Contacts | Program of Study | General Education | Grading | Honors | Advising | Study Abroad | Program Requirements | Major in Russian and East European Studies | Summary of Requirements for the Major in Russian and East European Studies | Minor Program in Russian and East European Studies | Summary of Requirements for the Minor in Russian and East European Studies | Courses
Department Website: http://slavic.uchicago.edu
Program of Study
The Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures offers courses in the Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, Czech, Polish, and Russian languages and literatures, and other Slavic and East European cultures, leading to a BA in Russian and East European Studies. The BA degree program is designed to provide students with skills and facility in the languages and cultures of the region. It is intended for students preparing for graduate work, those planning a career in government or industry, and those whose primary aim is to master Russian and East European cultures in the original languages. Students interested in the program are encouraged to consult with the director of undergraduate studies. The contact information for the current director of undergraduate studies may be obtained by consulting the departmental website at slavic.uchicago.edu.
Students who are majoring in other fields of study may also complete a minor in Russian and East European Studies.
General Education
Depending on the language(s) of concentration, it is recommended that students majoring in REES satisfy the general education requirement in civilization studies with SOSC 24000-24100 Introduction to Russian Civilization I-II or HIST 13100-13200-13300 History of Western Civilization I-II-III.
Grading
Students who are majoring or minoring in Russian and East European Studies must receive a quality grade in all courses taken to meet requirements in the major or minor. Nonmajors and nonminors have the option of taking courses on a P/F basis at the discretion of the instructor (except for language courses, which must be taken for quality grades). For the major a minimum of seven courses must bear University of Chicago course numbers and be completed for quality grades.
Honors
To be eligible for honors in Russian and East European Studies, students must maintain an overall College GPA of 3.25 or higher and of 3.5 or higher in the major. Students must indicate their intention to pursue honors to the director of undergraduate studies no later than the end of the first week of the first quarter of their fourth year.
In addition, students pursuing honors must write an acceptable BA paper in their final year under the supervision of a faculty member in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures. Students must submit the BA paper to the BA supervisor no later than Monday of sixth week in Spring Quarter of their fourth year.
At the latest by the Autumn Quarter of their fourth year, students should begin the BA process by consulting with the director of undergraduate studies. Students may register for the BA Paper seminar (REES 29900 BA Paper Workshop) with approval of the BA supervisor. This course will confer general College elective credit, but it will not count toward the major. If the completed bachelor’s paper is judged by the supervisor and a second faculty member to be a distinguished example of original research or criticism, the student is recommended to the College for graduation with honors in Russian and East European Studies. The final decision regarding the granting of any degree with honors rests with the Collegiate divisional master.
Advising
Students wishing to declare the major should meet with the director of undergraduate studies. Further information on the undergraduate program is available in the departmental office (Foster 406, 773.702.8033). Questions about placement, competency, and proficiency examinations in Russian should be directed to the coordinator of Russian language courses.
Study Abroad
Study abroad opportunities are offered in subjects and geographic areas of interest to students who are majoring in Russian and East European Studies, including those described below. For more information, students should consult with the study abroad advisers or visit study-abroad.uchicago.edu.
Russian Civilization in Paris: A three-part sequence of courses is taught by University of Chicago faculty at the Center in Paris. The program includes an extended excursion to a Russian city. This program satisfies the general education requirement in civilization studies.
Funding for independent study in Czechia and other countries in the region is available via small grants administered by the department.
Program Requirements
Major in Russian and East European Studies (REES). The BA in REES requires twelve courses, which fall into two categories: courses in the major language of study and elective courses. In this way students have the flexibility to construct a course of study that accords with their interests.
Major in Russian and East European Studies
1. Six language courses at the 20000 level or beyond. In exceptional circumstances students may petition to substitute three courses in a concentrated area of study for three quarters of study in the major language.
This requirement may be satisfied in whole or in part by examination credit based on a University placement exam. Students who fulfill the language requirement with fewer than three quarters of study must substitute elective courses offered in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures.
2. Six elective courses in REES or in languages offered by Slavic Languages and Literatures.
This requirement is designed to allow students to tailor their program to their intended goals and career track. A maximum of one Reading and Research course (REES 29700 Reading/Research: Russian and Eastern European Studies) may be counted as an elective course.
Courses in the major may not be double-counted with general education requirements. A minimum of seven courses in the major must be completed for quality grades at the University of Chicago.
Summary of Requirements for the Major in Russian and East European Studies
Six courses in Russian or an East European language at the 20000 level or above * | 600 | |
Six elective courses | 600 | |
Total Units | 1200 |
* | Credit may be granted by examination. Up to three quarters worth of placement credit can be counted toward the major. When more than half of the language requirement (the equivalent of four to six quarters of study) is met by examination, electives in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures must be substituted for the additional quarters of language credit granted (i.e., if a student places out of four quarters of language study, one elective course must be substituted into the major. If five quarters of credit are granted, two electives must be substituted, etc.). Introductory courses in another Slavic or East European language can be used as electives. |
Minor Program in Russian and East European Studies
The minor in Russian and East European Studies requires seven courses, including at least three language courses at the 20000 level or beyond. The first-year level of the major language of study cannot be counted toward the minor. The minor also requires at least two REES subject courses. For the minor in REES, electives may include any level of another REES language beyond the major language of study.
Courses in the minor (1) may not be double counted with the student’s major(s) or with other minors and (2) may not be counted toward general education requirements. Courses in the minor must be taken for quality grades, and more than half of the requirements for the minor must be met by registering for courses bearing University of Chicago course numbers.
Summary of Requirements for the Minor in Russian and East European Studies
Three second-year courses in a Russian or East European language * | 300 | |
Four elective courses (including at least two REES courses) | 400 | |
Total Units | 700 |
*Credit may be granted by examination.
Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian Courses
BCSN 10103-10203-10303. First-Year Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian I-II-III.
The major objective of the sequence is to build a solid foundation in the basic grammatical patterns of written and spoken Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, while simultaneously introducing both the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. This sequence is complemented with cultural and historical media from the Balkans and is designed for students with a wide range of interests. Screenings of movies and other audio-visual materials are held in addition to scheduled class time. Knowledge of a Slavic language and background in linguistics not required.
BCSN 10103. First-Year Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian I. 100 Units.
The three-quarter sequence first-year course in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian introduces students to the four basic skills: reading, listening, speaking, and writing. It maintains a good balance of the three languages, their respective grammatical and lexical differences, and the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. Students are encouraged to concentrate on the language and culture of their interest and choice. The objective of the course is to build a solid foundation in grammatical patterns, while simultaneously working on the basics of interpretive, interpersonal, presentational, and intercultural communication. This is achieved through a communicative situation-based approach, dialogues and texts reinforced by the students and instructor, screenings of short films, video commercials, interviews, and the like. Weekly drill sessions with the instructor offer students the opportunity to review and practice the materials presented in class. All these pedagogical components improve a student's ability to interact effectively and appropriately with people from other linguistic and cultural backgrounds-essential for establishing successful, positive relationships across cultural boundaries.
Instructor(s): Nada Petkovic Terms Offered: Autumn
BCSN 10203. First-Year Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian II. 100 Units.
The three-quarter sequence first-year course in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian introduces students to the four basic skills: reading, listening, speaking, and writing. It maintains a good balance of the three languages, their respective grammatical and lexical differences, and the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. Students are encouraged to concentrate on the language and culture of their interest and choice. The objective of the course is to build a solid foundation in grammatical patterns, while simultaneously working on the basics of interpretive, interpersonal, presentational, and intercultural communication. This is achieved through a communicative situation-based approach, dialogues and texts reinforced by the students and instructor, screenings of short films, video commercials, interviews, and the like. Weekly drill sessions with the instructor offer students the opportunity to review and practice the materials presented in class. All these pedagogical components improve a student's ability to interact effectively and appropriately with people from other linguistic and cultural backgrounds-essential for establishing successful, positive relationships across cultural boundaries.
Instructor(s): Nada Petkovic Terms Offered: Winter
BCSN 10303. First-Year Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian III. 100 Units.
The three-quarter sequence first-year course in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian introduces students to the four basic skills: reading, listening, speaking, and writing. It maintains a good balance of the three languages, their respective grammatical and lexical differences, and the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. Students are encouraged to concentrate on the language and culture of their interest and choice. The objective of the course is to build a solid foundation in grammatical patterns, while simultaneously working on the basics of interpretive, interpersonal, presentational, and intercultural communication. This is achieved through a communicative situation-based approach, dialogues and texts reinforced by the students and instructor, screenings of short films, video commercials, interviews, and the like. Weekly drill sessions with the instructor offer students the opportunity to review and practice the materials presented in class. All these pedagogical components improve a student's ability to interact effectively and appropriately with people from other linguistic and cultural backgrounds-essential for establishing successful, positive relationships across cultural boundaries.
Instructor(s): Nada Petkovic Terms Offered: Spring
BCSN 20103-20203-20303. Second-Year Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian I-II-III.
The second-year sequence in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian languages and cultures is a continuation of first-year BCS and therefore assumes one year of formal study of the target language(s) or equivalent course work elsewhere. The sequence is focused on spoken and written modern BCS, emphasizing communicative practice in authentic cultural contexts. The language(s) are introduced through a series of dialogues gathered from a variety of textbooks published in Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia, as well as newspaper articles, short biographies, poems, and song lyrics in both the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets. A vast archive of audiovisual materials, representing both high and popular culture, constitutes an integral part of every unit. Simultaneously, aural comprehension, speaking, grammar, and vocabulary are reinforced and further developed throughout the year. Mandatory drill sessions are held twice a week, offering students ample opportunity to review and practice materials presented in class.
BCSN 20103. Second-Year Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian I. 100 Units.
The three-quarter sequence second-year course in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian is designed for students who have completed the first-year sequence at the University of Chicago or equivalent formal study elsewhere. The curriculum is also well-suited to heritage speakers, and those students who have a good knowledge of other Slavic languages. The main objective of the course is to develop further communicative skills (interpretive, interpersonal, presentational, and intercultural) using authentic materials representing the contemporary spoken and written language in real-life contexts. Students are presented with a series of texts, such as newspaper articles, interviews with writers, actors, and athletes, short biographies, book and film reviews, university websites, travel blogs, etc. Audiovisual materials, showcasing both high and popular culture, constitute an integral part of every unit. Textual and audiovisual materials are selected to exemplify the highlighted themes while maintaining a good balance of the three languages and their respective grammatical and lexical differences. Weekly drill sessions with the instructor offer students the opportunity to review and practice the materials presented in class.
Instructor(s): Nada Petkovic Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): BCSN 10303 or consent of instructor
BCSN 20203. Second-Year Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian II. 100 Units.
The three-quarter sequence second-year course in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian is designed for students who have completed the first-year sequence at the University of Chicago or equivalent formal study elsewhere. The curriculum is also well-suited to heritage speakers, and those students who have a good knowledge of other Slavic languages. The main objective of the course is to develop further communicative skills (interpretive, interpersonal, presentational, and intercultural) using authentic materials representing the contemporary spoken and written language in real-life contexts. Students are presented with a series of texts, such as newspaper articles, interviews with writers, actors, and athletes, short biographies, book and film reviews, university websites, travel blogs, etc. Audiovisual materials, showcasing both high and popular culture, constitute an integral part of every unit. Textual and audiovisual materials are selected to exemplify the highlighted themes while maintaining a good balance of the three languages and their respective grammatical and lexical differences. Weekly drill sessions with the instructor offer students the opportunity to review and practice the materials presented in class.
Instructor(s): Nada Petkovic Terms Offered: Winter
BCSN 20303. Second-Year Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian III. 100 Units.
The three-quarter sequence second-year course in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian is designed for students who have completed the first-year sequence at the University of Chicago or equivalent formal study elsewhere. The curriculum is also well-suited to heritage speakers, and those students who have a good knowledge of other Slavic languages. The main objective of the course is to develop further communicative skills (interpretive, interpersonal, presentational, and intercultural) using authentic materials representing the contemporary spoken and written language in real-life contexts. Students are presented with a series of texts, such as newspaper articles, interviews with writers, actors, and athletes, short biographies, book and film reviews, university websites, travel blogs, etc. Audiovisual materials, showcasing both high and popular culture, constitute an integral part of every unit. Textual and audiovisual materials are selected to exemplify the highlighted themes while maintaining a good balance of the three languages and their respective grammatical and lexical differences. Weekly drill sessions with the instructor offer students the opportunity to review and practice the materials presented in class.
