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When he assigned a Russian role-playing and survival game to his students last semester, little did Assistant Professor of Russian Studies Jason Cieply know that a few months later, the game would inspire him to try making his own batch of hand sanitizer.

'Teaching a language is really exciting in that you get these raw, unmolded people who don’t understand any of the language, and within a few months they’re already understanding quite a lot.'

Students in Hamilton’s Russian Studies Program visited Holy Trinity Monastery, a Russian Orthodox church, museum, and seminary in Jordanville, N.Y., on Oct. 12. Michael Perekrestov, director of the museum, led a private tour of the exhibit “Revealing the Divine: Treasures of Russian Sacred Art.” The exhibit on Russian religious imagery features icons, architecture, and symbols of ecclesiastical life in Russia from the medieval period to the present.

Suzanne Keen, vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty, announced the appointment of new faculty for the 2019-20 academic year, including nine tenure-track appointments.

Sheridan Cordova ’20 studied Russian in high school but had no intention of continuing with the language until she took a Russian film course. Her are three of her favorite things about Russian studies.

“Ivan the Terrible murdered his heir, and left Russia to face economic collapse and mass hunger without a stable government. Then things got really bad.” So begins the description of the course, built around an opera. It inspired Wynston Pennybacker ’19's fascination with Russia.

As a resettlement case manager Erin Sullivan ’13 helps Russian speaking refugees from the former Soviet Union establish new lives.