Citations for 2021 Recipients


Outstanding contribution to scholarship: Helena Goscilo (Ohio State University)


This year’s award for Outstanding Contribution to Scholarship Prize goes to Helena Goscilo. Throughout her career, Professor Goscilo has been actively exploring various —often neglected — aspects of Russian and Soviet culture. As author or editor, she has published more than twenty volumes. Original, unexpected, and pioneering, Professor Goscilo has opened up new research venues and new academic fields. Thanks largely to her efforts, we have such substantial areas of study as Russian women’s literature or Soviet and Post-Soviet popular culture. Professor Goscilo has also furthered the field through her spirited participation in and scrupulous preparation for conferences and by mentoring and encouraging students. Hers is a distinctive and often witty voice, and our field has benefited greatly from listening to it.






Outstanding Contribution to the Profession: Anne Lounsbery (NYU)


The award for Outstanding Contribution to the Profession goes to Anne Lounsbery, Professor of Russian and Slavic Studies and Department Chair at New York University. Professor Lounsbery's 2019 book, Life is Elsewhere: Symbolic Geography in the Russian Provinces, 1800-1927, promises to shift the conversation in Russian literary studies and classrooms across the country and the English-speaking world as her argument pulls the lens away from only the Big Names and also insists on a comparative perspective. As much as we recognize the ways that Professor Lounsbery's scholarly work has enriched our conversations with students as well as with our colleagues, we give her this award this year, in 2021, above all in recognition of her leadership and vision during the pandemic spring and summer of 2020. Professor Lounsbery was among the first to turn to Zoom to convene audiences of up to 150 fellow scholars at her own book talk, as well for at the inaugural meetings of 19v, the vibrant working group on 19th century literature and culture sponsored through the NYU Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia that she also helped found. Only especially in a time of pandemic, Professor Lounsbery's intellectual leadership and generosity have helped many scholars of all ages and stages in the U.S. and across the globe to start conversations, make connections, and move toward further productive scholarship.







Excellence in Teaching (Pre-College): Michael White (The Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School)


It is with great pleasure that AATSEEL recognizes Michael White for his over two decades of inspirational teaching at The Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School in Richmond, Virginia. Mr. White’s joyful personality combines with enigmatic tales of Russian life past and present, mesmerizing his young Global Studies or English students, often provoking them to follow him into the Russian classroom. Each year at least one quarter of Mr. White’s students come into the study of Russian from another earlier class with him. Hooking students isn’t hard for Mr. White; they are attracted to the gifted storyteller. And while students may come to Mr. White with their own limited impression of Russia, restricted to bears, vodka, Putin, Stalin, the Gulag and the Olympics, by the time they leave, they can engage in nuanced discussions of Russian history, culture, films, folklore, and fairytales. Mr. White prides himself on giving students the tools to question and look beyond stereotypes, to care enough to explore and attempt to understand the social dynamics in cross-cultural communication. For Mr. White, most inspiring is this mindset development, the developing sensibility of his students. Nowhere has this happened more than on the ten student trips that Mr. White has led to Russia since 1995, trips that many students have described as truly transformational. A number of former students have even credited Mr. White with their continued study of Russian into graduate school. One former student of Mr. White, now a Russian teacher himself, says that even now he tries to channel Mr. White’s infectious laughter to create that special space, full of both challenge and joy, curiosity and discovery, where every student feels a part of something important. For transformational teaching, AATSEEL is honored tonight to present to Michael White the 2021 AATSEEL Award for Excellence in Teaching at the Secondary Level.







Excellence in Teaching at Post-Secondary Level: Anna Voskresensky (University of Kentucky)


This year’s award for Excellence in Teaching at the Post-Secondary Level goes to Anna Viktorovna Voskresensky, senior lecturer at the University of Kentucky. Anna teaches a wide range of courses, including an innovative class on Russian singing that culminates in a public concert of Russian folk, pop, and classical music. She also has her students present Russian music and texts on the University of Kentucky radio station. People inspired by this group of Americans dedicated to studying Russia write to them from across the globe. In her more standard language courses, she extends the classroom with regular field trips to local Russian-owned businesses, artist studios, and performances as well as by pairing her advanced students with Russian-speaking conversation partners. She also serves as advisor to the extremely active Russian Club.

It is no wonder that her students adore her and that she has won every possible teaching award at the University of Kentucky (Arts and Sciences Outstanding Teaching Award, Education’s Teacher who Made a Difference Award, Alumni Association Great Teacher Award, Provost’s Award for Excellence in Teaching). Her course evaluations are consistently stratospheric, with students praising her heroic efforts to improve their Russian ability, for her introduction of engaging material to enhance textbooks, and for her dedication to their success. Students in her most recent class wrote that she has “gone above and beyond the duties of any professor we have ever known… It is not just a job for Anna Viktorovna, it is her life and her family.” Anna’s departmental colleagues heartily agree with these sentiments, noting that she is an inspiring model to all of them and to our field more broadly.





Outstanding service to AATSEEL: Diana Dukhanova and Yuliya Volkhonovych

AATSEEL is pleased to present the prize for Distinguished Service to AATSEEL to Diana Dukhanova and Yuliya Volkhonovych.

Diana Dukhanova first joined AATSEEL’s Executive Council as the graduate student representative, when she was a PhD student at Brown. Sensing the limited social media literacy of most of the EC members, Diana jumped in to use her media savvy to promote events at the AATSEEL conference, first on Facebook and then on Twitter. She quickly expanded that work to become our first official Social Media Liaison, not only providing additional outlets for AATSEEL news, but curating a brilliant feed on the AATSEEL Twitter account throughout the year. She drew exciting and surprising stories from a wide range of sources and converted many of us to tune in on a regular basis. We are grateful to Diana for her many incredible years of service in this role.

When our last webmaster stepped down, we were left searching for some time for a new volunteer who knew HTML and would be willing to help maintain the website. Yuliya Volkhonovych was a graduate student at the time and offered her services. In her over eight years in this role, Yuliya has been regularly posting announcements, open letters, and job listings at a moment’s notice, and sometimes fielding unusual requests from members. She makes time for these tasks in the midst of her own busy schedule. Yuliya’s volunteer work on the website allows us to contract with a web designer only for the more complex programming and therefore limit our expenses. We appreciate her willingness to continue in the role of webmaster and are grateful for her dedication to the organization.