Vladimir Putin has confounded world leaders and defied their assumptions as they tried to figure him out, only to misjudge him time and again. In 2022, against all predictions the authoritarian leader started Europe's bloodiest war since WWII. While looking at Putin's rise to power (and his impending fall), we will also seek during this course to go beneath politics and policy to look at how human beings experience state power within the cultural phenomena including visual arts, literature, cinema, TV, Internet, popular music, and photography.

This is an introductory course, conducted entirely in English, on the classics of nineteenth-century Russian literature. No previous knowledge of Russian language, literature, culture, or history is expected. The focus of the course is on close readings of individual works. At the same time, we will pay close attention to the way a distinctively Russian national tradition takes shape, in which writers consciously respond to their predecessors. All of these works have a firm position in the Russian cultural memory, and they have significantly contributed to Russian national identity.

In this course, envisioned as both a language and literature course, we will explore Anton Chekhov's humor, Mikhail Zoshchenko's satire, and Fazil Iskander's irony, which will give us a glimpse into daily life in 19th century Russia and Soviet Union. The entire course will be conducted in Russian. Special emphasis will be placed on active use of language and expansion of vocabulary.

This Junior Seminar prepares students to undertake independent research in the field of Slavic languages and literatures. By encountering a variety of methodologies and approaches to texts and cultural phenomena, participants develop the tools and experience to examine and pursue a topic or research question of their choosing in the Junior Independent Work and beyond. Over the course of the semester students also get acquainted with library resources and citation styles.

This seminar covers significant works of Russian eighteenth-century literature (poetry, drama, and prose) in their historical context. Major themes include: empire, church and state; Russia and the West; Peter and Catherine as cultural legislators; Patronage; Censorship; Political Dissent; Women's Life and Letters. Some attention will be given to European connections and influences.

A practical course required of graduate students who are teaching beginning Russian. The course covers all issues relevant to the teaching of the language: phonetics, grammar presentation, efficient use of class time, class and syllabus planning, writing quizzes and tests. In addition to weekly meetings with the instructors, students are expected to meet as a group to develop best practices for covering each week's material. An important part of the course is instructor supervision of teaching.

The course offers an overview of the Ukrainian literature of catastrophe as a way of representing the dramatic events of the twentieth century. The aim of the course is to examine how trauma influences the literary imagination and to consider the role of tragic consciousness and aesthetic sublimation in presenting catastrophic events. The students read and discuss texts of different Ukrainian authors from Vasyl Stefanyk (1871-1936) to Serhiy Zhadan (born in 1974).

The seminar explores key texts of the Russian avant-garde, looking specifically at the ways Russian Formalists and Constructivists theorized the importance of form for their art and scholarship. Essays written by Shklovsky, Jakobson, Rodchenko, Vertov, Lissitzky, and Tatlin are contextualized within the field of contemporary critical theory. This is an interdisciplinary seminar, and during the semester, we oscillate between literature and cinema, linguistics and photography, architecture and painting. No Russian language skills are required.