This course is designed to familiarize students with Russia--its culture, history, politics, economy, peoples, languages, traditions, and role in the world today. Upon completion of the course students will be able to understand and discuss intelligently past and current events relating to Russia. They also will have gained a familiarity with the many perspectives available for studying a country that continues to play a significant role in world events. And beyond all this, they should have a good background for discussion of major events relating to Russia and problems in the twentieth-century world.

This course explores the diverse ethnic, linguistic, religious, and cultural identities of Russia's population, including the history of how such identities have evolved over time. We will discuss encounters and conflicts between mainstream and minority cultures, as well as the ways such encounters are viewed on the global stage and within Russia. By analyzing works of literature, films, historical documents, linguistics, works of art, musical recordings, and scholarship from the humanities and social sciences, students will become familiar with the most pressing debates on diversity, post-colonialism, and plurality in contemporary Russia.

East European Cinema in a Social Context (RSSS150) introduces students to a variety of excellent films that have come out of Eastern Europe in the last 100 years or so. Students will learn about the socio-political and cultural contexts of these films, the societies in which they were produced, and the events and situations that they depict. The goal of the course is to increase students' understanding and knowledge of Eastern European societies, cultures, and history while at the same time enhancing their appreciation and understanding of particular film masterpieces and cinema in general. By engaging them in the close study of these films, the course should help students develop analytical and viewing skills. Students should emerge from this course with a strong understanding of cinematic terms, an enriched understanding of diverse cultures of the region, and the tools for further exploration in a variety of academic disciplines (language, film, history, etc.). For purposes of this course, Eastern Europe includes the geographical area bounded by the Czech Republic in the west, Russia in the east; Poland in the north, and the former Yugoslavia & Greece in the south. We will watch a selection of movies from different areas.

The goal of the course is to provide students with important tools to help them become successful foreign language learners. Students will become familiar with basic elements of language such as parts of speech and the pronunciation of new sounds as a means of enabling them to anticipate and effectively deal with problems in pronunciation, vocabulary building, and sentence formation that often come up in foreign language study. They will also learn about the intertwining of culture and language, such as how expressions of politeness and body language differ across cultures. They will also be exposed to different language teaching and learning styles, typical mistakes language learners make, and strategies for making language learning more effective. This information will be presented in the context of the wide variety of languages taught at the University of Arizona

For the student with some knowledge of Russian.

For the student with no previous experience in Russian.