Masha Belyavski-Frank received her doctorate in Slavic linguistics from the University of Chicago in 1983, and came to DePauw in 1992 to teach in the German & Russian Dept. (now part of the Modern Languages Dept.) She teaches a wide range of courses in language, literature, and culture, including Russian literature and culture in translation. one of her recent interdisciplinary courses is “Across Borders: Russian and Eastern European Women Writers At the Turn of the Century.” Another is “European Literature of the Absurd.”
Her research interests are in East and South Slavic languages, especially semantics and syntax. She is currently working on the uses of Turkisms in contemporary Bosnian and Macedonian literature. A second interest is in literary translation, and she is translating modern Bosnian short stories into English, including Safeta Obhodjas' "A Woman and A Secret." Other teaching and research interests are in Eastern European folklore, Jewish Studies, and Eastern European cinema.