Wayne S. Vucinich

Wayne S. Vucinich
Born (1913-06-23)June 23, 1913
Butte, Montana, USA
Died April 21, 2005(2005-04-21) (aged 91)
Menlo Park, California
Alma mater University of California, Berkeley
Occupation Historian
Educator
Academic

Wayne S. Vucinich (June 23, 1913 – April 21, 2005) was an American historian and professor and a founding father of Russian, Slavic, East European and Byzantine scholarship after World War II. He spent his academic career at Stanford University.

Life

Vucinich was born in the United States to a family of Serb immigrants who had come from Bosnia in the early twentieth century.[1] He was born in Butte, Montana in 1913,[2] and lived there until both of his parents died when he was 5 years old and he was sent back to Herzegovina.[3]

He was educated in Herzegovina and Los Angeles, California.[4] He attended the University of California, Berkeley, earning a M.A. in East European history in 1936. He continued to pursue his doctoral studies between 1936 and 1941, also studying at Charles University in Prague.

Career

After graduating, Vucinich joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and worked as an analyst for the Balkans and the Soviet Union during the Second World War. In the course of his assignments, he visited London, Bari and Sofia. In 1946, after working in the State Department for a year, he accepted an offer to teach in Stanford's History Department, where he worked until his formal retirement in 1978.

From 1972-85, he was director of the Center for Russian and Eastern European Studies. He also taught at Stanford's overseas campuses in Florence, Beutelsbach and Vienna. In 1977, he was appointed to Robert and Florence McDonnell Professor of Eastern European Studies at Stanford, a chair first established for Vucinich. He held it for many years after his formal retirement in 1978. Among his students were David Kennedy and Norman Naimark.

In his teaching and research, Vucinich covered a broad area of history, encompassing general European history, modern history, history of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Italy, the Balkans, Ottoman and Byzantine history, and nationalities of the Soviet Union. From 1981-82, he served as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies.

Legacy and honors

Selected works

References

  1. Sima Ćirković (1997). "ВУЧИНИЋ Вејн (Vucinich S. Wayne)". In Sima Ćirković & Rade Mihaljčić. The Encyclopedia of Serbian Historiography. Belgrade: Knowledge. pp. 322–323. ISBN 86-80269-35-2.
  2. Michael Taylor (May 1, 2005). "Wayne Vucinich -- Stanford history professor". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved November 25, 2014.
  3. Lisa Trei (April 28, 2005). "Wayne S. Vucinich, father of East European studies, dead at 91". Stanford University News Service. Retrieved November 25, 2014.
  4. Lisa Trei. "Wayne S. Vucinich, father of East European studies, dead at 91". Stanford University. Retrieved 2008-05-07.
  5. "AAASS Wayne S. Vucinich Book Prize". American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies. Retrieved 2008-05-04.
  6. "ASEEES Distinguished Contributions to Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies Award". Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. Retrieved June 6, 2015.
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