Russian (RUSS)
RUSS 1010 - Russian from the Beginning I
3 Credits
Students will demonstrate a novice-mid level on the ACTFL scale in reading, writing, speaking, and listening after having been introduced to a variety of print, audio, video, and digital resources. They will relate basic personal information, to describe routine activities, to reply in basic phrases to everyday queries, and to respond in a general manner to requests for personal information. The importance of linguistic accuracy will be repeatedly emphasized throughout the course as student gain a knowledge of the Russian alphabet, formal/informal greetings, verbal conjugations, and the adjectival and nominal declensions.
Attributes: Foreign Language BA Req (CAS), Foreign Language BS Req (CAS), International Studies, International Studies-Europe, MLIC Language
RUSS 1020 - Russian from the Beginning II
3 Credits
By the end of the course students will demonstrate a novice-high knowledge of reading, writing, listening, and speaking in Russian after their introduction to a variety of print, audio, video, and digital resources. Students will be able to relate personal information about their living situations, families, studies, professions, shopping, and food preferences. Students will attain a novice-high level knowledge of the verbal system (including all aspects and tenses), the verbs of motion, and all adjectival and nominal cases.
Prerequisite(s): RUSS 1010
Attributes: Foreign Language BS Req (CAS), International Studies, International Studies-Europe, MLIC Language, Russian Area Studies
RUSS 1930 - Special Topics
1-3 Credits (Repeatable for credit)
RUSS 1980 - Independent Study
1-3 Credits (Repeatable for credit)
RUSS 2010 - Intermediate Russian: Language and Culture I
3 Credits
Students will be able to navigate successfully in sentence-length discourse in speaking and writing, at a minimum novice-high level, a range of topics relating to personal interests, including daily routine, hobbies, student life, and family history. They will be developing an ability to comprehend and compose paragraphs related to personal interests at the intermediate level, as they more fully master complex sentence formation and usage as well as temporal expressions.
Prerequisite(s): (RUSS 1020 or Russian Waiver per Advisor with a minimum score of 1020)
Attributes: Foreign Language BA Req (CAS), Foreign Language BS Req (CAS), MLIC Language
RUSS 2020 - Intermediate Russian: Language and Culture II
3 Credits
Students will be introduced to a variety of print, audio, video, and digital resources to encourage them to reflect on cross-cultural comparisons and a culturally informed use of Russian. Students will be able to manage successfully in sentence-length discourse at an intermediate level a range of personal, cultural, and travel-related topics. The development of critical reading skills with a study of participles, comparative structures, and content analysis is a focus of the course.
Prerequisite(s): RUSS 2010
Attributes: Foreign Language BA Req (CAS), Foreign Language BS Req (CAS), Foreign Service Elective, International Studies, International Studies-Europe, MLIC Language, Russian Area Studies
RUSS 2930 - Special Topics
1-3 Credits (Repeatable for credit)
RUSS 2980 - Independent Study
1-3 Credits (Repeatable for credit)
RUSS 3010 - Communicating in Russian: The Arts
3 Credits
This is a four-skilled Russian language course that will develop listening, reading, speaking, and writing skills with real-life simulations by analyzing a variety of media, including digital resources. By the end of the course students will have improved their intermediate-level skills through a review of intermediate and advanced grammatical structures, development of structured writing compositions, defined conversations focused on a range of topics, exercises promoting active listening, and readings rich in cultural knowledge.
Prerequisite(s): RUSS 2020
Attributes: Foreign Language BA Req (CAS), Foreign Language BS Req (CAS), Foreign Service Elective, International Studies-Europe, MLIC Language, Russian Area Studies
RUSS 3020 - Communicating in Russian: History and Politics
3 Credits
This is a four-skilled Russian language course that will develop listening, reading, speaking, and writing skills with real-life simulations by analyzing a variety of media, including digital resources. By the end of the course those receiving credit for the major or minor will have achieved a minimum intermediate-mid level in reading and listening skills owing to a review of intermediate and advanced grammatical structures, development of structured writing compositions, defined conversations focused on a range of topics, exercises promoting active listening, and readings rich in cultural knowledge.
