Courses

Upcoming Slavic Department Courses

(Fall 2025)

Literature & Culture

Every semester we offer a selection of courses on the literature and culture of the region taught in both Russian and English. Most of our literature & culture courses meet the HALC or Diversity Global core requirements.

RUSS 1115: Russia A-Z I

Profs. Irina Denischenko, Milla Fedorova, Bradley Gorski, George Mihaychuk & Olga Meerson
Thursday 2:00–2:50 PM
Course Taught in English

This one-credit course surveys major topics in Russian culture from its beginnings to the present. It acquaints students with various issues and fields of inquiry in Russian language, literature, and culture and provides background for further study. It is an introductory course for interested students with little or no background in these subject areas. The course is team-taught by members of the Department of Slavic Languages and is primarily in lecture format. In the final three classes of the semester, professors report on their individual research. All lectures and readings are in English. (No prerequisites.) (1 credit)

RUSS 4352 / WGST 3352: Woman with a Movie Camera

Prof. Irina Denischenko
TR 12:30–1:45 PM
Course Taught in English

This course explores the cinematic contributions of women directors, cinematographers, screenwriters, and editors from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and their legacies in contemporary cinema. We begin with Soviet cinema of the 1920s, examining the often downplayed role of women editors in the formation of a unique montage culture in both feature and documentary film. We then focus our attention on the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc in the postwar period, which witnessed a growth of women directors and the entry of women into other professions in the film industry. Finally, we examine the legacies of women’s cinematic contributions in contemporary film from Russia and Central and Eastern Europe. Central to this course is the exploration of Marxist feminism as a possible theoretical backdrop against which we can understand women’s cinema in the region, as well as the “Western” feminist concepts of écriture feminine and cinécriture. Examining specific works of art, we will ask: is women’s cinematic writing as a gendered vision of reality possible within a Marxist political-theoretical framework, which sees women’s liberation as part of the broader class struggle? Does women’s “writing” in cinema of the region exist in spite of an overarching framework that minimizes gender differences in favor of the universal human? What did women directors, cinematographers, editors, etc., from this geographic region contribute to cinematic techniques and the language of film? Does women’s cinema of the socialist period continue to inform the film industry in Russia and Central and Eastern Europe today? (3 credit; HALC)

RUSS 4385: Nabokov: Style & Scandal

Prof. Bradley Gorski
TR 11:00 AM–12:15 PM
Course Taught in English

Vladimir Nabokov was among the most gifted prose stylists in the English language. With the publication of Lolita, he became one of its most scandalous writers. He was also a master of self-presentation and literary celebrity. His carefully crafted biography, including his early Russian works, his bilingualism, and his rejection of contemporary politics, made him into the essential literary celebrity of mid-century America. This course reads Nabokov’s greatest works—from both his Russian and English periods—alongside the creation of his authorial persona in order to understand how this master manipulator used literature, politics, and the media to make himself into one of the twentieth century’s definitive figures. (3 credits; HALC)

RUSS 4391 / ARTH 3841: The Art of Protest

Prof. Irina Denischenko
TR 3:30–4:45 PM
Course Taught in English

This course examines the art of protest in Central and Eastern Europe, including Russia, from the 19th century to the present day. Artists and writers from this region have a long history of fighting against and working within repressive conditions. In response to censorship, political imprisonment, authoritarianism, and other threats, they have developed unique strategies of survival and protest, as well as a conceptual apparatus around the idea of the “power of the powerless.” As we examine performance art, literature, music, visual art (from painting to film), and other art forms that have challenged repressive institutions, we consider art’s unique potential for political protest. To prompt comparative inquiry across media and historical times, the course is organized into several thematic sections: war, censorship, patriarchy, capitalism, prisons & camps, and historical amnesia. As we work to unearth a theory and practice of artistic protest across time and space, we also examine the specific historical circumstances of each artwork. (3 credits; HALC, DIVG)

RUSS 4463: Dostoevsky

Prof. Olga Meerson
MW 2:00–3:15 PM
Course Taught in English

This course explores the Four Great Murder Novels. How can all the “-isms” Dostoevsky’s characters and narrators so passionately proclaim agree with what the writer himself regarded as a system of absolute values? All the explanations provided by all the “-isms” and everyone’s passionately personal “-ism” are true but insufficient. What is sufficient is unpronouceable. This course teaches us how Dostoevesky encodes unshakeable values in conspicuous omissions. He develops a powerful narrative and structural technique which treats precisely what matters most as unmentionable. This allows him to be tolerant toward a multitutde of voices without losing his own, as well as to move the forbidden from the realm of external law to that of the inner voice of one’s conscience. (3 credits; HALC)

