ELEM BOSNIAN/CROATIAN/SERBIAN
Essentials of the spoken and written language. Prepares students to read texts of moderate difficulty by the end of the first year.
- TWF 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
-
Instructor:
Aleksandar Boskovic
CULPA: 1 Info - 4 points
ELEM BOSNIAN/CROATIAN/SERBIAN
Essentials of the spoken and written language. Prepares students to read texts of moderate difficulty by the end of the first year.
- TWF 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Aleksandar Boskovic
CULPA: 1 Info - 4 points
ELEMENTARY POLISH II
Essentials of the spoken and written language. Prepares students to read texts of moderate difficulty by the end of the first year.
- TRF 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
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Instructor:
Christopher Caes
Info - 4 points
FIRST-YEAR RUSSIAN II
Grammar, reading, composition, and conversation.
- MTWR 8:50 a.m.-9:55 a.m.
- MTWR 10:10 a.m.-11:15 a.m.
- MTWR 11:40 a.m.-12:45 p.m.
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Instructor:
Marina Grineva
Info - 5 points
ELEMENTARY UKRAINIAN II
Designed for students with little or no knowledge of Ukrainian. Basic grammar structures are introduced and reinforced, with equal emphasis on developing oral and written communication skills. Specific attention to acquisition of high-frequency vocabulary and its optimal use in real-life settings.
- MWR 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
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Instructor:
Yuri Shevchuk
CULPA: 4 Info - 4 points
INTERMEDIATE POLISH II
Prerequisites: POLI UN1102 or the equivalent. Rapid review of grammar; readings in contemporary nonfiction or fiction, depending on the interests of individual students.
- TRF 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
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Instructor:
Christopher Caes
Info - 4 points
SECOND-YEAR RUSSIAN II
Prerequisites: RUSS UN2101 or the equivalent. Drill practice in small groups. Reading, composition, and grammar review.
- MTWR 8:50 a.m.-9:55 a.m.
- MTWR 10:10 a.m.-11:15 a.m.
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Instructor:
Marina Tsylina
Info - 5 points
INTERMEDIATE UKRAINIAN II
Prerequisites: UKRN UN1102 or the equivalent. Reviews and reinforces the fundamentals of grammar and a core vocabulary from daily life. Principal emphasis is placed on further development of communicative skills (oral and written). Verbal aspect and verbs of motion receive special attention.
- MWR 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
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Instructor:
Yuri Shevchuk
CULPA: 4 Info - 4 points
THIRD-YEAR RUSSIAN II
Prerequisites: RUSS UN2102 or the equivalent and the instructors permission. Enrollment limited. Recommended for students who wish to improve their active command of Russian. Emphasis on conversation and composition. Reading and discussion of selected texts and videotapes. Lectures. Papers and oral reports required. Conducted entirely in Russian.
- MWF 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
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Instructor:
Tatiana Mikhailova
Info - 4 points
The Indigenous Languages of North Americ
The Indigenous Lang of N.
Humans arrived in the Americas no earlier than 30 thousand years ago and perhaps as recently as
13 thousand years ago, yet since that time Native Americans have developed an incredible richness
and diversity of cultures and languages, with well over a thousand distinct indigenous languages.
In this course we will focus on the indigenous languages of the United States and Canada. At the
time of European contact in the sixteenth century, there were around 400 languages spoken across
the territories of these two countries, yet today only around half of these are still spoken, and of
these about 150 are only spoken by elders and in grave danger of not being passed onto younger
generations. It is estimated that only between 20 or so indigenous languages in the United States
and Canada have good prospects of being spoken natively into the twenty second century. In this
course we will survey the variety and diversity of indigenous languages and the cultural values
tied to them in the pre-contact era, and then look into the causes of their current decline in use and
what steps are being taken to reverse this and revitalize them, even languages which no longer
have any first language speakers. We will investigate the amazing diversity in the basic structures
of these languages and the meanings they can express, highlighting the difference between them
and the more familiar patterns of English. We will study how they are used in indigenous contexts,
both traditional and modern, to communicate valued sociocultural and aesthetic ends. Finally, we
will explore three indigenous languages in greater depth, two from New York State, and appreciate
some of the native oral traditions in the original languages. This course will be of interest to any
undergraduate student curious about the prehistory and subsequent Native history and ethnography
of North America.
- MW 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
-
Instructor:
William Foley
h-index: 0 Info - 3 points
Structure of Writing Systems
Why is Turkish spelling easy while English looks chaotic? Why do Japanese, Hebrew, and Armenian carve
language up so differently on the page? And why are game developers and conlang fans obsessed with scripts?
