Russian and East European StudiesCourses for Spring 2027
| Title | Instructor | Location | Time | All taxonomy terms | Description | Section Description | Cross Listings | Fulfills | Registration Notes | Syllabus | Syllabus URL | Course Syllabus URL | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CZCH 0100-680 | Czech I | Ryan Hardy | TR 3:30 PM-4:59 PM | This course is the first in the series of first-year courses, intended for students with no previous background in Czech. The course develops competence in speaking, reading, writing, and understanding contemporary Czech. It will also introduce you to Czech culture through exciting authentic materials, including songs, videos, short stories, and cultural artifacts. Class work emphasizes development of communicative competence in real-life situations, spontaneous interactions, pair and group work and is conducted almost entirely in Czech. By the end of the course, you will be able to engage in simple conversations in Czech on topics concerning your daily life. You will also be able to write short personalized messages in Czech. | ||||||||||
| HUNG 0200-680 | Hungarian II | Adrienn V. Mizsei | MW 7:00 PM-8:59 PM | This course is the second in a series of first-year courses, continuation of Hungarian I. The course continues to develop competence in speaking, reading, writing, and understanding contemporary Hungarian. We will continue the exploration of Hungarian culture through exciting authentic materials, including songs, videos, short stories, and internet sites. Class work emphasizes development of communicative competence in real-life situations, spontaneous interactions, pair and group work and is conducted almost entirely in Hungarian. By the end of the course, you will be able to engage in simple conversations in Hungarian on many topics in informal and some formal contexts concerning your daily life, including planning a trip to Hungary, staying in a hotel, ordering meals, and buying goods. You will also be able to write longer personalized messages in Hungarian. | ||||||||||
| HUNG 0400-680 | Hungarian IV | Adrienn V. Mizsei | TR 5:15 PM-6:44 PM | This course is the second in a series of second-year courses, continuation of Hungarian III. The course will continue strengthening and expanding students' competence in speaking, reading, writing, and understanding contemporary Hungarian and increasing active and passive vocabulary on a variety of topics. We will continue the exploration of Hungarian culture through exciting authentic materials, including online news resources, songs, and videos. Class work emphasizes development of communicative competence in real-life situations, spontaneous interactions, pair and group work and is conducted almost entirely in Hungarian. By the end of the course, you will be able to engage in increasingly complex conversations in Hungarian on many topics in informal and formal contexts concerning your daily life, significant personal and cultural events, attitudes and perspectives. You will be able to write longer messages in a variety of informal and formal contexts. Satisfies Penn Language Requirement. | ||||||||||
| HUNG 0400-681 | Hungarian IV | Adrienn V. Mizsei | TR 7:00 PM-8:29 PM | This course is the second in a series of second-year courses, continuation of Hungarian III. The course will continue strengthening and expanding students' competence in speaking, reading, writing, and understanding contemporary Hungarian and increasing active and passive vocabulary on a variety of topics. We will continue the exploration of Hungarian culture through exciting authentic materials, including online news resources, songs, and videos. Class work emphasizes development of communicative competence in real-life situations, spontaneous interactions, pair and group work and is conducted almost entirely in Hungarian. By the end of the course, you will be able to engage in increasingly complex conversations in Hungarian on many topics in informal and formal contexts concerning your daily life, significant personal and cultural events, attitudes and perspectives. You will be able to write longer messages in a variety of informal and formal contexts. Satisfies Penn Language Requirement. | ||||||||||
| PLSH 0200-680 | Polish II | Agnieszka Dziedzic | MW 5:15 PM-6:44 PM | This course is the second in a series of first-year courses, continuation of Polish I. The course continues to develop competence in speaking, reading, writing, and understanding contemporary Polish. We will continue the exploration of Polish culture through exciting authentic materials, including Polish films, history and contemporary affairs. Class work emphasizes development of communicative competence in real-life situations, spontaneous interactions, pair and group work and is conducted almost entirely in Polish. By the end of the course, you will be able to engage in simple conversations in Polish on many topics in informal and some formal contexts concerning your daily life. You will also be able to write longer personalized messages in Polish. | ||||||||||
| PLSH 0401-680 | Polish for Heritage Speakers II | Agnieszka Dziedzic | MW 7:00 PM-8:29 PM | This course is the second in the series of literacy courses for students who have spoken Polish at home and seek to improve literacy skills and language competence, continuation of PLSH0201. The course continues to focus on enhancing linguistic accuracy in spelling, grammar, word choice and pronunciation, as well as fluency and narrative structure in both speaking and writing. We will continue developing effective reading and listening strategies and expanding students’ active and passive vocabulary through interpretation and analysis of various literary genres and a broad variety of cultural themes. Satisfies Penn Language Requirement. | Penn Lang Center Perm needed | |||||||||