RUSS 4485: Chekhov: Prose & Drama

Prof. George Mihaychuk
MW 2:00–3:15 PM
Course Taught in Russian

Chekhov addressed a number of fundamental questions: how does our subjective consciousness grasp the world? what certainty do we have about what we hold to be true? how can one be an authentic self? The approach and the stylistic devices he developed so radically departed from the literary norms of his time that critics and readers were often baffled. In his stories and dramas his characters engage but don’t seem to arrive at any significant resolution. And his plays of non-action were among the first to break with the principles of drama set forth since the time of Aristotle. This course will examine what answers Chekhov provided and how he can be considered a Modernist author not only in terms of what he has to say abut also how he says it.  (3 credits.)

Polish

• PLSH 1001: Beginning Polish I (3 credits)
  • MWF 12:00–12:50 PM – Iwona Sadowska
• PLSH 1501: Intermediate Polish I (3 credits)
  • MWF 9:00–9:50 AM – Iwona Sadowska

Russian

• RUSS 1011: First-Level Russian I (6 credits)
  • MTWRF 10:00 AM + F 11:00 AM – Jill Neuendorf & Anna Pechnikova
  • MTWRF 2:00 PM + F 3:00 PM – Iwona Sadowska & Svetlana Moser
    
• RUSS 1012: First-Level Russian II (6 credits)
  • MTWRF 12:00 PM + F 11:00 AM – Jill Neuendorf & Anna Pechnikova
    
• RUSS 1511: Second-Level Russian I (6 credits)
  • MTWRF 11:00 AM + F 12:00 PM – Jill Neuendorf & Elena Boudovskaia
  • MTWRF 3:00 PM + F 2:00 PM – Iwona Sadowska & Svetlana Moser
    
• RUSS 1512: Second-Level Russian II (6 credits)
  • MTWRF 9:00 AM + F 10:00 AM – Bradley Gorski & Anna Pechnikova
    
• RUSS 3001: Third-Level Russian I (3 credits)
  • MW 12:30–1:45 PM – Olga Meerson
    
• RUSS 3002: Russia(n) in Context (3 credits)
  • TR 2:00–3:15 PM – Jill Neuendorf
    This course focuses on oral proficiency. A variety of materials–textbook, video and audio recordings, Russian literature selections and readings in the Russian press–will be used to develop the students’ ability to converse on daily topics and handle cultural, political and social issues in Russian life today.
    
• RUSS 4005: Fourth-Level Russian (3 credits)
  • MW 5:00–6:15 PM – Anna Pechnikova
    The goal of the course is to enlarge students’ vocabulary and to develop their ability to conduct conversation and discussion on a variety of issues and topics that pertain to the use of the language in their future professions. Class discussions focus on contemporary issues and are based on articles from the Russian press, the Internet, and television programs.
    
• RUSS 4006: Russian Through Culture (3 credits)
  • MW 5:00–6:15 PM – Lioudmila Fedorova
    This course develops students’ Russian language skills by reading, watching, analyzing, and discussing authentic cultural documents. We will read great (short) works of literature in the original Russian, watch classic Russian and Soviet films, and analyze contemporary culture and historical movements. Students will not only sharpen their reading, writing, listening and speaking skills in Russian, they will also engage with a broad survey of important Russian culture. They will develop the intercultural sensitivity and understanding they need for careers or further study in Russia or the Russophone world.
    
• RUSS 4097: Professional Russian I (3 credits)
  • MW 3:30­–4:45 PM – Elena Boudovskaia
    Designed for graduate students in CERES and MSFS who will be using Russian in their professional lives, this course aims to enhance the participants’ command of the language in both the oral and written forms. The course will focus on the preparation, delivery and discussion of oral presentations and written essays on topics related to the students’ professional interests. Topics will range from international relations, politics and economics to Russian literature and popular culture.

Ukrainian

• UKRN 1001: Beginning Ukrainian II (3 credits)
  • MWF 11:00–11:50 AM – Elena Boudovskaia

Past and Future Slavic Department Courses

The Slavic Department offers a wide range of courses on an occasional and rotating basis. Browse the following categories to get a sense of what courses we have offered in the past and what we will offer again sometime soon.