Instructor(s): Nada Petkovic Terms Offered: Spring
BCSN 21101. Advanced BCS: Language through Fiction and Media I. 100 Units.
The three-quarter sequence advanced course in BCS is designed for both students who have completed two years of language training at the University of Chicago or equivalent formal study elsewhere, and heritage learners. While the pedagogical needs of heritage learners differ from those of second-language learners, they collectively inform central tenets of the course. The objective is to accelerate the process of language acquisition through reciprocal exchange of knowledge, skills, and cultural information. The course curriculum combines selected pieces of fiction with media-film adaptations of literary works featured in the textbook, or films addressing the weekly topic. Other materials, such as interviews with writers, directors, and humanities scholars also complement the course. Both reading passages and cinematic works, representing various subjects and styles, engage the language structure on every page and in every piece of footage. Issues of language structure and grammar are reinforced throughout the course as they arise in the textbook.
Instructor(s): Nada Petkovic Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): BCSN 20303 or consent of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): REES 21101, BCSN 31104, REES 31104
BCSN 21102. Advanced BCS: Language through Fiction and Media II. 100 Units.
The three-quarter sequence advanced course in BCS is designed for both students who have completed two years of language training at the University of Chicago or equivalent formal study elsewhere, and heritage learners. While the pedagogical needs of heritage learners differ from those of second-language learners, they collectively inform central tenets of the course. The objective is to accelerate the process of language acquisition through reciprocal exchange of knowledge, skills, and cultural information. The course curriculum combines selected pieces of fiction with media-film adaptations of literary works featured in the textbook, or films addressing the weekly topic. Other materials, such as interviews with writers, directors, and humanities scholars also complement the course. Both reading passages and cinematic works, representing various subjects and styles, engage the language structure on every page and in every piece of footage. Issues of language structure and grammar are reinforced throughout the course as they arise in the textbook.
Instructor(s): Nada Petkovic Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): BCSN 20303 or consent of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): REES 31102, REES 21102, BCSN 31102
BCSN 21103. Advanced BCS: Language through Fiction and Media III. 100 Units.
The three-quarter sequence advanced course in BCS is designed for both students who have completed two years of language training at the University of Chicago or equivalent formal study elsewhere, and heritage learners. While the pedagogical needs of heritage learners differ from those of second-language learners, they collectively inform central tenets of the course. The objective is to accelerate the process of language acquisition through reciprocal exchange of knowledge, skills, and cultural information. The course curriculum combines selected pieces of fiction with media-film adaptations of literary works featured in the textbook, or films addressing the weekly topic. Other materials, such as interviews with writers, directors, and humanities scholars also complement the course. Both reading passages and cinematic works, representing various subjects and styles, engage the language structure on every page and in every piece of footage. Issues of language structure and grammar are reinforced throughout the course as they arise in the textbook.
Instructor(s): Nada Petkovic Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): BCSN 20303 or consent of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): REES 21103, REES 31105, BCSN 31105
BCSN 21300. (Re)Branding the Balkan City: Comtemp. Belgrade/Sarajevo/Zagreb. 100 Units.
The freedom to make and remake our cities (and ourselves) is one of the most precious yet most neglected of the human rights," argues David Harvey. In this course, we use an urban studies lens to explore the complex history, social fabric, architecture, infrastructure, and cultural transformation of the former Yugoslav capitals. Since their inception, these cities have relied on multifaceted exchanges of peoples and political projects, forms of knowledge, financial and cultural capital, means of production, and innovative ideas. Among others, these exchanges produced two phenomena, Yugoslav architecture, embodying one of the great political experiments of the modern era, and the Non-Aligned Movement, as explored in recent documentary films (Turajlić 2023), museum exhibits (MoMA 2018, "Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia 1948-1980"), and monographs (Tito in Africa: Picturing Solidarity). Drawing on anthropological theory and ethnography of the city, we consider processes of urban destruction and renewal, practices of branding spaces and identities, metropolitan citizenship, arts and design, architectural histories and styles, and the broader politics of space. The course is complemented by cultural and historical media, guest speakers, and virtual tours. Classes are conducted in English.
Instructor(s): Nada Petkovic Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): REES 31303, ARTH 31333, ARTH 21333, ARCH 21300, REES 21300, HIST 24008, BCSN 31303, GLST 21301
BCSN 29700. Reading and Research Course. 100 Units.
No description available.
Instructor(s): Nada Petkovic Terms Offered: Autumn
Spring
Winter
Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor and Departmental Adviser
Note(s): Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form.
Czech Courses
CZEC 10103-10203-10303. First-Year Czech I-II-III.
First-Year Czech
CZEC 10103. First-Year Czech I. 100 Units.
The first course in a three-quarter sequence of first-year Czech introduces students to the Czech language and culture. Students will learn the fundamentals of Czech grammar and a wide range of everyday vocabulary with an emphasis on listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Videos, music, film, and literature will be used in class to practice language skills, as well as expose students to Czech culture. This course is intended for students who would like to communicate in Czech and/or to use the language for reading and research purposes. The first-year Czech program prepares students for the College Language Competency Exam, for continued study of Czech in second-year courses, and for study or travel abroad in the Czech Republic.
Instructor(s): Irena Cajkova Terms Offered: Autumn
CZEC 10203. First-Year Czech II. 100 Units.
The second course in a three-quarter sequence of first-year Czech introduces students to the Czech language and culture. Students will learn the fundamentals of Czech grammar and a wide range of everyday vocabulary with an emphasis on listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Videos, music, film, and literature will be used in class to practice language skills, as well as expose students to Czech culture. This course is intended for students who would like to communicate in Czech and/or to use the language for reading and research purposes. The first-year Czech program prepares students for the College Language Competency Exam, for continued study of Czech in second-year courses, and for study or travel abroad in the Czech Republic.
Instructor(s): Irena Cajkova Terms Offered: Winter
CZEC 10303. First-Year Czech III. 100 Units.
The last course in a three-quarter sequence of first-year Czech introduces students to the Czech language and culture. Students will learn the fundamentals of Czech grammar and a wide range of everyday vocabulary with an emphasis on listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Videos, music, film, and literature will be used in class to practice language skills, as well as expose students to Czech culture. This course is intended for students who would like to communicate in Czech and/or to use the language for reading and research purposes. The first-year Czech program prepares students for the College Language Competency Exam, for continued study of Czech in second-year courses, and for study or travel abroad in the Czech Republic.
Instructor(s): Irena Cajkova Terms Offered: TBD
CZEC 20203. Second Year Czech-II. 100 Units.
This is second course in the second-year Czech sequence. Using communicative methodology this course introduces more complex features of the language and focuses on building reading and writing skills while continuing to develop conversational ability for those who would like to speak Czech or use the language for reading and research. Authentic cultural audio-visual materials help to reinforce the link between language and culture. It also includes review and amplification of grammar, practice in reading, elementary composition, and speaking and comprehension. Systematic study of word formation and other strategies are taught to help free students from excessive dependence on the dictionary and develop confidence in reading rather than translating. Readings are selected to help provide historical and cultural background. Mandatory conversation sessions are held once a week.
Instructor(s): Irena Cajkova Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): CZEC 20203 or equivalent.
CZEC 29700. Reading and Research Course. 100 Units.
No description available.
Terms Offered: Autumn
Spring
Winter
Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor and Departmental Adviser
Note(s): Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form.
CZEC 29900. BA Paper. 100 Units.
No description available.
Terms Offered: Autumn
Spring
Winter
Prerequisite(s): Open to fourth-year students who are majoring in Slavic Languages and Literatures with consent of instructor and Departmental Adviser
Note(s): Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form. This course must be taken for a quality grade.
Polish Courses
POLI 10103-10203-10303. First-Year Polish I-II-III.
This sequence teaches students to speak, read, and write in Polish, as well as familiarizes them with Polish culture. It employs the most up-to-date techniques of language teaching (e.g., communicative and accelerated learning, and learning based on students’ native language skills), as well as multileveled target-language exposure.
POLI 10103. First-Year Polish I. 100 Units.
This course teaches students to speak, read, and write in Polish, as well as familiarizes them with Polish culture. It employs the most up-to-date techniques of language teaching (e.g.,communicative and accelerated learning, and learning based on students' native language skills), as well as multileveled target-language exposure.
Instructor(s): Sasha Lindskog Terms Offered: Autumn
POLI 10203. First-Year Polish II. 100 Units.
This course includes instruction in grammar, writing, and translation, as well as watching selected Polish movies. Selected readings are drawn from the course textbook, and students also read Polish short stories and press articles. In addition, the independent reading of students is emphasized and reinforced by class discussions. Work is adjusted to each student's level of preparation. Drill sessions to be arranged.
Instructor(s): Sasha Lindskog Terms Offered: Winter
POLI 10303. First-Year Polish III. 100 Units.
This course teaches students to speak, read, and write in Polish, as well as familiarizes them with Polish culture. It employs the most up-to-date techniques of language teaching (e.g.,communicative and accelerated learning, and learning based on students' native language skills), as well as multileveled target-language exposure.
Instructor(s): Sasha Lindskog Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Poli 10203 or consent of instructor.
POLI 20103-20203-20303. Second-Year Polish I-II-III.
This sequence includes instruction in grammar, writing, and translation, as well as watching selected Polish movies. Selected readings are drawn from the course textbook, and students also read Polish short stories and press articles. In addition, the independent reading of students is emphasized and reinforced by class discussions. Work is adjusted to each student’s level of preparation.
POLI 20103. Second-Year Polish I. 100 Units.
This course includes instruction in grammar, writing, and translation, as well as watching selected Polish movies. Selected readings are drawn from the course textbook, and students also read Polish short stories and press articles. In addition, the independent reading of students is emphasized and reinforced by class discussions. Work is adjusted to each student's level of preparation.
Instructor(s): Sasha Lindskog Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): POLI 10300 or equivalent.
POLI 20203. Second-Year Polish II. 100 Units.
This course includes instruction in grammar, writing, and translation, as well as watching selected Polish movies. Selected readings are drawn from the course textbook, and students also read Polish short stories and press articles. In addition, the independent reading of students is emphasized and reinforced by class discussions. Work is adjusted to each student's level of preparation.
Instructor(s): Sasha Lindskog Terms Offered: Spring
POLI 20303. Second-Year Polish III. 100 Units.
The primary goal of second year Polish is to expand the student's speaking, reading and writing skills by building on grammar and vocabulary learned during the first year of study. As a complement to the linguistic side of the course, the student will gain a greater familiarity with Polish history and culture through varied means including readings of literary works, articles from contemporary Polish newspapers and movies.
Instructor(s): Sasha Lindskog Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Fall Quarter of Second Year Polish or instructor consent
POLI 20500. Third-Year Polish I. 100 Units.
Third year Polish
Instructor(s): Sasha Lindskog Terms Offered: Autumn
Spring
Winter
Prerequisite(s): POLI 20300 or equivalent
Equivalent Course(s): POLI 30100
POLI 29700. Reading and Research Course. 100 Units.
TBD
Instructor(s): Dag Lindskog Terms Offered: Autumn
Spring
Winter
Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor and Departmental Adviser
Note(s): Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form.
Russian Courses
RUSS 10103-10203-10303. First-Year Russian I-II-III.
First-Year Russian
RUSS 10103. First-Year Russian I. 100 Units.
Russian 10103 is the first quarter (of a three-quarter sequence) of first-year Russian, which introduces students to the spoken and written modern language. This course emphasizes communicative practices in authentic cultural contexts, for those who would like to speak Russian or use the language for reading and research. Cultural audio-visual materials and use of Russian websites help to reinforce the link between language and culture. This yearlong course prepares students for the College Language Competency Exam, for continued study of Russian in second-year courses, and for study or travel abroad in Russian-speaking countries. Mandatory conversation/ drill sessions are held twice a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays).
Instructor(s): Mark, Baugher, Erik Houle, Maria Iakubovich Terms Offered: Autumn
RUSS 10203. First-Year Russian-2. 100 Units.
