SSEES PhD student Jack Dean together with Ramona Gonczol
• On 2-3 March, Dr Svetlana McMillin co-organised and acted as Chair in the various sessions at the Eurasian Business Conference “Breaking the Boarders” (UCL/SSEES, LSE).

• On 2 March, Dr Katarzyna Zechenter gave the opening talk at the Polish Educational Society's Polish A-level weekend, which took place at SSEES and saw over 100 Polish students attend workshops and classes on Polish language and literature. ​​​​

February 2024

• Dr Uilleam Blacker published an essay on Ukrainian poetry and war and a translation of a poem by Halyna Kruk for The Ukrainians Media (27 February).
• On 25 Feburary, Dr Uilleam Blacker was quoted in The Guardian article 'Art shows the surreal reality of wartime Ukraine in a way the news never could' which also mentioned the event held at SSEES on 17 February on Ukrainian Theatre, 'Between Revolution and War:The New Ukrainian Drama from the Maidan to the Full-scale Invasion'
• Dr Uilleam Blacker was interviewd for the Silicon Curtain podcast about war, resistance and freedom in Ukrainian literature, watch at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlF7ff-AwOs&t=1203s
• On 21 February, Dr Svetlana McMillin hosted a lecture by Prof Vladimir Pastukhov (UCL) “Disintegration of the Soviet Empire, phase 2; Non–Civic War in Russia and Ukraine” as part of the Culture and Society of Modern Russia seminar series. Dr McMillin had two abstracts published of her presentations at the conference: “Global and Local processes in Slavic languages, literatures and Culture”,which took place in Riga in May 2023: “A Failed Successful Film: The Film Adaptation of  Georgi Vladimov’s Story ‘The Big Ore’”, pp. 110–113 and “Georgy Vladimov: the Burden of Shivalry”, pp.114-116. Access the journal (in Latvian)
• On 17 February, Dr Alex Krouglov participated in the meeting of the International Association of Teachers of Ukrainian (IATU) at the AATSEEL conference.
• On 15 February, Dr Dmitry Suslau gave a talk at Pushkin House titled 'Monuments and Their Fate' examining the constant transformation of national memory in the twenty-first century. 
• Emeritus Professor Arnold McMillin published 'The Fate of the Belarusian Literary Language over Half a Century', Acta Albaruthenica, 23, 2023, pp. 62-72. He also published 'A radical change in the Bielaviezha Cultural Tradition: The Innovative and Provocative Verse of Viktar Siamashka', Studia Bialotenistyczne, 17, 2023, pp. 195-224.

January 2024

• Ramona Gonczol and Mirela Xhaferraj took part in the PROLang event: Albanian Studies in the Global Context, held at SSEES, 30 January 2024. 
• On January 25th, Dr Katarzyna Zechenter  led an online seminar on Kornel Filipowicz's writing in a talk with Anna Zaranko, the award-winning translator of Filipowicz's work. This was the third seminar on Filipowicz's writing organised by the Research Centre on the Legacy of Polish Migration at ZPPnO of which Katarzyna is Vice-Director.
• Emeritus Professor Arnold McMillin published an article: 'Ad paemau u proze da baladau: Viershy Uladzimiera Arlova', Zapisy BNIM (NY), 43, pp. 524-49. He also wrote 'Three Generations of Belarusian Historical Fiction in Prose and Verse: Inspiration and Iconoclasm, Przeglad wschodnioeuropejski, XIV/2, 2023, 285-302.
• Vlasta Rebrošová produced the Slovak 30 Second Language Lesson. 
• Dr Svetlana McMillin had an article “Здесь птицы не поют”. Российские антивоенные песни. (“The Birds Do Not Sing Here”. Russian anti–war songs) published in the journal: Cyrillo-Methodian Papers / Zeszyty Cyrylo-Metodiańskie. № 12, 2023, pp. 44–71.
• Dr Jelena Ćalić and Dr Eszter Tarsoly held a workshop at King's College London on a seminar series entitled Decolonising Language Teaching with a focus on less-commonly taught languages.
• The translation from Hungarian by Peter Sherwood (Hon. Senior Research Associate) of Krisztina Tóth's short story collection "Barcode" was shortlisted for the 2023 Warwick Prize for Women in Translation at the end of last year.  Over 150 books were submitted for the prize, of which eight reached the shortlist.

December 2023

• Senior Research Associate, George Gömöri, published a new book:"Moi polscy pisarze i poeci" which includes 24 sketches and essays on Polish writers from Broniewski to Barańczak. It was published by Księgarnia Akademicka of the Jagiełło University with photographs and an index. 
• Language short course students and staff produced a festive wishes video, showing off their language skills. 
• On 1 December, Dr Svetlana McMillin organised and acted as a chair at the event of UCL Eurasian Business Society “Meet Ekaterina Schulmann: Q&A evening”
• Dr Riitta Valijarvi was awarded a Swedish Research Councii Grant for the project "Meänkieli: Spoken Corpus and Descriptive Grammar".

