(for 2012–2013 academic year)
Professors A.S. Nakhimovsky
(Director), Stevens
Associate Professor Helfant
Assistant Professor Bozovic
Visiting Assistant Professor Ilchuk
Fulbright Language Teaching Assistant TBA
Steering Committee Bozovic, Epstein, Graybill, Helfant, A.S. Nakhimovsky
(Director), Ries, Stevens
Russian and Eurasian Studies (REST) is a multifaceted discipline that aims to give students an understanding of this vital region’s history, politics, culture, and economic and environmental issues, along with proficiency in the Russian language.
Students can tailor their choice of courses to emphasize literary and cultural studies, sociology, history, environmental studies, or political science by taking advantage of a diversity of faculty expertise and courses on Russia and Eurasia that make Colgate unique among institutions of its size. Prospective majors, and those with an interest in Russian language, should begin
REST 121 as soon as possible and will find that we make innovative use of the World Wide Web and computer technology alongside intensive in-class instruction throughout our language curriculum. The major requires a minimum of two years of Russian, which provides a solid basis in speaking, reading, and writing Russian. Students who continue into advanced Russian are encouraged to spend a semester in Russia on one of the programs vetted and approved by our faculty such as the liberal arts Bard-Smolny Program in Saint Petersburg. Courses throughout the curriculum are highly interdisciplinary and culminate in a senior seminar in which majors pursue thesis or advanced research topics of their choice in a collaborative environment. Many of our students choose to double major, combining Russian and Eurasian studies with a cognate major or minor in history, political science, international relations, economics, sociology, history, Jewish studies, or environmental studies. Recent graduates have found work in government, journalism, law, NGOs, education, the Peace Corps, finance, advertising, and many other fields including graduate study.
The Russian and Eurasian studies major consists of ten courses, only one of which may be shared with a cognate major such as history. These must include
1. A minimum of four semesters of Russian language;
a.
REST 121, 122, Elementary Russia
b.
REST 201, 202, Intermediate Russian
2. Five additional courses, at least two of which must be at the 300 level or above:
a. One course dealing primarily with pre-modern and Imperial Russia:
REST 253, 19th-Century Russian Literature
REST 314, Dostoevsky and His World
REST/HIST 343, The Formation of the Russian Empire
b. One course with a primarily Soviet era focus:
REST 214, Russian and the Soviet Cinema
REST 260, The Émigrés: Lives of Remarkable Russians
REST/HIST 344, Imperial Russia and the Soviet Revolution
REST 354, Tyranny, Freedom, and the Novel: Modern Russian Fiction
POSC 348, Communism and Post-Communist Transition
c. One course using a post-Soviet era as a lens:
REST/GEOG 323, Arctic Transformations
REST 358, The New Russians: Post-Soviet Literature, Art, and Film
REST/POSC 359, Russia and Its World
d. Two additional courses selected from one of the categories above or from the following list of electives:
CORE 168C, The Arctic (subject to director’s approval)
CORE 184C, Siberia
CORE 186C, The Balkans
CORE 187C, Russia at the Crossroads of East and West
CORE 194C, Caucasus
REST/JWST 205, Yiddish Fiction in Translation
JWST 305, Jewish Fiction before the War
HIST 263, The Silk Road
REST 303, Language and Fiction
REST 306, Advanced Russian
Students are encouraged to pursue upper-level language study and to strive for interdisciplinary breadth, as well as to place Russia in a broader comparative context.
3. Interdisciplinary senior seminar:
REST 412
The minor in Russian and Eurasian studies consists of seven courses including the minimum four semesters of Russian language and excluding the seminar. The minor must include three courses chosen from at least two of the above primary categories, at least one of which must be at the 300 level. (Minors may apply to substitute the seminar for one of the required electives but will be admitted to the seminar only at the instructor’s discretion.)
Students with two or more years of high school Russian, and students who have taken an introductory level summer session course at another university, will normally matriculate into
REST 122 or
201. Students with such previous Russian study, transfer students with coursework in Russian, and students from Russian-speaking families (heritage speakers) should consult with faculty for advice on placement.
An average of C (2.00) is required for graduation in the major or minor. All REST courses taken at Colgate are counted toward the cumulative grade.
A minimum overall GPA in the major of 3.30 for honors and 3.70 for high honors is required, plus a written thesis of 40 to 60 pages. Students who write an honors thesis are required to take an Honors Independent Study (
REST 490) in the semester preceding the senior seminar.
See “Honors and Awards: Russian and Eurasian Studies” in Chapter VI.
The Russian and Eurasian studies faculty and Off-Campus Study/International Programs have collaborated to identify a small number of approved programs for students with at least two-years of college Russian who wish to spend a semester in Russia. These include the Bard-Smolny program at the Smolny Institute in St. Petersburg and Middlebury’s program at the Russian State University of the Humanities in Moscow. Two course credits toward the major or minor can be earned through study in Russia. Consult with the Russian and Eurasian studies faculty for further details.
