"Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted”. E. M. Forster, Howards End.
Olya Samilenko
Associate Professor of Russian
Dr. Samilenko has taught all of the courses offered by the Russian Program, but her specialty is short prose, the novel, and satire, though she regularly teaches poetry, as well. Dr. Samilenko teaches all literature courses in the target language. She also directs the Johns Hopkins-Goucher College Cooperative Russian Program in Language, Literature, and Culture. She is the author of the recently published historical novel set in 1929 during collectivization in eastern Ukraine entitled The Snow Goose Chronicles. Prior to coming to Goucher Dr. Samilenko taught at Dickinson College. She also worked as translator, interpreter, and researcher at the U. S. Commission on the Ukrainian Famine of 1932-33. Among Dr. Samilenko’s publications is a chapter in this report. Dr. Samilenko earned both an M.A. and Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Michigan, and her B.A at Bryn Mawr College. Dr. Samilenko is a native speaker of Russian and Ukrainian.
Research, Scholarship, Creative Work in Progress
Dr. Samilenko is currently translating The Snow Goose Chronicles into Ukrainian for publication in Kiev, Ukraine.
Publications
The Snow Goose Chronicles. Liberty Publishing House, New York City, N.Y., 2015.
Exhibits or Performances
Multiple book signings in Washington, Philadelphia, and New York.
Invited Talks
Joint presentation with Michelle Tokarczyk, Professor of English, entitled Immigration and Migration. Februrary 2017
Key note speaker for Bitter Harvest, St. Michael’s Ukrainian Catholic Church. February 2017
Presentation: Hatching the Goose. Shevchenko Scientific Society, November, 2016.
Academic or Professional Associations
ACTR