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Slavic Center Announces Change in Leadership

August 7, 2015

Slavic Center Announces Change in Leadership

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The Center for Slavic and East European Studies wishes to announce that Yana Hashamova, Professor and Chair of the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures (DSEELC), will be stepping down as Director of the Center for Slavic and East European Studies (CSEES), and Joseph Brandesky, Martha W. Farmer Endowed Professor in the Department of Theatre at Ohio State Lima, will succeed her in the position beginning September 1.

During Dr. Hashamova’s seven years of leadership, CSEES has experienced unprecedented growth. Her accomplishments include overseeing two successful Title VI grant applications that won $4,072,720 in funding, the establishment of the Polish Studies and Slovene Research Initiatives and receiving the Center’s first endowment from the Research Center of the Slovene Academy of Sciences and Arts. In addition to her leadership of CSEES and DSEELC, over the past seven years Dr. Hashamova has published and co-authored numerous articles and books (Embracing Arms, Cinepaternity, Transgressive Women in Russian and East European Cinema, and Beyond Mosque, Church, and State), won the Heldt Prize for best article in Slavic, Eastern European and Eurasian women's studies from the Association for Women in Slavic Studies for the article “War Rape: (Re)defining Motherhood, Fatherhood, and Nationhood,” co-organized conferences (Women in War and Beyond Mosque, Church, and State), served as a co-principal investigator for an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar and advised dissertations and theses.

Dr. Brandesky has long been involved in Russian and Czech theatre, served as Associate Director for CSEES in 2013-14 and assisted in the drafting of CSEES’ most recent Title VI grant application. Since 2012, Dr. Brandesky has held split appointments with the Department of Theatre and DSEELC at the Columbus campus. Throughout his career, Dr. Brandesky’s work has focused on theatre production and performance, Russian theatre and drama and Czech theatre. While at Ohio State, Dr. Brandesky has taught courses on Czech theatre, design and culture, and led nine study abroad programs to the Czech Republic. In 2003, Dr. Brandesky received the Alumni Distinguished Teaching Award. Dr. Brandesky guest curated the “Strings Attached: The Living Tradition of Czech Puppets” exhibit, which had over 74,000 attendees, at the Columbus Museum of Art; curated and organized a U.S. tour for Jaroslav Malina’s “Retrospective Exhibit”; produced and directed multiple productions at Ohio State Lima; and has extensive publications, including as contributing editor to the catalog Jaroslav Malina: Designs and Paintings. Currently, Dr. Brandesky is serving as Guest Curator and Catalogue Editor for “Shakespeare on Czech Stages,” an exhibit to be held at the Columbus Museum of Art in winter 2017, and developing a conference to be held in Columbus in conjunction with this exhibit in spring 2017.

Please join us in thanking Dr. Yana Hashamova for her seven years of dedicated service and welcoming Dr. Joseph Brandesky to the Center!