Russian and East European Studies (B.A.)

Courses

RSEE 225a / HIST 290a, Russia from the Ninth Century to 1801  Paul Bushkovitch

The mainstream of Russian history from the Kievan state to 1801. Political, social, and economic institutions and the transition from Eastern Orthodoxy to the Enlightenment.  HU
MW 11:35am-12:50pm

RSEE 254a / LITR 245a / RUSS 254a, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky  Molly Brunson

Close reading of major novels by two of Russia's greatest authors. Focus on the interrelations of theme, form, and literary-cultural context. Readings and discussion in English.  HU
TTh 1:30pm-2:20pm

RSEE 268b / HIST 264b, Eastern Europe since 1914  Staff

Eastern Europe from the collapse of the old imperial order to the enlargement of the European Union. Main themes include world war, nationalism, fascism, and communism. Special attention to the structural weaknesses of interwar nation-states and postwar communist regimes. Nazi and Soviet occupation as an age of extremes. The collapse of communism. Communism after 1989 and the dissolution of Yugoslavia in the 1990s as parallel European trajectories.  HU
TTh 2:30pm-3:20pm

RSEE 271a / HIST 271a / HUMS 339a, European Intellectual History since Nietzsche  Marci Shore

Major currents in European intellectual history from the late nineteenth century through the twentieth. Topics include Marxism-Leninism, psychoanalysis, expressionism, structuralism, phenomenology, existentialism, antipolitics, and deconstruction.  HU
MW 11:35am-12:25pm

* RSEE 300b / CZEC 301b / LITR 220b, Milan Kundera: The Czech Novelist and French Thinker  Karen von Kunes

Close reading of Kundera's novels, with analysis of his aesthetics and artistic development. Relationships to French, German, and Spanish literatures and to history, philosophy, music, and art. Topics include paradoxes of public and private life, the irrational in erotic behavior, the duality of body and soul, the interplay of imagination and reality, the function of literary metaphor, and the art of composition. Readings and discussion in English.  HU  Tr
W 1:30pm-3:20pm

RSEE 312b / HUMS 255b / RUSS 312b, Tolstoy's War and Peace  Edyta Bojanowska

A study of Leo Tolstoy’s masterpiece War and Peace (1865-1869) about Napoleon’s 1812 invasion of Russia, in philosophical, historical, and political contexts. All readings and class discussions in English.  WR, HU  Tr
MW 9:25am-10:15am

* RSEE 327a / FILM 409a / LITR 306a / RUSS 327a, The Danube in Literature and Film  Marijeta Bozovic

The Danube River in the film, art, and literature of various Danubian cultural traditions, from the late nineteenth century to the present. Geography and history of the region that includes the river's shores and watershed; physical, historical, and metaphoric uses of the Danube; the region as a contested multilingual, multicultural, and multinational space, and as a quintessential site of cross-cultural engagement. Readings and discussion in English.  WR, HU  Tr
TTh 2:30pm-3:45pm

RSEE 400a / PLSC 400a, Legacies of Communism and Conflict in Europe  Andrea Aldrich

This course examines the challenges of democratic transition and consolidation in Europe in an exciting way using contemporary and historical political research, documentary and dramatic film, a graphic non-fiction novel, and a field trip to MOMA in NYC (optional). Together we explore political themes like authoritarianism, state collapse, nationalism, ethnic conflict, transitional justice, and democratic development through the turbulent political history of Southeastern Europe, which provides a solid theoretical foundation for the understanding of past and current events around the world.  SO
MW 11:35am-12:50pm

* RSEE 490a and RSEE 491b, The Senior Essay  Staff

Preparation of the senior essay under faculty supervision. The essay grade becomes the grade for both terms of the course. Required of all seniors majoring in Russian and East European Studies. Credit for RSEE 490 only on completion of RSEE 491.
HTBA

Students are encouraged to examine the offerings in Slavic Languages and Literatures and other departments, as well as residential college seminars, for additional related courses that may count toward the major.

HIST 263a, Eastern Europe to 1914  Timothy Snyder

Eastern Europe from the medieval state to the rise of modern nationalism. The Ottoman Empire, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Hapsburg monarchy, and various native currents. Themes include religious diversity, the constitution of empire, and the emergence of secular political ideologies.  HU
TTh 2:30pm-3:20pm

HIST 264b / RSEE 268b, Eastern Europe since 1914  Staff

Eastern Europe from the collapse of the old imperial order to the enlargement of the European Union. Main themes include world war, nationalism, fascism, and communism. Special attention to the structural weaknesses of interwar nation-states and postwar communist regimes. Nazi and Soviet occupation as an age of extremes. The collapse of communism. Communism after 1989 and the dissolution of Yugoslavia in the 1990s as parallel European trajectories.  HU
TTh 2:30pm-3:20pm