Course Descriptions
The following course descriptions offer more detail as to the nature of the required and elective courses for SEES. Some also have syllabi available to download.
SEES 101. 3 hr. Introduction to SEES. This course offers a multidisciplinary introduction to the geography, history, culture, societies, religions, and politics of Central and Eastern Europe. The broad region encompasses the lands, states and peoples between contemporary Germany and Russia and stretches from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Adriatic and Black Seas in the south. Although the region can be generally defined as a social, cultural, economic and political transition zone between western Europe and European Russia, it is also useful to think of Central and Eastern Europe in terms of four sub-regions: 1) east-central Europe, comprising the contemporary states of Poland, Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine as a whole or in part, 2) the north-central and northeastern Baltic area, comprising contemporary Estonia and Latvia, and historic Prussia, 3) southeastern Europe, or the “Balkans” comprising most of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, as well as Bulgaria and Albania, 4) “Habsburg”? or Danubian Central Europe, including the contemporary Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania. By organizing the course around the study of these four sub-regions, students will be in a better position to build a foundation for more advanced study of the both the larger region and its component parts. (Counts for GEC 4 and 8)
Download SEES 101 syllabus
RUSS
101.
Elementary Russian 1. 3 Hr. No prior study of the language. Introduction to the sound and writing systems of the language, with emphasis on listening, reading, speaking, and writing. (Counts for GEC 8 and 9)
102.
Elementary Russian 2. 3 Hr. Continuation of RUSS 101. Continued introduction to the sound and writing systems of the language, with emphasis on listening, reading, speaking, and writing. (Counts for GEC 8 and 9)
203.
Intermediate Russian 1. 3 Hr. PR: RUSS 102. Continued development of basic skills in listening, reading, speaking, and writing Russian. (Counts for GEC 8 and 9)
204.
Intermediate Russian 2. 3 Hr. PR: RUSS 203. Continuation of RUSS 203. End course in the 101-204 sequence and foundation for advanced Russian study. Continued development of basic skills in listening, reading, speaking, and writing Russian. (Counts for GEC 8 and 9)
301.
Conversation and Composition 1. 3 Hr. PR: RUSS 294. Emphasis on development of written and oral communication skills of contemporary Russian.
302
Conversation and Composition 2. 3 Hr. PR: RUSS 204. Continuation of RUSS 301. Emphasis on development of written and oral communication skills of contemporary Russian.
303.
Advanced Structure and Reading. 3 Hr. PR: RUSS 204. Development of communication skills, with emphasis on reading authentic texts and review of Russian language structures.
304.
Advanced Structure and Reading 2. 3 Hr. PR: RUSS 204. Development of communication skills, with emphasis on reading authentic texts and review of Russian language structures.
331.
The Russian Short Story 1. 3 Hr. PR: RUSS 204. Reading, discussing, and writing in Russian about short stories of selected nineteenth-century Russian writers.
332.
The Russian Short Story 2. 3 Hr. PR: RUSS 204. Reading, discussing, and writing in Russian about short stories of selected contemporary Russian writers.
341.
Survey of Russian Literature in Russian 1. 3 Hr. PR: RUSS 204. Reading, discussing, and writing in Russian about major prose works of selected Russian authors of the nineteenth century.
342.
Survey of Russian Literature in Russian 2. 3 Hr. PR: RUSS 204. Reading, discussing, and writing in Russian about major prose works of selected Russian authors of the nineteenth century.
FLIT/FCLT
-please note that these course listings have changed. The old course numbers are listed in parentheses.
FLIT 256 (FLIT 273) Russian Literature in Translation 1. 3 Hr. Major works of Russian authors from the beginning to 1880, including those of Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy. In English. Lecture/Discussion. (Counts for GEC 5 and 8)
FCLT 257 (FLIT 274) Russian Literature in Translation 2. 3 Hr. Major works of Russian and Soviet Literature. In English. Lecture/discussion. (Counts for GEC 5 and 8)
FCLT 280 (FLIT 275) Sci Fi: East/West. 3 Hr. Comparison of science fiction texts, film, and TV from Eastern and Central Europe and the US and UK, analyzing works that posit “fantastic”? spatial, temporal, social, and biological explorations beyond those currently verified by science. In English. Lecture/discussion. (Available as a Writing class) (Counts for GEC 5 and 6)
FCLT 281 (FLIT 276) Vampire: Blood and Revolution! 3 Hr. This course examines the phenomenon of vampirism in verbal and visual culture from different periods in various cultures from a variety of perspectives and contextualizes the works in the cultures that produced them. In English. Lecture/discussion. (Counts for GEC 5 and 6)
FCLT 380 (FLIT 371) The Holocaust in East European Film and Literature. 3Hr. Extending beyond familiar representations of the Holocaust, this course examines verbal and visual texts testifying to events and experiences of the Nazi Holocaust in the context of several nations of Eastern Europe. In English. Lecture/discussion. (Available as a Writing class) (Counts for GEC 5 and 6)
FCLT 381 (FLIT 372) Contemporary Polish Cinema. 3 Hr. This course studies contemporary Polish cinema from World War II to the present, examining films in both their aesthetic and socio-historical contexts as part of European and Polish national cinematic traditions. In English. Lecture/discussion. (Available as a Writing class) (Counts for GEC 5 and 8)
FCLT 382 (FLIT 373) Polish Cinema: Kieślowski. 3 Hr. Studies the cinematic career of one of Poland’s most important directors of the past fifty years; designed to allow both cinema devotees and untrained filmgoers to appreciate Kieślowski’s oeuvre. In English. Lecture/Discussion. (Available as a Writing class) (Counts for GEC 5 and 8).
