Cynthia Vakareliyska is a remarkable scholar who has significantly contributed to the fields of mediaeval Slavonic studies and the history of the Slavic languages. She was born in New Haven, Connecticut, USA. In 1973 she became BA in Russian magna cum laude at Princeton University and in 1976 received the degree of J.D. from the School of Law at Columbia University. For five years (1985–1990) she was a Teaching Fellow at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University, where in 1990 she obtained a Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literatures. In 1986 she was awarded the Certificate of Distinction in Teaching by the Danforth Institute at Harvard University. Later she worked as Assistant Professor in Russian at Georgetown University (1990–1994) and Assistant Professor in Slavic Linguistics (1994–1997) at the University of Oregon, Eugene, where she became Associate Professor in Slavic Linguistics (1997–1998), Associate Professor of Linguistics (1998–2008) and from 2008 to 2018 she was Professor of Linguistics in the Department of Linguistics at that university, and since 2018 Professor Emerita. She read courses on Old Church Slavonic, historical phonology of the Slavic languages, computer collation of mediaeval Slavic Menologies, the structure of Lithuanian and Russian, neuro- and gender linguistics.