Olga Maiorova, associate professor of Slavic languages and literatures, has been appointed as director of the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies (CREES) at the University of Michigan. Professor Maiorova is a specialist in 19th-century Russian literature and on the intersection of literature, intellectual history, and representations of nationality in 19th-century Russia. Her publications include a recent book, From the Shadow of Empire: Defining the Russian Nation through Cultural Mythology, 1855-1870s, two edited volumes of previously unpublished writings by Nikolai Leskov, and some 60 scholarly articles in prominent journals in Russia and the United States. Professor Maiorova’s appointment at CREES will last three years, during which she will guide this U.S. Department of Education-supported National Resource Center for Russia, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia.

Professor Maiorova will begin this fall’s CREES Noon Lecture series on Wednesday, September 14 with her talk, “Re-imagining the East: Russian Discourse on Asia in the Middle of the Nineteenth Century.” Other lectures in the series will be given by former U-M History professor Jane Burbank, composer and performer Svejtlana Bukvich-Nichols, Russian satirist Victor Shenderovich, Nadia Diuk from the National Endowment for Democracy, and Anthropology graduate student Anna Genina. For more about CREES Noon Lectures and other activities at CREES, visit our website at www.ii.umich.edu/crees.

PLACE: 1636 International Institute, 1080 S. University Ave., Ann Arbor

The University of Michigan Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies is dedicated to advancing and disseminating interdisciplinary knowledge about the peoples, nations, and cultures of Russia, Central and Eastern Europe, and Eurasia, past and present. Through its own academic programs and its support of area-focused training and scholarship across U-M’s schools and colleges, CREES helps meet the nation’s ongoing need for experts with deep contextual knowledge who are proficient in the region’s languages. Through its outreach programs, CREES serves as a local, state, Midwest, and national resource on the region, providing instructional and informational services to the public, K-12 and postsecondary educators, media, government, business, and other constituencies. For more information, visit www.ii.umich.edu/crees.