This is the continuation of a first-year Russian course and introduces students to spoken and written modern Russian. This course emphasizes communicative practices in authentic cultural contexts, for those who would like to speak Russian or use the language for reading and research. Cultural audio-visual materials and use of Russian websites help to reinforce the link between language and culture. It also includes review and amplification of grammar, practice in reading, elementary composition, and speaking and comprehension. Systematic study of word formation and other strategies are taught to help free students from excessive dependence on the dictionary and develop confidence in reading rather than translating. Readings are selected to help provide historical and cultural background. This yearlong course prepares students for the College Language Competency Exam, for continued study of Russian in second-year courses, and for study or travel abroad in Russian-speaking countries. Mandatory conversation/ drill sessions are held twice a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays).
Instructor(s): Mark Baugher, Erik Houle, Maria Iakubovich Terms Offered: Winter
RUSS 10303. First-Year Russian III. 100 Units.
This is a first-year Russian course, introducing students to spoken and written modern Russian. This course emphasizes communicative practices in authentic cultural contexts, for those who would like to speak Russian or use the language for reading and research. Cultural audio-visual materials and use of Russian websites help to reinforce the link between language and culture. It also includes review and amplification of grammar, practice in reading, elementary composition, and speaking and comprehension. Systematic study of word formation and other strategies are taught to help free students from excessive dependence on the dictionary and develop confidence in reading rather than translating. Readings are selected to help provide historical and cultural background. Mandatory conversation sessions are held twice a week. Students completing this sequence will be prepared to take the College Language Competency Exam, 2nd Year Russian (RUSS 20103) at the University of Chicago in the following fall quarter, or a 2nd Year Russian course over the summer at another institution, and/or to participate in a study abroad program where Russian is spoken.
Instructor(s): Mark, Baugher, Erik Houle, Maria Iakubovich Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Class meets Monday through Friday; Tuesday and Thursday meetings will be arranged with the instructor.
RUSS 10500. Russian through Pushkin II. 100 Units.
This literary and linguistic approach to Russian allows students to learn the language by engaging classic Russian poetic texts (e.g., Pushkin's The Bronze Horseman), as well as excerpts from Eugene Onegin and selections from Pushkin's shorter poems and prose works. Although the focus is on reading Russian, all four major communicative skills (i.e., reading, writing, listening comprehension, speaking) are stressed, preparing students for the College Language Competency Exam and for continued study of Russian in second-year courses. Conversation practice is held twice a week.
Instructor(s): Mark Baugher Terms Offered: TBD
Note(s): Not open to students who have taken RUSS 10100-10200-10300.
RUSS 10600. Russian through Pushkin III. 100 Units.
This literary and linguistic approach to Russian allows students to learn the language by engaging classic Russian poetic texts (e.g., Pushkin's The Bronze Horseman), as well as excerpts from Eugene Onegin and selections from Pushkin's shorter poems and prose works. Although the focus is on reading Russian, all four major communicative skills (i.e., reading, writing, listening comprehension, speaking) are stressed, preparing students for the College Language Competency Exam and for continued study of Russian in second-year courses. Conversation practice is held twice a week.
Instructor(s): Mark Baugher Terms Offered: TBD
Note(s): Not open to students who have taken RUSS 10100-10200-10300.
RUSS 20103-20203-20303. Second-Year Russian I-II-III.
Second-Year Russian
RUSS 20103. Second-Year Russian I. 100 Units.
This is a second-year Russian course, a continuation of RUSS 10103-10203-10303, summer RUSS 10003-10006, or equivalent coursework elsewhere. This course focuses on spoken and written contemporary standard Russian, emphasizing communicative practice in authentic cultural contexts, for those who would like to speak Russian or use the language for reading and research. Cultural audio-visual materials and use of Russian websites help to reinforce the link between language and culture. It also includes review and amplification of grammar, practice in reading, elementary composition, and speaking and comprehension. Systematic study of word formation and other strategies are taught to help free students from excessive dependence on the dictionary and develop confidence in reading rather than translating. Readings are selected to help provide historical and cultural background. Mandatory conversation sessions are held twice a week.
Instructor(s): Erik Houle, Mark Baugher Terms Offered: Autumn
RUSS 20203. Second-Year Russian II. 100 Units.
This is a second-year Russian course, a continuation of RUSS 20103 or equivalent coursework elsewhere. This course focuses on spoken and written contemporary standard Russian, emphasizing communicative practice in authentic cultural contexts, for those who would like to speak Russian or use the language for reading and research. Cultural audio-visual materials and use of Russian websites help to reinforce the link between language and culture. It also includes review and amplification of grammar, practice in reading, elementary composition, and speaking and comprehension. Systematic study of word formation and other strategies are taught to help free students from excessive dependence on the dictionary and develop confidence in reading rather than translating. Readings are selected to help provide historical and cultural background. Mandatory conversation sessions are held twice a week.
Instructor(s): Erik Houle, Mark Baugher Terms Offered: Winter
RUSS 20303. Second-Year Russian III. 100 Units.
This is the final quarter of the Second-Year Russian course. RUSS 20303 focuses on spoken and written contemporary standard Russian, emphasizing communicative practice in authentic cultural contexts, for those who would like to speak Russian or use the language for reading and research. Cultural audio-visual materials and use of Russian websites help to reinforce the link between language and culture. It also includes review and amplification of grammar, practice in reading, elementary composition, and speaking and comprehension. Systematic study of word formation and other strategies are taught to help free students from excessive dependence on the dictionary and develop confidence in reading rather than translating. Readings are selected to help provide historical and cultural background. Mandatory conversation sessions are held twice a week. Students successfully completing RUSS 20303 will achieve intermediate mid proficiency or better in Russian in all modalities. Students completing this sequence will be prepared to take 3rd-Year Russian (RUSS 20700) at the University of Chicago in the following fall quarter, 3rd-Year Russian over the summer at another institution, and/or to participate in a study abroad program where Russian is spoken.
Instructor(s): Erik Houle, Mark Baugher Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Class meets Monday through Friday; Tuesday and Thursday meetings will be arranged with the instructor.
RUSS 20702-20802-20902. Third-Year Russian through Culture I-II-III.
This course, which is intended for third-year students of Russian, covers various aspects of Russian grammar in context and emphasizes the four communicative skills (i.e., reading, writing, listening comprehension, speaking) in a culturally authentic context. Excerpts from popular Soviet/Russian films and clips from Russian television news reports are shown and discussed in class. Classes conducted in Russian; some aspects of grammar explained in English. Drill practice is held twice a week.
RUSS 20702. Third-Year Russian through Culture I. 100 Units.
This course is intended for third-year students of Russian and covers various aspects of Russian grammar in context. It emphasizes the four communicative skills (i.e., reading, writing, listening comprehension, speaking) in a culturally authentic context. Classes conducted in Russian; some aspects of grammar explained in English. Grammar sessions are held twice a week.
Instructor(s): Valentina Pichugin Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): RUSS 20300 (two years of Russian) or equivalent
RUSS 20802. Third-Year Russian through Culture II. 100 Units.
This course is intended for third-year students of Russian and covers various aspects of Russian grammar in context. It emphasizes the four communicative skills (i.e., reading, writing, listening comprehension, speaking) in a culturally authentic context. Classes conducted in Russian; some aspects of grammar explained in English. Grammar sessions are held twice a week.
Instructor(s): Valentina Pichugin Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): RUSS 20702 or equivalent/consent of instructor
RUSS 20902. Third-Year Russian through Culture III. 100 Units.
This course is intended for third-year students of Russian and covers various aspects of Russian grammar in context. It emphasizes the four communicative skills (i.e., reading, writing, listening comprehension, speaking) in a culturally authentic context. Classes conducted in Russian; some aspects of grammar explained in English. Grammar sessions are held twice a week.
Instructor(s): Valentina Pichugin Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Russian 20802 or consent of instructor.
Note(s): Drill sessions to be arranged.
Equivalent Course(s): RUSS 30902, REES 30902, REES 20902
RUSS 21302-21402-21502. Advanced Russian through Media I-II-III.
This is a three-quarter sequence designed for fourth- and fifth-year students of Russian. It is also suitable for native speakers of Russian. This sequence covers various aspects of advanced Russian stylistics and discourse grammar in context. This sequence emphasizes the four communicative skills of listening, reading, speaking, and writing in a culturally authentic context. It builds transcultural competence by expanding students’ knowledge of the language, culture, history, and daily lives of the Russian-speaking people. Vocabulary building is strongly emphasized. We add to the existing skills and develop our abilities to analyze increasingly complex texts for their meaning: to identify various styles and registers of the Russian language and to provide their neutral equivalents in standard Russian. We also work on developing our abilities to paraphrase, narrate, describe, support opinions, hypothesize, discuss abstract topics, and handle linguistically unfamiliar situations (in spoken and written format). Classes conducted in Russian. Course-specific grammar issues are covered during drill sessions (weekly) and office hours (by appointment). Oral Proficiency Interviews are conducted in the beginning and the end of the course (Autumn and Spring Quarters).
RUSS 21302. Advanced Russian I. 100 Units.
This is a three-quarter sequence designed for fourth- and fifth-year students of Russian. It is also suitable for native speakers of Russian. This sequence covers various aspects of advanced Russian stylistics and discourse grammar in context. It emphasizes the four communicative skills of listening, reading, speaking, and writing in a culturally authentic context. It builds transcultural competence by expanding students' knowledge of the language, culture, history, and daily lives of the Russian-speaking people. Vocabulary building is strongly emphasized. We add to the existing skills and develop our abilities to analyze increasingly complex texts for their meaning: to identify various styles and registers of the Russian language and to provide their neutral equivalents in standard Russian. We also work on developing our abilities to paraphrase, narrate, describe, support opinions, hypothesize, discuss abstract topics, and handle linguistically unfamiliar situations (in spoken and written format). Classes conducted in Russian. Course-specific grammar issues are covered during drill sessions.
Instructor(s): Valentina Pichugin Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Four years of Russian, or equivalent/consent of instructor
Equivalent Course(s): REES 21302, RUSS 30102, REES 30102
RUSS 21402. Advanced Russian II. 100 Units.
This is a three-quarter sequence designed for fourth- and fifth-year students of Russian. It is also suitable for native speakers of Russian. This sequence covers various aspects of advanced Russian stylistics and discourse grammar in context. It emphasizes the four communicative skills of listening, reading, speaking, and writing in a culturally authentic context. It builds transcultural competence by expanding students' knowledge of the language, culture, history, and daily lives of the Russian-speaking people. Vocabulary building is strongly emphasized. We add to the existing skills and develop our abilities to analyze increasingly complex texts for their meaning: to identify various styles and registers of the Russian language and to provide their neutral equivalents in standard Russian. We also work on developing our abilities to paraphrase, narrate, describe, support opinions, hypothesize, discuss abstract topics, and handle linguistically unfamiliar situations (in spoken and written format). Classes conducted in Russian. Course-specific grammar issues are covered during drill sessions.
Instructor(s): Valentina Pichugin Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Four years of Russian, or equivalent/consent of instructor
Equivalent Course(s): REES 30202, REES 21402, RUSS 30202
RUSS 21502. Advanced Russian III. 100 Units.
This is a three-quarter sequence designed for fourth- and fifth-year students of Russian. It is also suitable for native speakers of Russian. This sequence covers various aspects of advanced Russian stylistics and discourse grammar in context. It emphasizes the four communicative skills of listening, reading, speaking, and writing in a culturally authentic context. It builds transcultural competence by expanding students' knowledge of the language, culture, history, and daily lives of the Russian-speaking people. Vocabulary building is strongly emphasized. We add to the existing skills and develop our abilities to analyze increasingly complex texts for their meaning: to identify various styles and registers of the Russian language and to provide their neutral equivalents in standard Russian. We also work on developing our abilities to paraphrase, narrate, describe, support opinions, hypothesize, discuss abstract topics, and handle linguistically unfamiliar situations (in spoken and written format). Classes conducted in Russian. Course-specific grammar issues are covered during drill sessions.
Instructor(s): Valentina Pichugin Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Four years of Russian, or equivalent/consent of instructor
Equivalent Course(s): REES 30302, RUSS 30302, REES 21502
Russian and East European Studies Courses
REES 13802. The Russian Empire. 100 Units.
