Aida Vidan

Preceptor in Slavic Languages and Literatures

Barker Center 340 - 495-2933- avidan[at]fas.harvard.edu

Education: B.A. 1989, Zagreb University (Filozofski fakultet), Ph.D. 2000, Harvard University.

Interests: Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian language instruction; oral traditional poetry & Slavic mythology; contemporary South Slavic war fiction; Croatian Renaissance literature.

Current Courses:

Fall:
• Slavic Ea (Beginning Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian I)
• Slavic Er (Supervised Readings in Intermediate/Advanced Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian)

Spring:
• Slavic Eb (Beginning Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian II)
• Slavic Er (Supervised Readings in Intermediate/Advanced Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian)

Books: • Elementary Croatian (with Robert Niebuhr; Hippocrene Books, forthcoming spring 2009) • Elementary Serbian (with Robert Niebuhr; Hippocrene Books, forthcoming spring 2009) • Embroidered with Gold, Strung with Pearls: The Traditional Ballads of Bosnian Women (Milman Parry Collection of Oral Literature and Harvard University Press, 2003) • translation of Enver Redžić, Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Second World War (Frank Cass, 2005)

Selected articles: • “Language asymmetries and the struggle for the accumulation of linguistic capital” (co-authored with Victor A. Friedman and Tarik Hadzibeganovic; forthcoming) • “Women, Gender, and Folk Singers: Eastern Europe” (2008) • “Capturing the Unutterable: Drago Štambuk and Languages within a Language” (2007) • “Armed with Words: Croatian, Bosnian, and Serbian War Fiction since the 1990s” (2005) • “Danijel Dragojević“ (1997); “Milivoj Slaviček” (1997) • “Four Marital Fights in Anna Karenina in Light of Gender Linguistic Analysis” (1995)

Works in Progress: • Black Wave (translation of a poetry collection by Drago Štambuk; under review for publication) • Return of the Song: The Milman Parry Collection and Its Reception in the World (conference proceedings, co-editor with Margaret Beissinger; Milman Parry Collection of Oral Literature and Harvard University Press, forthcoming 2009) • Translation into English of Marin Držić's play Dundo Maroje • Leti vila preko Gacka bila: ženske usmene pjesme (three vol. edition of oral traditional songs from Herzegovina with CD, expected date of publication 2009/2010) • The Front Lines: War in Literature of the Balkan Lands (book) • Thematic Index of Ballads and Lyric Songs from the Milman Parry Collection of Oral Literature, Harvard University (book/CD) • Where the Dragon Sleeps: Essays on Slavic Mythology and Oral Tradition (book)

Honors: National Endowment for the Humanities; Heldt Translation Prize for Women in Slavic Studies (AAASS) for Embroidered with Gold, Strung with Pearls: The Traditional Ballads of Bosnian Women; American Council of Learned Societies; Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University.

Other academic activities: • Research Fellow, The Milman Parry Collection of Oral Literature • Co-organizer of the conference Return of the Song: The Milman Parry Collection and Its Reception in the World • Lecturer, Northwestern University, Study Abroad Program in Croatia
Credits transferable for Harvard students (to find out more click here or contact me) • Co-chair for Southeastern Europe Study Group, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies • Consultant, Kokkalis Program on Southeastern and East-Central Europe • President of the Association for Croatian Studies (a branch of the AAASS)(website under construction)