This course is a hands-on tour of how writing systems work. We treat orthography as grammar: principled
mappings from sounds and morphemes to visible forms. You will learn the core toolkit (units of writing,
allography, script typology, depth and transparency, morphographemics), test it on real languages, and run
design-studio labs that evaluate or improve actual orthographies. Labs welcome creative builds: prototype an ingame
script or a conlang orthography, justify its rules, and test its usability. Light formal modeling keeps things
precise without heavy math. By the end you will be able to analyze a script, argue for design choices, and ship a
small reform or a polished worldbuilding system. Although writing systems have traditionally been sidelined in
theoretical linguistics, learning how scripts encode phonology and morphology sharpens core theory and supports
real applications, including teaching children to read and write, designing accessible orthographies, and building
effective NLP architectures. Open to undergraduates of all levels; Intro to Linguistics is a prerequisite.
- MW 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Nikita Bezrukov
Info - 3 points
Russian Through Theater
Russian Through Theater is a content-based language course designed for students who already have the equivalent of two semesters of college-level Russian and want to continue exploring their path as Russian language learners. This course is experimental in that it combines elements of traditional language learning with theatricality and creativity. A stress-free learning environment will stimulate language skills and fluency. Staging skits, theatrical pieces, short at first and longer by the end of the semester, will encourage students to focus on phonetics, intonation contour, and idiomatic expressions. In addition to performing skits and short plays, the course includes various forms of improvisation. Reading, listening and speaking - these three essential skills of language learning are constantly practiced. Incorporating theater into language learning not only makes the process enjoyable but also creates a rich, immersive environment that supports language development holistically. Various performative and ludic models, offered by the theater productions -- rehearsed and improvised alike – will help students with shaping a language persona, a skill that students may use in life situations. This skill adds confidence to their conduct of language and allows to communicate effectively with limited linguistic knowledge.
Classes will be conducted primarily in Russian, with sporadic instruction in English when necessary for clarification of assignments or for better understanding of terminology used during mini-lectures.
- W 5 p.m.-6:40 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Tatiana Mikhailova
Info - 2 points
LIT & REVOLUTION (20TH C LIT)
The revolutionary period (1905-1938) in Russia was not only one of extreme social upheaval but also of exceptional creativity. Established ideas about individuality and collectivity, about how to depict reality, about language, gender, authority, and violence, were all thrown open to radical questioning. Out of this chaos came ideas about literature and film (just for example) which have shaped Western thought on these subjects to this day. In this course we will study a variety of media and genres (poetry, manifestos, film, painting, photomontage, the novel, theoretical essays) in an effort to gain a deep understanding of this complex and fascinating period in Russian cultural history.
- MW 4:10 p.m.-5:25 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Mark Lipovetsky
Wikipedia Info - 3 points
TOLSTOY AND DOSTOEVSKY
Two epic novels, Tolstoys War and Peace and Dostoevskys The Brothers Karamazov, will be read along with selected shorter works. Other works by Tolstoy include his early Sebastopol Sketches, which changed the way war is represented in literature; Confession, which describes his spiritual crisis; the late stories Kreutzer Sonata and Hadji Murad; and essays on capital punishment and a visit to a slaughterhouse. Other works by Dostoevsky include his fictionalized account of life in Siberian prison camp, The House of the Dead; Notes from the Underground, his philosophical novella on free will, determinism, and love; A Gentle Creature, a short story on the same themes; and selected essays from Diary of a Writer. The focus will be on close reading of the texts. Our aim will be to develop strategies for appreciating the structure and form, the powerful ideas, the engaging storylines, and the human interest in the writings of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. No knowledge of Russian is required.
- MW 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
-
Instructor:
Liza Knapp
CULPA: 28
Info
- 3 points
Empire and Periphery: Narratives of Powe
The Soviet Union was a country of paradoxes. While the Soviet government promoted national self-determination by establishing autonomous territories and fostering the development of national languages and cultures, it simultaneously engaged with practices of domination and control akin to European colonial empires. This course seeks to elucidate the inherent ideological tensions of the Soviet system through the works of authors and filmmakers from the Caucasus and Central Asia, situating them within the broader context of what has come to be known as postcolonial theory.
Beginning with the Soviet Union’s self-championing as the first anti-imperialist state, we will explore how writers and filmmakers from the Soviet metropole imagined and constructed the idea of an internal Other. Moving beyond the metropolitan imagination, we will examine how imperial categorizations were challenged by writers and filmmakers from the so-called Soviet "periphery." How did the non-European part of the population of the Soviet Union negotiate questions of identity, assimilation into the dominant culture, and resistance within the frameworks of Soviet modernization, nationality policy, and the official aesthetic doctrine of the Soviet Union - Socialist Realism? Finally, we will delve into how Soviet-era discourses persist and evolve in the post-Soviet context, influencing contemporary geopolitical and social realities across the Eurasian region. All course materials will be available in English.