Empire is back in contemporary Russia. Old imperial insignia have replaced hammers and sickles on government buildings, the bodies of the last tsar and his family have been exhumed and venerated, and Putin's foreign policy stakes imperial claims on the nations on Russia's border. This course examines what the Russian empire was, how it worked, and the legacies that it left behind. Themes to be considered include the culture of the autocracy and the tradition of reform from above; imperial expansion and multiethnic society; the construction of class, ethnic, and estate identities; and the causes and consequences of the Old Regime's collapse. Mondays and Wednesdays are reserved for lectures, Fridays for discussion. Note(s): First-year students warmly welcomed; no prior Russian history, culture, or language assumed. Equivalent Course(s): REES 13802
Instructor(s): F. Hillis Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): First-year students warmly welcomed; no prior Russian history, culture, or language assumed.
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 13802, DEMS 13802
REES 15004. War, Culture, and Imperialism: Russia and the West from the 19th Century to the Present. 100 Units.
This course will survey literature shaped by the history of imperial conflict between Russia and "The West," ultimately with a view to better understanding our current geopolitical situation and mediascape. The course will be anchored in the nineteenth century, focusing on writing related to the Crimean War (1853-6) and the long contest between Britain and Russia for domination in Central Asia and India known as "The Great Game," but it will also provide a snapshot of Cold War cultural production, with an emphasis on ideological dissent among Black radicals and Russian emigres, before turning finally to our contemporary moment. (Fiction, 1830-1940)
Instructor(s): Kevin King Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 15004
REES 20000. Tolstoy's Late Works. 100 Units.
This course examines the works written by Tolstoy after Anna Karenina, when he abandoned the novel as a form and gave up his copyright. Readings include his influential writings on non-violence and vegetarianism, his challenges to church and state authority, as well as later literary works, which some believe surpass the famous novels he had renounced. We will also explore the particularities of Tolstoy's charisma in these years, when he came to be viewed as a second Tsar in Russia and as a moral authority throughout the world.
Instructor(s): William Nickell Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): REES 30000, RLIT 32900, FNDL 22850, RLST 28501
REES 20002. Tolstoy: Anna Karenina. 100 Units.
TBD
Equivalent Course(s): REES 30002, FNDL 27102
REES 20004. Nabokov: Lolita. 100 Units.
Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul, Lolita: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate, to tap at three on the teeth." Popular as Nabokov's "all-American" novel is, it is rarely discussed beyond its psychosexual profile. This intensive text-centered and discussion-based course attempts to supersede the univocal obsession with the novel's pedophiliac plot as such by concerning itself above all with the novel's language: language as failure, as mania, and as conjuration.
Instructor(s): M. Sternstein Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 28916, SIGN 26027, GNSE 24900, FNDL 25300
REES 20014. The Demons. 100 Units.
TBD
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 28701, RLIT 37502, FNDL 21502
REES 20018. Dostoevsky: The Idiot. 100 Units.
TBD
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 29300, FNDL 27101, ENGL 28902, REES 30018, ENGL 48902, CMLT 39300
REES 20020. Pale Fire. 100 Units.
This course is an intensive reading of Pale Fire by Nabokov.
Instructor(s): M. Sternstein Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): FNDL 25311, ENGL 22817, GNSE 39610, REES 30020, GNSE 29610
REES 20027. Dostoevsky's Demons. 100 Units.
Mikhail Bakhtin's description of Dostoevsky's novels as polyphonic works, in which characters are free of ideological subordination to the author and thus more fully embody radically different points of view, has been highly compelling as a model for novelistic discourse particularly in the West. There are other views of Dostoevsky, however. In Russia, more attention has been paid to his faith in Orthodox Christianity, which he believed could resolve the intense conflicts that dominate his novels, and to his view that the Russian national character might have the power to unite humanity under universal values. In this course we will read the novel Demons against the backdrop of these ideas, but also in the context of contemporary Russia, where notions of national destiny and sovereign ideals have been used to justify repression and invasion. Our method of reading will be straight out of Dostoevsky and Bakhtin, as students will be invited to adopt the most diverse perspectives and to argue their ideas as if possessed.
Instructor(s): William Nickell Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): REES 30027, FNDL 20027
REES 20200. Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov. 100 Units.
We will read and interpret The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky. Among major themes are the relation to God and religion to the larger society and state; the problem of evil; and the nature of sin and how it enters into religious beliefs; human "freedom," and what the word might have meant to Dostoevsky; and love.
Instructor(s): S. Meredith Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Required of new Fundamentals majors; open to others with consent of instructor.
Note(s): Fundamentals majors get first priority
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 28206, FNDL 20200
REES 20902. Third-Year Russian through Culture III. 100 Units.
This course is intended for third-year students of Russian and covers various aspects of Russian grammar in context. It emphasizes the four communicative skills (i.e., reading, writing, listening comprehension, speaking) in a culturally authentic context. Classes conducted in Russian; some aspects of grammar explained in English. Grammar sessions are held twice a week.
Instructor(s): Valentina Pichugin Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Russian 20802 or consent of instructor.
Note(s): Drill sessions to be arranged.
Equivalent Course(s): RUSS 30902, RUSS 20902, REES 30902
REES 20905. Walter Benjamin: 1935-1938. 100 Units.
[Volume 3 of] Harvard's majestic annotated edition of the essays and fragments includes reflections on Brecht, Kafka and the collector Eduard Fuchs, an early version of the famous analysis of art in the age of mechanical reproduction (here more accurately translated as 'technological reproducibility') and the equally exhilarating inquiry into the nature of narrative, 'The Storyteller.' You feel smarter just holding this book in your hand."-Michael Dirda, The Washington Post. In this course, we hold the book in our hands for extended periods of time to read it and discuss its contents. Extracurricular carriage of the book is encouraged.
Instructor(s): Malynne Sternstein Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Open to Fundamentals students and upperclass students in other majors.
Equivalent Course(s): FNDL 20905
REES 21000. Gombrowicz: The Writer as Philosopher. 100 Units.
In this course, we dwell on Witold Gombrowicz the philosopher, exploring the components of his authorial style and concepts that substantiate his claim to both the literary and the philosophical spheres. Entangled in an ongoing battle with basic philosophical tenets and, indeed, with existence itself, this erudite Polish author is a prime example of a 20th century modernist whose philosophical novels explode with uncanny laughter. In contrast to many of his contemporaries, who established their reputations as writers/philosophers, Gombrowicz applied distinctly literary models to the same questions that they explored. We investigate these models in depth, as we focus on Gombrowicz's novels, philosophical lectures, and some of his autobiographical writings. With an insight from recent criticism of these primary texts, we seek answers to the more general question: What makes this author a philosopher?
Instructor(s): Bozena Shallcross Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): All readings in English.
Equivalent Course(s): FNDL 26903, ISHU 29405, REES 31000
REES 21001. Greece and the Balkans in the Age of Nationalism. 100 Units.
This course is an introduction to the history of Southeastern Europe since the 1790s. Each week's work will examine a key topic in the Balkan affairs through a combination of lectures, readings and discussion of associated issues. The class will not follow the history of any one Balkan country comprehensively. Instead, the course will direct students' attention to relevant developments which address questions like these: 1. How does Balkan history related to European history? 2. What is a nation, a nationality, and an ethnic group? 3. What has nationalism meant in the Balkans? The curse emphasizes the history of Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania and Yugoslavia, with some attention to events in the Ottoman Empire, the Habsburg Monarchy and Hungary as appropriate. The course aims to offer a historical background that will enable students to better understand the recent history of Greece and the Balkans.
Instructor(s): Stefanos Katsikas Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 23613, NEHC 21002, MOGK 31001, MOGK 21001
REES 21002. Kieslowski's French Cinema. 100 Units.
Krzysztof Kieślowski's The Decalogue and The Double Life of Veronique catapulted the Polish director to the international scene. His subsequent French triptych Blue, White, Red turned out to be his last works that altered his image and legacy to affirm his status as an auteur and a representative of the transnational cinema. We discuss how in his virtual universe of parallel histories and repeated chances, captured with visually and aurally dazzling artistry, the possibility of reconstituting one's identity, triggered by tragic loss and betrayal, reveals an ever-ambiguous reality. By focusing on the filmmaker's dissolution of the thing-world, often portrayed on the verge of vague abstraction of (in)audibility or (un)transparency, this course bridges his cinema with the larger concepts of postmodern subjectivity and possibility of metaphysics. The course concludes with the filmmaker's contribution to world cinema. All along, we read selections from Kieślowski's and Piesiewicz's screen scripts, Kieślowski's own writings and interviews, as well as from the abundant criticism of his French movies. All materials are in English.
Instructor(s): Bozena Shallcross Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 24405, FNDL 25312, REES 31002, CMLT 24405, CMST 34405
REES 21101. Advanced BCS: Language through Fiction and Media I. 100 Units.
The three-quarter sequence advanced course in BCS is designed for both students who have completed two years of language training at the University of Chicago or equivalent formal study elsewhere, and heritage learners. While the pedagogical needs of heritage learners differ from those of second-language learners, they collectively inform central tenets of the course. The objective is to accelerate the process of language acquisition through reciprocal exchange of knowledge, skills, and cultural information. The course curriculum combines selected pieces of fiction with media-film adaptations of literary works featured in the textbook, or films addressing the weekly topic. Other materials, such as interviews with writers, directors, and humanities scholars also complement the course. Both reading passages and cinematic works, representing various subjects and styles, engage the language structure on every page and in every piece of footage. Issues of language structure and grammar are reinforced throughout the course as they arise in the textbook.
Instructor(s): Nada Petkovic Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): BCSN 20303 or consent of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): BCSN 21101, BCSN 31104, REES 31104
REES 21102. Advanced BCS: Language through Fiction and Media II. 100 Units.
The three-quarter sequence advanced course in BCS is designed for both students who have completed two years of language training at the University of Chicago or equivalent formal study elsewhere, and heritage learners. While the pedagogical needs of heritage learners differ from those of second-language learners, they collectively inform central tenets of the course. The objective is to accelerate the process of language acquisition through reciprocal exchange of knowledge, skills, and cultural information. The course curriculum combines selected pieces of fiction with media-film adaptations of literary works featured in the textbook, or films addressing the weekly topic. Other materials, such as interviews with writers, directors, and humanities scholars also complement the course. Both reading passages and cinematic works, representing various subjects and styles, engage the language structure on every page and in every piece of footage. Issues of language structure and grammar are reinforced throughout the course as they arise in the textbook.
Instructor(s): Nada Petkovic Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): BCSN 20303 or consent of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): REES 31102, BCSN 31102, BCSN 21102
REES 21103. Advanced BCS: Language through Fiction and Media III. 100 Units.
The three-quarter sequence advanced course in BCS is designed for both students who have completed two years of language training at the University of Chicago or equivalent formal study elsewhere, and heritage learners. While the pedagogical needs of heritage learners differ from those of second-language learners, they collectively inform central tenets of the course. The objective is to accelerate the process of language acquisition through reciprocal exchange of knowledge, skills, and cultural information. The course curriculum combines selected pieces of fiction with media-film adaptations of literary works featured in the textbook, or films addressing the weekly topic. Other materials, such as interviews with writers, directors, and humanities scholars also complement the course. Both reading passages and cinematic works, representing various subjects and styles, engage the language structure on every page and in every piece of footage. Issues of language structure and grammar are reinforced throughout the course as they arise in the textbook.
Instructor(s): Nada Petkovic Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): BCSN 20303 or consent of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): REES 31105, BCSN 21103, BCSN 31105
REES 21300. (Re)Branding the Balkan City: Comtemp. Belgrade/Sarajevo/Zagreb. 100 Units.
The freedom to make and remake our cities (and ourselves) is one of the most precious yet most neglected of the human rights," argues David Harvey. In this course, we use an urban studies lens to explore the complex history, social fabric, architecture, infrastructure, and cultural transformation of the former Yugoslav capitals. Since their inception, these cities have relied on multifaceted exchanges of peoples and political projects, forms of knowledge, financial and cultural capital, means of production, and innovative ideas. Among others, these exchanges produced two phenomena, Yugoslav architecture, embodying one of the great political experiments of the modern era, and the Non-Aligned Movement, as explored in recent documentary films (Turajlić 2023), museum exhibits (MoMA 2018, "Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia 1948-1980"), and monographs (Tito in Africa: Picturing Solidarity). Drawing on anthropological theory and ethnography of the city, we consider processes of urban destruction and renewal, practices of branding spaces and identities, metropolitan citizenship, arts and design, architectural histories and styles, and the broader politics of space. The course is complemented by cultural and historical media, guest speakers, and virtual tours. Classes are conducted in English.