| REES 0010-301 | Central and Eastern Europe: Cultures, Histories, Societies | Kristen R Ghodsee | MW 1:45 PM-3:14 PM | The reappearance of the concept of Central and Eastern Europe is one of the most fascinating results of the collapse of the Soviet empire. The course will provide an introduction into the study of this region - its cultures, histories, and societies - from the foundation of the Holy Roman Empire to the enlargement of the European Union. Students are encouraged to delve deeper into particular countries, disciplines, and sub-regions, such as Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and the Balkans, through an individual research paper and class presentations. | ||||||||||
| REES 0110-401 | Portraits of Russian Society: Art, Fiction, Drama | MW 10:15 AM-11:44 AM | This course covers 19C Russian cultural and social history. Each week-long unit is organized around a single medium-length text (novella, play, memoir) which opens up a single scene of social history birth, death, duel, courtship, tsar, and so on. Each of these main texts is accompanied by a set of supplementary materials paintings, historical readings, cultural-analytical readings, excerpts from other literary works, etc. The object of the course is to understand the social codes and rituals that informed nineteenth-century Russian life, and to apply this knowledge in interpreting literary texts, other cultural objects, and even historical and social documents (letters, memoranda, etc.). We will attempt to understand social history and literary interpretation as separate disciplines yet also as disciplines that can inform one another. In short: we will read the social history through the text, and read the text against the social history. | HIST0823401 | Hum & Soc Sci Sector (new curriculum only) | |||||||||
| REES 0149-401 | World Socialist Literature and Film | Olga Nechaeva | MW 10:15 AM-11:44 AM | In 1989-1991, a whole world, perhaps many worlds, vanished: worlds of socialism. In this course we will investigate key works of literature and film spanning the socialist world(s), focused around the USSR, which was for many the (not uncontested) center of the socialist cosmos for much of the twentieth century. Further, we will study the cultural and political interrelationships between the socialist world(s) and anticolonial and left movements in the developing and the capitalist developed nations alike. Finally, we will investigate the aftermaths left behind as these world(s) crumbled or were transformed beyond recognition at the end of the twentieth century. Our work will be ramified by consideration of a number of critical and methodological tools for the study of these many histories and geographies. The purview of the course is dauntingly large—global in scale—and therefore “coverage” will of necessity be incomplete. Readings and viewings may include works by: Tengiz Abuladze, Bertolt Brecht, Slavenka Drakulić, Sergei Eisenstein, Howard Fast, Ritwik Ghatak, Langston Hughes, Audre Lorde, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Pablo Neruda, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Sembène Ousmane, Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, Rabindranath Tagore, Christa Wolf, Zhang Meng, and others. | COML0149401, ENGL1460401 | Arts & Letters Sector (all classes) | ||||||||
| REES 0172-401 | Madness and Madmen in Russian Culture | Molly Peeney | MW 1:45 PM-3:14 PM | Is "insanity" today the same thing as "madness" of old? Who gets to define what it means to be "sane," and why? Are the causes of madness biological or social? In this course, we will grapple with these and similar questions while exploring Russia's fascinating history of madness as a means to maintain, critique, or subvert the status quo. We will consider the concept of madness in Russian culture beginning with its earliest folkloric roots and trace its depiction and function in the figure of the Russian "holy fool," in classical literature, and in contemporary film. Readings will include works by many Russian greats, such as Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Bulgakov and Nabokov. | COML1097401 | Hum & Soc Sci Sector (new curriculum only) | ||||||||
| REES 0190-401 | Russia and the West | Timothy Straw | MW 12:00 PM-1:29 PM | This course will explore the representations of the West in eighteenth- and nineteenth- century Russian literature and philosophy. We will consider the Russian visions of various events and aspects of Western political and social life Revolutions, educational system, public executions, resorts, etc. within the context of Russian intellectual history. We will examine how images of the West reflect Russia's own cultural concerns, anticipations, and biases, as well as aesthetic preoccupations and interests of Russian writers. The discussion will include literary works by Karamzin, Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Leskov, and Tolstoy, as well as non-fictional documents, such as travelers' letters, diaries, and historiosophical treatises of Russian Freemasons, Romantic and Positivist thinkers, and Russian social philosophers of the late Nineteenth century. A basic knowledge of nineteenth-century European history is desirable. The class will consist of lectures, discussion, short writing assignments, and two in-class tests. | COML2020401, HIST0824401 | Hum & Soc Sci Sector (new curriculum only) | ||||||||