Many REST courses count toward the Human Thought and Expression area of inquiry/humanities distribution requirement, unless otherwise noted. 121, 122 Elementary Russian M. Bozovic, I. Helfant, Staff
These courses combine an overview of Russian grammar with an intensive emphasis upon classroom communication and the development of oral skills. In addition to the textbook, students make use of an array of web-based materials ranging from interviews with contemporary Russians, to YouTube videos, to cartoons in order to provide students with a sense for life in Russia today, as well to facilitate rapid acquisition of the language. Students will receive credit for one semester but are strongly encouraged to continue for the year-long sequence (and beyond). By the end of the first year students will have covered the fundamentals of Russian grammar, learned a great deal of vocabulary, and should be able to converse effectively in a variety of everyday situations in Russian. (Formerly
RUSS 101-102.)
201, 202 Intermediate Russian A.S. Nakhimovsky, Staff REST 201 and
202 complete the presentation of the fundamentals of the language and focus upon further vocabulary acquisition and developing more advanced conversation and writing skills, as well as real-life Russian in context. Students in
202 make use of the Colgate-developed MannX program to work through digitized segments of a hilarious feature-length film entitled
The Irony of Fate. MannX presents the film on a computer monitor with ready links to cultural commentary, a dictionary, and a transcription. Class activities also focus upon the film. By the end of the year, students should be well on their way to communicating effectively in Russian. (Formerly
RUSS 201, 202.)
205 Yiddish Fiction in Translation
This course is crosslisted as
JWST 205. For course description, see “Jewish Studies: Course Offerings.”
This course counts toward the Human Thought and Expression area of inquiry/humanities distribution requirement. (Formerly
RUSS 205.)
214 Russian and Soviet Cinema M. Bozovic
This interdisciplinary course introduces the history and theory of Russian cinema and features a selection of the most influential Russian and Soviet films of the 20th century. Beginning with the Great Silents (Evgenii Bauer, Sergei Eisenstein), the course explores constructivist montage and Socialist realism, concluding with the post-modern consciousness of Andrei Tarkovsky and Aleksandr Sokurov. Students screen one or two films each week and study them in depth. They discuss cinema in relation to literature, performance, and visual art, and learn how film language was developed. Films are discussed in a broad cultural, social, and aesthetic context, with a focus on the ways in which the images have been used as carriers of cultural value and ideological meaning. Emphasis is placed on such issues as art, propaganda, and the power of “spectacle” in contemporary society. All films have English subtitles. A FLAC section of the course may be offered for advanced Russian language students with a primary emphasis on the development of advanced language skills. (Formerly
RUSS 214.)
253 19th-Century Russian Literature I. Helfant, Staff
Written largely by an educated elite, eerily self-conscious because of czarist censorship and political repression, Russian literature of the 19th century nevertheless confronts many of the crucial concerns of human existence. In this course, students read a combination of short stories and novels, concentrating upon the canonical “greats” (Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Chekhov) but also adding a sampling of writers one might otherwise never encounter, including neglected female authors. By examining literary depictions of such social institutions as dueling and gambling, courtship and marriage, adultery and spousal abuse, work and leisure, the course emphasizes the relationship between literary text and cultural context. Particular attention is paid to the cultural construction of gender, as well as the relationship between humans and nature. A range of theoretical and critical texts informs discussions, as do film adaptations of certain works. All works are read in translation, but a FLAC section of the course may be offered for advanced Russian language students, with a primary emphasis on the development of advanced language skills. (Formerly
RUSS 253.)
260 The Émigrés: Lives of Remarkable Russians M. Bozovic
This course examines the phenomenon of Russian émigré cultures through the life stories of four remarkable artists — Ivan Bunin, Igor Stravinsky, Vladimir Nabokov, and Joseph Brodsky. What happens to national cultures outside of the confines of the state, and to individuals divorced of context? The course explores themes of exile, memory, and nostalgia; hybrid cultural identities and cosmopolitan elites; language and bilingualism; as well as the aesthetics of modernism in different media. Students read novels, essays, and poetry; listen to musical compositions; look at painting and the visual arts; and watch footage of performances, as well as several films. The course moves from the 1920s salons of Paris and Berlin to American college towns and New York City in the 1990s. (Formerly
RUSS 260.)
303 Language and Fiction M. Bozovic, I. Helfant, Staff
This course has two aims: (1) to strengthen the students’ command of written and spoken Russian and (2) to read and discuss some important works of Russian fiction. One half of the coursework is devoted to advanced Russian grammar, including modal verbs, aspectual usage, and prefixation. The reading topic varies from year to year. The course is conducted primarily in Russian. Prerequisite:
REST 202 or permission of instructor. (Formerly
RUSS 303.)
