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2008 Graduate Course Descriptions
2008 Faculty Archive
2007 Graduate Course Descriptions
2007 Faculty Archive
LEVEL 1. INTRODUCTORY RUSSIAN
RU 3102-3105 (equivalent to 1st – 2nd semesters)
For students with very little or no previous classroom instruction in Russian. Starting from scratch, with a weekend “survival Russian” course before taking the Language Pledge, students learn the alphabet and learn to read and understand spoken Russian, learn to write and speak Russian in basic and predictable contexts (ordering a meal in a restaurant, asking directions on the street). Students master the basic grammatical structures of the language and acquire a beginning vocabulary, practiced in weekly compositions. Students completing this course typically have novice high or intermediate low language skills. (4 Units) Primary Textbooks: Golosa Volume 1, 4th ed., & Volume 2, 3rd ed., Prentice Hall.
LEVEL 2. ADVANCED INTRODUCTORY RUSSIAN
RU 3198-3201 (equivalent to 2nd – 3rd semesters)
For students with approximately 100 hours of prior formal classroom instruction in Russian; students placing into this course have usually had one year of college Russian (at three hours per week). Students typically complete this course with intermediate low to intermediate mid language skills. (4 Units) Primary Textbooks: Golosa Volume 2, 3rd ed.; V puti, 2nd ed. Prentice Hall.
LEVEL 3. BASIC INTERMEDIATE RUSSIAN
RU 3202-3205 (equivalent to 3rd – 4th semesters)
For students with approximately 150 hours of prior formal classroom instruction in Russian. In this class, students review the basic grammatical and syntactical structures of the Russian language and improve their mastery of this foundation of the language while acquiring an active vocabulary of approximately 1,500 words. Students typically complete this course with intermediate mid language skills. (4 Units) Primary Textbook: V puti, 2nd ed. Prentice Hall.
LEVEL 4. INTERMEDIATE RUSSIAN
RU 3298-3301 (equivalent to 4th – 5th semesters)
For students with approximately 200 hours of prior formal classroom instruction in Russian. In this class students review the basic grammatical and syntactical structures of the Russian language and improve their mastery of this foundation of the language while acquiring an active vocabulary of approximately 1,700 words. We expect students to complete this course with intermediate mid to intermediate high language skills. (4 Units) Primary Textbooks: Grammatika v kontekste, McGraw-Hill; Cinema for Russian Conversation, Focus Publishing (Pullins).
LEVEL 5. ADVANCED INTERMEDIATE RUSSIAN
RU 3302-3305 (equivalent to 5th – 6th semesters)
For students with 300 hours of prior formal classroom instruction in Russian. In this class students review the basic grammatical and syntactical structures of the Russian language and focus their attention on more challenging structures of the language such as participles, comparative forms, and verbs of motion. At the end of the summer most students have an active vocabulary approaching 2,000 words. Readings for the class include poetry, short stories, and a contemporary Russian novel, as well as newspaper articles. During half the summer program significant time is devoted to watching television news reports and reading news items from the periodic press. Students typically complete this course with intermediate high language skills. (4 Units) Primary Textbooks: Grammatika v kontekste, McGraw-Hill, plus a coursepack of supplementary materials, including readings and exercises to various video materials.
LEVEL 6. ADVANCED RUSSIAN I
RU 3398-3401 (equivalent to 6th – 7th semesters)
For students with at least 350 hours of prior formal instruction in Russian, or fewer hours of formal instruction but a semester or more in Russia. In this class, students already have a firm grasp of the grammatical problems in Russian, such as participles, verbal adverbs, quantitative expressions (measurements and other numeric expressions), and verbs of motion. Students work hard on expanding their vocabulary in this course, building up semantic fields in various topic areas such as health and illness, the city, and so forth (active vocabulary of 2,250 words). In this course, students watch Russian films, read short stories, poetry, and newspaper articles, and complete oral assignments including the preparation and delivery of short presentations. We expect students to complete this course with intermediate high to advanced low language skills. (4 Units) Primary Textbooks: Focus on Russian and Let’s Talk About Life, Wiley & Sons; Glazunova, Grammatika russkogo iazyka v uprazhneniiakh i kommentariakh; plus a coursepack of supplementary materials, including readings and exercises to various video materials.
LEVEL 7. ADVANCED RUSSIAN II
RU 3402-3405 (equivalent to 7th – 8th semesters)
For students with at least 400 hours of prior formal instruction in Russian, or fewer hours of formal instruction but a semester or more in Russia. In this class, students tackle the more complicated grammatical and syntactical structures of the Russian language and significantly increase their vocabulary by studying Russian idioms and synonyms. The course focuses a good deal of attention on the development of students’ lexical competence (active vocabulary of 2,500 words) by acquainting them with prototypical models of the word formation and derivation processes of contemporary standard Russian. Much of the class’s work is devoted to the detailed analysis of a few famous Russian films, including Autumn Marathon, The Mirror, Burnt by the Sun, Brother-2, and The Diamond Hand, as well as the reading of contemporary poems, short stories, and excerpts of longer prose works. Students give short presentations on the writers whose works they read. Students typically complete this course with advanced low to advanced mid language skills. (4 Units) Primary Textbooks: Rosssiia i Amerika: Dialog kul’tur (Shchepina), Vyrazhenie ustupitel’noi semantiki v russkom iazyke (Yatsenko), Leksika i slovoobrazovanie (Kozhevnikov & Kozhevnikova), all published in Russia; coursepack of readings and grammar exercises.
