The American Council of Teachers of Russian (ACTR) Winter 2022 and Spring 2023 Newsletter highlighted awards the organization had presented to Mark Trotter and Ani Abrahamyan of the Robert F. Byrnes Russian and East European Institute (REEI) and recognized recent graduate Nicholas “Niko” Siambekos for his scholarship in Russian.

Mark Trotter

Mark Trotter receives award from the American Council of Teachers of Russian (ACTR).In the spring of 2023, ACTR offered a special service award recognizing Trotter’s many years of outstanding service to the field of Russian and to ACTR, specifically noting his “long and distinguished record of teaching, promoting, and supporting the study of Russian and the programs of ACTR.” Trotter is the associate director and outreach coordinator of the Robert F. Byrnes Russian and East European Institute in the Hamilton Lugar School.

From 2012-2022, Trotter was an active member on the ACTR board of directors. Meanwhile, from 2011-2023 he co-chaired ACTR’s Olympiada of Spoken Russian, a program which provides the opportunity for American middle school and high school students to demonstrate their achievement in Russian language study, while conversing with native speakers of Russian and meeting with students of Russian from schools other than their own.

Trotter is credited with expanding the Olympiada to seven new regions of the United States, establishing teleconferences for Olympiada chairs to collaborate, and being instrumental for making sure all students of Russian have the opportunity to participate in the Olympiada.

One individual nominating Trotter for the award said his administrative leadership has “significantly promoted the study of Russian for underserved and underrepresented students in our field, and has inspired, supported, and pushed many classroom instructors to expand their understanding of how we might teach about the Russophone world to our increasingly diverse student populations.”

Halina Goldberg, director of the Robert F. Byrnes Russian and East European Institute said, “I am so thrilled that Mark’s countless contributions to supporting and strengthening the study of Russian language and culture in the U.S. have been acknowledged with the special recognition award. Mark never ceases to surprise me with the depth of his professional reach and experience. The award couldn’t have gone to a more deserving person!”

Trotter holds a B.A. from McGill University and an M.A. from the University of Michigan. His teaching background includes long periods of service at Grinnell College, Dániel Berzsenyi Teacher Training College (Szombathely, Hungary), and the Indiana University (IU) Summer Language Workshop (formerly SWSEEL), primarily as a teacher of Russian language. He has been certified by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) as an Oral Proficiency Tester for Russian at all levels.

Ani Abrahamyan

Ani Abrahamyan, Ph.D. candidate in the Indiana University Department of Slavic and East European Languages and CulturesAbrahamyan was selected for the ACTR Award for Excellence in Teaching Russian at the Post-Secondary Level for Graduate Student Instructors. According to the ACTR, Abrahamyan “is an outstanding instructor who is strongly committed to creating an engaging, interactive, and supportive classroom environment. In her teaching, she employs a variety of innovative approaches to teaching language and culture, including genre-based teaching and project-based learning to enable students to connect language, culture, and communication.”

Abrahamyan is a Ph.D. candidate in the IU Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures and has been a Russian language instructor at IU since 2017. In 2020, she received the Jerzy Kolodziej Excellence in Teaching Award and Hamilton Lugar School Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.

REEI Director Goldberg commented on Abrahamyan’s award, saying, “I am especially impressed with the qualities of Ani’s teaching that were noted by the committee—the inclusive and innovative approaches that she makes central to her classroom.”

Nicholas “Niko” Siambekos

Nicholas “Niko” SiambekosSiambekos, B.A. ’23 International Studies, Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures was named an ACTR Post-Secondary Russian Scholar Laureate 2023. According to the ACTR, this award recognizes post-secondary students for their “commitment to studying the Russian language and to deepening their knowledge of the field of Russian Studies.” Siambekos was part of the IU Russian Flagship Program, and is now completing his capstone year in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

According to Russian Flagship Program Director Maria Shardakova, “Niko is for sure a Russian Flagship poster child—he started with no experience in Russian and has climbed to advanced-mid [proficiency] in just 4 years, a remarkable achievement considering that Russian is a Category III language. Languages from this category are especially challenging for English-speaking learners.” She continues, “Niko combines Russian studies with his International Studies major and analyzes the interplay between economy, energy politics, and global economic institutions that shape Russian interventionism in the ‘near abroad.’”

Language instruction at Indiana University

The recognition of these three individuals is evidence of Indiana University’s strength as a hub for language learning. Indiana University and the Hamilton Lugar School offer instruction in more than 80 languages. Housed within the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, the Robert F. Byrnes Russian and East European Institute has been a leader in research, language training, and area studies on Russia and Eastern Europe for over six decades. The institute was founded in 1958 by the late Robert F. Byrnes, and in 2020 it was renamed in his honor thanks to a generous gift from Shaun M. and Jill F. Byrnes. Meanwhile, the Russian Flagship Program provides the opportunity for motivated students to gain professional language skills and meet the challenges of the 21st century world. The flagship includes coursework, free weekly tutoring, and intensive summer studies through the IU Language Workshop. The program culminates with a full cultural, social, and professional immersion during the capstone year at the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University in Almaty, Kazakhstan.