VERA BORKOVEC

Vera Borkovec was born in Czechoslovakia, but grew up in Teheran, Iran.  She did her undergraduate work in English and Persian studies at Charles University in Prague.   She came to the USA in 1952.  She holds an M.A. in French from Hollins College (Virginia), and an M.A. in Russian from American University (Washington, DC).  She received her Ph.D. in Russian from  Georgetown University (Washington, DC).

After a teaching career of more than thirty years in the Department of Language and Foreign Studies at  American University, where she taught Russian (sometimes Czech), language, linguistics, literature and drama, she retired as Professor Emerita and devotes herself to her lifelong interests and avocations: theatre, poetry, literary translation, and SVU. Having translated and published a number of stories by Arnost Lustig, she has turned to the translation of Czech and Russian plays, mainly the plays of Russia's Aleksandr Volodin and the Czech playwright Josef Topol.  She has published some of her translations of poems by Nobel prize winner Jaroslav Seifert and in 1998 her translated volume of poetry by Libuse Cacalova was published in the Czech Republic under the title KINGDOM OF PEBBLES.

She is presently serving her seventh term as SVU Vice President.  In the eighties she served three terms as Vice President for Student Affairs, since 1994 she has been Vice President for Local Chapters.

Her interest in SVU began when she came to Washington in the early sixties. She became a regular member in 1965, attended all the Society's Congresses, presenting papers, chairing and organizing sessions.  She has served on several committees, such as the Student Committee, Bylaws Committee, and Membership Committee.  In 1997 she was elected first woman Secretary General  of the Society.  She held this post three times: reelected in 1980 and once again in 1993-1994.  In 1982-84 she was Chairman of the Washington, DC Chapter.  Later as SVU Vice President she organized SVU's younger generation into SVU Junior and instituted a yearly competition for the SVU Student Award, which has been one of the best ways of attracting young people's interest in the Society.

She served as Local Arrangements Chairman for the 20th Anniversary World Congress which was held at American University in Washington, DC during the days of August 8-13, 2000.  The fact that the Congress was held at her home university had immense advantages and ensured the success of the event. American University was not simply a venue, but the university became an active sponsor. She also arranged the staging of a play "Hour of Love" by Czech playwright Josef Topol, which she also translated into English, performed by the American University Department of Performing Arts. Vera Borkovec was also adviser to the production crew and sat in on rehearsals.

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