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Language and Linguistics
RU 6502 Advanced Conversation Practicum (Elena Yakovlevna Shmeleva)
Students in this class will focus on expanding their lexicon and their syntactical repertoire in scholarly and journalistic speech and on preparing scholarly presentations in their area of interest. Main themes will be political, economic, cultural, and social life in Russia, with reference to interesting and sometimes controversial topics concerning contemporary Russian society and culture. We will also focus on differences in culture and everyday life, as reflected in speech, to determine ‘what Russians know that Americans don’t.’ Students will read assigned articles from scholarship and press, watch videos on Russian politics, society, and culture, discuss these materials, and write compositions. Students will be required to discern and analyze the author’s point of view and then formulate their own opinion. Grades will be determined according to participation in class discussions, weekly compositions, an oral presentation, and a final oral examination. (1 Unit)
RU 6506 Advanced Grammar (Valentina Yakovlevna Troufanova)
This course is intended for students who want to have a thorough knowledge of Russian grammar. Attention will be paid mainly to those themes which usually proved to be the most difficult for students of Russian as a foreign language: meanings and uses of cases, productive and non-productive types of Russian verbs, verbal aspect, verbs of motion, the use of pronouns and the meanings and uses of conjunctions and conjunctive words in compound and complex sentences. Reading and analysis of novels and newspaper articles, as well as assigned grammar exercises and essays, will help students use correct grammar forms and constructions automatically. Final exam has three papers: grammar test, writing and use of Russian. Textbooks: Pulkina, Zakhava-Nekrasova. Russian. A Practical Grammar with Exercises. Moscow, 1994; Andrews, Averianova, Piadusova, Russkii glagol: Formy i funktsii, Moscow, 2003; and others. (1 Unit)
RU 6511 Readings in the Contemporary Russian Press (Svetlana Borisovna Stepanova)
Cross-listed with Civilization.
This course will focus on the development of vocabulary related to Russian media, and of reading, listening, speaking, and writing skills through reading, viewing, and discussion of various materials in the journalistic and popular press. We will discuss the political, economic, social, and cultural life of Russia as represented in the media. At home students will read assigned press materials and do grammatical and lexical exercises to develop vocabulary. In class we will watch television programs thematically linked with the assigned readings. Students will be required to convey the author’s opinion and their own, to participate in debates, and to give and respond to oral reports. Grades will be assessed according to class participation, homework, an oral report, weekly compositions, and a final examination. (1 Unit)
RU 6515 Advanced Composition & Stylistics (Valentina Yakovlevna Troufanova)
This course will focus on helping students improve their command of written Russian. Students will read short prose texts in a variety of genres and analyze them for style before using them as models for their own expository prose. In class discussion, we will focus on stylistic issues in the prose written by Russian authors in various genres and styles and in the students’ own prose. Students will write short compositions two-three times a week in various genres and styles (personal letters, scientific papers, business correspondence, various genres of journalism, etc.), will collaborate with one another to edit their work, and will present finished papers publicly, including in the context of our school newspaper, graduate symposium, and radio programming. Grades will be based on class participation and compositions written throughout the 6-week program. (1 Unit)
RU 6614 New Trends in Russian (Aleksei Dmitrievich Shmelev)
The aim of the course is to give students tools and methods for understanding Russian as it is spoken today. Since the end of the Soviet era, almost every aspect of the Russian language has been affected by social and political change, from grammar to lexicon, from syntax to speech etiquette. A variety of classroom activities, both creative and analytical, helps students develop confidence and skill in reading Russian newspapers, watching TV and movies, enjoying songs and jokes. The course grade will be based on student homework (analysis of new texts of various genres), participation in class discussion and two exams (midterm and final). (1 Unit)
RU 6648 Russian Speech Etiquette (Aleksei Dmitrievich Shmelev)
The course introduces the speech formulas of every day life in Russia (set expressions, forms of speech etiquette, and conversational formulae of greeting, apologies, gratitude, congratulating, etc.). Students will become acquainted with etiquette behavior in speech, the vocabulary of etiquette clichés; etiquette rules of communication in various life situations. Prerequisite: RU 6502 (Advanced Conversation Practicum) or permission. (1 Unit)
Literature
RU 6620 Great Love in Small Genres: 19th and 20th Centuries (Oleg Anatolievich Proskurin)
This course will focus on lyric poetry and short stories of great 19th- and 20th-century writers on the theme of love. We will see how these writers treat various aspects of love – psychological, moral, social, and even political. We will examine how this theme is connected with the individual creative characteristics of each writer and thus with the evolution of Russian literature. Prose works under study will include those of Pushkin, Lermontov, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Leskov, Chekhov, and Bunin; we will also read lyric poetry by Pushkin, Baratynsky, Lermontov, Tiutchev, Fet, Nekrasov, Blok, and Akhmatova. Students will write three short papers and a final exam. (1 Unit)
RU 6625 The Supernatural in Russian Literature, Music, and Painting
(Ilya Iurievich Vinitsky)
Cross-listed with Civilization.
