Fall 2022 Select Courses in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies
Note: The courses listed below are not an exhaustive list of courses being offered on the REEE region. Please see course explorer for additional classes.
Areas Studies Courses
ANTH 488: Modern Europe
Jessica Greenberg
MW 12:00 PM-01:20 PM, 205 Gregory Hall
Historical studies which deploy anthropological methods in the study of early modern and modern Europe; looks at processes of twentieth century modernization through ethnographic studies. Western, Central and Eastern Europe will all receive attention, but the study of Western Europe will predominate.
BSC 115: South Slavic Cultures
Peter Wright
TR: 12:30 PM-01:50 PM, 123 David Kinley Hall
Exploration of South Slavic cultures in the historically rich and complex region sometimes referred to as "the Balkans," focusing particularly on those groups found within the successor states of the former Yugoslavia. Critical look at the traditional view of the region as the crossroads or the bridge between East and West, and at the term Balkanization which has become a pejorative term used to characterize fragmented, and self-defeating social systems.
HIST 252/JS 252: The Holocaust*
Peter Fritzsche
TR 09:30 AM-10:50 AM, 160 English Building
Exploration of the Holocaust in historical perspective by examining European anti-Semitism, political developments in Germany, the rise to power of the Nazis, and the origins of the Holocaust with first-hand accounts, films, and historical texts, concluding with the legacy of the Holocaust in the contemporary world.
HIST 258: 20thC World to Midcentury*
Tamara Champlin
TR 11:00 AM-12:20 PM, 259 English Building
World War I (1914-1918) was the first incarnation in human history of modern industrial warfare on a global scale. Our class examines World War I’s astonishing global legacy. We will learn about military operations, political ramifications (including the demise of empires and the rise of Soviet communism), about battlefront and home front (including trench warfare and chemical weapons, food rationing, and the feminization of the workforce). We will also study the war’s psychological and embodied effects (shell-shock, amputation, plastic surgery, sexuality, and disability) as well as artistic and cultural attempts to represent its devastation in poetry, art, music, dance, theatre, film, and literature. Our class investigates how WWI influenced present global concerns towards everything from terrorism and human rights to race, revolution, and global apocalypse. If you are interested in exploring the ways in which modern warfare shapes the world in which we live, this class is for you.
HIST 353: European History 1918 to 1939*
Peter Fritzsche
TR 11:00 AM-12:20 PM, 307 Gregory Hall
This course examines the political and cultural environment of Europe from the demise of the continental empires after World War I to the dawn of the thousand-year Reich at the start of World War II. This Age of Extremes saw the rise of liberal democracies, the flourishing of new artistic movements, and the birth of new technologies such as film. At the same time, this period was also marked by the ascension of dictators, crises in colonial empires, and one of the largest economic crisis in history. Perhaps more famous (or infamous) than these events are the individuals we will cover, which includes the likes of Neville Chamberlain, Francisco Franco, Adolf Hitler, and Joseph Stalin. We will explore the period through a variety of sources, including speeches, contemporary films, and a novel concerned with an even greater threat: newts.
HIST 439: The Ottoman Empire
Stefan Djordjevich
TR 03:30 PM-04:50 PM, 1024 Lincoln Hall
For centuries, the Ottoman Empire was one of the great world powers, ruling over a huge and diverse empire on three continents. We will trace the evolution of this empire from its inception as a frontier principality, through its many struggles and transformations in 600 years as a world empire, until its demise in the aftermath of the Great War. We will delve into the structures of the Ottoman state, the everyday lives of its subjects, and the later breakdown of its governing institutions. We will study the Ottoman Empire's relations with its neighbors and the lives of the empire’s most famous (and infamous) rulers. Finally, we will explore the Empire's complex legacies that persist to the present, from the culinary (baklava and kebabs) to traditions of religious tolerance and coexistence to the still contested memory of the Armenian Genocide.
HIST 462: Soviet Union Since 1917
Anna Whittington
TR 12:30 PM-1:50 PM, 131 English Building
Political, social, and economic development of the USSR since the 1917 revolutions that brought the Bolsheviks to power; social change and social engineering; political struggles among Stalin and his rivals; the "Stalin revolution" from above and economic modernization; the USSR's emergence through World War II and the Cold War as a world power; "developed socialist" society. Course Information: 3 undergraduate hours. 2 or 4 graduate hours. Graduate students will write an additional substantial paper and engage in special discussion sections.
