Will Runyan successfully defended his dissertation, Global Form and Fantasy in Yiddish Literary Culture: Visions from Mexico City and Buenos Aires, in December 2018. The dissertation committee was chaired by Misha Krutikov, and included Tomoko Masuzawa, Anita Norich, and Mauricio Tenorio Trillo. He is also the first student to complete the new Graduate Certificate in Critical Translation Studies.

Dr. Runyan was also recently awarded a translation fellowship through the Yiddish Book Center. Each year, ten applicants receive funding in support of a book-length project, are assigned a translation mentor, and participate in a series of workshops. He will be translating selections from the 1935 poetry collection Shtot in profil (City in Profile) by Yankev Shternberg, a leading Yiddish cultural figure in interwar Bucharest.