The goal of the course is threefold: to familiarize the students with brilliant and thrilling works of art which represent various periods of Russian culture; to examine the artistic features of “fantastic” works and to explore their ideological implications. With attention to relevant scholarship, we will pose questions about the role of the storyteller and about horror and the fantastic. We will also ponder gender and class, controversy over sense and sensation, the spiritual significance and major changes in attitudes toward the supernatural which tell us about the “dark side” of the Russian literary imagination and about the historical and political conflicts which have haunted Russian minds in previous centuries. Works under discussion will include tales by Pushkin, Gogol, Lermontov, Dostoevsky, Leskov, Turgenev, Briusov, and other writers, musical works by Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky, paintings by Ivanov and Vrubel’. Writing assignments include three short essays (3-4 pages each) and a final paper (7 pages). (1 Unit)
RU 6735 Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov (Ilya Iurievich Vinitsky)
This course deals with a close reading of Dostoevsky’s final and perhaps greatest novel and focuses on the ways the writer portrays/investigates the “inner worlds” of its major characters. Dostoevsky’s unique psychological method will be considered against the ideological, scientific, and literary contexts of the 1870s, including political, philosophical, and religious polemics, developments of modern psychology, paradoxes of fashionable modern spiritualism, and the psychological prose of Dostoevsky’s contemporaries and immediate predecessors. Students will participate in three debates and write a final essay on the writer’s “spiritual realism.” (1 Unit)
RU 6740 Russian Prose 2007: What Russian Students Read (Oleg Anatolievich Proskurin)
This course will focus on prose works that were 2007 ‘short list’ nominees for the Russian Booker Prize, the most prestigious Russian literary prize today. Parallel with this short list prepared by an expert jury, student representatives from several Russian universities prepared their own ‘short list’, the so-called Student Booker. Student choices corresponded with the expert jury’s selections by half. Thus the Student Booker provides a sense of what current Russian books have attracted the attention of student-age readers today. For this course we will read Ludmila Ulitskaya’s Daniel Stein – perevodchik (Daniel Stein – Translator), which just won the prestigious Russian Great Book award; Maya Kucherskaya’s Bog dozhdia (Rain God); and other leading prose works from 2007. Students will write three short response papers and a final exam.
Civilization
RU 6639 Stalinism and the Cold War (Aleksandr Petrovich Logunov)
This course, a continuation of last year’s course on early Twentieth-Century Russian History: Revolutions, will focus on the period from the Civil War to the Twentieth Congress of the CPSU, one of the most significant periods in twentieth-century Russian history: these were the formative years for the creation of the Soviet system of government, values, and the basis for its dialogue with the outer world. The course will prompt students to explore why Stalinism in the Soviet Union could take the form of a stable and efficiently working system whose domestic characteristics and trends contributed to the prolonged existence of its values among Soviet citizens. Though broad in its coverage of social, cultural, economic and ethnic deformations characteristic of the Stalinist system, the course will focus on the reasons why ‘Stalinism’ turned out to be so appealing to the society of that time. This issue is even more important in light of rising public interest in both Stalin’s personality and the processes which characterized his time. A great deal of this course will be devoted to international issues, since this period includes both the World War II period and the first steps towards bipolar confrontation. The course will be accompanied by literary texts and documentary films and will include a thorough study of transformations in political vocabulary and colloquial Russian. Students will be required to participate actively in class discussions and comment on assigned readings, to make an in-class presentation, and to write brief assignments and a final exam or paper. (1 Unit)
RU 6613 The Ethnic and Religious Design of Modern Russia (Aleksandr Petrovich Logunov)
Ethnic and religious processes in the USSR and subsequently in Russia have been particularly striking since the end of the 1980s. After the demise of the Soviet Union, followed by the crisis in Soviet identity, ethnic and religious factors have become key elements in the emergence of a new system. Various political groups began to take advantage of this situation. At the same time, as the state gradually gained strength, its role in these processes grew. Thus comprehension of peculiarities and features of these trends is crucial to an understanding of today’s Russia. The aims of this course include providing information on major religious and ethnic groups and denominations in today’s Russia, as well as major terms and concepts related to these issues used in publications and colloquial Russian; studying the most pressing problems of ethnic and religious culture, as well as patterns of cross-cultural communication influencing the quality of life in present-day Russia; and examining the influence of various political, fiction and nonfiction texts on multi-ethnic and religious dialogue in Russia. The course will be accompanied by literary texts and documentary movies and will employ interactive methods. Students will be required to participate actively in class discussions and comment on assigned readings, to make an in-class presentation, and to write brief assignments and a final exam or paper. (1 Unit)
RU 6602 History of Animation (Galina Gennadievna Aksenova)
This course examines the history of Russian animation from 1912 to the beginning of the 21st century in the context of the development of Russian cinema. Students will watch and analyze various animated films, from the first works of Vladislav Starevich to the films of Andrei Khrzhanovsky, Iurii Norstein, and Aleksandr Petrov, who won an Oscar for his work. We will discuss various forms of animation, and we will analyze the work of artists and animation filmmakers in the context of changes in the production structure: the emergence and collapse of state film studios. There will be required film showings outside class meetings. Students will write one research paper. (1 Unit)
RU 6511 Readings in the Contemporary Russian Press (Svetlana Borisovna Stepanova)
Cross-listed with Language/Linguistics.
