Springfield, Ohio — For the second year in a row, Professor of Political Science and Russian Area Studies Program Director George E. Hudson watched as students from his Russian Foreign Policy seminar participated in a panel at the Midwest Slavic Association meeting at The Ohio State University.

Titled “Dimensions of Russian-American Relations: Current Problems and Prospects,” the panel was chaired by Abigail Potter, class of 2006 of Springfield, Ohio, and the discussants were Claudette Grant, class of 2006 of Columbus, Ohio, and Seyed Sohi, class of 2007 of Farmington, Mass.

Three seniors presented papers — Ross Kaplan of North Myrtle Beach, S.C., presented “Russian American Relations with Respect to the Chechen Problem: Dynamic Rhetoric Becomes Mutual Struggle,” Sarah Morgan of Willoughby, Ohio, presented “Images and Myths of Russian-American Relations Before and After the Cold War: Accusations, Expectations and Disappointments,” and Larry Yarnelle, of Fort Wayne, Ind., presented “Dimensions of Russian-American Relations: Current Problems and Prospects.”

According to Hudson, comments from the audience participants, both during and after the panel, reflected how well the panel was presented.

“Professors from Kenyon College and Northwestern University remarked on the high degree of professionalism all the panelists demonstrated,” Hudson said. “It was an excellent demonstration of high-quality Wittenberg student research and the ability of our students to engage in high-level scholarly interchange at a professional meeting.”

The students also met Sunnie Rucker-Chang, class of 2000, who is getting her Ph.D. in South Slavic Linguistics at The Ohio State University.

“I was very proud of all the students,” Hudson said. “From the way Abby ran the panel, to the high-quality discussant remarks of Claudette and Seyed, and of course, the excellent papers presented in a clear and fluent way by Ross, Sarah and Larry.”