| REES 0310-401 | The Rise and Fall of the Russian Empire, 1552-1917 | Peter I. Holquist | TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM | How and why did Russia become the center of the world's largest empire, a single state covering one-sixth of the world’s land surface, encompassing eleven time zones and over a hundred ethnic groups? To answer this question, we will explore the rise of a distinct political culture beginning in medieval Muscovy, its transformation under the impact of a prolonged encounter with European civilization, and the various attempts to re-form Russia from above and below prior to the Revolution of 1917. Main themes include the facade vs. the reality of central authority, the intersection of foreign and domestic issues, the development of a radical intelligentsia, and the tension between empire and nation. | HIST0240401 | History & Tradition Sector (all classes) | ||||||||
| REES 0430-301 | Masterpieces 20c Russian Lit | Siarhei Biareishyk | MW 3:30 PM-4:59 PM | "Only in Russia is poetry respected. They kill you for it,” famously quipped the poet Osip Mandelstam, who died in Joseph Stalin’s concentration camps. Russia is a society that takes literature seriously—one in which the pen is assumed to have direct historical consequences. In this course, we will study how twentieth century Russian literature actively participated in war, revolution, totalitarian dictatorship, and resistance. The masterworks we will study open windows into worlds of revolutionary rapture, moral uplift in the face of tyranny, courageous subversion of the repressive state, and historical reflection on its failures. Our readings will range from an avant-garde play intended to rewire your mind, to an epic representation of revolutionary social transformation, to surreal and absurdist representations of a world gone mad. In other words: fasten your seatbelts low and tight across your waist; turbulence ahead! | Arts & Letters Sector (all classes) | |||||||||
| REES 0471-301 | Russian Short Story | Djamilia Nazyrova | TR 5:15 PM-6:44 PM | This course studies the development of 19th and 20th-century Russian literature through one of its most distinct and highly recognized genres -- the short story. The readings include great masters of fiction such as Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Solzhenitsyn, and others. The course presents the best works of short fiction situating them in a larger cultural-political context. The students learn about the historical formation, poetic virtue, and thematic characteristics of major narrative modes such as sentimentalism, romanticism, utopia, realism, modernism, and socialist realism. We study literary devices, styles, and trends of storytelling such as irony, absurd, satire, grotesque, anecdote, etc. Main topics include culture of the duel; the role of chance; the riddle of death; anatomy of madness; imprisonment and survival. | Arts & Letters Sector (all classes) | |||||||||
| REES 0480-401 | Dostoevsky |
Alla Gutnikova D. Brian Kim |
TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM | This seminar is a survey of the life and works of Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881). Focal texts include a selection of his major novels and a range of shorter works that span Dostoevsky's early career, his return from exile in Siberia, and the last years of his life. We will work together to understand Dostoevsky's career and self-conception as a writer, the wide-ranging philosophical implications of his work, and how his activity can be interpreted in the historical, ideological, and literary contexts of nineteenth-century Russia and Europe. | COML2007401 | Arts & Letters Sector (all classes) | ||||||||
| REES 1181-401 | Writing the Translation | Timothy Straw | TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM | Literary translation is many things. Perhaps most of all, though, it is writing. It is a craft, and it is also a particular kind of imagination that both haunts and supersedes craft. Every translation, then, is as much the making of a new original as it is the learning from and listening to the ‘old’ one. We will pursue what Kornei Chukovsky calls “the high art of translation” in its multiple forms: as a discipline, as a tradition, as a force of disruption and change, and as a form of play. This is a course in two parts: seminar and workshop. We’ll first read and discuss translated texts, and texts about translation, from a multiplicity of language traditions. This will help us develop a shared theoretical and imaginative language for the course’s second portion, the workshop, in which you will try out your own translation work in conversation with your peers and me. A majority of the writers, poets, and theorists that we will encounter are working in the Russian-language tradition, but we will supplement this with texts by Anne Carson, John Keene, Sawako Nakayasu, among others. We will also consider translation between mediums, including video, music, and comics. And a user’s note: if you are concerned that your language skills are not far enough along to participate meaningfully in class, please set that worry aside! Translation is a great way to improve your language, and this course is less about result than about process. | COML1181401 | |||||||||
| REES 1370-601 | Cold War: Global History | Alexandra Zborovsky | M 5:15 PM-8:14 PM | The Cold War was more than simply a military confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union; it was the frame within which the entire world developed (for better or worse) for nearly five decades. This course will examine the cold War as a global phenomenon, covering not only the military and diplomatic history of the period, but also examining the social and cultural impact of the superpower confrontation. We will cover the origins of the conflict, the interplay between periods of tension and detente, the relative significance of disagreements within the opposing blocs, and the relationship between the "center" of the conflict in the North Atlantic/European area and the global "periphery". | HIST1735601 | Hum & Soc Sci Sector (new curriculum only) | ||||||||