This course will focus on the development of vocabulary related to Russian media, and of reading, listening, speaking, and writing skills through reading, viewing, and discussion of various materials in the journalistic and popular press. We will discuss the political, economic, social, and cultural life of Russia as represented in the media. At home students will read assigned press materials and do grammatical and lexical exercises to develop vocabulary. In class we will watch television programs thematically linked with the assigned readings. Students will be required to convey the author’s opinion and their own, to participate in debates, and to give and respond to oral reports. Grades will be assessed according to class participation, homework, an oral report, weekly compositions, and a final examination. (1 Unit)
RU 6625 The Supernatural in Russian Literature, Music, and Painting
(Ilya Iurievich Vinitsky)
Cross-listed with Literature.
The goal of the course is threefold: to familiarize the students with brilliant and thrilling works of art which represent various periods of Russian culture; to examine the artistic features of “fantastic” works and to explore their ideological implications. With attention to relevant scholarship, we will pose questions about the role of the storyteller and about horror and the fantastic. We will also ponder gender and class, controversy over sense and sensation, the spiritual significance and major changes in attitudes toward the supernatural which tell us about the “dark side” of the Russian literary imagination and about the historical and political conflicts which have haunted Russian minds in previous centuries. Works under discussion will include tales by Pushkin, Gogol, Lermontov, Dostoevsky, Leskov, Turgenev, Briusov, and other writers, musical works by Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky, paintings by Ivanov and Vrubel’. Writing assignments include three short essays (3-4 pages each) and a final paper (7 pages). (1 Unit)
Seminar Courses
RU 6888 Independent Study (Staff)
This course consists of a thesis written in Russian, for which an advisor will be assigned, and is a requirement for MA candidates. The course can only be taken for the completion of the master’s thesis and may be taken only once. (1 Unit)
DM 6903 Research Paper (Evans-Romaine)
This research paper is a requirement for DML candidates during their summer of application. (1 Unit)
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Directors
Director:
KAREN EVANS-ROMAINE
Associate Professor of Russian, Ohio University, Ph.D. University of Michigan
Associate Director: GALINA AKSENOVA
Associate Professor of Cinema at the Moscow Art Theater School; Kandidatskaya, State Institute of Theater Arts, Moscow
Faculty
Evgeny Dengub
Temple University
MA, Bryn Mawr College
Evgenia Dvinova
Herzen State Pedagogical University, St. Petersburg
Kandidatskaya, Herzen State Pedagogical University
Petko Ivanov
University of Chicago
MA, University of Chicago
Viktoria Ivleva
College of William and Mary
MA, University of Wisconsin
Brian R. Johnson
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison
Nina Kostiuk
St. Petersburg State University
Kandidatskaya, Leningrad State University
Aleksandr Logunov
Russian State University for the Humanities
Doktorskaya, Russian State University for the Humanities
Jason Merrill
Michigan State University
Ph.D., University of Kansas
Larisa Moskvitina
St. Petersburg State University
Kandidatskaya, Leningrad State University
Susanna Nazarova
Temple University
MA, University of California, Davis
Diploma, Institute of Asia and Africa, Moscow State University
Olga Oleynik
University of South Florida
Kandidatskaya, Pushkin Institute of Russian Language, Moscow
Oleg Proskurin
Kandidatskaya, Moscow State University
Elena Shchepina
Smolny College, St. Petersburg University.