Prerequisite(s): RUSS 3010
Attributes: Foreign Language BA Req (CAS), Foreign Language BS Req (CAS), International Studies-Arts, International Studies-Europe, MLIC Language, Russian Area Studies
RUSS 3250 - Russia From Peter to Putin: Imperial, Soviet, and Post-Soviet Culture
3 Credits
This course, required for the Russian minor, provides a broad overview of Russia's contributions to world culture in the areas of art, architecture, literature, and music. Students will explore various dimensions to this vast region from Peter the Great's construction of St. Petersburg to the celebration of the Sochi Olympics in 2014 as well as Putin's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Attributes: Global Citizenship (CAS), International Studies-Arts, International Studies-Europe, Russian Area Studies, UUC:Aesthetics, Hist & Culture
RUSS 3270 - Soviet and Russian Cinema: Traditions and Innovations
3 Credits
The course approaches Soviet and Russian cinema from two perspectives: generic-historical, surveying movements and genres in Russian films from about 1915 to 2015; and critical, using the cinematic frame as a window into Soviet and Russian culture. Films to be shown range from the silent short to the historical epic, and from the gems of the avant-garde and Socialist Realism to late genre and auteur cinema in post-Soviet Russia. Under three broad headings — "Discourses and Ideology," "Identification and Ritual," and "Localism and Disintegration" — the course traces Soviet Russian constructions of community, nation ("ours/other"), class, and gender. (Offered in fall)
Attributes: Global Citizenship (CAS), MLIC Elective
RUSS 3320 - Dostoevsky Through the Centuries
3 Credits
This course considers Dostoevsky's impact on world culture through an examination of his major works, including Notes from the Underground, Crime and Punishment, and The Brothers Karamazov, and their dialogue with the writings of such famous personages as Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, D. H. Lawrence, and Albert Camus.
RUSS 3340 - Serfdom and Liberation: Challenging the Legacies of Forced Labor
3 Credits
Tsar Alexander II won the race to liberation when he freed the serfs in the empire in 1861 before Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, but serf and slave alike despite the promise of property and rights protected in law would struggle with poverty, discrimination, and oppression for generations. This course examines the Russian experience of serfdom and attempts at liberation primarily through literature of the nineteenth century but with examples of intercultural dialogue introduced to highlight Russia’s international reputation of repression with a range of genres by famous authors including Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Chekhov. In English. (Offered occasionally)
Prerequisite(s): Minimum Earned Credits of 30
Attributes: Literature BA Requirement(CAS), Literature BS Requirement(CAS), UUC:Dignity, Ethics & Just Soc
RUSS 3350 - Chekhov as Dramatist: Performance, Adaptations, and Intermedial Transpositions
3 Credits
The appeal of Chekhov’s major plays remain the focus of this course that examines the adaptation, mutation, and appropriation of his drama on stage and screen to encourage an appreciation for the intermedial transpositions of the Chekhov text across cultures, recent histories, and media in Russia, on Broadway, and beyond.
Attributes: Fine Arts Requirement (CAS), Literature BA Requirement(CAS), Literature BS Requirement(CAS), MLIC Elective
RUSS 3360 - In Prisons Dark: Confinement Literature in the Russian and Soviet Empires
3 Credits
This overview of Russia prison and camp literature written by major authors incarcerated during the past two centuries, either in Imperial or Soviet institutions, will introduce students to the rich and varied tradition of Russian autobiographical literature about centers of confinement, punishment and correction. The personal history of each prisoner, in addition to the time, duration, and location of the imprisonment, will inform our readings of these texts, which represent a range of prison experiences shaped by religious conviction, social class, political affiliation, health considerations, gender identity, and conditions of confinement in disparate prison and camp systems. Taught in English .
Restrictions:
Enrollment limited to students with a classification of Junior or Senior.