| REES 1530-401 | Communism | Mitchell Orenstein | MW 3:30 PM-4:59 PM | The rise and fall of Communism dominated the history of the short twentieth century from the Russian revolution of 1917 to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. As a system of government, Communism is more or less dead, but its utopian ideals of liberation from exploitation and want live on. Communism remains the one political-economic system that presented, for a time, an alternative to global capitalism. In this course, students will gain an introduction to socialist and Communist political thought and explore Communist political and economic regimes their successes and failures, critics and dissidents, efforts at reform, and causes of collapse. We will learn about the remnants of Communism in China, North Korea, and Cuba and efforts of contemporary theorists to imagine a future for Communism. | PSCI0102401 | Society sector (all classes) | ||||||||
| REES 1535-401 | Russian Politics | Rudra Sil | MW 5:15 PM-6:15 PM | Keeping in mind the difficulties of teaching about an adversary embroiled in a war, this course will seek to analyze Russian politics as objectively as possible, with an eye to understanding long-term continuities and changes through alternating periods of stability and turmoil. This necessarily entails a consideration of historical complexities, especially the Soviet era (1917-1991). Thus, the first part of the course examines the origins and evolution of the Soviet regime from Lenin to Gorbachev. The point would be to identify some key continuities and transformations political dynamics, economic development, social conditions, and geopolitical ambitions -- particularly aspects that would later affect the evolution of post-Soviet Russia. The rest of the course delves into the evolution of politics, economics, society and foreign policy, first during the early years of transition under Boris Yeltsin (1992-99), but primarily under Vladimir Putin (2000 - present). In this section, we track the evolution of Russia’s political system, the fluctuations in economic growth, and changing social conditions over time. In the process, we will consider the rise of the oligarchs, patterns of political protest, social/demographic trends, and the role of natural resources. We will then turn to the drivers of Russia’s foreign policy since the break-up of the USSR, trying to identify the sources for the sharp decline in Russia’s relations with the US/West since even before the invasion of Ukraine. We will trace some of the key forces that paved the way to the invasion of Ukraine, especially and speculate about what the future holds in terms of peace and conflict in the region. In all these domains analysis will be informed by an underlying question: how “normal” is post-Soviet Russia’s trajectory when compared to non-western powers with their own competing historical inheritances and geopolitical aspirations (e.g. China, India, Turkey, etc.). | PSCI1172401, PSCI5172401 | |||||||||
| REES 1590-301 | Russia's War Against Ukraine: Origins, Escalation, and the Struggle for Europe's Security Order | Celeste Wallander | T 10:15 AM-1:14 PM | This course examines Russia's war against Ukraine — from its historical roots through the 2014 seizure and occupation of Crimea and the Donbas, Russia’s invasion of February 2022, Ukraine’s remarkable defenses, the international coalition that armed Ukraine to fight, the grinding war of attrition that followed, and the contested question of how, and on what terms, the war might end. The course frames the conflict as three elements inextricably intertwined: a Russian war for global power, a Ukrainian war of national survival, and a test of American leadership and NATO unity. The focus will be on the war since 2014, with grounding in the post-Cold War shift in geopolitics that brought Putin to power within Russia to re-establish an authoritarian state, a democratic Ukraine with a path to Europe, and a Europe uncertain how to balance both. Course sessions will trace the 2014–2015 “first invasion” and its unresolved legacies; the intelligence and diplomatic run-up to the 2022 invasion; Ukraine's defense of Kyiv and the reshaping of transatlantic military assistance; the architecture of Western military support (the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, how the Pentagon organized the largest donation of military assistance to a country at war since World War II); the shift to a war of attrition from 2022 through 2024; the material and political toll of the fighting; why Russia and Ukraine each continue to battle; and the range of future scenarios. Readings will balance scholarly, policy, and government sources. They will be supplemented by selections from the instructor’s unpublished book manuscript on the conflict. | ||||||||||
| REES 1630-401 | Soviet and Post-Soviet Economy | Alexander Vekker | T 10:15 AM-1:14 PM | The course will cover the development and operation of the Soviet centrally planned economy--one of the grandest social experiments of the 20th century. We will review the mechanisms of plan creation, the push for the collectivization and further development of Soviet agriculture, the role of the Soviet educational system and the performance of labor markets (including forced labor camps--GULags). We will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the Soviet system and the causes of its collapse. Privatization, called by some "piratization," will be one of the central issues in our consideration of the transition from central planning to a market economy in the early 1990s. Even though our main focus will be on the Soviet economy and post-Soviet transition, we will occasionally look back in time to the tsarist era and even further back to find evidence to help explain Soviet/Russian economic development. | REES6630401 | |||||||||