Kandidatskaya, Herzen State Pedagogical University
Aleksei Shmelev
Professor, Moscow State Pedagogical University;
Head of Department of Russian Linguistic Standards, Institute of Russian Language, Russian Academy of Sciences;
Doktorskaya, Moscow State Pedagogical University
Elena Shmeleva
Institute of Russian Language, Russian Academy of Sciences
Kandidatskaya, Moscow State University
Evgenii Slivkin
University of Oklahoma
Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
MFA, Gorky Institute for Literary Studies, Moscow
Tatiana Smorodinskaya
Middlebury College
Ph.D., Ohio State University
Diploma, Moscow State University
Shannon Donnally Spasova
Dalhousie University
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison
Svetlana Stepanova
St. Petersburg University
Kandidatskaya, Leningrad State University
Molly Thomasy
University of Wisconsin, Madison
MA, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Svetlana Titkova
Kitaigorodskaya Center for Foreign Language Instruction, Moscow State University
Kandidatskaya, Moscow State University
Valentina Troufanova
Russian State University for the Humanities
Kandidatskaya, Moscow State University
Ilya Vinitsky
University of Pennsylvania
Doktorskaya, Moscow State Pedagogical University
Guest Artists
Marietta Chudakova
Professor, Gorky Institute for Literary Studies, Moscow
Member, European Academy
Doktorskaya, Moscow State University
Sergei Soloviev
Film Director
Cultural Staff
Sergei Kokovkin
Writer, Director, Moscow
St. Petersburg Institute of Music, Theater, and Cinematography
Anna Rodionova
Writer, Moscow
MA, Moscow Institute of Cinematography
MA, Gorky Literary Institute
Zolotoi Plios
Sergei Gratchev, Elena Sadina, and Aleksandr Solovov
Diplomas, Saratov State Conservatory of Music; Royal Carillon School, Mechelen, Belgium
Sergei Gratchev: City Carilloneur, Hulst, Holland
Elena Sadina: Professor, Royal Carillon School, Mechelen
Olga Solovova
Artist and Art Restorer, Mechelen, Belgium
Graduate, Balakovo Art Academy
Vera Proskurina
Emory University
Kandidatskaya, Moscow State University
Anna Andrulaitis
Diploma, Irkutsk State University
Office Staff
School Coordinator:
John Stokes BA, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Bilingual Technology Assistant:
Antonella Caloro
MA, University of Wisconsin - Madison
BA, Universita' degli Studi – Urbino, Italy
Bilingual Assistants:
Colleen Lucey, BA, Barnard College
Leonid Andrulaitis, Diploma, Irkutsk State University
Videographer:
Morgan Wajda-Levie, BA, Grinnell College
Flagship Program Tutor:
Sofya Patenotte, St. Paul’s School, New Hampshire
Ph.D., Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural University
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RU 6502 Advanced Conversation Practicum
Natalia Viktorovna Bogdanova
Students in this class will focus on expanding their lexicon and their syntactical repertoire in scholarly and journalistic speech and on preparing scholarly presentations in their area of interest. Main themes will be political, economic, cultural, and social life in Russia as they approach interesting and sometimes controversial topics concerning contemporary Russian society and culture. Students will read and discuss assigned articles on Russian politics, society, and culture, and will write compositions. Students will be required to discern and analyze the author’s point of view and then formulate their own opinion. Grades will be determined according to participation in class discussions, weekly compositions, an oral presentation, and a final oral examination. Textbook: I. A. Starovoitova, Vashe mnenie (Moscow, 2006).
RU 6506 Advanced Grammar
Natalia Viktorovna Bogdanova
This course is intended for students who want to have a thorough knowledge of Russian grammar. Attention will be paid mainly to those themes which usually proved to be the most difficult for students of Russian as a foreign language: meanings and uses of cases, productive and non-productive types of Russian verbs, verbal aspect, verbs of motion, the use of pronouns and the meanings and uses of conjunctions and conjunctive words in compound and complex sentences. Reading and analysis of novels and newspaper articles, as well as assigned grammar exercises and essays, will help students use correct grammar forms and constructions automatically. The final exam has three parts: grammar test, writing, and use of Russian. Textbooks: Pulkina, Zakhava-Nekrasova. Russian. A Practical Grammar with Exercises. Moscow, 1994; Andrews, Averianova, Piadusova, Russkii glagol: Formy i funktsii, Moscow, 2003; and others.
RU 6516 Russian Verbal Aspect
Aleksei Dmitrievich Shmelev
This course will focus on one of the most challenging issues of Russian grammar: verbal aspect. We will discuss not only the use of perfective and imperfective aspect, but also the aspectual system as a whole including such facets as meaning of aspects, aspectual derivation, aspectual pairedness, aspectual triplets, verbs of motion as a subsystem of Russian verbs, manners of verbal action, aspect in dictionaries, etc. Students will work through exercises and read short works of prose (fiction and non-fiction) for analysis; we will use several workbooks and language manuals published in Russia, as well as a coursepack of selected readings. Students’ grades will be based on three written exams, daily reading and writing homework, and class participation.
RU 6511 Readings in the Contemporary Russian Press Svetlana Borisovna Stepanova
This course will focus on the development of vocabulary related to Russian media, and of reading, listening, speaking, and writing skills through reading, viewing, and discussion of various materials in the journalistic and popular press. We will discuss the political, economic, social, and cultural life of Russia as represented in the media. At home students will read assigned press materials and do grammatical and lexical exercises to develop vocabulary. In class we will watch television programs thematically linked with the assigned readings. Students will be required to convey the author’s opinion and their own, to participate in debates, and to give and respond to oral reports. Grades will be assessed according to class participation, homework, an oral report, weekly compositions, and a final examination.