- MW 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Alexey Shvyrkov
Info - 3 points
RUSSIAN FOR HERITAGE SPKRS II
Prerequisites: RUSS V3430 or the instructors permission. This course is designed to help students who speak Russian at home, but have no or limited reading and writing skills to develop literary skills in Russian. THIS COURSE, TAKEN WITH RUSS V3430, MEET A TWO YEAR FOREIGN LANGUAGE REQUIREMENT. Conducted in Russian.
- MW 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
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Instructor:
Alla Smyslova
CULPA: 20
Info
- 3 points
Advanced Ukrainian Through Literature, M
ADVANCED UKRAINIAN
This course is organized around a number of thematic centers or modules. Each is focused on stylistic peculiarities typical of a given functional style of the Ukrainian language. Each is designed to assist the student in acquiring an active command of lexical, grammatical, discourse, and stylistic traits that distinguish one style from the others and actively using them in real-life communicative settings in contemporary Ukraine. The styles include literary fiction, scholarly prose, and journalism, both printed and broadcast
- MW 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Yuri Shevchuk
CULPA: 4 Info - 3 points
Holocaust Literature: Critical Thinking
Holocaust Lit: Critical T
How do you write literature in the midst of catastrophe? To whom do you write if you don’t know whether your readership will survive? Or that you yourself will survive? How do you theorize society when the social fabric is tearing apart? How do you develop a concept of human rights at a time when mass extermination is deemed legal? How do you write Jewish history when Jewish future seems uncertain?
This course offers a survey of the literature and intellectual history written during World War II (1939-1945) both in Nazi occupied Europe and in the free world, written primarily, but not exclusively, by Jews. We will read novels, poems, science fiction, historical fiction, legal theory and social theory and explore how intellectuals around the world responded to the extermination of European Jewry as it happened and how they changed their understanding of what it means to be a public intellectual, what it means to be Jewish, and what it means to be human.
The aim of the course is threefold. First, it offers a survey of the Jewish experience during WWII, in France, Russia, Poland, Latvia, Romania, Greece, Palestine, Morocco, Iraq, the USSR, Argentina, and the United States. Second, it introduces some of the major contemporary debates in holocaust studies. Finally, it provides a space for a methodological reflection on how literary analysis, cultural studies, and historical research intersect.
- W 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Offer Dynes
Info - 3 points
Semantics
This course provides an introduction to semantics, the study of meaning in language. We will explore a range of semantic phenomena, and students will learn the tools and techniques of formal semantic analysis as well as core concepts, goals, and findings of the field.
- MW 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Meredith Landman
CULPA: 1 h-index: 5 Info - 3 points
Bible, Literature, Theory
This class aims to introduce the students to the field of Bible and Literature, with special attention to the Hebrew Bible and to Literary Theory. We will read portions of
Genesis, Numbers, Jonah, Hosea, Ezekiel, Esther, Mark,
and
Revelations
, and discuss it in tandem with literary theory as well as 20th Century literary texts. Literary theory, this class will argue, is central for our understanding of the Bible, and, at the same time, the Biblical text is essential for the manner in which we theorize literature. Our discussion will be guided by four loosely interconnected questions: What insights can we gain about the theology of the Biblical text from a literary analysis? What happens to theological ideas once they are dramatized and narrativized? In what way can modern literary adaptations of the Bible contribute to our understanding of the Biblical text? How does the Bible challenge and trouble some of the perceived ideas of literary theory?
The syllabus is divided into three units. The first unit —
Bible and Literature in Theory,
offers a survey of some of the scholarly approaches to the intersection of literature and theology. We will read theory that interrogates the intersection of theological and literary concepts, focusing on omniscience, authorship, temporality, characterization, and plot. The second unit —
Literature as Biblical Exegesis,
shifts the focus to a reading of Biblical texts in tandem with their modern literary and cinematic interpretations, focusing on
Job
and
Esther
. What, we will ask, happen to the Biblical world once it is being refracted through a modern sensibility? How can we take literature seriously as Biblical hermeneutics? The third unit —
Recent Directions,
introduces some of the recent directions in the field, focusing on how literature imagines the relationship between Bible, archeology, and modernity, as well as on the intersection of Biblical literature, fantasy, and science fiction.