| REES 3675-401 | Advanced Russian for Business | Maria Bourlatskaya | TR 10:15 AM-11:44 AM | This course explores the contemporary Russian-speaking business world and develops students' ability to speak, read, and write Russian with confidence through discussion of current issues in business, economics, and geopolitics, focusing on how cultural differences shape communication and professional practices. Recent migration and business relocation from Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine have reshaped Russian-speaking professional networks across Europe, Central Asia, and beyond. Using the current business press, company profiles, case studies, and other authentic materials, the course examines business in Russia, the Baltic states, and Kazakhstan, with particular attention to regional differences in communication styles, workplace expectations, and cultural norms. The course also gives students flexibility to pursue their individual interests. Students will not only expand their vocabulary and improve fluency, but also develop the practical skills needed to follow the Russian-language press and talk about business, economics, geopolitics, and current affairs in Russian. Language pre-requisite: the course is intended for students who have completed at least one Russian-language course at the 2000 level, and for heritage speakers of Russian (students who grew up speaking Russian at home) with comparable or higher proficiency. | REES5675401 | |||||||||
| REES 5675-401 | Advanced Russian for Business | Maria Bourlatskaya | TR 10:15 AM-11:44 AM | This course explores the contemporary Russian-speaking business world and develops students' ability to speak, read, and write Russian with confidence through discussion of current issues in business, economics, and geopolitics, focusing on how cultural differences shape communication and professional practices. Recent migration and business relocation from Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine have reshaped Russian-speaking professional networks across Europe, Central Asia, and beyond. Using the current business press, company profiles, case studies, and other authentic materials, the course examines business in Russia, the Baltic states, and Kazakhstan, with particular attention to regional differences in communication styles, workplace expectations, and cultural norms. The course also gives students flexibility to pursue their individual interests. Students will not only expand their vocabulary and improve fluency, but also develop the practical skills needed to follow the Russian-language press and talk about business, economics, geopolitics, and current affairs in Russian. Language pre-requisite: the course is intended for students who have completed at least one Russian-language course at the 2000 level, and for heritage speakers of Russian (students who grew up speaking Russian at home) with comparable or higher proficiency. | REES3675401 | |||||||||
| REES 6178-401 | Beyond Production: Marxism and Alternative Logics of Value |
David C Kazanjian Siarhei Biareishyk |
R 1:45 PM-4:44 PM | In this seminar we will examine capitalism from the perspective of the production of value. Guided by Karl Marx's Capital, we will examine the processes of the extraction of value from labor, conversion of value into profit, forms of subsumption of labor under capital, and elaborate on the kind of social relations these dynamics produce. We will also learn how capitalist social relations break down previous forms of value and institute new value forms on a global scale. We will seek to extend Marx's analysis and go beyond it in two ways: by investigating alternative forms of value that could be said to persist alongside the capitalist value form; and by interrogating the value extraction in contemporary informatized capitalism that takes place beyond the site of production. For instance, do provision grounds among the enslaved in the 19th century, milpa among indigenous people in the Americas, planned economy and black markets in the Soviet Union, squatting in contemporary urban centers, or networks of mutual care supplement capitalist social relations or oppose them? Or, alternatively, how does contemporary capitalist accumulation appropriate our life-activity beyond the workplace, such as in the reproductive domain, leisure time, education, health, and nature? We will ask whether and how alternative forms of value and its extraction are subsumed by or antagonistic with capitalism. What forms of opposition to the value form can we discern? | COML6178401, ENGL5961401, FIGS6178401, PHIL5340401 | |||||||||
| REES 6630-401 | Soviet and Post-Soviet Economy | Alexander Vekker | T 10:15 AM-1:14 PM | The course will cover the development and operation of the Soviet centrally planned economy--one of the grandest social experiments of the 20th century. We will review the mechanisms of plan creation, the push for the collectivization and further development of Soviet agriculture, the role of the Soviet educational system and the performance of labor markets (including forced labor camps--GULags). We will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the Soviet system and the causes of its collapse. Privatization, called by some "piratization," will be one of the central issues in our consideration of the transition from central planning to a market economy in the early 1990s. Even though our main focus will be on the Soviet economy and post-Soviet transition, we will occasionally look back in time to the tsarist era and even further back to find evidence to help explain Soviet/Russian economic development. | REES1630401 | |||||||||