November 2023

• Maja Rančigaj Beneš moderated a discussion at SSEES with Slovene writer and artist Cvetka Bevc, as part of the Study of Central Europe Seminar Series (28 November 2023)
• Ramona Gonczol has delivered content for Romanian, as part of the SELCS-run 'Not Just Words' project which promotes language learning through art and objects. Watch on YouTube. On Friday 10^th November, Ramona attended a meeting between the Romanian community and three Romanian parliamentarians representing the diaspora, organised by the Romanian Embassy and hosted at the Romanian Cultural Institute, discussing the contributions , successes and importance of the Romanian diaspora in the UK as well as the need to encourage the maintenance of the language amongst school children. A working group between the Romanian embassy, the Romanian cultural centre and SSEES will be formed to collaborate on projects that lead to the introduction of GCES exams in Romanian as a community language in the future. 
• Keti Kalandadze and Marine Tigishvili, Georgian Short Courses teachers, organised a Language Taster with the Georgian Students society, run by  SSEES student Mariam Vekua. 
• Emeritus Professor Arnold McMillin attended an international conference on a Belarusian pioneer, Vaclau Lastouski, in the Francis Skaryna Library, London. (11 November 2023)
• Dr Anna Ponomareva had an article chapter hasublished (5 November 2023) :'Mirror pas de deux: Cranko’s reinvention of Pushkin’s Text in his Ballet Onegin (1965)' in Helen Julia Minors (ed.) (2003) Music, Text and Translation Vol. 2. London and Oxford: Bloomsbury, pp.117-132. ISBN: 978-1-3501-7573. She also presented a paper 'Translation as Gardening: Early Buddhist Project in China' at the 7^th UK-CHA Conference “Shared Visions: Humanities in Retrospect and Prospect” at Wuhan University on 10-11 November 2023. The visit to China was supported by a British Council grant. On 6 November, she was a guest lecturer at the Centre for Translation at Hong Kong Baptist University where she presented her lecture My Appointment with Onegin: Charles Johnston, Douglas Hofstadter and Stanley Mitchell.
• Dr Uilleam Blacker moderated an event in memory of Victoria Amelina, with Emma Shercliff (literary agent), Sasha Dovzhyk (Ukrainian Institute London/IWM, Vienna), Charlotte Higgins (Guardian), Christina Lamb (Sunday Times), at the British Library. (9 November 2023). He also participated in a  discussion organised by the Fund of the President of Ukraine on the place of Ukrainian literature in western academia. With Sasha Dovzhyk (Ukrainian Institute London, IWM, Vienna) and Iryna Odrekhivska (Ivan Franko University, Lviv/UCL SSEES), organised by Anna Oliinyk (UCL SSEES)
• Prof Alex Krouglov has been invited to join the Conference Committee of 2024 International Conference on Education, Psychology and Modern Management (with responsibilities for Education)

October 2023

• Prof Alex Krouglov has been invited to serve as an assessor on the Reading Committee of the Chevening Scholarships. 
• Honorary Research Associate, George Gömöri received the János Bárány Prize administered by Ferencváros, the Ninth District of Budapest. Bárány was a working-class fighter in the above district in October-November 1956, eventually arrested by the Kádár-police  and executed in February 1959.
• Dr Uilleam Blacker gave the Inaugural lecture for Queen Mary University of London's new Centre for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies: 'The Many Voices of Ukraine: a Multicultural Literary Space in the context of Empire and War, (30 October 2023)
• Dr Yordanka Velkova produced the 30-second language lesson in Bulgarian, the first in a series of shorts showcasing SSEES languages.  Watch on the SSEES YouTube channel. 
• Dr Ana Ilievska Završnik and SSEES Director Prof Richard Mole welcomed Minister of Culture of the Republic of North Macedonia, Bisera Kostadinovska-Stojchevska, to SSEES on 25 October 2023. A donation of Macedonian books was made to the SSEES Library. 
• Dr Jelena Ćalić and Dr Eszter Tarsoly co-organised the 'Decolonising Language Studies Symposium II' on behalf of PROLANG, held at UCL on 25 October. Dr Riitta-Liisa Valijarvi, Dr Rachel Morley and Dr Olga Voronina took part as discussants.  A summary of the event can be found on the SSEES news pages. 
• Dr Svetlana McMillin  chaired a presentation by Prof Tamara Eidelman “Great discoveries — Good or Evil?”, organised by the UCL Eurasian Business Society on 23 October 2023. 
• Dr Ana Ilievska Završnik was a panelist on the PROLANG event 'Macedonian Language – The Meeting Point of Slavic and Balkan Languages' which took place at UCL SSEES on 17 October. Watch on the SSEES YouTube channel. 
• Dr Uilleam Blacker took part in the event ‘Poetry is not what you think it is’. An evening with Iryna Shuvalova, organised by the Ukrainian Institute. 14 October 2023. 
• Dr Peter Zusi moderated the panel 'Gaming the System: Language, Conformism, and Breaking Conventions, From Václav Havel’s Absurdism to the Age of X’ as part of the Václav Havel European Dialogues 2023, on 12 October, at UCL SSEES. 
• Prof Arnold McMillin published an article, 'Nation-Building and Its One Opponent, as Reflected in Contemporary Belarusian Poetry', in the New Zealand Slavonic Journal. vols 55-56 (2021-2022 [2023]), pp. 25-50.

