Psychoanalysis and my senior thesis

Tue Mar 28 22:19:55 UTC 2006

Inna Caron: "I am not a professor, and as far as I know, neither is Evgeny".

As a matter of fact I am. But as far as I remember, I have never been
humiliated during my graduate studies at the University of Illinois. Yet I
do not think that it is the only reason that I have always respected my
students, regardless of their rank (Defense Language Institute specific!),
age , or level of sophistication. I have always tried to meet them where
they were, and never judged them. You have my word for it!

Yevgeny Slivkin 

-----Original Message-----
From: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
[mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU] On Behalf Of Inna Caron
Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 2:04 PM
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Psychoanalysis and my senior thesis

Dear Chris and Deborah -

First of all, you guys are great for being so supportive and protective of
the aspiring undergrads. But I also know of several other people here who
respond to virtually every undergraduate inquiry - often off-list - so let's
just save this topic for another discussion, as it probably merits one.

Second, I am not a professor, and as far as I know, neither is Evgeny.
He mentioned working on his dissertation in regards to Vronsky's finances. I
am also working on mine while teaching undergraduate classes, and as a
scholar and a teacher I would never make fun of curious and inspired
students - either mine or someone else's. I believe most people on this list
wouldn't.

Now, with those disclaimers made, I want to narrow this down to one single
point: it seems that the John Reed/John Vit post was in jest, and as such it
evoked a jocular response. Frankly, the fact that the author has picked The
Igor Tale causes me to suspect intentional fallacy :) If, however, it was in
earnest, and John (whatever his last name is) finds our comments offensive,
I'll be quick to apologize. 

Let's just ask the author to come out and speak for himself.

Best regards,

Inna Caron

-----Original Message-----
From: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
[mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU] On Behalf Of Chris Tessone
Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 3:55 PM
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Psychoanalysis and my senior thesis

Deborah brings up a good point.  I certainly felt marginalized more or less
every time I contributed an opinion on SEELANGS whiel an undergraduate.  I
was one of the students she describes--seriously interested in the field,
wrote an Honors thesis (though it was not a graduation requirement in our
program), etc.  This community seems incredibly scornful of eager undergrads
(with several very notable exceptions who entered into long and edifying
email conversations with me during that time).

Whether the original posting was a satire or in earnest, I would encourage
SEELANGers to consider their tone when addressing undergrads and even grad
students in the list.  I chose to leave Slavics altogether and pursue
another career in part because I didn't want to go to grad school and study
with professors like the ones I'd interacted with on this list.  Food for
thought--how would you feel if your advisees were subjected to the treatment
you put undergrads at other schools through?

Cheers,
Chris

On 3/28/06, Deborah Hoffman <lino59 at ameritech.net> wrote:
> Uvazhaemye SEELANGovtsy,
>
> While I understand the humor frequently associated with Freud and 
> Freudianism, nonetheless I'd like to proffer a few thoughts for 
> consideration by those in
> academia:
>
> --What has undergraduate enrollment (where grad students come from) in 
> Slavics/Russian been like of late?  What effect might that have on the 
> future of your departments?
> --How many of your undergraduates are actually writing a senior thesis 
> in order to graduate?
> --How many of them are doing it in Slavics or Russian literature?
> --How many of your undergraduates could even name 12 heroes in Russian 
> literature?  How many of them could tell you the plot of Slovo o polku 
> Igoreve with enough familiarity to attempt an interpretation?  When I 
> graduated from Indiana (with honors, though sans senior thesis which 
> was not offered) we'd spent exactly 55 minutes on anything that came 
> before Pushkin.
> --How many of your undergraduates read SEELANGS?
> --How many of your undergraduates would take the time to solicit 
> scholarly input from a wide body of people before deciding to proceed 
> with a topic?
> --Is making light of a serious inquiry by an obviously engaged and 
> motivated undergraduate, rather than redirecting or shaping if you 
> believe the topic ill-chosen, really the best approach under the 
> circumstances?  Friendly ribbing among colleagues of roughly equal 
> station being another matter entirely, of course.
>
> Of course, if the felicitously named John Reed turns out to be a 
> sockpuppet, I will be quite abashed :-)
>
> Deborah Hoffman
> Finance Chair, Graduate Student Senate Modern and Classical Language 
> Studies Kent State University 
> http://users.ameritech.net/lino59/index.htm
>
> Stop the Genocide in Darfur:
> http://www.savedarfur.org/
>
>
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--
Chris Tessone
http://chris.tessone.net/

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