| REES 6690-401 | Literary Ethnography from the East: A Qualitative Writing Workshop | Kristen R Ghodsee | M 5:15 PM-8:14 PM | Although little known in the West, there exists a rich history of ethnographic research and writing which emerged in nineteenth and twentieth century Eastern Europe. From Lev Tolstoy’s Caucasian cycle and Anton Chekhov’s Sakhalin Island to Waldemar Bogoras’s “Chuckchee Tales” and sections of Pyotr Kropotkin’s Mutual Aid, the eastern ethnographic tradition has always been intricately intertwined with literature, folklore, and politics. In this graduate seminar, we explore ethnography as a creative practice through a close reading of primary texts and the critical analysis of secondary sources on the unique trajectories of this understudied East European ethnographic tradition. This seminar will also be offered as a writing collective for graduate students aspiring to write dissertations or articles using ethnographic data. The course will be of interest to graduate students in anthropology, sociology, or any other discipline who wish to read and experiment with literary ethnographic styles of writing. To think about ethnography as a form of writing, a method of witnessing, and as storytelling, students will collectively work through a series of exercises and mini workshops. The course will explore strategies for describing characters, scenes, subjectivity, and the relationship between theory and narrative. The course will also interrogate the relationship between writing, fieldwork, and fieldnotes, and consider the ethics of ethnographic writing in an academic context. Over the course of the semester, students will work on an ethnographic chapter of their own dissertations or an ethnographic article in preparation for journal submission. | ANTH5330401 | |||||||||
| RUSS 0150-401 | Accelerated Russian I-II | Molly Peeney | MTWR 12:00 PM-1:30 PM | This is an intensive two-credit course covering two semesters of the first-year Russian language sequence (RUSS 0100 and RUSS 0200). The course is designed for students with no background in Russian and develops competence in listening, reading, speaking, and writing in Russian. It will also introduce you to Russian culture and Russian-speaking communities around the world through exciting authentic materials, including internet sites and cultural artifacts, songs, videos, short stories, as well as conversations with speakers of Russian. Class work emphasizes real-life situations, spontaneous interactions, and collaborative pair and group work. By the end of the course, you will be able to engage in simple conversations and write short messages on many topics concerning your daily life. You will know greetings and everyday expressions, be able to talk about people and objects in your life, your hobbies and interests, likes and dislikes, past activities and future plans, place of residence, food preferences, and health. You will also examine how your own habits and perspectives on these topics compare with those common across Russian-speaking communities. | RUSS5150401 | |||||||||
| RUSS 0200-401 | Elementary Russian II | Aleksey Berg | MTWR 1:45 PM-2:45 PM | This course is the second in a series of first-year Russian courses, continuation of Elementary Russian I (RUSS 0100). The course continues to develop your competence in listening, reading, speaking, and writing in Russian. We will continue the exploration of Russian culture and Russian-speaking communities around the world through exciting authentic materials, including internet sites and cultural artifacts, songs, videos, short stories, as well as conversations with speakers of Russian. Class work emphasizes real-life situations, spontaneous interactions, and collaborative pair and group work. By the end of the course, you will be able to engage in simple conversations and write short messages on many topics concerning your daily life, such as your interests, study habits and daily schedule, plans for the future, food preferences, and health. You will also examine how your own habits and perspectives on these topics compare with those common across Russian-speaking communities. | RUSS5200401 | |||||||||
| RUSS 0200-680 | Russian II | Lada Vassilieva | TR 5:15 PM-7:14 PM | This course is the second in a series of first-year Russian courses, continuation of Elementary Russian I (RUSS 0100). The course continues to develop your competence in listening, reading, speaking, and writing in Russian. We will continue the exploration of Russian culture and Russian-speaking communities around the world through exciting authentic materials, including internet sites and cultural artifacts, songs, videos, short stories, as well as conversations with speakers of Russian. Class work emphasizes real-life situations, spontaneous interactions, and collaborative pair and group work. By the end of the course, you will be able to engage in simple conversations and write short messages on many topics concerning your daily life, such as your interests, study habits and daily schedule, plans for the future, food preferences, and health. You will also examine how your own habits and perspectives on these topics compare with those common across Russian-speaking communities. | RUSS5200680 | |||||||||