Instructor(s): Nada Petkovic Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): BCSN 21300, REES 31303, ARTH 31333, ARTH 21333, ARCH 21300, HIST 24008, BCSN 31303, GLST 21301
REES 21302. Advanced Russian I. 100 Units.
This is a three-quarter sequence designed for fourth- and fifth-year students of Russian. It is also suitable for native speakers of Russian. This sequence covers various aspects of advanced Russian stylistics and discourse grammar in context. It emphasizes the four communicative skills of listening, reading, speaking, and writing in a culturally authentic context. It builds transcultural competence by expanding students' knowledge of the language, culture, history, and daily lives of the Russian-speaking people. Vocabulary building is strongly emphasized. We add to the existing skills and develop our abilities to analyze increasingly complex texts for their meaning: to identify various styles and registers of the Russian language and to provide their neutral equivalents in standard Russian. We also work on developing our abilities to paraphrase, narrate, describe, support opinions, hypothesize, discuss abstract topics, and handle linguistically unfamiliar situations (in spoken and written format). Classes conducted in Russian. Course-specific grammar issues are covered during drill sessions.
Instructor(s): Valentina Pichugin Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Four years of Russian, or equivalent/consent of instructor
Equivalent Course(s): RUSS 21302, RUSS 30102, REES 30102
REES 21402. Advanced Russian II. 100 Units.
This is a three-quarter sequence designed for fourth- and fifth-year students of Russian. It is also suitable for native speakers of Russian. This sequence covers various aspects of advanced Russian stylistics and discourse grammar in context. It emphasizes the four communicative skills of listening, reading, speaking, and writing in a culturally authentic context. It builds transcultural competence by expanding students' knowledge of the language, culture, history, and daily lives of the Russian-speaking people. Vocabulary building is strongly emphasized. We add to the existing skills and develop our abilities to analyze increasingly complex texts for their meaning: to identify various styles and registers of the Russian language and to provide their neutral equivalents in standard Russian. We also work on developing our abilities to paraphrase, narrate, describe, support opinions, hypothesize, discuss abstract topics, and handle linguistically unfamiliar situations (in spoken and written format). Classes conducted in Russian. Course-specific grammar issues are covered during drill sessions.
Instructor(s): Valentina Pichugin Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Four years of Russian, or equivalent/consent of instructor
Equivalent Course(s): REES 30202, RUSS 21402, RUSS 30202
REES 21502. Advanced Russian III. 100 Units.
This is a three-quarter sequence designed for fourth- and fifth-year students of Russian. It is also suitable for native speakers of Russian. This sequence covers various aspects of advanced Russian stylistics and discourse grammar in context. It emphasizes the four communicative skills of listening, reading, speaking, and writing in a culturally authentic context. It builds transcultural competence by expanding students' knowledge of the language, culture, history, and daily lives of the Russian-speaking people. Vocabulary building is strongly emphasized. We add to the existing skills and develop our abilities to analyze increasingly complex texts for their meaning: to identify various styles and registers of the Russian language and to provide their neutral equivalents in standard Russian. We also work on developing our abilities to paraphrase, narrate, describe, support opinions, hypothesize, discuss abstract topics, and handle linguistically unfamiliar situations (in spoken and written format). Classes conducted in Russian. Course-specific grammar issues are covered during drill sessions.
Instructor(s): Valentina Pichugin Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Four years of Russian, or equivalent/consent of instructor
Equivalent Course(s): REES 30302, RUSS 30302, RUSS 21502
REES 22009. Kafka's The Trial. 100 Units.
This very close reading of Kafka's arguably most well known unfinished novel means to move away from megalithic glosses of Kafka as a writer of allegory-of bureaucratic oppression, social alienation, and a world abandoned by God, etc.-instead to look deeply at Kafka's precision, and strategic imprecision, of language, language as trauma, wound, and axe. Knowledge of German is not necessary.
Instructor(s): M. Sternstein Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): open only to Fundamentals majors. all other majors need consent of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 21650, FNDL 21650
REES 22010. The Cinema of Miloš Forman. 100 Units.
The films of Miloš Forman (1932-2018) reflect the turbulence of the 1960s, '70s, '80s and '90s, and 2000s by focusing on the underdog, the pariah, the eccentric. The subject matter to which Forman was drawn translated into his cinema with a signature bittersweet tone, emphatic narrative cogency, and lush spontaneity. This course is an intensive study of Forman's work from his "New Wave" work in Czechoslovakia (Loves of a Blonde, The Fireman's Ball) to his U.S. studio successes (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Amadeus), to his idiosyncratic and parabolic last films (Man on the Moon, Goya's Ghosts). Among other topics, the course contemplate the value of a dark sense of humor, cinematic gorgeousness, and artistic dissidence.
Instructor(s): Malynne Sternstein Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): REES 32010, CMST 26603, FNDL 22010, CMST 36603
REES 23015. Cinema and Poetry: The Modern City. 100 Units.
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 14502
REES 23108. Contact Linguistics. 100 Units.
This seminar focuses on current research in contact linguistics in a global perspective, including but not limited to the impact of languages of wider communication (e.g. English, Russian) in contact with other languages. Topics to be covered include the following: language/dialect contact, convergence and language shift resulting in attrition and language endangerment and loss. Other contact-induced linguistic changes and processes to be considered include borrowing, code-switching, code-shifting, diglossia, loss of linguistic restrictions and grammatical permeability, and the impact of language contact in the emergence and/or historical development of languages.
Instructor(s): Lenore Grenoble Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): LING 20001 or consent of instructor
Equivalent Course(s): LING 26310, LING 36310
REES 23118. Word, Image, Ritual: Early Russian Culture in Its Historical Context. 100 Units.
The course examines elements of Pre-Modern Russian material and non-material culture through a selection of Old Russian (early East Slavic) texts and church buildings. Topics will include hesychasm, iconography and fresco painting, church architecture, epic songs, chronicles, lives of saints, and Novgorodian birch bark documents, explored in their historical and social contexts. All readings are in English.
Instructor(s): Yaroslav Gorbachov Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): REES 33118
REES 23154. XCAP: The Commune: The Making and Breaking of Intentional Communities. 100 Units.
Any class is an intentional community of sorts: people gathered together with a sense of collective purpose. But often the hopes of students are not met by the content or the methods in the classroom. Can we do better by making the process more intentional-clarifying and developing a collective sense of purpose at the outset? We will start by forming a collective plan on topics to be explored-anything from iconic American communities and Russian communes to memoir studies and economics. Possible projects include creating an intentional community in an off-campus location, designing a communal space, rewriting manifestos, or creating a new communal charter. We can cover anything from economics, space, and gender to the problem of leadership and secular belief systems. We may also want to utilize alternative modes of learning, besides reading and discussing texts, such as roleplaying. A few students in the class have some experience in intentional communities, and we will welcome their input and suggestions
Instructor(s): William Nickell Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 29975, KNOW 29975, REES 33154
REES 23300. Introduction to Contemporary Ukrainian Culture. 100 Units.
This course examines contemporary Ukrainian culture and society with attention to anticolonial resistance in the past and after the start of the Russian war on Ukraine in 2014. It focuses on diverse literary texts (poems, novels, memoirs), films (feature, short, documentary), and other forms of cultural production (visual artwork, music videos, multimodal digital projects). It is structured in three parts. The first part examines the CULTURAL MEMORY of events in Ukraine' history which are re-examined today and continue to resonate in contemporary Ukrainian contexts. Among examined events are persecutions of Ukrainian intellectuals in the Soviet Union, Holodomor or Stalin's human-made famine, Chornobyl nuclear explosion, and others. The second part focuses on the dynamics of DISSENT AND CIVIC SOCIETY, addressing three contemporary Ukrainian revolutions, feminist movements and gender dissent, debates surrounding public space and the place of Soviet heritage in contemporary Ukraine, and the process of decolonization. The third part examines RUSSIA'S WAR ON UKRAINE, which has been ongoing for more than a decade and 1/3 of Ukraine's history of independence. This part focuses on places affected by the war, such as Crimea, Mariupol, and the east of Ukraine, but also addresses the dynamics of volunteering in Ukrainian society and artmaking in times of war. No knowledge of Ukrainian language is required for this course.
Instructor(s): Darya Tsymbalyuk Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): REES 33300
REES 23325. Ukrainian Art, Literature and Film in the Wake of the Russian Invasion (2014-present) 100 Units.
How does war affect art? Over the past decade, Ukrainian artists have been raising this question in their work, alongside questions about personal and collective identity, authority and authenticity, language and imperial violence, epistemic injustice and decolonization. In this course, we will examine art, literature, and film arising out of the war-triggered crises, whether political, aesthetic, ethical, or existential, focusing on the artists' creative engagement with different kinds of documentary and source material, experiments with form, and intermodal and inter-genre dialogue. Readings may include work by Stanislav Aseyev, Yevgenia Belorusets, Artem Chekh, Andrey Kurkov, Olena Stiazhkina, Natalya Vorozhbit, and Serhiy Zhadan. We will also consider films, cartoons, and a range of audiovisual sources. Students can expect to engage with the newest cutting-edge work from Ukraine; to develop individual research projects in collaboration with their peers; and to write a final paper.
Instructor(s): Max Rosochinsky Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 23325, REES 33325
REES 23706. The Soviet Union. 100 Units.
This lecture course surveys the making and unmaking of the Soviet Union as a society, culture, economy, superpower, and empire from 1917 to 1991. The Soviet Union began as an unprecedented radical experiment in remaking society and economy, ethnic and gender relations, personal identities, even human nature, but in the course of its history, it came to resemble other (capitalist) societies, sharing, in turn, their violence, welfare provisions, and consumerism. The story of this transformation-from being unique and exhilarating to being much like everyone else, only poorer and more drab-will be at the center of our exploration. The main themes of the course include social and cultural revolutions; ideology and the role of Marxism; political violence from the birth of the socialist state to the end of the Stalin terror; origins, practices, aesthetics, legacies, and critiques of Stalinism; law, dissent, and human rights; nationality policies and the role of ethnic minorities; the economy of shortages and the material culture it created; institutions of daily life (communal apartments, courtyards, peasant markets, dachas, and boiler rooms); socialist realism and the Soviet dreamworld.
Instructor(s): E. Gilburd Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Assignments: weekly readings, document-based papers, and a final exam.
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 23706
REES 24100. How Dictatorships Come to Power. 100 Units.
In this course, we will consider how dictators come to power, liberation schemes deteriorate into tyranny, and the democratic process paves way for authoritarianism. We will examine the seizures of power (revolutions, coups d'etat, elections) and the tools of authoritarian governance (state violence, censorship, emotional and political mobilization, militarism) in a comparative perspective, ranging across case studies from the 20th century. Our readings will consist of scholarship and primary documents. The impetus for this course is my attempt to understand historically and comparatively the profound transformations that have taken place in Russia itself before and after it invaded Ukraine.
Instructor(s): E. Gilburd Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 23616
REES 24112. Sino-Soviet Relations. 100 Units.
This course is an interdisciplinary introduction to the history of the relationship between China and the Soviet Union, surveying some of the most representative texts and sources on the topic. For the Chinese side, we cover both ROC and PRC. Moreover, we extend our timeline beyond the collapse of the USSR to inquire how the historical Sino-Soviet alliance is being perceived in the present day. Our focus will primarily be on state-level politics and highbrow cultural production, but we will also pay attention to the social history of the expansive border regions and population movement. Students are expected to bring their own expertise and interest to the class by presenting on an individualized research topic, in addition to writing an in-class midterm and a final paper. All readings are in English
Instructor(s): Yueling Ji Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 29914, GLST 24848, EALC 24848, CMLT 24848
REES 24220. Anxious Spaces. 100 Units.
This course explores built (architectural), filmic, and narrative spaces that disturb our bearings, un-situate us, and defy neurotypical cognition. In the sense that "angst" is a mode that can be understood as both stalling and generative, we analyze spaces and representations of spaces such as corridors, attics, basements, canals, viaducts, labyrinths, forests, ruins, etc., spaces that are 'felt' as estranging, foreboding, in short, anxiety-provoking, in order to understand why-despite or because these topoi are hostile-they are produced, reproduced, and craved. We will pay special attention to abject spaces of racial and sexual exclusivity, sites of spoliation, and of memory and erasure. Among our primary texts are films by Kubrick, Tarkovksy, and Antonioni, and Chytilová, short fiction by Borges, Kafka, Nabokov, and selections from the philosophical/theoretical writings of Bachelard, Deleuze & Guattari, Debord, Foucault, Kracauer, and the edited volume, Mapping Desire, Geographies of Sexuality.
