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After all the excitement of CAS’s 50th anniversary celebrations last year, it’s hardly any wonder that this year’s endeavors seem pale by comparison. The most important aspects of our organization’s activity, the publication of our journal and the organizing of our annual meeting are in very competent hands. The hard work of Oleh Ilnytzkyj and his team at Canadian Slavonic Papers deserve our continued gratitude and praise. The imminent departure of Bohdan Nebesio from CSP to a tenure stream film position at Brock University may be a loss to our journal, but certainly a gain for Brock and for our profession as a whole. I’m sure the members will join me in congratulating Bohdan and thanking him for his good work in CAS. Oleh, no doubt, will again find an able assistant, as he has in the past. The programme Robert Karpiak has put together at the University of Western Ontario is ample testimony to his skillful organizational work. I look forward to seeing many of you there.
After many years of apparent retrenchment, Slavic studies shows signs, albeit faint and certainly not widespread, of renewed health and vigor. Circumstances vary widely from one campus to another and perhaps my optimism is tied to my own perspective, but there seems to be renewed energy and hope among younger Slavists. Positions are still very few, but there are positions being filled, even in language and literature, which were suffering an extended drought for many years. Political events in the Slavic world such as the Orange revolution in Ukraine or the accession of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Slovenia (not to mention countries not Slavic but of interest to our field, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) to the European Union have given our profession a fresh command of public attention. So too have some unfortunate events, such as the continued repressions in Belarus and the growth of authoritarianism in Russia. All in all, we face the prospect, unusual in our immediate past, of renewed interest and energy in our profession. Let’s work together to make sure we capitalize on these opportunities.
The Canadian Association of Slavists is, on the whole, a productive and healthy organization that serves its limited objectives well. Although our national funding agency, the SSHRC is unfortunately determined to implement a policy that applies political yardsticks to the evaluation of scholarly activity, the fundamental responsibility of our association is still directed at our primary goals—the promotion of quality scholarship in the fields of Slavic studies. My goals as president are to maintain this health, repair the small cracks in organization and communication, and particularly in finances, that have appeared on the hull of our very sound ship, and to sail on into what we all hope is indeed a brighter future.
Maxim Tarnawsky