Slavic studies

Slavic studies (North America), Slavonic studies (Britain and Ireland) or Slavistics (borrowed from Russian славистика or Polish slawistyka) is the academic field of area studies concerned with Slavic areas, Slavic languages, literature, history, and culture. Originally, a Slavist (from Russian славист or Polish slawista) or Slavicist was primarily a linguist or philologist researching Slavistics, a Slavic (AmE) or Slavonic (BrE) scholar. Increasingly historians and other humanists and social scientists who study Slavic area cultures and societies have been included in this rubric.

History

Slavistics emerged in late 18th and early 19th century, simultaneously with national revivals among various nations of Slavic origins and with ideological attempts to establish a common sense of Slavic community, exemplified by the Pan-Slavist movement. Among the first scholars to use the term was Josef Dobrovský (1753-1829).

The history of Slavic studies is generally divided into three periods. Until 1876 the early Slavists concentrated on documentation and printing of monuments of Slavic languages, among them the first texts written in national languages. At this time the majority of Slavic languages received their first modern dictionaries, grammars and compendia. The second period, ending with World War I, featured the rapid development of Slavic philology and linguistics, most notably outside of Slavic countries themselves, in the circle formed around August Schleicher (1821-1868) and around August Leskien (1840-1916) at the University of Leipzig.

After World War I Slavic studies scholars focused on dialectology, while the science continued to develop in countries with large populations having Slavic origins. After World War II there developed centres of Slavic studies, and much greater expansion into other humanities and social science disciplines in various universities around the world. Indeed, partly due to the political concerns in Western European and the United States about the Slavic world nurtured by the Cold War, Slavic studies flourished in the years from World War II into the 1990s and remain strong (though university enrollments in Slavic languages have declined since the 1990s).

Slavic countries and areas of interest

• By country:
  • Belarus: language, literature, culture, history
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina: language, literature, culture, history
  • Bulgaria: language, literature, culture, history
  • Croatia: language, literature, culture, history
  • Czech Republic: language, literature, culture, history
  • Macedonia: language, literature, culture, history, Macedonistics
  • Montenegro: language, culture, history
  • Poland: languages (Polish, Kashubian, Silesian), literature (Polish, Kashubian), culture, history
  • Russia: language, literature, culture, history
  • Serbia: language, literature, culture, history (national and ethnic)
  • Slovakia: language, literature, culture, history
  • Slovenia: language, literature, culture, history
  • Ukraine: language, literature, culture, history
• Other languages: Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian, Kashubian, Polabian, Rusyn, Old Church Slavonic

Notable people

Historical

Contemporary

Journals and book series

• Archiv für slavische Philologie
• The Russian Review
• Sarmatian Review
• Slavic Review, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies
• Studies in Slavic and General Linguistics
• The Slavonic and East European Review
• Scando-Slavica

Conferences

• American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies
• Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics
• Perspectives on Slavistics ()

Institutes and schools

Academic

• Institute for Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
• Jan Stanislav Institute of Slavistics, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia
• Institute of Slavic Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences

University

• Institute of Slavonic Philology, University of Silesia, Poland
• Institute of Slavonic Studies, Jagiellonian University, Poland
• Department of Slavic philology, University of Belgrade, Serbia
• Department of Slavistics, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
• UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, United Kingdom
• Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, University of California at Berkeley, United States
• Institute for Slavistics, University of Vienna, Austria
• Institute for Slavistics, University of Graz, Austria
• Department of Slavic Studies, University of Salzburg, Austria
• Institute of Slavic Studies, Heidelberg University, Germany
• Institute of Slavic Studies, University of Mainz, Germany
• Institute of Slavistics, University of Potsdam, Germany
• Institute for Slavic Studies, Humboldt University, Germany
• Institute of Slavic Studies, Tbilisi State University, Georgia
• Institute of Slavic Studies, University of Pécs, Hungary
• Resource Center for Medieval Slavic Studies

Other

• Old Church Slavonic Institute, Zagreb, Croatia

See also

• Croatian studies
• Czech studies
• Polish studies
• Russian studies (studies centers)
• Ukrainian studies
• Kashubian studies
• List of linguists
• Macedonian studies

References

Further reading

External links

• Canadian Association of Slavists (English) / (French)
• List of Journals in Russian, Eurasian, and East European Studies at Slavic Review
• American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS)
• Slavistik-Portal The Slavistics Portal (Germany)

Library guides

• Slavonic and East European studies: a guide to resources (British Library)
• "Russian & East European Studies Research Guides". New York, USA: Columbia University Libraries. 
• Slavic Studies Guide (Duke)
• Slavic Studies: A Research Guide (Harvard)
• Slavic and East European Resources (University of Illinois)
• "Slavic and East European Studies". Resources by Subject. USA: Indiana University Bloomington Libraries. 
• University Library. "German, Russian and Slavonic Studies". UK: University of Leeds. 
• Slavic Studies Guide (NYU)
• "Slavonic, Central and Eastern European Studies". Oxford LibGuides. Oxford, UK: University of Oxford, Bodleian Libraries. 
• "Slavic/East European/Eurasian Studies Research Guides". Princeton LibGuides. USA: Princeton University Library. 
• University Libraries. "German, Slavic, & East European Languages & Literatures". Research Guides. New Jersey, USA: Rutgers University. 
• Guides to Resources. University College London, School of Slavonic & East European Studies
• Slavic & East European Collections (Yale)