Slavic Studies Research and Study Opportunities

Thousands of study and academic opportunities in Slavic Studies are available internationally. Conferences and summer schools in Slavic Studies are organized regularly in the best academic centers of the world. The majority of universities and many foundations also offer BA, MA, and Ph.D. programs in Slavic Studies as wells as postdoctoral research grants, awards, and fellowships. Below you will find the updated list of international opportunities available in Slavic Studies.

Slavic Studies Scholarships

Slavic Studies Fellowships

Slavic Studies Conferences

Slavic Studies relevant accounts on Twitter

What are the Slavic countries?

Slavic countries inherit one of the largest ethnic groups mentioned in history as the main barbarian enemies of the Rome empire during late antiquity. There are no certain opinions on when they emerged, but throughout history, they maintained a strong cultural, linguistic and religious continuity and enlarged their occupied territories. Starting from the 10th century, Slavs underwent a significant cultural divergence and divided their community into individual sub-groups. Independent Slavic states had closely related languages, where each separate branch added something individual. The same happened with other spheres of life, as a result of which, currently there are many Slavic countries in eastern and southeastern Europe, extending across northern Asia and the Pacific Ocean. Slavs account for almost half of the European continent.

The largest country on the planet, Russia, is one of the major representatives of Slavic countries. Besides Russia, there are 12 more Slavic countries in the world:

Ukraine
Belarus
Slovenia
Slovakia
Serbia
Poland
Bulgaria
Bosnia
Czech Republic
Croatia
Macedonia
Montenegro

In each of the mentioned countries, people speak their native languages, which all resemble the common Slavic style, sounding, and pronunciation. The most popular Slavic languages, which are also the main focus areas of Slavic studies academic programs, include Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Czech, and Serbian.

In terms of exploring the development history of the Slavic languages, Slavic studies also have a solid connection with linguistics. Through the rich history of their life, Slavs spoke different languages, the oldest documented of which is the Old Church Slavonic. Later, through the migration and other organizational processes, the Slavic community spoke the dialect of the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) language, which then developed into an independent language of Common Slavic or Proto-Slavic. There are academic programs allowing you to explore the era of all the mentioned languages in more detail. Finally, the Slavic languages the modern communities speak now emerged in the period of Late Common Slavic. At that time, three main Slavic language groups appeared, the representatives of which include Russian (East), Czech (West), and Serbo-Croatian (South).

"Germanic Studies", "Germanic & Slavic" studies are common titles for Slavic studies academic programs, though Germany is not considered a Slavic country. That's because historically, Eastern Germans belonged to Slavs, and Slavic and German people shared a common territory in the area of current Germany for many centuries. Therefore, the thorough studies of Slavs also include knowledge about German history and culture.

Scope of Slavic Studies

The above historical overview of Slavic countries describes the necessity and value of Slavic studies. Exploring Slavic studies' discipline grants students an excessive and thorough knowledge of one of the major ethnic groups in history, which maintained its existence up to current. Slavic studies navigate scholars through the Slavic languages and an in-depth understanding of Slavic culture and lifestyle, allowing specialists to build successful careers in Slavic communities. Many people combine studies in different specialization areas such as economics, business, accounting, law, etc., with Slavic studies, which prepares multi-profile professionals with a solid cultural understanding.

The core part of the Slavic studies programs is for Russian or East European studies. That's because those Slavic countries occupy an important role in the current geopolitical processes. Russia remains a global political power for many centuries. Because of the width of its territory and a big population, Russian is a primary international language in many fields of economy. More than 250 million people speak Russian. Exploring Russia is also interesting from the perspective of studying the previous Soviet Union's organization, which itself is one of the unique cases in history.

If you wish to explore Russian studies as a separate discipline and not a part of the Slavic studies, the ARMACAD's collection of Russian studies opportunities are a great place to start.

In general, Slavic studies explore the links between cultural and historical traditions of the countries and their current role in sociopolitical processes. Especially in the context of Russian and East European reshapings and the development of their international relations, Slavic studies touch on interesting knowledge areas.

An important part of Slavic studies is also the diasporas of different Slavic nations in other countries. There are long-time established Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Slovenian, Slovak, and Macedonian diasporas in different countries. Particularly, Russians have large diasporas in the US, Germany, England, Kazakhstan, and other countries.

Slavic studies majors study language, literature, culture, history, art, and other aspects of Slavic countries. The major emphasis of the programs is on the study of the languages. The main courses include:

Slavic cultural studies
History
Slavic folklore and literature
Slavonic linguistics
Film and visual culture
Poetry
Philosophy
Translation, etc.

As Slavic studies are largely connected to cultural understanding, practical experiences in certain countries are necessary for the discipline. Many students can benefit from the study abroad opportunities in the Slavic countries, which are offered for different durations by the hosting university's Slavic studies program.

As a result of all the theoretical and practical knowledge of the sphere, students gain important skills like close reading, research, logical analysis, analytical clarity, writing, historical and philosophical variability, etc. Those skills help them understand the Slavic cultures more profoundly and become more effective communicators and negotiators in any specialization they choose.

The main spheres Slavic studies graduates can work in include: academic, literature & linguistics, diplomacy, publishing, journalism, international business, international cultural foundations and organizations, travel agencies, media, research & teaching, etc.

Slavic Studies Research opportunities

Slavic studies researchers aim to bring more light to the historical or other aspects of Slavs and their development. The research directions depend on which directions students choose for their bachelor's degrees. You might carry the research in graduate-level for the specific Slavic language or a particular country. Similarly, there are opportunities to explore either past events or the modern developments and tendencies in the Slavic countries. Students are also free to choose between the location when they carry out the research. There are many research projects carried in the country to which the topic relates.

Below there are the main Slavic research directions you will meet in the majority of universities.

The best way to explore the culture of the nation is by digging into the classic works. The most popular writers on whom researchers usually concentrate are Pushkin, Lermontov, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Schulz, etc.
Linguistic research topics cover the main stages of the Slavic languages' transformation in recent and ancient history.
There is also a direction of modern Slavic languages, where the topics cover socio-linguistic issues such as bilingualism, multilingualism, media language, typology, etc.

Some of the most popular research topics in the higher educational institutions cover:

Russo-Hispanic cultural and literary relations
Czech and Polish media
Censorship in communist and post-communist Central Europe
Polish/Jewish relations memory studies
Gulag Literature and writing
Auto/biographical studies, etc.

Regardless of which profession you choose, the chances are high you can find good career opportunities for that in one of the Slavic countries. The Slavic studies discipline will help you feel native in the Slavic atmosphere without being native. Otherwise, you can extend your academic career to research projects and enrich the theoretical knowledge about Slavic countries with the new findings. We hope this section of ARMACAD will help you build a successful academic path and career in the field.