20 The Linguist Vol/58 No/5 2019
ciol.org.uk/tl
FEATURES
Romana Sustar investigates how the School of Slavonic
and East European Studies has evolved to survive
R
elations between the UK and Eastern
Europe have been on a rollercoaster
since at least 1989, according to Diane
Koenker, Director of the School of Slavonic
and East European Studies (SSEES) at
University College London (UCL). The first
female director of the school, which was
founded in 1915 to provide regional expertise
and language training during WWI, points to
support for European integration and unity on
one side, and separatist political movements
and local conflicts on the other. The rise of
anti-democratic and sometimes xenophobic
populism in some Eastern European countries
is also of great concern. The relationship
between the UK and Russia has had its own
rocky trajectory – the Salisbury poisonings
reigniting fears reminiscent of the Cold War.
Throughout its 105-year history, SSEES has
negotiated such tensions. Co-founded by
the philosopher Tomas Masaryk, who later
became the first President of Czechoslovakia,
it has always had a focus on languages – a
sometimes controversial area, particularly in
the post-Soviet era. Dr Koenker explains:
"Language politics are highly contentious,
and conflicts over defining majority and
minority languages, or differentiating
between a language and a dialect, have been
part of the turbulent history of the region,
particularly since the breakup of the three
large empires that occupied this space: the
Habsburgs, the Ottomans and the Russians."
In the last 30 years, one of the tasks of
SSEES academics and students has been to
study such tensions – both within the region
and between Eastern Europe and the UK – in
order to advise policymakers and the public.
"Many of our students come from the
Slavonic region, including Russia, and we
have the chance to engage in dialogue and
to learn from one another," says Koenker.
Continual development
The school is continually developing in
response to the most pressing concerns of
the day. In 1999, it became part of UCL
(it was previously an independent part of
the University of London) and it is now
has 60 academic staff and almost 1,000
undergraduate and postgraduate students.
It offers degrees in ten languages: Bulgarian,
Czech, Finnish, Russian, Hungarian, Polish,
Serbian/Croatian, Slovak, Romanian and
Ukrainian. Its evening classes are available in
a further seven, including Albanian, Georgian
and Slovene. Students can also enrol in
combined language degrees, such as Finnish
and Dutch. Russian is the most popular
language, with multiple levels from ab initio
to advanced, including options for students
taking non-language degrees.
Although language learning is still a major
focus, interdisciplinarity is now at the heart of
School of thought
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