Sample classes

For students who have little or no previous knowledge of the Russian language. Equal emphasis is placed on developing oral and reading skills with a sound grammatical basis. This is a full-year class. Students taking this class must register in both X and Y in consecutive terms.

Prerequisites: There are no prerequisites.

This class provides an overview of the present business practices and climate in Russia. Topics addressed include: (1) the historical antecedents for present business practices in Russia; (2) banking and monetary policy (history, reforms, the current situation); (3) the Russian stock market (stock exchanges, current and pending laws concerning stock and bonds); (4) organization of exhibitions and public relations in the Russian milieu; (5) logistics of doing business in Russia; (6) insurance practices; (7) the Russian real estate market; (8) Russian business ethics; and (9) a roundtable discussion with Russian businessmen.

Prerequisites: There are no prerequisites.

An overview of the history of Russian natural science from the foundation of the Russian Academy of Sciences during the reign of Peter the Great to modern times.

Prerequisites: There are no prerequisites.

This class will examine intellectual developments in modern Russia, from Peter the Great to the late 20th century. Among the possible topics we will cover are: Russian thought and the West, the Russian intelligentsia and its relationship with the people and the state, Russian Orientalism, the roles of literature, arts, and media in Russian politics and society, the nature of dissent and revolutionary movements, as well as the functions of historical memory in Russian thought and culture. Throughout the course we will approach Russia as a multinational country that developed in constant and close interaction with the outside world.

Prerequisites: Some Russian history required; Recommended are HIST 2021 or HIST 2022

Conducted in Russian (RUSN 3103 is the same class, offered in English). A close study of the poetry and prose of  the father of Russian literature,  Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin, needs to be grounded in the centrality of his Black Identity for his life and oeuvre. Pushkin's unfinished work Arap Petra Velikogo serves as the window illuminating his artistic genius and struggle for a mode of expression for his own identity. The silences which shroud Pushkin's blackness are probed to reveal their ideological, historical, legal and human significance, which are then critically assessed. The major narrative and lyric poems, Eugene Onegin, the Little Tragedies, Boris Godunov, the Tales of Belkin, the Queen of Spades, as well as Pushkin's letters and critical works are revisited in this new light. Students will explore such themes as marginalization, liberty, prescience, aesthetic innovation, and the poet as political symbol and creator of a new literary language. Restoring Pushkin's identity to its proper place is a condition – sine qua non – for understanding the true meaning of his work for modern literature and its ongoing influence on world culture.

Prerequisites: RUSN 2003
Exclusions: RUSN 2100