RU 6632 Russian Culture through Language
Aleksei Dmitrievich Shmelev
This course will focus on helping students toward a better understanding of Russian culture through the tool of Russian lexicon. We will discuss words that reflect and convey Russian modes of thought – things that native speakers take for granted, since the worldview encoded in these words is usually presented in non-assertive components of meaning (that is, connotations, presuppositions, etc.). However, most of those words are language-specific and defy translation; when translated directly or naively into other languages, they may cause cross-cultural miscommunication. Students will write short essays two-three times a week discussing various aspects of Russian culture as it may be understood through its key-words. Grades will be based on class participation and essays.
RU 6631 Second Language Teaching Methodology
Maria Alekseevna Shardakova
This course acquaints students with current theories, models, and practices employed in the field of second/foreign language acquisition while briefly surveying the history of approaches to second/foreign language teaching. Students will also examine major issues in second language classroom research. Students will engage in an on-going discussion about objectives and standards for foreign language teaching, including the national standards, Standards for Foreign Language Learning: Preparing for the 21st Century, and the Proficiency Guidelines of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), types of instruction (i.e., contextualized language instruction, content-based and content-enriched instruction, etc.), learning styles and strategies, individual learner variables (i.e., aptitude, motivation, proficiency, affective filter, etc.), the role of technology in foreign language teaching, assessment of teaching/learning, and so forth. Students will develop techniques for teaching and testing foreign language skills, curriculum development, lesson planning, and material selection. They will also have practical experience through mini-teaching situations. Course required for DML candidates.
RU 6715 Eugene Onegin and the Culture of Its Time
Oleg Anatolievich Proskurin
The course is designed as a close reading of the most acclaimed of Pushkin’s works – his novel in verse Eugene Onegin (1823-1831). The novel was written and published in separate chapters over several years, and readers remained in suspense as they did not know what would happen next with its heroes. Students will be repeating the story of the first Pushkin’s readers over six weeks. Pushkin’s work is an encyclopedia of Russian culture of the first thirty years of the 19th century. Thus the course will be interdisciplinary: students will read simultaneously poems written by Pushkin and his contemporaries, and will listen to the music, ballets, and operas that Pushkin’s heroes were watching. We will examine theater programs as well as a design of a country estate in Pushkin’s time. Students will study aristocratic salon culture, the role of duels, and restaurant menus in both capital cities and the countryside. The course also includes video materials from Peter Tchaikovsky’s opera Eugene Onegin and one contemporary movie based on Pushkin’s plot. Students will write three short response papers and a final exam.
RU 6630 Russian Modernism in Music, Literature, and the Arts Maria Alekseevna Shardakova
This course acquaints students with one of the most fascinating periods in Russian culture that best represents the interconnectedness of various artistic forms, such as literature, music, dance, painting, décor, architecture, theater, and film. Students will explore central issues of the period, such as the relationship between art and revolution, reconceptualizations of society, history and the self. Of particular interest will be artists’ and authors’ experimentation in form and language in order to present afresh the experience of life. Employing theoretical frameworks of semiotics, formalist literary critique, constructivism, and communication theory, students will examine how modernist artists dismiss traditional referential meaning in creating new types of signification, how they construct communicative relationships with their readers, and what social implications arise from these practices. Principal artistic movements examined will include symbolism, decadence, the avant-garde, including neo-primitivism, cubo-futurism, constructivism, suprematism, and rayonism. Students will explore music of Skriabin, Stravinsky, Avraamov, Prokofiev, Matushin, Roslavets, and Mosolov; they will read short prose by Bunin, Brusov, Sologub, Kuprin, Leonid Andreev, Garshin, Remizov, Pilniak, Babel, Platonov, Zamiatin, and Kharms.
RU 6634 Contemporary Russian Literature
Oleg Anatolievich Proskurin
This course is designed to acquaint students with developments in Russian literature over the past decade. The emphasis will be on comprehension of the texts by representatives of different trends in (post)modern Russian literature (Victor Pelevin, Tatiana Tolstaya, Vladimir Sorokin, Boris Akunin, Mikhail Shishkin), as well as the most interesting currents in Russian poetry after Brodsky (Sergei Gandlevsky, Timur Kibirov, Vera Pavlova, and the ‘Babylon’ group). Special attention will be paid to the rise of a new generation of writers (‘Web-literature’). Students will write three short response papers and a final exam.
RU 6655 Early Twentieth-Century Russia: Revolutionary History vs. Revolutionary Culture
Aleksandr Petrovich Logunov
This course, a continuation of last year’s course on Nineteenth-Century Russian History, will examine the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917 and the culture of this period – in effect, the opposition of revolutionary history and revolutionary culture. The beginning of the twentieth century went at an extremely rapid tempo and was characterized by social dynamics of a new kind. Three revolutions, the Russo-Japanese and World Wars, deep conflicts and reforms - all these events have changed Russia and indeed the entire world. At the same time this was the “Silver Age” of Russian culture, characterized by flourishing aesthetic searching and the development of new principles in social communications. The purpose of the course is to analyze the history of early twentieth-century Russia through the interaction of literature, culture, and art of the revolutionary process. In this course students will acquire new concepts and terms describing the social, political, and cultural realms.