• Dr Uilleam Blacker participated in a discussion event at the L'viv Book Forum with the International Booker Prize winning author Georgi Gospodinov, the Ukrainian poet and translator Ostap Slyvynskyi and director of Ukraine programmes at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna Katherine Younger. A recording can be found here: https://www.hayfestival.com/p-20783-uilleam-blacker-georgi-gospodinov-digital-and-ostap-slyvynsky-in-conversation-with-katherine-younger.aspx (4 October)
  During the Forum he was also interviewed for Ukrainian national broadcaster Suspilne Kultura (https://suspilne.media/590487-uam-bleker-pro-perekladi-ukrainskoi-literaturi-ta-bukerivsku-premiu/ ) and for Suspilne Radio.
  On October 2, Dr Uilleam Blacker chaired an event with Prof Vitaly Chernetsky, 'Recognizing and Addressing Epistemic Injustice', hosted at SSEES. 

September 2023

• Dr Svetlana McMillin participated in a conference “Russian studies after 2022”, held by the Institute of Linguistics and Literary Studies at the Marie Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin, Poland (28–29 September) On 28 September, she was a discussant in a panel «Русистика на фоне войны, репрессий, эмиграции» (“Russian studies against the backdrop of war, repression and emigration”). She also gave a paper “’Здесь птицы не поют…’ Российские антивоенные песни” (“’The birds do not sing here…’, Russian anti–war songs”).(29 September) 
• Dr Ljiljana Bilbija attended the European Language Day in the UK EU Delegation Open Day to promote Croatian language learning in the UK (Sept 26, 2023)
• Prof Arnold McMillin presented a paper, 'The Growth of Belarusian National Consciousness' at Gdansk University on  23 September
• Prof Alex Krouglov has been teaching a course in Ukrainian for heritage speakers at Ukrainian Institute London (from 21st September):
• Prof Zoran Milutinovic (together with Prof Slavo Radosevic) was one of three keynote speakers at The Third Balkan Studies Conference -Cultural Inheritance and Diversified Development, organised by Balkan Studies Center, Beijing Foreign Studies University, September 19-23, 2023.
• Dr Uilleam Blacker was in conversation with Dame Melinda Simmons, former UK ambassador to Ukraine, at JW3/Ukrainian Institute London: https://ukrainianjewishencounter.org/en/news/video-dame-melinda-simmons-in-conversation-with-uilleam-blacker-in-london/  (11 September 2023). On 25 September, Dr Blacker's translation of a poem by Iryna Shuvalova was chosen as poem of the day by the American Association of Poets: https://poets.org/poem/moving-grov
• Dr Ramona Gonczol created and filmed the Romanian Subject Spotlight with SpringPod, a platform to allow prospective students to try out a university level course before application. 

August 2023

• Dr Ullieam Blacker's translation of Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina's poem 'About a Crow' was read by actress Fiona Shaw in the Game for Ukraine on August 5
• Dr Svetlana McMillin's book “Georgy Vladimov: the Burden of Chivalry” (Moscow, ACT, 2022) was reviewed in the journal  “ИСТОРИЧЕСКАЯ ЭКСПЕРТИЗА” (“THE HISTORICAL EXPERTISE”), Moldova, 2023, № 3, pp. 268-278, by prominent Ukrainian scholar Prof Yefim Gofman.

July 2023

• Dr Uilleam Blacker's essay on Ukrainian war poetry was published in the TLS, titled 'Homo poeticus and homo politicus' July 2023
  On July 7 he published an obituary in the Guardian for the Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina, who was killed in a Russian rocket attack on Kramatorsk on July 1. His translation of one of Victoria's poems was also published in the Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/03/poem-about-a-crow-a-work-by-the-killed-ukrainian-writer-victoria-amelina). Victoria gave a reading at SSEES in April. 
• Dr Svetlana McMillin acted as a consultant & external expert for the European Research Council, evaluating a project, presented by the University of Poznan, Poland: Brave New Slavic World: “Postcommunist Dystopia in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus” over summer 2023. 
• Dr Yordanka Velkova interviewed Rob Dixon, British Ambassador to Bulgaria, HE Ambassador, highlighted the importance of learning languages & understanding different cultures. Watch the Spotlight on Languages on YouTube