Download - Macalester College

Julie
Chadaga
Russian Studies
How did you first get interested in your
academic field?
I grew up in a Russian-speaking immigrant
family that fled the Soviet Union as refugees
when I was eight. We settled in Connecticut
and for years I tried to assimilate. At Wesleyan
University I took classes in Russian
literature and worked as a Russian teaching
assistant. After graduation I worked as
a translator in Moscow during an unstable
but fascinating time of transition there. I felt
an urgent need to study this land so I could
create a little island of understanding for
myself.
Why were you drawn to a teaching
intensive position?
At Wesleyan I had amazing teachers who
inspired me; a lot of my teaching methodologies
I learned from them. People often put
teaching and scholarship in opposition to
one another, but when I was a grad student
at Harvard my scholarly work really took off
once I started teaching. I got a new sense of
purpose and felt more energized.
Do you have a first day of school ritual?
I hand out index cards and ask students to
write down what they hope to learn in the
course as well as a favorite quotation or
book title. This helps me learn something
personal and meaningful about them right
away; plus, I’m a big fan of in-class writing
as a way to generate ideas and this gives
students writing practice.
Describe the most interesting object in
your office.
An IBM Selectric typewriter, which sits on its
own little table along the north-facing wall. It
was in my office when I arrived, and I cherish
it as a kind of museum piece, a haunting
material trace of an obsolete technology.
Maybe it’s also my own little gesture of defiance
addressed to the culture of novelty and
disposability in which we live.