RU 6646 Terrorism and Reaction in the Contemporary World Aleksandr Petrovich Logunov
Threats of terrorism have become part of everyday social, political, and cultural life; they have become the subject of heated discussions aimed at grasping the main reasons for this phenomenon and seeking ways to overcome it. This course will broadly analyze the history of terrorism as a system of global challengers to civilization. The course argues for the efforts of many countries to overcome terrorist threats; it also considers the influence of terroristic challengers on modern life. Systems of social and political concepts, as well as terms and methods to describe and represent modern social and political realms, will be acquired in this course.
RU 6635 Search for National Identity in Russian/Soviet Cinema
Galina Gennadievna Aksenova
The course will investigate the creation, development, and changes in the idea of national identity during the last 100 years in the cinema of Russia and the Soviet Union. Students will watch and analyze films produced during World Wars I and II, when nationalistic ideas were openly expressed, as well as films made after the October Revolution, during Stalin’s Cultural Revolution, the Thaw and Perestroika and in Putin’s Russia of today, when images of Mother-Soviet Russia and Mother-Russia were restructured in the search for national identity. Students will compare films on the same subject from different historical periods and will examine the rewriting of the past in Russia and in the Soviet Union. The focus of attention will be paid to recent films, from Pavel Lungin’s Taxi-Blues (1990) and Luna-Park (1992) to Timur Bekmambetov’s Night Watch 1 and 2 (2004, 2006). (1 Unit)
2006:
RU 6502: Advanced Conversation (Stepanova)
RU 6506: Advanced Grammar (Troufanova)
RU 6507: Advanced Syntax (Shmelev)
RU 6515: Advanced Composition and Stylistics (Shmelev)
RU 6617: Language of the Arts (Troufanova)
RU 6641 The Myth of Revolution in Russian Literature 1918-28 (Vinitsky)
RU 6615 Poets and Politics: from Pushkin to Brodsky (Proskurin)
RU 6658 Russian Drama of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (Aksenova)
RU 6765 Tolstoy’s War and Peace (Vinitsky)
RU 6638 Nineteenth-Century Russian History (Logunov)
RU 6642 Gorbachev, Yeltsin, Putin: Three Faces of Russian Democracy (Logunov)
2005:
RU 6506: Advanced Grammar (Shmeleva)
RU 6511: Readings in the Contemporary Russian Press (Stepanova)
RU 6614: New Trends in Russian (Shmeleva)
RU 6616 Madness and Madmen in Russian Culture (Vinitsky)
RU 6764 Anton Chekhov (Vinitsky)
RU 6657 Geography of Russia and Central Eurasia (Medvedkova)
RU 6700 The Modernization of Russia: from Empire to Nation State (Medvedkova)
RU 6668 The Russian Television Mini-Series (Aksenova)
2004:
RU 6502: Advanced Conversation (Stepanova)
RU 6506: Advanced Grammar (Troufanova)
RU 6515: Advanced Composition and Stylistics (Troufanova)
RU 6634: Contemporary Russian Literature (Proskurina)
RU 6763: Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina (Proskurina)
RU 6659: Stalin’s Socialist Realism in Cinema (Aksenova)
RU 6647: Problems in Contemporary Russia: the Mafia and Chechnya (Logunov)
RU 6751: Russian Economic Culture (Logunov)
2003:
RU 6506: Advanced Grammar (Troufanova)
RU 6507: Advanced Syntax (Troufanova)
RU 6645: Russian History, 1991 – Present (Logunov)
RU 6845: The Image of Peter the Great and Petersburg (Logunov)
RU 6643: Mythologies of Sexuality in Russian Modernism (Shevelenko)
RU 6884: Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita (Vinitsky)
RU 6768: Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin (Vinitsky)
RU 6640: Three Directors: Eisenstein, Tarkovsky, Mikhalkov (Aksenova)
2002:
RU 6506: Advanced Grammar (Zhuravlyova)
RU 6511: Readings in the Contemporary Russian Press (Zhuralyova)
RU 6514: Practical Phonetics (Stepanova)
RU 6606: Russian Word Formation (Zemskaya)
RU 6614: New Trends in Russian (Zemskaya)
RU 6672: Axmatova (Vinitsky)
RU 6762: Gogol’s Dead Souls (Vinitsky)
RU 6633: Religions of Russia (Tendriakova)
RU 6732: The Holy Fool in Russian Culture (Tendriakova)
RU 6637: Russian History since 1917 (Logunov)
RU 6755: Russian Historical Psychology (Logunov)
RU 6656: Women in Russian Cinema (Aksenova)
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Director: KAREN EVANS-ROMAINE
Associate Professor of Russian, Ohio University, Ph.D. University of Michigan
Associate Director: GALINA AKSENOVA
Professor of Film, Moscow Art Theater School; Kandidatskaya, State Institute of Theater Arts, Moscow
RU 6635 Search for National Identity in Russian/Soviet Cinema
Faculty
Natalia Bogdanova
St. Petersburg State University
Doktorskaya, St. Petersburg State University
RU 6502 Advanced Conversation Practicum
