This is course designed to develop non-native speaker reading and writing skills achieve at least the Intermediate Mid level (using the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines). We will focus on reading and writing skills that are relevant to establishing and maintaining communication with native speakers of Russian and to retrieving information and making inferences and connections within and across texts. The course focuses on a range of skill sets, including improving grammar and reading comprehension, participating in class discussions, understanding writing strategies, giving feedback through peer editing, framing and answering questions, corresponding effectively with native speakers, and improving through self-evaluation of written language.

This course seeks to: understand the role of vowels, consonants, and the soft-sign in Russian and their effects on spoken Russian language; understand the role and usage of the 7 intonation patterns in spoken Russian; compare and contrast standard speech with dialect variations, Slavic influences, and foreign language influences in the Russian language; understand basic intonation patterns in Russian poetry, lyrics, etc., and build students' understanding of the rhythm of spoken Russian, both in "high" genres (poetry, etc.) and in "low" genres (informal speech, pop music, etc.); develop student skills and experience in the target culture (i.e., Russian).

Since the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution our understanding of East European and Russian art has been defined by utopian ideas of revolutionary transformation. This course will trace the historical development of East European and Russian art from the medieval era to the modern day, focusing primarily on the Imperial, Soviet, and post-Soviet periods to reveal the social and cultural forces behind artistic change, transgression, and transformation. We will investigate artists and art movements in Eastern Europe and Russia, critically assessing artistic influence, production, avant-garde experiments, reception, and cultural interaction in their historical context. We will also discuss how the changing ideologies in the 19th-, 20th-, and 21st centuries led to the re-assessment of artistic production in relation to discourses of nationalism, identity, gender, politics, modernity, propaganda, and mass media. The course analyzes the artistic practices, styles, interpretations, and expressions of recurring themes in East European and Russian art and culture more broadly, such as utopia, spirituality, anarchy, satire, and the collective.

Readings and discussion in English of representative Russian literary works from the 20th century.

A cultural exploration of the Soviet experience of WWII, "The Great Patriotic War." Students examine how the Soviets shaped the narrative of this conflict in poetry, prose, speeches, music, posters, paintings, monuments, and film.

This course is designed to be an introduction to the "Golden Age" of Russian literature. We will read a selection of classic Russian texts, with representative works from "canonical" authors like Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, among others. The writers we will read not only played a key role in the development of Russian literature, but their handling of life's greatest issues (the existence of God, the meaning of life, struggle for gender equality, the organization of society, the mystery of death, etc.) have influenced cultural, intellectual, and political movements throughout the world. The course readings are organized chronologically and by theme, and we will trace the progression of the major literary movements of the era (sentimentalism, romanticism and realism) while exploring the individual style/technique of each author. Works will be considered within their cultural context --historical, social, ideological and intellectual --in order to provide a better understanding of Russian thought, culture, and literature. All readings, discussions and written assignments will be in English.

Space, place, and ecology have long played the part of actors - rather than backdrops - for human action in Eastern European arts; by adding the concept of health, this course explores the intersection of the human person, culture, and the environment in Eastern European literature and film. By analyzing the "humanistic geography" created by artists from the region, this course will endeavor to understand how the health (broadly understood) of individuals is affected by place, and vice versa. This course will also explore how authors have contributed to creating a "cultural biography" of some of the major health and environmental issues - the legacy of Chernobyl, migration, accessibility, etc. - facing Russia and Eastern Europe today.

Situated in the heart of Europe, Ukraine has incredibly rich history and culture. Its current capital, Kyiv, was the cradle of Christianity for East Slavic civilization; imperial powers shifted Ukrainian borders countless times; and the country's natural resources are so rich that Ukraine became the breadbasket for the whole Soviet Union. As a result of anticolonial rebellion, Ukraine gained its independence in 1991 and then it underwent a series of tremendous challenges over the next three decades: several economic crises, two revolutions, the annexation of Crimea, the military conflict in Donbass and Lugansk, and in 2022 the Russian invasion. These perturbations not only led to Ukraine's powerful urge to free itself from Russian and Soviet history and influence but also forged a new national identity. In How Ukraine Was Tempered students will often be asked to compare events in Ukrainian history or concepts in Ukrainian pop culture and art, such as the anticolonial rebellion, the genocide of Crimean Tatars, the power of war memes, art as antiwar protest, etc... with their American counterparts. This course focuses on building knowledge that increases intercultural competency, using multiple formats and modalities to guide students toward understanding and evaluating the development of the Ukrainian nation that has rejected a shared past of apparent Slavic brotherhood.

This course focuses on the experiences both lived and imagined of women in Russia and Eastern Europe from the nineteenth century to the present day. We will examine the portrayal of women in print and visual culture and focus on how gender is depicted in a variety of contexts, including high and low literature; folklore and fiction; advertisements and film; political tracts and memoirs. Our discussion will consider questions of gender, sexuality, LGBTQIA+ rights movement, and the role of the family in day-to-day life and society at large; we will analyze how women's roles evolved in countries that went through radical and abrupt social and political changes.

This course focuses on the history and doctrine of Eastern Christianity from its origins in the early Church through today, emphasizing the cultural manifestations of Orthodox doctrine: liturgy, iconography, pious practice. We will compare Eastern Orthodoxy to Western Christianity (Catholicism and Protestantism), and will examine various different national Churches within Eastern Orthodoxy (i.e., Byzantine, Bulgarian, Serbian, Modern Greek, the older "Oriental" Churches, etc.), with a primary focus on Russia. Eastern Orthodox Christianity is often perceived as being one of the more 'mystical' of Christian traditions, and we will explore the Orthodox vision of 'the mystical life', examining its basis in history and contemporary experience. We will also ask about the significance of Church doctrine and practice for the development of culture as a whole in the areas of the world in which Eastern Christianity predominates, and the ways in which that culture both differs from and relates to what we (perhaps inaccurately) call "Western" civilization. In general, Orthodox practice relies heavily on the senses, and the course is designed to be experiential. To that end, we will make at least one field trip to a local Orthodox Church during the course of the semester.