Category: Alumni

Leislie Godo-Solo, IRT ’91 recently spoke to A’Yanna Solomon, IRT’21 to discuss her work and interests

On a regular basis, I am captivated by the innovative, interdisciplinary, and relevant scholarship that IRT Scholars are engaging.  This sentiment also rings true as it relates to the scholarly work that A’Yanna Solomon, IRT ’21 is pursuing as a second-year graduate student in the Slavic Languages and Literature Department at the University of Michigan. 

A’Yanna’s trajectory and interest in Russian and Slavic languages originally began in East Baltimore, Maryland, where she grew up listening to hip hop music which she says resonated with her, much in the same way that Black culture did.  A’Yanna knew that she wanted to study Russian because she was fascinated by its phonetics and written script during her youth.  Upon enrolling at Goucher College, she majored in Russian and Spanish Languages.  Because the Russian program was being phased out of existence at Goucher College, one of A’Yanna’s professors also introduced her to Slavic Studies, Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies which have gained more cache as the focus on Russian language decreases in the field.  Within Russian Studies, A’Yanna focused on comparative marginalization and popular culture and the ways that the LGBTQ communities in Russia resisted homophobic queer phobic legislation.  In what ways did these communities create and maintain community?  This preoccupation with marginalization stemmed from her own treatment as an outsider studying Russian language.  Often, a student would lean over quietly and ask her, “This is intermediate Russian, right?”  Fifteen minutes would pass, and the same student would respond, “So, do you like speaking Russian?”  “Yea, I do, I do.”