306 Advanced Russian M. Bozovic, I. Helfant, Staff
Grammar, discussion, and writing in Russian. Texts include fiction, essays, newspaper articles, and film, and center around a topic of contemporary or historical interest, which varies from year to year. Prerequisite:
REST 202 or permission of instructor. (Formerly
RUSS 306.)
314 Dostoevsky and His World I. Helfant, Staff
Reading Dostoevsky’s novels is tiring, exhilarating, exasperating, and unsettling. One of the greatest writers of the 19th century, Dostoevsky was obsessed both with the social injustice he saw in czarist Russia and with humanity’s eternal struggle between good and evil, religious faith and atheism, rationality and irrationality, sexual lust and purity. One of the characters in
The Brothers Karamazov exclaims, “God and Satan are at war and the battleground is the human soul,” and Dostoevsky seems to have shared this conviction. In this course students read a variety of Dostoevsky’s fictional works, as well as selections from his diaries and journalism in a shared quest to unravel his complexity as a man and as a writer. All works are read in translation, but a FLAC section may be offered for advanced Russian language students with a primary emphasis on the development of advanced language skills. (Formerly
RUSS 314.)
323 Arctic Transformations
This course is crosslisted as
GEOG 323. For course description, see “Geography: Course Offerings.”
This course counts toward the Social Relations, Institutions, and Agents area of inquiry/social science distribution requirement.
343 The Formation of the Russian Empire
This course is crosslisted as
HIST 343. For course description, see “History: Course Offerings.”
This course counts toward the Social Relations, Institutions, and Agents area of inquiry/social science distribution requirement. (Formerly
RUSS 343.)
344 Imperial Russia and the Soviet Revolution
This course is crosslisted as
HIST 344. For course description, see “History: Course Offerings.”
This course counts toward the Social Relations, Institutions, and Agents area of inquiry/social science distribution requirement. (Formerly
RUSS 344.)
354 Tyranny, Freedom, and the Novel: Modern Russian Fiction A.S. Nakhimovsky
This course looks at 20th-century Russian literature as it confronts the intense pressures of the Russian historical experience. Readings include outstanding works by Chekhov, Bely, Babel, Bulgakov, Grossman, Nabokov, Erofeev, and others. The course concentrates on a close textual analysis of individual works with an eye to their place in a trying political climate. It is open to qualified first-year students with permission. All works are read in translation, but a FLAC section of the course may be offered for advanced Russian language students with a primary emphasis on the development of advanced language skills. (Formerly
RUSS 354.)
358 The New Russians: Post-Soviet Literature, Art, and Film M. Bozovic
Two decades after the fall of communism, Russian culture has shape-shifted once more, both internally and in the eyes of the world. The New Russians seems to suggest a range of extremes, from a raw capitalism without limitations, a darkly “demonic” or horror-inflected strain of postmodernism, to a new spiritualism and a fascination with earlier epochs of Russian history. This course explores a range of genres and media: students read novels, short stories, and poems by Boris Akunin, Viktor Pelevin, Dmitri Prigov, Vladimir Sorokin, and Tatiana Tolstaya, and look at a selection of films and works of visual and performing arts by Boris Eifman, Ilya Kabakov, Sergei Loznitsa, Nikita Mikhalkov, and Aleksandr Sokurov. The course raises questions of cultural continuity and rupture, as well as about transculture and influence across national traditions in a rapidly changing world. All works are read in translation, but a FLAC section may be offered for advanced Russian language students, with an emphasis on the development of advanced language skills.
359 Russia and Its World
This course is crosslisted as
POSC 359. For course description, see “Political Science: Course Offerings.”
This course counts toward the Social Relations, Institutions, and Agents area of inquiry/social science distribution requirement (Formerly
RUSS 359.).
412 Senior Seminar I. Helfant, Staff
In this seminar students explore the theoretical, methodological, and linguistic challenges that underlie serious research in Russian and Eurasian studies. In addition to common readings and assignments, each student pursues an individual research topic, updating other seminar participants periodically via presentations and selected readings. By semester’s end each student has produced either a senior thesis or a substantial research paper that utilizes Russian primary sources appropriately. Students who pursue a thesis topic are required to have enrolled in an independent study during the fall semester in preparation for the seminar. Prerequisite: offered to senior REST majors and to REST minors or other qualified students with permission of instructor. (Formerly
RUSS 412.)
490 Honors Staff 291, 391, 491 Independent Studies Staff
Outstanding students may, with the approval of the instructors, pursue investigations of topics relating to Russia or the Soviet Union. The use of primary sources in Russian is stressed. (Formerly
RUSS 291, 391, 491.)