RU 6506 Advanced Grammar
Evgeny Dengub
Graduate Teaching Assistant, Bryn Mawr College
M.A., Bryn Mawr College
RU 3398-3401
Evgeniia Dvinova
Associate Professor, Herzen State Pedagogical University, St. Petersburg
Kandidatskaya, Herzen State Pedagogical University
RU 3402-3405
Petko Ivanov
M.A., University of Chicago
RU 3202-3205
Brian Johnson
Graduate Teaching Assistant, University of Wisconsin, Madison
M.A., University of Wisconsin, Madison
RU 3102-3105
Nina Kostiuk
Associate Professor, St. Petersburg State University
Kandidatskaya, Leningrad State University
RU 3302-3305
Alexander Logunov
Professor and Dean, Faculty of History, Political Science and Law, Russian State University for the Humanities
Doktorskaya, Russian State University for the Humanities
RU 6655 Early Twentieth-Century Russia: Revolutionary History vs. Revolutionary Culture
RU 6646 Terrorism and Reaction in the Contemporary World
Gerald McCausland
Lecturer, Russian Language Program Coordinator, University of Pittsburgh
Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh
RU 3202-3205
Jason Merrill
Associate Professor, Michigan State University
Ph.D., University of Kansas
RU 3298-3301
Larisa Moskvitina
Associate Professor, St. Petersburg University
Kandidatskaya, St. Petersburg University
RU 3398-3401
Susanna Nazarova
Academic Advisor, Norwich University, Vermont
M.A., University of California, Davis
Diploma, Institute of Asian and African Countries, Moscow
RU 3102-3105
Olga Oleynik
Lecturer, University of South Florida
Kandidatskaya, Moscow State Pedagogical University
RU 3298-3301
Oleg Proskurin
Independent Scholar
Kandidatskaya, Moscow State University
RU 6715 Eugene Onegin and the Culture of Its Time
RU 6634 Contemporary Russian Literature
Marina Rojavin
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Temple University
Kandidatskaya, Potebnia Institute for Linguistics, National Academy of Sciences, Kiev
RU 3202-3205
Maria Shardakova
Lecturer, Russian Language Program Coordinator, University of Pennsylvania
Ph.D., Bryn Mawr College
Kandidatskaya, Moscow State University
RU 6631 Second Language Teaching Methodology
RU 6630 Russian Modernism in Music, Literature, and the Arts
Elena Shchepina
Associate Professor and Director of Russian Language Program, Smolny College of Liberal Arts, St. Petersburg University
Kandidatskaya, Herzen State Pedagogical University
RU 3402-3405
Alexei Shmelev
Professor, Moscow State Pedagogical University; Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Russian Language, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
Kandidatskaya, Moscow State University
RU 6516 Russian Verbal Aspect
RU 6632 Russian Culture through Language
Yevgeny Slivkin
Instructor, University of Oklahoma
Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
M.A., Gorky Institute for Literary Studies, Moscow
RU 3102-3105
Shannon Donnally Spasova
Instructor, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison
RU 3198-3201
Svetlana Stepanova
Associate Professor, St. Petersburg University
Kandidatskaya, Leningrad State University
RU 6511 Readings in the Contemporary Russian Press
Svetlana Titkova
Instructor of Russian, Kitaigorodsakaya Center for Foreign Language Instruction, Moscow State University
Kandidatskaya, Moscow State University
RU 3302-3305
Tsvetelina Yordanova
Adjunct Professor of Russian, Rider University, New Jersey
M.A., Middlebury College
M.A., Sofia University, Bulgaria
RU 3198-3201
Guest Artists
Dina Rubina
Writer, Jerusalem
Svetlana Druzhinina
Film Director, Moscow
Office Staff
School Coordinator:
John Stokes, B.A., University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Bilingual Assistant:
Natalia Shilova, Diploma, Samara State University
Bilingual Technology Assistant:
Michael Adams, B.A., Drew University
Bilingual Interns:
Colleen Lucey, B.A., Barnard College
Denis Komarov, B.A., Kaluga State Pedagogical University
Michael Baumann, B.A., University of Wisconsin-Madison
Cultural Staff
Choir Directors and Guest Performers:
Zolotoi Plios: Sergei Gratchev, Elena Sadina, and Aleksandr Solovov; Diplomas, Saratov State Conservatory of Music; Elena Sadina: Professor of Music, Royal Carillon Academy, Mechelen, Belgium
Theater Directors: Sergei Kokovkin, Director, Playwright, Writer, Actor; M.A., State Institute of Theater, Music, and Cinematography, Moscow. Anna Rodionova, Playwright, Actor; M.A., Gorky Institute for Literary Studies, Moscow
Cultural Program Interns: Vera Proskurina, Lecturer, Emory University; Ph.D. Moscow State University. Elena Shmeleva, Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Russian Language, Russian Academy of Sciences; Ph.D., Moscow State University
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