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Letter from Prof. Dr. Gail D. Lenhoff (Los Angeles) to the Dean
An die Dekanin der Philosophisch-Historischen Fakultät January 27, 2004
Dear Professor Häcki-Buhofer: Recently I learned that the University of Basel plans to discontinue its superb program for the study of Slavic languages and Literatures. This would be a great loss for Literary Studies at the University, for the community of Basel and for the Swiss Academy. The Basel Institute of Slavic Studies has an international reputation, not only among Slavists, but in the field of cultural criticism and literary theory. Its innovative projects on twentieth-century culture—most particularly, the comparative study of money and literature—have been models for similar projects in England, France, Germany, Russia and at leading American universities. This is a central area of interest and Basel is at the forefront. The head of the Slavic Institute, Prof. Dr. Andreas Guski, is that rare combination of an excellent administrator and a first-rate scholar with a broad range of expertise. His study of the production novel is regarded as a seminal work. He is a sought-after lecturer and a gifted teacher. His students receive first-rate training in theory, literature, and the art of translation. Basel has a high number of students for a small department (90) and, perhaps more significantly, an unusually high success rate. Slavic students finish their dissertations. They find jobs in academia, in business and in government service. The Basel Institute is currently working on a collaborative MA program with Institutes at the Universities of Bern and Zürich so that, together, they can offer training in Czech, Polish and Serbian/Croatian. Basel’s Slavists have reached out to the community. They have collaborated with locally based museums, among them the Museum of Jean Tinguely and the Beyeler Foundation, to organize and write catalogues for exhibitions of Slavic modernist art, architecture and theater. The city has some special resources which reflect community interest in Slavic and East European culture, for example the Stravinsky archive and the archive of Russian poetess Marina Tsvetaeva. The institute has attracted valuable donations. During my stay in the city, I used the collection of rare books willed to the Institute library by the theologian Fritz Lieb. In comparison with other Slavic programs in America and Europe, Basel’s Slavic Institute presents an exemplary model of high academic standards and good management. It is smaller than some other fields, but its prestige is great. Slavic Studies are an indispensable, central component of literary studies. For these reasons, I hope that you will realize what a treasure you now have and consider the long-term gains of retaining Slavic Studies at Basel.
Gail D. Lenhoff, Professor
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