Jos Schaeken is Professor of Slavic and Baltic Languages and Cultural History; his area of specific interest is Russia. He also chairs the bachelor’s programme in Russian Studies and the master’s programme in Russian and Eurasian Studies. The department has a close association with the ‘Window on Russia’ journalistic platform.

More information about Jos Schaeken

Jos Schaeken (1962) is  Professor of Slavic and Baltic Languages and Cultural History at Leiden University. He was educated at Leiden, from where he received his PhD in Slavic linguistics at the age of 24. Following national and international positions (including UCLA, Groningen University and Universität Basel), he returned to his alma mater in 2003 to become Head of the multidisciplinary programme Russian and Eurasian Studies, in which research and teaching in language and culture are combined with the study of history, politics, economics and international relations. From 2005-2009 he also served as Academic Director of the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, which carries out international research into language diversity in the world. From 2013-2016 he was Dean of Leiden University College The Hague, and from 2020-2022 Dean of Leiden University Honours Academy.

Fields of interest

• History of the East Slavic languages and cultures
• (Old) Church Slavonic language and culture
• Baltic linguistics, esp. Old Prussian
• Historical sociolinguistics and pragmatics

Key publications

• 2019: Voices on Birchbark. Everyday Communication in Medieval Russia. Leiden: Brill, 212 p.
• 1999: (Jos Schaeken & Henrik Birnbaum) Die altkirchenslavische Schriftkultur: Geschichte - Laute und Schriftzeichen - Sprachdenkmäler (mit Textproben, Glossar und Flexionsmustern) (Altkirchenslavische Studien II, Slavistische Beiträge 382). München: Sagner, 289 p.
• 1997: (Henrik Birnbaum & Jos Schaeken) Das altkirchenslavische Wort: Bildung - Bedeutung - Herleitung (Altkirchenslavische Studien I, Slavistische Beiträge 348). München: Sagner, 190 p.
• 1987"Die Kiever Blätter (SSGL 9). Amsterdam: Rodopi, 272 + IX p. (Doctoral dissertation, Leiden University).

Publications