Instructor(s): Malynne Sternstein Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 24220, REES 34220, GNSE 34220, ARCH 24220
REES 24402. Introduction to Russian and Soviet Cinema. 100 Units.
What is the relationship between film, myth, ideology, and revolution? What are the features of Soviet comedy? What could it mean for a film to be "poetic" and how is this idea understood by and manifest in the work of directors like Andrei Tarkovsky and Alexander Sokurov? These are only some of the many questions we will explore as we engage in a survey of Russian-language cinema from its very beginnings (in the 1890s) to the present, engaging with representative texts and cinematic works from each of Russian cinema's primary periods (early Russian, avant-garde revolutionary, socialist realist, thaw, stagnation, and post-Soviet).
Instructor(s): David Molina Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 22402
REES 24404. Theater in East and Central Europe: Between Power and Powerlessness. 100 Units.
National independence movements, revolutions, authoritarian regimes, and the decline of empire: playwrights in East and Central Europe wrote major works of world literature in response to these events - and sometimes in prescient anticipation of them. This seminar introduces students to the plays that, from Chekhov to Havel, shaped the fates of nations. Topics include: the avant-garde, theater of the absurd, acting methods, performance art, and documentary theater.
Instructor(s): Ania Aizman Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): REES 34404, TAPS 35214, CMLT 26040, TAPS 25214
REES 24425. Invasion Culture: Russia through its Wars. 100 Units.
This course looks at contemporary culture through Russia's invasions, from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Broadly, this course explores how war shapes cultural life. How do the policies and strategies of war, and the art and literature of wartime, convey ideas about power and the state, traditional vs. modern values, civilizational mission vs. cultural pluralism? Beyond Russian literature and film, we consider voices from Afghanistan, the Caucasus, Chechnya, Syria, Belarus, and Ukraine, asking, How are Russia's wars fought and resisted in the domain of culture?
Instructor(s): Ania Aizman Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 24009, CMLT 24425, GLST 24424, MAPH 34425, HIST 34009, REES 34425
REES 24426. The Witch Craze in 17th-Century Europe: Scotland, Poland-Lithuania, Russia, and Moravia. 100 Units.
In this course, we look carefully at the reasons for and repercussions of the "witch craze" in the long 17th-century, focussing on primary texts such as trial reports, legal literature, pamphlets, woodcuts, scholarly dissent, and other paraphernalia. The course follows a sweep of the craze from Lancashire in Scotland, where trials began in the 1590s, to Poznań in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, to the Russian village of Lukh on the outskirts of Moscow, where between 1656 and 1660 over twenty-five individuals, most of them male, were tried and several executed, and finally to Northern Moravia under Habsburg rule where inquisitor Hetman Boblig presided over the burning of almost 100 "witches." In each region, trials followed different customs-Protestant, Eastern Orthodox, Catholic-and answered to different legislative discourse-ecclesiastical, laic, secular-yet all can be said to be the product of a common desire and collective fear. To supplement our understanding of the multifaceted anxieties that are expressed in works such as King James' Daemonologie (1597), and to ask more questions of the intersectional phobias around gender, sexuality, religion, and class (rural-urban; colony-metropole), we take up theory from Foucault, Federici, and Mbembe, and others.
Instructor(s): Malynne Sternstein Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 24426, HIST 22315, HIST 32315, GNSE 34426, REES 34426
REES 25005. History of International Cinema II: Sound Era to 1960. 100 Units.
The center of this course is film style, from the classical scene breakdown to the introduction of deep focus, stylistic experimentation, and technical innovation (sound, wide screen, location shooting). The development of a film culture is also discussed. Texts include Thompson and Bordwell's Film History: An Introduction; and works by Bazin, Belton, Sitney, and Godard. Screenings include films by Hitchcock, Welles, Rossellini, Bresson, Ozu, Antonioni, and Renoir.
Instructor(s): James Lastra Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Prior or concurrent registration in CMST 10100 required. Required of students majoring or minoring in Cinema and Media Studies.
Note(s): CMST 28500/48500 strongly recommended
Equivalent Course(s): MADD 18600, CMLT 32500, ARTH 28600, CMLT 22500, ENGL 29600, REES 45005, ENGL 48900, ARTH 38600, CMST 28600, CMST 48600, MAPH 33700, ARTV 20003
REES 25604. Russian Media at War. 100 Units.
In this course we will form a collective to follow and respond to Russian media coverage of the war in Ukraine and its larger context. We will consider the impact of tightened control over journalistic free speech and the increasingly top-down control of representations of Russia's role in the region, with a primary focus on Ukraine. We will analyze the main narratives that have been used to justify the actions of the Russian state, and the methods that have been used to undermine counternarratives. While we will find tools of analysis through background reading in theory, we will spend most of our time looking at current media content coming out of Russia, Ukraine, and their neighboring countries, with some attention also to American and other western sources. Russian, Ukrainian, and other language skills will be highly useful, but are not required.
Instructor(s): William Nickell Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): KNOW 25604, REES 35604, KNOW 35604
REES 26011-26012-26015. Introduction to Russian Civilization I-II-III.
This three-quarter sequence, which meets the general education requirement in civilization studies, provides an interdisciplinary introduction to Russian civilization. The first quarter covers the ninth century to the 1870s; the second quarter continues on through the post-Soviet period. Working closely with a variety of primary sources—from oral legends to film and music, from political treatises to literary masterpieces—we will track the evolution of Russian civilization over the centuries and through radically different political regimes. Topics to be discussed include the influence of Byzantine, Mongol-Tataric, and Western culture in Russian civilization; forces of change and continuity in political, intellectual and cultural life; the relationship between center and periphery; systems of social and political legitimization; and symbols and practices of collective identity.
REES 26011. Russia and Eurasia: Empires, Societies, Cultures I. 100 Units.
The first quarter spans the centuries between early medieval Rus', which furnished modern Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus with a story of origins, to the intellectual, social, and national mobilization in the mid-19th century. Major themes include: the influence of Byzantine, Mongol-Tataric, and Western cultures; medieval principalities, city-states, and the rise of the centralized state, its oversized role in Russian and regional social and economic development, its hyper-modernizing schemes and its periodic collapse; cross-cultural interactions in the steppe and the Baltic and Black Seas littorals; Russia's wars and the emergence of the Russian empire; varieties of resistance, from peasant uprisings and flight to religious dissent to aristocratic opposition, and the emergence of the repressive machinery of the state; forces of change and continuity in political, intellectual, and cultural life.
Instructor(s): Staff Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Taking these courses in sequence is recommended but not required. When taken with Hist 14000, this course meets the general education requirement in Civilization Studies.
Equivalent Course(s): SOSC 24000, HIST 13900
REES 26012. Russia and Eurasia: Empires, Societies, Cultures II. 100 Units.
The second quarter focuses on nearly two centuries of upheaval, from the radical movements of the late 19th century to the birth, life, and death of the Soviet Union and the emergence of post-Soviet states. Our topics include Russian imperialism, colonial conquests, and the reconstitution of the Russian empire as the Soviet Union; systems of social and political legitimization; political violence, the evolution of the repressive machinery, and the enduring problem of the rule of law; religious, national, and sexual minorities, practices of everyday life, social order and disorder; resistance, dissent, and liberation movements; creativity, experimentation, and self-expression under censorship.
Instructor(s): Staff Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Taking these courses in sequence is recommended but not required. When taken with Hist 13900, this course meets the general education requirement in Civilization Studies.
Equivalent Course(s): SOSC 24100, HIST 14000
REES 26015. Russia and Eurasia: Empires, Societies, Cultures III. 100 Units.
The third quarter is thematic, rather than chronological, and offers an in-depth or comparative exploration of special topics. Topics vary from year to year. Previously, we have examined Russia's cultures of war in the 20th century; Soviet and East European dissent; Russia and the West since the 18th century; gender and revolutionary violence in Russia; transitions to capitalism across the socialist bloc; and art and anarchism in the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and post-Soviet Russia.
Instructor(s): Staff Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): When taken following Hist 13900 and Hist 14000, this course meets the general education requirement in Humanities, Civilization Studies, and the Arts. Please note: this course does not meet the two-quarter Civilization Studies requirement and cannot be combined with the first or second quarter for Civilization Studies credit.
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 14100, SOSC 24200
REES 26038. Russophonia: Contemporary Poetry Beyond Borders. 100 Units.
Like anglophone and francophone literatures, russophone culture has long been produced beyond Russia's borders. The collapse of the Soviet Union both shrunk and scattered Russia's cultural influence, transforming the contours of "russophonia-land." Studying the development of poetry written in Russian both within and outside of Russia, we read anthologies of Russian poems from Kyiv, Minsk, Petersburg, Fergana, Alma-Aty, Tel Aviv, and New York. We consider: revolutionary exchange networks, colonization, immigration, translation, and other dynamics that drive linguistic spread. Students undertake presentations and research on writers of their choice.
Instructor(s): Ania Aizman Terms Offered: TBD
Prerequisite(s): Knowledge of Russian for reading.
Equivalent Course(s): REES 36038
REES 26070. Post-Soviet Ukraine. 100 Units.
This course focuses on the cultural life of Ukraine after the Soviet collapse. In a guided process, students will co-facilitate this syllabus, deciding on topics and readings in (translated) Ukrainian literature and film as well as the history of Ukraine. Possible topics include: memory of Soviet wars, the capitalist transition, Chornobyl, artistic movements, subcultures, the Maidan Revolution, Russia's war, language politics, ethnicities, and gender relations. Reading options include Andryukhovich, Zabuzhko, Plokhy, Zhadan. No prior knowledge required.
Instructor(s): Ania Aizman Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): REES 36073, HIST 33615, HIST 23615
REES 26072. The Roots of War: Historical and Cultural Causes of Russian Aggression in Ukraine. 100 Units.
Since the beginning of Russia's war on Ukraine, Vladimir Putin and his entourage have created false historical constructions that serve as the basis for their aggressive policy. The main question of this course is: to what extent is Putin's retro-policy historically grounded, traditional and natural? An analysis of the rhetoric and historiosophy of the modern Russian elite will reveal the sources they been drawn upon. Is there a connection between Muscovite Russia, the Russian Empire and modern Russian neo-imperialism? What role does the legacy of the USSR play in the political system, state structure and foreign policy of the modern Russian Federation? Where do historical trends, national interests and the new imperial ideology coincide and contradict each other? We will also discuss the modern history of opposition to Putin's authoritarianism and trace the history and cultural significance of democratic institutions in Russia. Finally, we will use the history of Ukrainian statehood and the processes of formation of the Ukrainian nation to shed alternative perspective on recent Russian views of Ukraine.
Instructor(s): Sergei Shokarev Terms Offered: Spring
Winter
Equivalent Course(s): REES 36072
REES 26074. The Cinema of Andrei Tarkovsky. 100 Units.
Filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky (1932-1986) is widely considered to be one of Soviet cinema's great auteurs, a fiercely independent creative artist and thinker. Known for his long takes, visual imagery, intertextuality, and philosophical self-reflectiveness, Tarkovsky has profoundly shaped the evolution of modern art cinema over the past fifty years and his legacy is still very much alive in both the Slavic world and the west. In this course, we will study Tarkovsky's major films focusing particularly on their aesthetic characteristics, spiritual and philosophical dimensions, and cultural and political context.
Instructor(s): David Molina Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 26074, CMST 36074, REES 36074
REES 26077. Russian Modernist Theater. 100 Units.
Russian Modernist Theater explores the theory and practice of the new stage forms developed in Russia from 1900 to 1940. The course begins with the Stanislavsky school, and then delves deeply into the more experimental work of Meyerhold and his generation and the first attempts to create a revolutionary Soviet theater in the 1920s. The course will include a production, which will be scaled to the number and ambitions of the enrolled students. Course requirements can be met through the writing of a conventional paper, or through the production, via set or costume design, dramaturgy, performance, or staging. Each of these production assignments will require a write-up relating the work to the course materials and discussions.
Instructor(s): William Nickell Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): REES 36077
REES 26603. Soviet Cinema and the Avant-Garde. 100 Units.