| RUSS 0400-401 | Intermediate Russian II | Djamilia Nazyrova | MTWR 10:15 AM-11:15 AM | This course is the second in a series of second-year Russian courses, continuation of Intermediate Russian I (RUSS 0300). The course will continue to strengthen your competence in listening, reading, speaking, and writing in Russian and will expand your active and passive vocabulary on a variety of topics. We will continue the exploration of Russian culture and Russian-speaking communities around the world through exciting authentic materials, including internet sites and cultural artifacts, songs, videos, short stories, as well as conversations with speakers of Russian. Class work emphasizes real-life situations, spontaneous interactions, and collaborative pair and group work. By the end of the course, you will be able to engage in increasingly complex conversations and write longer messages on many topics concerning your daily life, significant personal and cultural events, attitudes, and perspectives. | RUSS5400401 | |||||||||
| RUSS 0400-402 | Intermediate Russian II | Olga Nechaeva | MTWR 12:00 PM-12:59 PM | This course is the second in a series of second-year Russian courses, continuation of Intermediate Russian I (RUSS 0300). The course will continue to strengthen your competence in listening, reading, speaking, and writing in Russian and will expand your active and passive vocabulary on a variety of topics. We will continue the exploration of Russian culture and Russian-speaking communities around the world through exciting authentic materials, including internet sites and cultural artifacts, songs, videos, short stories, as well as conversations with speakers of Russian. Class work emphasizes real-life situations, spontaneous interactions, and collaborative pair and group work. By the end of the course, you will be able to engage in increasingly complex conversations and write longer messages on many topics concerning your daily life, significant personal and cultural events, attitudes, and perspectives. | RUSS5400402 | |||||||||
| RUSS 0401-401 | Russian for Heritage Spkrs II | Aleksey Berg | MW 3:30 PM-4:59 PM | This course is the second in a series of literacy courses for heritage speakers, i.e., students who have spoken Russian at home, continuation of Russian Literacy for Heritage Speakers I (RUSS 0201). Students will continue learning cursive writing and reading in Cyrillic. Additionally, the course aims to enhance linguistic accuracy in spelling, grammar, and pronunciation, as well as fluency in speaking and reading. Through readings of classical and contemporary Russian literature and mass media articles, students will discuss daily life, customs and traditions, and the cultural history of Russian-speaking communities around the world. | RUSS5401401 | |||||||||
| RUSS 1200-401 | High Intermediate Russian II | Djamilia Nazyrova | TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM | This course is the second in a series of third-year Russian courses, continuation of High Intermediate Russian I (RUSS 1100). Students will explore aspects of contemporary Russian society and everyday life, including urban and rural lifestyles, youth culture, crime, sports, and health. The course continues reviewing basic structures of Russian and focusing on more advanced grammatical concepts, including verbal aspect and complex syntax, and expanding formal and abstract vocabulary. Class work emphasizes discussion and collaborative group activities and is conducted almost entirely in Russian. By the end of the course, students will be able to engage in increasingly complex conversations in Russian in both informal and formal contexts. | RUSS5600401 | |||||||||
| RUSS 5150-401 | Accelerated Elementary Russian | Molly Peeney | MTWR 12:00 PM-1:30 PM | This is an intensive two-credit course for graduate students covering two semesters of the first-year Russian language sequence (RUSS 5100 and RUSS 5200). The course is designed for students with no background in Russian and develops competence in listening, reading, speaking, and writing in Russian. It will also introduce you to Russian culture and Russian-speaking communities around the world through exciting authentic materials, including internet sites and cultural artifacts, songs, videos, short stories, as well as conversations with speakers of Russian. Class work emphasizes real-life situations, spontaneous interactions, and collaborative pair and group work. By the end of the course, you will be able to engage in simple conversations and write short messages on many topics concerning your daily life. You will know greetings and everyday expressions, be able to talk about people and objects in your life, your hobbies and interests, likes and dislikes, past activities and future plans, place of residence, food preferences, and health. You will also examine how your own habits and perspectives on these topics compare with those common across Russian-speaking communities. | RUSS0150401 | |||||||||
| RUSS 5200-401 | Elementary Russian II | Aleksey Berg | MTWR 1:45 PM-2:45 PM | This course for graduate students is the second in a series of first-year Russian courses, continuation of Elementary Russian I (RUSS 5100). The course continues to develop your competence in listening, reading, speaking, and writing in Russian. We will continue the exploration of Russian culture and Russian-speaking communities around the world through exciting authentic materials, including internet sites and cultural artifacts, songs, videos, short stories, as well as conversations with speakers of Russian. Class work emphasizes real-life situations, spontaneous interactions, and collaborative pair and group work. By the end of the course, you will be able to engage in simple conversations and write short messages on many topics concerning your daily life, such as your interests, study habits and daily schedule, plans for the future, food preferences, and health. You will also examine how your own habits and perspectives on these topics compare with those common across Russian-speaking communities. | RUSS0200401 | |||||||||
