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.

In contemporary Russia -- marked by extreme inequality; political prosecutions; government discrimination against racial, ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities; extensive corruption, and prisoners' human rights violations -- the illegal has permeated the legal. "Criminal Russia" centers on the concept of power, and specifically, on the process of its consolidation and application by legitimate and illicit structures, and on the effect these processes have on different populations. To do this, the course begins with considering the influence of crime on the government in imperial Russia and the nation's fascination with a glorified criminal archetype. Then, moving to the more recent period, "Criminal Russia" explores the oppressive nature of the Soviet state, realized in unlawful mass incarcerations into Gulags; the interweaving of the criminal code into Russian politics; the rise and (alleged) fall of the Russian mafia; the country's penitentiary system as a reflection of societal power verticals and the collective sense of right and wrong; and the paradoxical place of the criminal culture within the national consciousness. Upon completing the course, students will be able: (1) to critically analyze issues of power (and power abuse) by the state and by its shadow using various disciplinary approaches, (2) to address issues of freedom, oppression, incarceration, and human rights, in Russia and elsewhere, and (3) to explain how counter cultures subvert dominant ideologies.

This course introduces students to the vibrant history of Russian theatre and performance from the nineteenth century to the present day. Our discussion will consider the general principles of theatre theory as well as the material, sociopolitical, and historical contexts in which works were written and performed.

This course will examine the ways in which the vampire and werewolf serve as metaphors for human fears and desires. Starting with East European peoples, we will explore how the folklore around the monsters symbolized "the other" and cultural taboos. We will trace how Western cultures engaged with, adopted and transformed the East European beliefs to reflect evolving conception of identity, social conflict, gender/sexuality, and the nature of good and evil

This course examines the portrayal of prostitution in visual and print culture of the nineteenth century. We will determine how writers and artists conceptualized commercial sex in French, Russian, and German contexts. For the era's writers, artists, thinkers, and social activists, the prostitute became linked with urban decay and the disastrous effects of industrialization. In our discussions of works by Alexandre Dumas fils, Emile Zola, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Frank Wedekind, we will uncover how these writers utilize the female body to discuss issues of deviance and attraction. In analyzing paintings by Edouard Manet, Ilya Repin, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, we will determine how the courtesan and streetwalker appear as emblems of modernity.

This course studies a selection of the best and most influential fantastic, marvelous, and uncanny works from the region that brought the world rocketry, Sputnik, and the robot. Students will analyze a variety of media (in translation) from Eastern Europe that posit situations based in a "fantastic" space, time or world to compare how broader cultural concerns are expressed through the genre of science fiction. We will discuss the development of the genre in Eastern Europe from the era of Romanticism to the modern day, with emphasis on the historical-cultural context of the Space Race between the US and USSR and its impact on the genre. This course will explore the view "from the East" of such topics as progress, imperialism, human perfectibility, gender constructs, the nature of communication, human/other identity, and the limits of knowledge as humanity pushes further into the final frontier. Students will read all texts in translation; all films will be available with English-language subtitles.