This course examines some of the most ambitious claims about what cinema as a medium can do by early Soviet filmmakers. We look at the extraordinary flourishing of cinema in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 30s including films by Eisenstein, Vertov, Shub, Pudovkin and Dovzhenko, their theoretical writings, their collaborations with avant-garde artists and theater designers, and their far-reaching influence on film and film theory. We will also consider the political and historical context of the films and their creators.
Instructor(s): Anne E. Moss Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 24507, REES 36603
REES 26994. Anticolonial Worlding: Literature, Film, Thought. 100 Units.
This course explores anticolonial worldbuilding through literature, film, art, and philosophy. It focuses on the role of the cultural Cold War in shaping anticolonial aesthetics and politics during the twentieth century as well as its impact on our current political moment. The mid-century was characterized by an expansion of anticolonial festivals, exchanges, and congresses and marked by political crises and coalitional solidarity across Vietnam, Palestine, Cuba, Soviet and US imperial expansion, and the May 1968 student protests. We will explore how Pan-Arab, Pan-African, Non-Aligned/Global South, Marxist-Leninist, indigenous land rights, and racial justice movements mobilized class, gender, and language politics. Exploring anticolonial literature, film, and art across a multilingual and transnational archive we will ask how socialist and speculative realisms, engaged literature, third cinema, agitprop, and other aesthetic movements generated powerful internationalist imaginations and networks of resistance.
Instructor(s): Leah Feldman Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): RDIN 26994, RDIN 36994, GNSE 36994, ENGL 26994, CMLT 36994, NEHC 26994, CMLT 26994, GNSE 26994, HMRT 26994
REES 27005. Jewish Civilization III - Narratives of Assimilation. 100 Units.
Jewish Civilization is a three-quarter sequence that explores the development of Jewish culture and tradition from its ancient beginnings through its rabbinic and medieval transformations to its modern manifestations. Through investigation of primary texts-biblical, Talmudic, philosophical, mystical, historical, documentary, and literary-students will acquire a broad overview of Jews, Judaism, and Jewishness while reflecting in greater depth on major themes, ideas, and events in Jewish history. This Jewish Civilization III course offers a survey into the manifold strategies of representing the Jewish community in East Central Europe beginning from the nineteenth century to the Holocaust. Engaging the concept of liminality-of a society at the threshold of radical transformation-it will analyze Jewry facing uncertainties and challenges of the modern era and its radical changes. Students will be acquainted with problems of cultural and linguistic isolation, hybrid identity, assimilation, and cultural transmission through a wide array of genres-novel, short story, epic poem, memoir, painting, illustration, film. The course draws on both Jewish and Polish-Jewish sources; all texts are read in English translation.
Instructor(s): Bozena Shallcross Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): In order for Jewish Civilization III to qualify for the general education requirement in civilization studies, the student must have completed Jewish Civilization I and II. Jewish Civilization III, however, may also be taken as an independent elective.
Equivalent Course(s): JWSC 12005, RLST 22014, NEHC 12005
REES 27007. Mapping Our Selves: Identity and Subjectivity. 100 Units.
This course examines how different collective and individual selves develop, change, and get mobilized in modern Eastern and Central Europe. As Enlightenment, post-Enlightenment, and national ideas spread across Europe, the understanding of self and subjectivity was fundamentally transformed. In Eastern and Central Europe, themselves terms that have their roots in these changes, this occurred at a tumultuous time of changes of borders, countries, and forms of government. This course focuses primarily on cultures and literatures in Poland's different forms of existence and non-existence, a locus central to these dynamics. We will ask such questions as: What does it mean to develop a sense of a nation without a territorial state or within an empire? What kind of subject do different works of art elicit and why? Under what circumstances does identity become a more engaging understanding of the self? What are its borders and porousness? We will be reading a variety of literary, artistic, and theoretical works from the 18th to 21st centuries, among them Immanuel Kant on Enlightenment subjectivity, Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau on the form and future of Poland, Karl Marx on base and superstructure, and Louis Althusser on the dynamics of getting drawn into a society and economic system (interpellation); as well as Polish authors probing these issues and tensions, such as Witkacy, Eliza Orzeszkowa, Andrzej Stasiuk, Debora Vogel, and Stanisław Brzozowski.
Instructor(s): Dag Lindskog Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): REES 37007
REES 27019. Holocaust Object. 100 Units.
In this course, we explore various ontological and representational modes of the Holocaust material object world as it was represented during World War II. Then, we interrogate the post-Holocaust artifacts and material remnants, as they are displayed, curated, controlled, and narrated in the memorial sites and museums of former ghettos and extermination and concentration camps. These sites which-once the locations of genocide-are now places of remembrance, the (post)human, and material remnants also serve educational purposes. Therefore, we study the ways in which this material world, ranging from infrastructure to detritus, has been subjected to two, often conflicting, tasks of representation and preservation, which we view through a prism of authenticity. In order to study representation, we critically engage a textual and visual reading of museum narrations and fiction writings; to tackle the demands of preservation, we apply a neo-materialist approach. Of special interest are survivors' testimonies as appended to the artifacts they donated. The course will also equip you with salient critical tools for future creative research in Holocaust studies.
Instructor(s): Bozena Shallcross Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 23910, ANTH 35035, ARCH 27019, REES 37019, HIST 23413, JWSC 29500, HIST 33413
REES 27025. The Cracks of Being: Polish Modernist Literature. 100 Units.
The Cracks of Being: Polish Modernist Literature. The 19th and early 20th centuries were characterized by radical changes: trains, cameras, telephones, industrialization, democracy. Moreover, objectivity appeared to be undermined by our unconscious, making for an increased doubt and suspicion toward being. "All that is solid melts into air," Karl Marx wrote, and many would-be truths seemed to unmoor. On the other hand, modern life came with a sense of alienation and disenchantment in our increasingly mediated experience. Straddling this chasm, modernist literature has used many different strategies to make literary modern existence; and these are the focus of this course. Some authors try to salvage form, others attempt to mimic this instability, or represent the impossibility of representation. Our authors look for liminalities, epiphanies, cracks and nooks of being and language, in order to sound out, defamiliarize and re-present reality. The authors we will read include Bolesław Leśmian, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Zofia Nałkowska, Bruno Schulz, Czesław Miłosz, and Witold Gombrowicz.
Instructor(s): Sasha Lindskog Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): REES 37025
REES 27026. Kieslowski: The Decalogue. 100 Units.
In this class, we study the monumental series "The Decalogue" by one of the most influential filmmakers from Poland, Krzysztof Kieślowski. Without mechanically relating the films to the Ten Commandments, Kieślowski explores the relevance of the biblical moral rules to the state of modern man forced to make ethical choices. Each part of the series contests the absolutism of moral axioms through narrative twists and reversals in a wide, universalized sphere. An analysis of the films will be accompanied by readings from Kieślowski's own writings and interviews, including criticism by Zizek, Insdorf, and others.
Instructor(s): Bozena Shallcross Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): FNDL 24003, CMST 26705, REES 37026, CMST 36705
REES 27032. Bodies, Objects, Cognition. 100 Units.
This course explores the differences between objects and embodiment as examined in varied historical periods and artistic genres. We will probe the ontological indeterminacy of embodied beings versus machines in terms of agency, autonomy, subjectivity, and artificiality. Our main operative mode is a visual-verbal comparison and its perception. Through discussions of such visual strategies as pareidolia, abstraction, bodyscape, as well as the scientific phenomena of cloning and humanoid robotics, the course will destabilize once fundamental epistemologies to present a cognitive moment when the traditionally stable object-body dichotomy is understood anew as a dynamic site of affective, biological, representational, and mechanical relations. Visual artists, writers and critics studied will include Leonardo da Vinci, Hans Holbein, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, Tadeusz Borowski, Stanislaw Lem, Allan Teger, Magdalena Abakanowicz, W.T.J. Mitchell and others. All readings are in English.
Instructor(s): Bozena Shallcross Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 27032, ARTH 37032, ANTH 37032, KNOW 37032, REES 37032, ANTH 27032, KNOW 27032
REES 27035. Gender, Agency, and Power in 19th C Russian Literature. 100 Units.
This course focuses on scandalous provocations and quieter acts of resistance against normative gender expectations in 19th-century Russian literature. We read narratives of rebellion by individuals and collective actions by groups of women, and consider the surprising agency attributed to women's cooperative work in Russian literature as well as the heavy burdens placed on women by family, state, and church. Readings include primarily short fiction in a variety of genres (sentimental, romantic, realist, and gothic) by canonized male writers and by women writers of the 19th Century who are less often taught and translated, but were widely read in their own day. These works expand our understanding of the narrative possibilities for sexuality and gendered subjectivity in the Russian literary sphere, and of the ways in which possibility itself was made and remade by literary expression. The course also introduces students to methods of literary analysis informed by critical theories of gender, and asks how Russian literary and cultural history may offer new ways of thinking about gendered bodies, performance, and interrelations in the 19th Century and today.
Instructor(s): Anne Eakin Moss Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): REES 37035, GNSE 20118
REES 27203. Žižek, The Sublime Object of Ideology. 100 Units.
tbd
Instructor(s): M. Sternstein Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): FNDL 27203
REES 28007. Bringing up the Novel in Bohemia. 100 Units.
TBD
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 22001, FNDL 22203
REES 28800. Politics and Cinema under Authority. 100 Units.
Why do authoritarian regimes take interest in art and culture? How do citizens respond to these efforts? Between authoritarian propaganda and outright contestation of authoritarianism is a wide niche of art and media production that is just independent enough to capture the attention of the citizens and yet subtle enough to not alarm authoritarian rulers. This is relevant for film and television in particular, which cannot function under authoritarian regimes without official approval. In this course, we explore the compromises filmmakers make to continue their creative practice and the concessions state actors grant to accommodate artistic work using the 10-episode television series, Dekalog (1988), by the acclaimed Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski. To answer our questions, we draw on literature and methodology from political science and film and media studies. We investigate what is to be gained by combining approaches from two disciplines that are rarely in conversation with each other.
Instructor(s): Maria Belodubrovskaya and Monika Nalepa Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Enrollment limit: 18
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 28805, PLSC 28805, CDIN 28801, CMST 38800, REES 38800, CDIN 38800, PLSC 38801
REES 28914. New Directions in Slavic Studies. 100 Units.
This seminar examines the recent major works of scholarship in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, taking stock of the current state of the field. It introduces the interdisciplinary research methods (e.g. historical, anthropological, digital studies, etc.) that have driven new developments in SEES.
Instructor(s): Ania Aizman Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): REES 38914
REES 29009. Balkan Folklore. 100 Units.
Vampires, fire-breathing dragons, vengeful mountain nymphs. 7/8 and other uneven dance beats, heart-rending laments, and a living epic tradition. This course is an overview of Balkan folklore from historical, political, and anthropological perspectives. We seek to understand folk tradition as a dynamic process and consider the function of different folklore genres in the imagining and maintenance of community and the socialization of the individual. We also experience this living tradition firsthand through visits of a Chicago-based folk dance ensemble, "Balkan Dance."
Instructor(s): Angelina Ilieva Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 25908, CMLT 23301, ANTH 35908, REES 39009, NEHC 20568, NEHC 30568, CMLT 33301
REES 29010. Strangers to Ourselves: Emigre Literature and Film from Russia and Southeast Europe. 100 Units.
Being alienated from myself, as painful as that may be, provides me with that exquisite distance within which perverse pleasure begins, as well as the possibility of my imagining and thinking," writes Julia Kristeva in "Strangers to Ourselves," the book from which this course takes its title. The authors whose works we are going to examine often alternate between nostalgia and the exhilaration of being set free into the breathless possibilities of new lives. Leaving home does not simply mean movement in space. Separated from the sensory boundaries that defined their old selves, immigrants inhabit a warped, fragmentary, disjointed time. Immigrant writers struggle for breath-speech, language, voice, the very stuff of their craft resounds somewhere else. Join us as we explore the pain, the struggle, the failure, and the triumph of emigration and exile. Vladimir Nabokov, Joseph Brodsky, Marina Tsvetaeva, Nina Berberova, Julia Kristeva, Alexander Hemon, Dubravka Ugrešić, Norman Manea, Miroslav Penkov, Ilija Trojanow, Tea Obreht.
Instructor(s): Angelina Ilieva Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 36912, CMLT 26912, REES 39010
REES 29013. The Burden of History: The Nation and Its Lost Paradise. 100 Units.
