ANN ARBOR—Undergraduate students at the University of Michigan will be able to pursue bachelor’s degrees in Polish in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, starting in the fall of 2008.

One of the few such programs of its kind in the United States, the new major requires two years of the Polish language to enter the program. Student must complete27 hours of additional course work focused on Polish language, literature, culture, and history.

U-M’s Polish language program teaches four levels of Polish every year. Initiated by Bogdana Carpenter, professor of Polish at U-M from 1983-2007, the program gives students a unique opportunity to specialize and major in Polish.

The Polish language and literature faculty currently includes Benjamin Paloff, assistant professor and postdoctoral scholar in the Michigan Society of Fellows, and lecturers Ewa Malachowska-Pasek and Piotr Westwalewicz.

For over a century, the University has maintained strong Polish connections, welcoming scholars, professionals, and students of Polish origin to its various disciplines and departments. The state of Michigan has more than 850,000 Polish-Americans.

In addition to the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Michigan is home of the Copernicus Endowment and the Center for Russian and East European Studies (CREES), a U.S. Department of Education-designated National Resource Center and one of the nation’s foremost institutes for interdisciplinary research and training on Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and Eurasia.

For more information about the new bachelor of arts in Polish language and literature visit: www.lsa.umich.edu/slavic

.www.ii.umich.edu/crees/events/regionalprog/polish.

For more on U-M’s Center for Russian and East European Studies, visit: www.ii.umich.edu/crees