Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages

Department of Slavonic Studies

This is a five-year, fixed-term post, supported entirely from external funding. Its purpose is to initiate and develop a pilot scheme for Ukrainian Studies at Cambridge. A review of the scheme is scheduled in the third year. The donor has stated an intention to help secure Ukrainian Studies in the longer term if the pilot scheme is a success. Over the period of the pilot scheme the Lecturer will be expected to develop courses in Ukrainian language and culture at all levels. The first stage will be an introductory course on the language, literature and culture of Ukraine, available to students in their second year and above, starting in the academic year 2008-9. If sufficient numbers of students choose this course, and if some of them opt to spend their year abroad in Ukraine (all students in the Faculty spend their penultimate year abroad), then advanced courses in Ukrainian language and literature and/or culture may be introduced for final-year students from the third year of the scheme.

Besides teaching undergraduates, the successful candidate will be expected to promote and contribute to the growth of the subject more widely, in a range of contexts: e.g. through the Faculty’s postgraduate M.Phil. courses where appropriate; through CamCREES (the Cambridge Committee for Russian and East European Studies - the University’s inter-Faculty, inter-disciplinary research grouping); through contacts and collaboration with colleagues in UK universities and abroad; through enhancing public awareness of Ukrainian Studies and public understanding of Ukraine, its people and culture. Ukrainian Studies barely exists in UK universities. This is therefore an important initiative whose potential significance is not limited to Cambridge, and the successful candidate will be strongly motivated to take up the broader challenge.

The Department of Slavonic Studies is part of the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages, which is one of the largest humanities Faculties in the University. Undergraduate degree courses in the Faculty normally last four years (including the year abroad). All undergraduates in the Faculty initially study two languages. Subsequently they may choose from a wide range of options in one or both languages, or in comparative studies, or in linguistics. The Department currently offers degree courses only in Russian. The average first-year intake for Russian is around 25-35 students, of whom more than half take up the language from scratch. Across the four years the Department offers an exceptionally broad range of options in language, literature, history and culture from the early Middle Ages to the present day. Besides the degree-level courses in Russian, the Department also offers open language classes in elementary Polish and Ukrainian.

A major part of the appointee’s duties will be to devote himself or herself to the advancement of knowledge. A close relation between teaching and research is encouraged. The Department offers a lively and supportive research environment, holding regular research seminars for staff and research students and inviting speakers from the UK and abroad, whether in its own right or in collaboration with CamCREES or Cambridge’s CRASSH (Centre for Research in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences). The Department is also a "network partner" in CEELBAS: the Centre for East European Language-Based Area Studies, a centrally funded grouping of ten universities, whose mission is "to realise the UK's strategic commitment to the study of Central and Eastern Europe and Russia by developing the research agenda and building capacity through the education of a new generation of researchers".