What makes it possible for the imagined communities called nations to command the emotional attachments that they do? This course considers some possible answers to Benedict Anderson's question on the basis of material from the Balkans. We will examine the transformation of the scenario of paradise, loss, and redemption into a template for a national identity narrative through which South East European nations retell their Ottoman past. With the help of Žižek's theory of the subject as constituted by trauma and Kant's notion of the sublime, we will contemplate the national fixation on the trauma of loss and the dynamic between victimhood and sublimity.
Instructor(s): Angelina Ilieva Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): REES 39013, NEHC 30573, CMLT 33401, HIST 24005, HIST 34005, CMLT 23401, NEHC 20573
REES 29021. The Shadows of Living Things: The Writings of Mikhail Bulgakov. 100 Units.
What would your good do if evil did not exist, and what would the earth look like if all the shadows disappeared? After all, shadows are cast by things and people…. Do you want to strip the earth of all the trees and living things just because of your fantasy of enjoying naked light?" asks the Devil. Mikhail Bulgakov worked on his novel The Master and Margarita throughout most of his writing career, in Stalin's Moscow. Bulgakov destroyed his manuscript, re-created it from memory, and reworked it feverishly even as his body was failing him in his battle with death. The result is an intense contemplation on the nature of good and evil, on the role of art and the ethical duty of the artist, but also a dazzling world of magic, witches, and romantic love, and an irresistible seduction into the comedic. Laughter, as shadow and light, as the subversive weapon but also as power's whip, grounds human relation to both good and evil. Brief excursions to other texts that help us better understand Master and Margarita.
Instructor(s): Angelina Ilieva Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): FNDL 29020, REES 39021
REES 29023. Returning the Gaze: The West and the Rest. 100 Units.
Aware of being observed. And judged. Inferior... Abject… Angry... Proud… This course provides insight into identity dynamics between the "West," as the center of economic power and self-proclaimed normative humanity, and the "Rest," as the poor, backward, volatile periphery. We investigate the relationship between South East European self-representations and the imagined Western gaze. Inherent in the act of looking at oneself through the eyes of another is the privileging of that other's standard. We will contemplate the responses to this existential position of identifying symbolically with a normative site outside of oneself-self-consciousness, defiance, arrogance, self-exoticization-and consider how these responses have been incorporated in the texture of the national, gender, and social identities in the region. Orhan Pamuk, Ivo Andrić, Nikos Kazantzakis, Aleko Konstantinov, Emir Kusturica, Milcho Manchevski.
Instructor(s): Angelina Ilieva Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 39023, NEHC 39023, HIST 33609, CMLT 29023, HIST 23609, NEHC 29023, REES 39023
REES 29024. States of Surveillance. 100 Units.
What does it feel to be watched and listened to all the time? Literary and cinematic works give us a glimpse into the experience of living under surveillance and explore the human effects of surveillance - the fraying of intimacy, fracturing sense of self, testing the limits of what it means to be human. Works from the former Soviet Union (Solzhenitsyn, Abram Tertz, Andrey Zvyagintsev), former Yugoslavia (Ivo Andrić, Danilo Kiš, Dušan Kovačević), Romania (Norman Manea, Cristian Mungiu), Bulgaria (Valeri Petrov), and Albania (Ismail Kadare).
Instructor(s): Angelina Ilieva Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 39024, CMLT 29024, REES 39024
REES 29026. Loyalties, Friendships, Loves. 100 Units.
The Eastern European experience of surveillance under the police state is most often associated with the sense of betrayal, the invasion of the innermost spaces of intimacy and individual consciousness by the secret all-seeing eye. What is often overlooked, however, is the obverse side of fear - the fierce code of loyalty, the tenacity of friendship and love nurtured in the interstices of surveillance and resistance. How are love and friendship understood in such circumstances? Are they experienced in the same way as we understand them? This class will explore these emotional cultural scripts through an array of East, Central, South-East European literary and cinematic works.
Instructor(s): Angelina Ilieva Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): REES 39026, CMLT 29026
REES 29035. Empathetic Sorrows: Recent Bulgarian Literature. 100 Units.
What does it feel to write from "the saddest place in the world"? In 2010, The Economist published an article entitled "The Rich, the Poor, and Bulgaria," in which Bulgaria bucked the paradigm of predicted correlation between income and happiness. "The saddest place in the world, relative to its income per person," the Economist reported, "is Bulgaria." Storytelling invites us to step outside ourselves and inhabit someone else's way of relating to the world. This course will explore the gentle, melancholic empathy with which Bulgarian post-socialist literature seeks otherness in the (no longer heroic) past and the (even less heroic) present.
Instructor(s): Angelina Ilieva Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): REES 39035
REES 29045. Dostoevsky and Critical Theory. 100 Units.
The tormented, obsessed, and sadistic characters of Dostoevsky's novels posed a challenge to positivism and reason too scandalous and compelling to be ignored. The novels inspired some of the most brilliant and influential thinkers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the fields of religion, philosophy, psychology and literary theory. We will read two of Dostoevsky's philosophically challenging novels alongside works by these critics and philosophers, including Nietzsche, Sartre, Freud, Bakhtin, Kristeva, and Levinas. While exploring their ideas about faith and unbelief, madness and reason, violence and torture, society and history, we will also inquire into the relationships among literature, philosophy and biography and examine the processes of influence and adaptation.
Instructor(s): Anne Eakin Moss Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 28207, CMLT 29045, REES 39045, CMLT 39045
REES 29071. Magic Nations. 100 Units.
As part of the post-colonial turn, magic realism is a hybrid mode of narration rejects, overcomes, and offers an alternative to the colonial, Enlightenment episteme. It mobilizes the imaginations and narrative modes of pre-colonial pasts in the articulation of new, post-colonial, often national, selves. In this course, we will unpack some captivating narratives from Southeast Europe in which the visions of the pre-modern mythic worlds emerge as the magic, transcendent core of the modern nations. We will indulge in the sheer enjoyment of the brilliance of these text while focusing on the paradoxes they embody - for example, the simultaneous rejection and reliance on the realist mode, the colonial worldview, and its civilizational hierarchies and models.
Instructor(s): Angelina Ilieva Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 29071, REES 39071
REES 29646. Tutorial - Science and Literature in Twentieth Century Russia. 100 Units.
This course examines the interactions between the science and literature of late Imperial Russia and the early Soviet Union. The relationship between sciences and humanities is difficult to disentangle. Are they antithetical, or allies? Disparate or proximate? The possibilities that science offers for literature, and literature for science, are exemplified in their interactions in Russia. The dynamic culture of the waning Empire and the turbulence of the nascent Soviet Union are captured in the literature of the early 20th century, as authors and scientists contend with the social and political upheaval. Literature embodies the engagements between science and humanities, inspiring, reflecting, and reinterpreting scientific aspirations. Readings will be balanced between primary fictional texts, including novels, short stories, plays, films, and poetry, and secondary scholarship on the history of science. Authors include Mikhail Bulgakov, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Anna Akhmatova, and more, while we will explore Cold War and contemporary historiography though scholars such as David Joravsky, Loren Graham, and Nikolai Krementsov.
Instructor(s): Reese Fulgenzi Terms Offered: Spring. Tentatively scheduled for Spring 2023
Equivalent Course(s): HIPS 29646
REES 29700. Reading/Research: Russian and Eastern European Studies. 100 Units.
This is an independent study course which is arranged, planned, and managed by a supervising professor in conjunction with the goals that are proposed by the student, and then refined and approved by the supervising professor. This course involves more student self-discipline and a greater sense of direction than do most courses - the student must be willing to plan and execute his/her activities with much less monitoring and without prompting by fellow classmates. The student and the professor discuss and propose goals, topics, and projects.
Instructor(s): Staff Terms Offered: Autumn
Spring
Winter
Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor and Departmental Adviser
Note(s): Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form.
REES 29701. Reading/Research: Russian and Eastern European Studies II. 100 Units.
This is the second part of an independent study course which is arranged, planned, and managed by a supervising professor in conjunction with the goals that are proposed by the student, and then refined and approved by the supervising professor. This course involves more student self-discipline and a greater sense of direction than do most courses--the student must be willing to plan and execute his/her activities with much less monitoring and without prompting by fellow classmates. The student and the professor discuss and propose goals, topics, and projects.
Instructor(s): Staff Terms Offered: Autumn
Spring
Winter
REES 29702. Reading/Research: Russian and Eastern European Studies III. 100 Units.
This is the third part of an independent study course which is arranged, planned, and managed by a supervising professor in conjunction with the goals that are proposed by the student, and then refined and approved by the supervising professor. This course involves more student self-discipline and a greater sense of direction than do most courses - the student must be willing to plan and execute his/her activities with much less monitoring and without prompting by fellow classmates. The student and the professor discuss and propose goals, topics, and projects.
Instructor(s): Staff Terms Offered: Autumn
Spring
Winter
Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor.
REES 29900. BA Paper Workshop. 100 Units.
Students pursuing honors must write an acceptable BA paper in their final year under the supervision of a faculty member in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures. At the latest by the Autumn Quarter, students should begin the BA process by consulting with the director of undergraduate studies. Students may register for the BA Paper seminar (REES 29900 BA Paper Workshop) with the approval of the BA supervisor. This course will confer general College elective credit, but it will not count toward the major. If the completed bachelor's paper is judged by the supervisor and a second faculty member to be a distinguished example of original research or criticism, the student is recommended to the College for graduation with honors in Russian and East European Studies. The final decision regarding the granting of any degree with honors rests with the Collegiate divisional master.
Instructor(s): Staff Terms Offered: Autumn
Spring
Winter
REES 29902. The Time of Death. 100 Units.
This course is designed to meet the specific needs of a student in the College, an advanced learner of Serbian language and culture, double majoring in Economics and REES. The curriculum of this one-quarter class focuses on the literary work of 20th-century Serbian writer Borislav Pekić. Through a close reading of his first novel, The Time of Miracles (1965), we plan to uncover not only Pekić's notable artistic skills, but also the variety of his linguistic devices- ranging from highly ornate imitations of biblical diction to expressions bordering on urban slang-adjusted to depict the historical and cultural context of his era. In the novel the Christian myth becomes a vehicle for exposing the moral hypocrisy, cruelty, and futility of modern myths, especially those built around the Communists' ideal of their own "promised land." The inevitable flatness of allegorical presentation is always counterbalanced by an enormous vividness of realistic detail, while implied irony makes this somber book surprisingly light-thus it showcases hallmarks of Pekić's unique style.
Instructor(s): Nada Petkovic Terms Offered: Winter
REES 29976. XCAP: The Narratives and Aesthetics of Contagion: Knowledge Formation in the Time of COVID-19. 100 Units.
The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented event in our lifetimes, one that has permeated our personal, national, and global discourse about health, disease, and dying. From individual fears and anxieties, to community lockdowns, to the steady march of infection and death statistics, the pandemic is everywhere, and we have been inundated with images and information about the virus, its contagious spread, and the impact on our society. Yet what do we make of all of this information? Where does it come from? And how does it help us understand the current moment? This course will explore how (dis)information about the virus and pandemic is created, disseminated, and shapes our perceptions, with a particular focus on narratives and aesthetics within a variety of information ecosystems. We will explore, in a broadly chronological format, important narratives and iconography that emerged and continue to evolve during the course of the ongoing pandemic and that contribute to our individual and collective understanding of social, cultural, political, and scientific aspects of the pandemic. We will further consider how this information relates to personal and collective knowledge formation that subsequently informs our attitudes about and behaviors during the pandemic. In particular, we will discuss how medical knowledge is formed and used to care for patients within a rapidly changing clinical environment. Clinical and public health ethics will provide an important framework for asses
Instructor(s): William Nickell, Brian Callender Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): HIPS 26076, HLTH 29976, KNOW 29976
Contacts
Chair
Department Chair
Anne Eakin Moss
Foster 407
Email
Graduate Primary Contact
Director of Graduate Studies
Bozena Shallcross
Foster 508
773-702-7734
Email
Undergraduate Primary Contacts
Director of Undergraduate Studies
Ania Aizman
Foster 403
773.834.5016
Email
Coordinator of the Slavic Languages Program
Erik Houle
Foster 413
773.702.9772
Email
Administrative Contact
Departmental Administrator
Stephen Carver
Foster 406
773.702.8033
Email