The Lawrence community was deeply saddened to learn of the unexpected death of Associate Professor of Russian Rebecca Epstein Matveyev on Tuesday, July 6, 2004, at the age of 36.
A member of the Lawrence University faculty since 1996, Professor Matveyev taught in both the Russian department and the gender studies program as well as Freshman Studies.
Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, she earned the Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude in English and Russian from Rice University in 1989. She went on to graduate study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she completed an M.A. (1991) and the Ph.D. (1996) in Russian language and literature. While at Madison, she was the recipient of both a University Fellowship and a Dissertation Fellowship from the university and a Jacob Javits Fellowship from the U.S. Department of Education.
In 1989, she briefly served as a scientific translator for the Office of Naval Research in Arlington, Virginia, and from September 1989 to March 1990, as a research assistant with the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies and the American Committee on U.S.-Soviet Relations in Washington, D.C.
A scholar of 19th- and 20th-century Russian literature, Professor Matveyev authored articles on Doestoevski, Pushkin, and Tolstoi that were published in the Slavic and East European Journal and Russian Literature. She was an active member of the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages and the Wisconsin Association of Foreign Language Teachers, giving presentations and submitting papers for their annual conferences.
A skilled linguist, Professor Matveyev also translated several works into English, with contributions to the collections Lives in Transit: A Collection of Recent Russian Women's Writing and Russian Women: Experience and Expression: An Anthology of Sources.
A devoted and enthusiastic teacher, she was recognized with the college's Outstanding Young Teacher Award at the June 1999 Lawrence commencement. In bestowing that honor, former president Richard Warch observed, "Patience, rigor, and a sense of humor are just a few of the attributes that make you an excellent teacher. Although your first love is teaching Russian, you have also made your mark as an instructor in Freshman Studies, where your infectious enthusiasm for learning has found another venue for expression." (Read the full citation).
Dedicated to strengthening how foreign languages are taught at the college and high school levels, she was the author of several papers on the subject, including "The Culturally Literate Classroom," and, with Associate Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures Jane Parish Yang, "What Our Students Can Really Do: Reality vs. the Standards in the Less Commonly Taught Languages."
In August 1997, she was invited to present a paper in Russian, titled "Developing the Listening Comprehension Skills of Beginning and Intermediate Students of Russian Through the Use of Song Lyrics," at a conference on the teaching of Russian as a foreign language held at Moscow State University.
Having a strong personal interest in Russian contemporary culture, Professor Matveyev was an advocate of incorporating cultural study in foreign language programs and undertook to develop courses at the college that integrated that approach, including the courses "Russian Culture Through Music" and "Women and Gender in Russian Culture." She similarly collaborated with colleagues of Lawrence's Foreign Language Coalition on introducing new features to the teaching of foreign languages and literature across languages and departments, and volunteered her expertise with the Appleton Area School District's committee on foreign language standards.
In 2002, she was promoted to associate professor of Russian and granted tenure at the college.
Condolences to the family may be sent care of
Jeremy Epstein
4575 Forest Drive
Fairfax, VA 22030
Email: jeremy.epstein@cox.net.