HIST 560: Problems in Russian History
John Randolph
T 4:00 PM-5:50 PM, 315 Gregory Hall
Major themes in the history and historiography of late imperial and early Soviet Russia and the USSR from 1880s through the 1930s. Topics to be explored include social and cultural experience, diversity and difference, power and transgression, cultural construction and interpretation, gender, empire, capitalism, socialism, and revolution. Central to the course are questions of historical methodology and theory as well as interpretation of the Russian past.
LAW 656: International Law
Francis Boyle
MT 3:00 PM-4:15 PM, Online
The International Law course examines the variety of roles played by law and lawyer in ordering the relations between states and the nationals of states. The course utilizes a number of specialized contexts as a basis for exploring these roles. The contexts include, among others, the status of international law in domestic courts; the efficacy of judicial review by the International Court of Justice; the effort to subsume international economic relations under the fabric of bilateral and multilateral treaties; and the application -- or misapplication -- of law to political controversies that entail the threat of actual use of force. The course proceeds through an examination of problems selected to illuminate the operation of law within each of these contexts.
MUS 418/518: Music and Revolution in Eastern Europe: Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus
Donna Buchanan
TR 09:30 AM-10:50 AM, 0357 Music Building
This interdisciplinary course explores the implication of music in politics, nation-building, regime change, conflict, and resistance in twentieth- and twenty-first-century Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus, with particular attention to the Maidan revolutions and current war in Ukraine. Course topics will survey the history, regional distribution, popularization, and contemporary social significance of vernacular musics and arts in diverse media and venues—from the fields to the festival stage to flashmobs to Facebook. Course materials will draw upon recordings, music videos, literary works, and films in addition to anthropological, area, and ethnomusicological studies. Whenever possible, students will engage first hand with representative instruments, vocal practices, and regional specialists. While the ability to hear, identify, and understand the significance of regional genres and their distinguishing features is a primary course objective, students from both within and outside the School of Music are encouraged to enroll; instructor expectations will be modified accordingly. Graduate students from outside Music who wish to register for MUS 518 should contact the instructor for permission.
MUSC 449A: Balkanalia
Donna Buchanan
T 06:00 PM - 08:50 PM, 0061A Music Building
The University of Illinois Balkan Music Ensemble, Balkanalia, performs traditional village, urban, and popular music styles of Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, and Turkey on indigenous, orchestral, and electronic instruments. Participants include musically gifted graduate and undergraduate students majoring in a variety of disciplines; instructor approval required for enrollment.
If you are interested in joining, or have questions about participating, please contact Dr. Donna Buchanan at buchana1@illinois.edu.
MUS 517: Heavy Metal: The Socio-Cosmic Power of Bells and Gongs
Donna Buchanan
W 01:00 PM-03:50 PM, 2334 Music Building
This interdisciplinary graduate seminar explores the spiritual, political, gendered, metaphorical, and sonic power of bells and gongs, with particular attention to relevant customs, rites, and musical practices of eastern Europe, the United Kingdom, east and southeast Asia, and the United States. Course topics will consider how these instruments are made and played, their diverse cultural typologies and conceptualizations, their complex acoustic properties, and especially, their remarkable significance as acoustemological agents of community, commemoration, celebration, conflict, and spiritual communion. Course materials will draw upon recordings, music videos, films, and literary works in addition to anthropological, organological, musicological, and area studies, including the instructor’s own writings and field research. Weekly seminar meetings will be enriched to whatever extent possible by first-hand engagement with representative instruments and regional specialists. While readings will focus largely on musical traditions outside Euro-American classical music and its legacies, students from applied music fields are encouraged to pursue research projects dealing with any pertinent musical practice, genre, style, period, or composition—bells and gongs figure prominently in many classical works, whether as inspiration or shimmering sonic presences. Students from both within and outside the School of Music are encouraged to enroll; instructor expectations will be modified accordingly. Graduate students from outside Music who wish to register for MUS 517 should contact the instructor for permission.
RUSS 220/CWL 227: Golden Age of Russian Lit
David Cooper
TR 12:30 PM-01:50 PM, 1136 FLB
Survey of Russian literature in the long 19th century; romanticism, realism, nationalism, orientalism, empire; writers may include Pushkin, Gogol, Lermontov, Pavlova, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, and others; reading and discussion in English.
RUSS 322/CWL 324: Dostoevsky
David Cooper
TR 02:00 PM-03:20 PM, 209 David Kinley Hall
Introduction to the major works of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. No Russian required.
RUSS 535/ CWL 535: Nabokov
Richard Tempest
M 9:00 AM-10:50 AM, 145 Altgeld Hall
Study of Nabokov's Russian and American novels in the original Russian and English, read in a comparative and theoretical context.