| RUSS 5200-680 | Elementary Russian II | Lada Vassilieva | TR 5:15 PM-7:14 PM | This course for graduate students is the second in a series of first-year Russian courses, continuation of Elementary Russian I (RUSS 5100). The course continues to develop your competence in listening, reading, speaking, and writing in Russian. We will continue the exploration of Russian culture and Russian-speaking communities around the world through exciting authentic materials, including internet sites and cultural artifacts, songs, videos, short stories, as well as conversations with speakers of Russian. Class work emphasizes real-life situations, spontaneous interactions, and collaborative pair and group work. By the end of the course, you will be able to engage in simple conversations and write short messages on many topics concerning your daily life, such as your interests, study habits and daily schedule, plans for the future, food preferences, and health. You will also examine how your own habits and perspectives on these topics compare with those common across Russian-speaking communities. | RUSS0200680 | Penn Lang Center Perm needed | ||||||||
| RUSS 5400-401 | Intermediate Russian II | Djamilia Nazyrova | MTWR 10:15 AM-11:15 AM | This course for graduate students is the second in a series of second-year Russian courses, continuation of Intermediate Russian I (RUSS 5300). The course will continue to strengthen your competence in listening, reading, speaking, and writing in Russian and will expand your active and passive vocabulary on a variety of topics. We will continue the exploration of Russian culture and Russian-speaking communities around the world through exciting authentic materials, including internet sites and cultural artifacts, songs, videos, short stories, as well as conversations with speakers of Russian. Class work emphasizes real-life situations, spontaneous interactions, and collaborative pair and group work. By the end of the course, you will be able to engage in increasingly complex conversations and write longer messages on many topics concerning your daily life, significant personal and cultural events, attitudes, and perspectives. | RUSS0400401 | |||||||||
| RUSS 5400-402 | Intermediate Russian II | Olga Nechaeva | MTWR 12:00 PM-12:59 PM | This course for graduate students is the second in a series of second-year Russian courses, continuation of Intermediate Russian I (RUSS 5300). The course will continue to strengthen your competence in listening, reading, speaking, and writing in Russian and will expand your active and passive vocabulary on a variety of topics. We will continue the exploration of Russian culture and Russian-speaking communities around the world through exciting authentic materials, including internet sites and cultural artifacts, songs, videos, short stories, as well as conversations with speakers of Russian. Class work emphasizes real-life situations, spontaneous interactions, and collaborative pair and group work. By the end of the course, you will be able to engage in increasingly complex conversations and write longer messages on many topics concerning your daily life, significant personal and cultural events, attitudes, and perspectives. | RUSS0400402 | |||||||||
| RUSS 5401-401 | Russian for Heritage Spkrs II | Aleksey Berg | MW 3:30 PM-4:59 PM | This course for graduate students is the second in a series of literacy courses for heritage speakers, i.e., students who have spoken Russian at home, continuation of Russian Literacy for Heritage Speakers I (RUSS 0201). Students will continue learning cursive writing and reading in Cyrillic. Additionally, the course aims to enhance linguistic accuracy in spelling, grammar, and pronunciation, as well as fluency in speaking and reading. Through readings of classical and contemporary Russian literature and mass media articles, students will discuss daily life, customs and traditions, and the cultural history of Russian-speaking communities around the world. | RUSS0401401 | |||||||||
| RUSS 5600-401 | High Intermediate Russian II | Djamilia Nazyrova | TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM | This course for graduate students is the second in a series of third-year Russian courses, continuation of High Intermediate Russian I (RUSS 5500). Students will explore aspects of contemporary Russian society and everyday life, including urban and rural lifestyles, youth culture, crime, sports, and health. The course continues reviewing basic structures of Russian and focusing on more advanced grammatical concepts, including verbal aspect and complex syntax, and expanding formal and abstract vocabulary. Class work emphasizes discussion and collaborative group activities and is conducted almost entirely in Russian. By the end of the course, students will be able to engage in increasingly complex conversations in Russian in both informal and formal contexts. | RUSS1200401 | |||||||||
| UKRN 0200-680 | Ukrainian II | Ksenia Power | MW 3:30 PM-4:59 PM | This course is the second in a series of first-year courses, continuation of Ukrainian I. The course continues to develop competence in speaking, reading, writing, and understanding contemporary Ukrainian. We will continue the exploration of Ukrainian culture through exciting authentic materials, including songs, videos, and short stories. Class work emphasizes development of communicative competence in real-life situations, spontaneous interactions, pair and group work and is conducted almost entirely in Ukrainian. By the end of the course, you will be able to engage in simple conversations in Ukrainian on many topics in informal and some formal contexts concerning your daily life. You will also be able to write longer personalized messages in Ukrainian. |
