Slavic Forum

[Malynne Sternstein]

Dear Howie:

>Hi,
>
>A quick question: someone e-mailed me asking whether one can submit
>abstracts in Russian. Do you know if abstracts in languages other than
>English are acceptable? And for future reference: can papers be delivered
>in languages other than English?
>
>Howie

That's a tricky question.  It's never come up before, but my feeling is
that since it is an open forum--Slavic and East/Central European--there's
the potential for alienating a large part of the audience.  I know Russian
still has dominion in the field, but I have the suspicion that we would be
less likely to allow a paper to be presented in Polish or "Bosnian,", say,
than Russian, and that the "interdisciplinary" forum might be undermined,
wait, that last bit sounds a tad militant on my part.  On the other hand,
it would seem unfair to disallow someone writing on their native language
not to present in said native language...

I'm really not sure what to say on this one.  My first response was "no,"
but now I'm beginning to question that... I leave it in your capable hands
and apologize for my waffling.

Best,
Malynne.

------------------------------------------
Malynne Sternstein, Assistant Professor
Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
University of Chicago
msternst at midway.uchicago.edu