- R 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Offer Dynes
Info - 3 points
SOV UKRAINIAN MODERNISM: REV, REB, EXPER
SOVIET UKRAINIAN MODERNIS
This course studies the renaissance in Ukrainian culture of the 1920s - a period of revolution, experimentation, vibrant expression and polemics. Focusing on the most important developments in literature, as well as on the intellectual debates they inspired, the course will also examine the major achievements in Ukrainian theater, visual art and film as integral components of the cultural spirit that defined the era. Additionally, the course also looks at the subsequent implementation of the socialist realism and its impact on Ukrainian culture and on the cultural leaders of the renaissance. The course treats one of the most important periods of Ukrainian culture and examines it lasting impact on today's Ukraine. This period produced several world-renowned cultural figures, whose connections with the 1920s Ukraine have only recently begun to be discussed. The course will be complemented by film screenings, presentations of visual art and rare publications from this period. Entirely in English with a parallel reading list for those who read Ukrainian.
- TR 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Mark Andryczyk
Info - 3 points
Chekhov and Others
We will explore Anton Chekhov’s work on its own terms, in its cultural context, and in relation to the work of others, especially Anglophone writers who responded, directly or indirectly, to Chekhov and his work. Readings by Chekhov include selected stories (short and long), his four major plays, and
Sakhalin Island,
his study of the Russian penal colony.
There are no prerequisites. Knowledge of Russian is not required; all readings in English.
Students who know Russian are encouraged to read Chekhov’s work in Russian.
The course will be comparative as it addresses Chekhov on his own and in relation to anglophone writers.
The course is open to undergraduates (CC, GS, BC) and graduates in GSAS and other schools. The attention to
how
Chekhov writes may interest students in the School of the Arts.
- MW 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Liza Knapp
CULPA: 28
Info
- 3 points
ADV BOSNIAN/CROATIAN/SERBIAN
Prerequisites: BCRS UN2102 Further develops skills in speaking, reading, and writing, using essays, short stories, films, and fragments of larger works. Reinforces basic grammar and introduces more complete structures.
- TW 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Aleksandar Boskovic
CULPA: 1 Info - 3 points
CHTENIIA PO RUSSKOI LITERATURE
CHTENIIA PO RUSS LIT: PUSHKIN
- TR 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Irina Reyfman
CULPA: 5
Info
- 3 points
FOURTH-YEAR RUSSIAN II
- MWF 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Tatiana Mikhailova
Info - 4 points
PRACTICAL STYLISTICS-RUSS LANG
Prerequisites: RUSS W4334 or the equivalent or the instructor's permission. Prerequisite: four years of college Russian or instructor's permission. The course will focus on theoretical matters of language and style and on the practical aspect of improving students' writing skills. Theoretical aspects of Russian style and specific Russian stylistic conventions will be combined with the analysis of student papers and translation assignments, as well as exercises focusing on reviewing certain specific difficulties in mastering written Russian.
- TR 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Irina Reyfman
CULPA: 5
Info
- 3 points
LANGUAGE & SOCIETY
How language structure and usage varies according to societal factors such as social history and socioeconomic factors, illustrated with study modules on language contact, language standardization and literacy, quantitative sociolinguistic theory, language allegiance, language, and power.
- TR 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
-
Instructor:
John H McWhorter
CULPA: 26
Wikipedia
Info
- 3 points
SYNTAX
Prerequisites: LING UN3101 Syntax - the combination of words - has been at the center of the Chomskyan revolution in Linguistics. This is a technical course which examines modern formal theories of syntax, focusing on later versions of generative syntax (Government and Binding) with secondary attention to alternative models (HPSG, Categorial Grammar).
- MW 4:10 p.m.-5:25 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Meredith Landman
CULPA: 1 h-index: 5 Info - 3 points
Dostoevsky's Afterlives
Few modern writers have been as adored, reviled, translated, or adapted as Fyodor Dostoevsky. In this seminar, we explore the “afterlife/survival” (
Überleben
) of Dostoevsky’s writings, with a particular emphasis on his reception and transformations during the decades of global modernism. We will ask: when and how was the dominant 20th-century image of Dostoevsky made? How is this image reflected, and refracted, in the later theory and practice of the novel? What resonances has it found across the political spectrum, from the pre-revolutionary Russian Empire through interwar Europe, the mid-century United States, and our present era of resurgent technocracy, imperialism, and nationalism? The first half of the course focuses on the Silver Age writers who did most to frame Dostoevsky’s legacy and artistic persona for an international readership. In the second half, we turn to a range of historical, literary, and theoretical contexts where this legacy comes into play. Students will take an active role in researching and shaping the story about Dostoevsky’s uncanny “survival” that our course tells, engaging with a range of readings in modernist literature, criticism, and novel theory. Midway through the course, each student will be responsible for a reception case study, researching either a place and time where Dostoevsky was widely influential or (by permission) a single author whose work comes into close dialogue with his.
Note: Russian-language readings will be provided in the original; many are also available in translation. Other readings will be provided and discussed in English translation, though reading in the original is always encouraged. The course is open to all graduate students by permission.
- W 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Chloe Kitzinger
Info - 4 points