ECON 453. Transitional Economies. 3 Hrs. Pre-requisites: ECON 201 and 202. This course studies the politics of the transitional economies, their history, and their culture, as well as the economics. This provides a highly integrative learning experience in which students study the transitional economies from several disciplinary perspectives, learn the material from the perspectives of both American and Czech or Polish scholars, and experience the situation for themselves on the required Study Abroad field trip for Spring Break. The destination alternates between Prague, Czech Republic (2008, 2010) and Poland (2009, 2011). Students study three economic systems: capitalism, planned socialism, and market socialism.
ECON 454. Comparative Economic Systems. 3 Hrs. Pre-requisites: ECON 201 and 202. Studies the effects of economic systems on observed outcomes, i.e., economic performance and welfare. The goal of the course is to attempt both theoretical and empirical (case study) investigations to determine the relative effects of the various systems. The course studies three economic systems: capitalism, planned socialism, and market socialism. The countries most representative of these systems are the United States, the former Soviet Union, and the former Yugoslavia. Students also study some of the transitional countries, including Russia and China, as well as Cuba, a socialist country that remains committed to socialism.
HIST
217. History of Russia to 1917. 3 Hr. Medieval Russia and the development of autocracy; imperial expansion and serfdom; response to the West from peter I to Alexander II; great reforms, economic transformations, revolutionary movements; complex crises after 1900. (Counts for GEC 3 and 8)
218. History of Russia: 1900-Present. 3 Hr. Revolution and Reform to 1914; World War, 1917 revolutions; NEP and Stalinism to 1939; World War II and post-war Stalinism; reform under Khrushchev and Brezhnev; Gorbachev and the dissolution of the USSR; post-Soviet trauma. (Counts for GEC 4 and 8)
220. The Holocaust. 3 hr. The course will examine the Nazis’ rise to power and their escalating policies of persecution and mass murder. Focusing on perpetrators, victims, and bystanders the course will look at both the mechanics and the experience of the genocide that killed more than five million European Jews.
417. World War II in Eastern Europe. 3 Hr. PR: 6 hours HIST or consent. Impact of World War II on political culture and moral fabric; emphasis on themes of invasion, occupation, collaboration, resistance, survival, and retribution. This course will emphasize the impact of the most devastating war in human history on the political culture and social fabric of European societies. Although we will cover the basic political and military history of the war in Europe, the stress will be on such themes such as invasion, occupation, collaboration, survival, resistance and retribution. Each of these broad themes, moreover, will be connected to the Holocaust, the war within the European war, and to other acts of ethnic cleansing, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe. We will also explore the interplay of myth and memory of the war from a variety of national perspectives.
Download HIST 417 syllabus
418. Eastern Europe since 1945. 3 Hr. The social, economic, intellectual, cultural, and political history of Eastern Europe since the Second World War. Special emphasis on the causes of the Eastern European revolutions of 1989 and the problems of post-communist transition.
419. Revolutionary Russia: 1900-1939. 3 Hr. Crisis of late Imperial Russia, Silver Age, World War, 1917 revolutions; Civil War, renewed empire, crisis of 1921; NEP political debates, succession; Stalinism to 1939; World War II, post-war Stalinism; initial repudiation of Stalin.
420. USSR and After: 1953 to Present. 3 Hr. Crisis of late Stalinism; Khrushchev, de-Stalinization, reforms; Brezhnev, stabilization, militarization, corruption, stagnation; Gorbachev, perestroika, glasnost’, disintegration; Yeltsin, shock therapy, criminalization, decline.
POLS 351. Russian and Post-Soviet Politics. 3 Hr. Survey of politics and government in Russia and in the states of the former Soviet Union. (Counts for GEC 4 and 8.) Much of the 20th century?s political history had been defined by the Cold War, as a struggle between the democratic West and the communist East. By the early 1990s, communism was defeated and democracies rejoiced. However, almost two decades later, the world is witnessing a resurgent Russian power under the leadership of Vladimir Putin. This new Russia is shaping itself to be not only a challenger to the political and economic powers of the United States and the European Union, but is also an ally to some of the West?s major threats, such as Iran. In this class, students will be exposed to the domestic government structure of post-Soviet Russia, but also its foreign relations with the United States, Western Europe, and Iran.
Download POLS 351 syllabus