SLAV 117/CWL 117: Russian and E Euro Science Fiction
Richard Tempest
MWF 03:00 PM-04:50 PM, 212 David Kinley Hall
Survey of the science fiction writing of Russia and the countries of Eastern Europe since 1750, with particular emphasis on the post-World War II period. The role of the Science Fiction tradition in the respective national cultures. The influence on Russian and East European Science Fiction of Anglo-American Science Fiction. All readings are in English..
SLAV 576/CWL 576: Methods in Slavic Grad Study
David Cooper
W 02:00 PM-04:20 PM, 1018 FLB
Comparative, interdisciplinary methods and theoretical issues crucial to studies in Slavic literature, history, and culture. Theoretical bookshelf followed by specific case studies from Slavic.
SLAV 577: Slavic Languages Pedagogy Seminar
Roman Ivashkiv
R 05:30 PM-06:50 PM, 1112 FLB
Seminar for graduate students who are currently teaching (or preparing to teach) languages in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures. The seminar will help participants develop expertise in language pedagogy by discussing both theoretical and practical aspects of teaching and learning and by adopting a hands-on approach to communicative language teaching through micro-teaching, classroom presentations, discussion, self-reflection, and peer-reviewing.
TRST 501/SLAV 501: Applied Literary Translation I
Roman Ivashkiv
M 03:30 PM-05:50 PM, 3072E FLB
Focuses on both the theory and the practice of literary translation, as well as the business aspect of how to negotiate a translation proposal through the US publishing market. Students will produce a completed translation of a short story or a selection of poems.
TURK 272/ANTH 272/GLBL 272/SAME 272: Language and Culture in Turkey
Ayse Ozcan
TR 11:00 PM-12:20 PM, FLB G20 & Online
As a country located at the crossroads of Asia, Europe and Africa, Turkey has always been under the spotlight. In this course, we will study the dynamic relationship between language and culture in Ottoman and modern Turkey through a timely analysis of its transition from a long-lasting empire to a young "secular" nation-state. We will examine the complexities of Turkish modernity from a holistic perspective to better comprehend how central Asian and Middle Eastern cultural influences, continuities, and transformations gave birth to modern Turkish language. The course should help you not only in developing an understanding of the Turkish language within a cultural framework, but also in gaining insight into Turkey's history, politics, literature, and media. No former knowledge of Turkey or the Turkish language is required.
UKRA 113: Ukrainian Culture
Roman Ivashkiv
TR 03:30 PM-04:50 PM, G24 FLB
Course situates Ukrainian culture in the broad context of Slavic nations. Acquaints students with Ukrainian culture from the origins of Kievan Rus' in the Middle Ages to the present. Includes highlights of historical-cultural events, an overview of literature and of the arts, as well as an outline of Ukrainian folklore. No knowledge of Ukrainian required.
* Courses may or may not count for the REEES major, minor, or FLAS requirements; check with your advisor or FLAS coordinator.
Languages
Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian
BCS 101: First Year Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian I
MTWR 09:00 AM - 09:50 AM, 1126 FLB
BCS 201: Second Year Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian I
MTWR 09:00 AM - 09:50 AM, 1030 FLB
BCS 301: Third Year Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian I
MWF 10:00 AM - 10:50 AM, 1030 FLB
Polish
POL 101: Elementary Polish I
MWTR 10:00 AM-10:50 AM, 1126 FLB
POL 201: Second Yr Polish I
MWTR 11:00 AM-11:50 AM, 1038 FLB
Russian
RUSS 101: First-Year Russian I
MTWR 11:00 AM-11:50 AM, 316S Mumford Hall
MTWR 01:00 PM-01:50 PM, 241 Armory
MTWR 04:00 PM-04:50 PM, 243 Armory
RUSS 201: Second-Year Russian I
MTWR 01:00 PM-01:50 PM, 1120 FLB
RUSS 301: Third Year Russian I
MWF 11:00 AM-11:50 AM, 307 English Building
RUSS 401: Fourth Year Russian I
MWF 12:00 PM-12:50 PM, 307 English Building
Turkish
TURK 201: Elementary Turkish I
MTWRF 10:00 AM-10:50 AM, Online
TURK 403: Intermediate Turkish I
MTWR 01:00 PM-01:50 PM, Online
TURK 405: Advanced Turkish I
MW 11:00 AM-12:20 PM, Online
Ukrainian
UKRA 101: Basic Ukrainian I
MTWR 01:00 PM-01:50 PM, 1032 FLB
UKRA 201: Second-Year Ukrainian I
MTWR 012:00 PM-012:50 PM, 316S Mumford Hall