Attributes: Law, Religion and Politics, Literature BA Requirement(CAS), Literature BS Requirement(CAS), Russian Area Studies, UUC:Aesthetics, Hist & Culture
RUSS 3370 - World Soul in the Silver Age: Literature in a Revolutionary Era
3 Credits
Russia’s fin-de-siècle—the twilight of the nineteenth century and dawn of the twentieth century—experienced a renaissance with symbolism and idealism informing the creative impulses of a new generation of poets and realists turning to performances or the short story to express terror and disillusionment brought on by unrest in the new century. This course will explore the Silver Age merging of the arts (theater and music) with literature as well as literary output in the midst of Revolutions with works written by Anna Akhmatova, Andrei Bely, Mikhail Bulgakov, Anton Chekhov, Vladimir Mayakovsky, and Maksim Gorky. Taught in English. (Offered occasionally)
Attributes: Literature BA Requirement(CAS), Literature BS Requirement(CAS)
RUSS 3390 - Putin's Idiocracy
3 Credits
This course will investigate how writers, philosophers, and filmmakers approach the phenomenon of stupidity in Russia and beyond throughout historical periods and how Putin’s regime epitomizes the triumph of stupidity and anti-intellectualism in Russia’s governance, foreign affairs, cultural and media politics. The course will be taught in English and all materials will be in English translation.
Attributes: Literature Requirement (A&S), Film Studies, Global Citizenship (CAS), Literature BA Requirement(CAS), Literature BS Requirement(CAS), MLIC Elective, Russian Area Studies, UUC:Aesthetics, Hist & Culture
RUSS 3440 - Art, Media, & Power in Post-Soviet Russia
3 Credits
This course will investigate how filmmakers, writers, artists and art collectives have represented, challenged and/or rejected social and political developments in Russia from the chaos of the lawless “wild 1990s” through the media-reliant solidification of power in Putin’s Russia, and toward the rise of the protest culture that has dominated media attention in the last few years. The course will be taught in English and all materials will be in English translation.
Attributes: Film Studies, Film & Media - Critical Study, International Studies-Arts, International Studies-Europe, Literature BA Requirement(CAS), Literature BS Requirement(CAS), MLIC Elective, UUC:Aesthetics, Hist & Culture
RUSS 3910 - Internship
1-6 Credits (Repeatable for credit)
Attributes: UUC:Reflection-in-Action
RUSS 3930 - Special Topics
1-3 Credits (Repeatable for credit)
RUSS 3980 - Independent Study
1-3 Credits (Repeatable for credit)
RUSS 4010 - Presenting Research in Russian
3 Credits
In this course students develop presentational, research, and writing skills through individual research projects in order to improve fluency in the area of professional discourse at a minimum intermediate-mid level. Students are introduced to a variety of print and digital resources as they develop their ability to analyze critically the way in which language is impacted by various cultural forces.
Prerequisite(s): 1 Course from RUSS 3000-3999; 1 Course from RUSS 3000-3999
Attributes: Foreign Language BA Req (CAS), Foreign Language BS Req (CAS), Foreign Service Elective, International Studies-Europe, Grad Pol Sci Skills
RUSS 4510 - The Russian Orthodox
3 Credits
This course traces the theological, social, political, and cultural history of the Orthodox Church in Russia with particular foci on theological crises noted for shaping doctrine, iconography, popular religious belief, monasticism, messianism, Sophiology, and relations between Russian spiritual and secular authorities in the Eastern Church.
Prerequisite(s): (THEO 1000 or THEO 1600); (1 Course from THEO 2000-2999 or RUSS 3250)
Attributes: Catholic Studies-Elective, International Studies-Europe, UUC:Identities in Context
RUSS 4910 - Internship
1-6 Credits (Repeatable for credit)
Attributes: UUC:Reflection-in-Action
RUSS 4930 - Special Topics
1-3 Credits (Repeatable for credit)
RUSS 4980 - Advanced Independent Study
1-3 Credits (Repeatable for credit)