Spring 2023
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.
*Check with Advisor or FLAS Coordinator whether the course will fulfill area studies course requirements
Area Studies
EURO 418/ FR 418/GER 418/ITAL 418/LING 418/PS 418/SLAV 418: Language & Minorities in Europe
Eda Derhemi
05:00PM - 06:20PM, MW, 311 Gregory Hall and Online
Introduction to sociolinguistic, political, judicial, and cultural issues concerning dominant and historical migrant or recent immigrant languages used in the countries of the European Union. It focuses on differences in language ideologies as they are enacted by and influence communities of practice across Europe and across European institutions. We discuss main linguistic typologies, dynamics of language power, language planning, linguistic rights and legal aspects of bilingual education and minority language use, as well as linguistic and cultural aspects, such as language-mixing and language change. Taught in English.
GERM 261/CWL 273/ENGL 269/ JS 261: The Holocaust in Context*
Anna Hunt
11:00AM-01:45PM, 113 David Kinley Hall
This course is designed as an introduction to the study of literary, cinematographic, and theoretical representations of the Holocaust. Through close readings of texts and films, students will grapple with some of the fundamental concerns, challenges, and philosophical debates
provoked by the Nazi genocide. By situating the Holocaust in the context of its literary, cinematographic, and theoretical afterlife, the course foregrounds the problem of representation. We will look closely at the way works of literature have testified to the impossibility of the task of representing the Holocaust and the necessity of nevertheless attempting it. World War II marked a dramatic shift in how we commemorate war. Focus moved from honouring the heroes on the battlefield to honouring the victims, a transition described as the “ethical turn in memory culture” or Erinnerungspolitik (memory politics). Trauma – and responding to catastrophic events – has become central to present-day politics, central to the constitution of the modern subject. This shift will take centerstage in our discussions of the difficulties encountered by museums and memorials in their attempts to commemorate victims. Central to these discussions will be the questions: Under what conditions do we fail to mourn others? and How should we mourn? The question of how will lead us into discussions of aesthetics. In many ways the works we will look at this semester will prove to be experiments in mourning an event that must not be forgotten. The course is organised into 6 units: Under What Conditions Do We Fail to Mourn Others, The Necessity and Impossibility of Testimony, Fascist Aesthetics, Holocaust Documentaries, Evil’s Banality, and Second-Hand Memory. Students will develop the following skills: close reading, film analysis, critical thinking, thesis formulation.
HIST 142/143 AP: Modern Europe and the World*
Tamara Chaplin
11:00AM – 11:50AM, TR, 207 Gregory Hall
Humanities – Hist & Phil, Cultural Studies – Western
Fundamental developments - social, economic, cultural, intellectual, and political - in the history of mankind and Western society since 1660; includes the rise of modern science, the French and Industrial revolutions, the Romantic movement, the growth of nationalism and socialism, imperialism, urbanization, the Russian Revolution, Nazi Germany, the world wars, and the West and the developing world.
HIST 260: History of Russia
Anna Whittington
01:00PM - 02:20PM, MW, 146 Armory
Humanities – Hist & Phil, Cultural Studies – Western
What is Russia? This survey course explores this question through the history of the peoples and territories of medieval Rus’, the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and the Russian Federation, from ninth century to the present. Key themes include how “Russia” has been understood and defined, both by its diverse inhabitants and outsiders; the expansion, reach, and limitations of the state; the tension between nation, state, and empire; development and modernization; reform and revolution; and engagement with and isolation from the world. This hybrid lecture/discussion course considers the diversity of experience across time and space, using an array of textual, visual, and aural primary sources.
HIST 502: Citizenship: Historical, Cross-Cultural, and Interdisciplinary Perspectives*
Anna Whittington
02:00PM - 03:50PM, T, 309 English Building
This course takes an interdisciplinary approach to the history of citizenship, drawing the work of historians, social scientists, journalists, and writers. The first part of the course considers the history of citizenship, considering frameworks developed in antiquity and during the enlightenment, within empires and nation-states, and by twentieth-century social scientists. The second part applies these disciplinary and theoretical frameworks to special topics, including migration, race, gender, and the body, focusing on how these sites challenge and expand our understanding of citizenship.
IS 461: Russian, East European, and Eurasian Bibliography & Research Methods
Christopher (Kit) Condill
01:00PM - 03:50PM, F, 131 Grad School of Library and Information Sciences
This course is intended to provide all necessary tools for the conduct of effective research in the field of Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies for both scholars and librarians. Relying on the rich bibliographic tradition of Russia, Central Asia, the Caucasus and Eastern Europe, the latest techniques, strategies, databases and full-text options will be explored and explained. Topics include national bibliography, archival materials, émigré publications, rare books, open-Web resources, citation management tools, and web archiving, with particular emphasis on the transliteration systems, abbreviations, bibliographic and cataloging conventions, and constant troubleshooting that are essential to efficient REEES research. Attention is also paid to information architecture in general and the ways that historical, political, intellectual and technological phenomena affect access to published and unpublished research materials.
LAW 656: International Law
Francis Boyle
Meeting time TBD, Location TBD
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 449A: Balkanalia
Donna Buchanan
06:00PM - 08:50PM, T, 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 418/518: Balkan Beats: Balkan Popular Music, 1970’s - Present
Donna Buchanan
9:30AM-10:50AM, TR, TBD
This interdisciplinary course explores relationships between popular music, society, gender, and politics across the Balkan peninsula from the 1970s to the present. As time permits, course topics will include state-sanctioned socialist pop genres; Eurovision and other festivals; Bulgarian wedding music, pop-folk (chalga), and EDM; Yugoslav “newly-composed folk music,” turbo-folk, and the Yugoslav wars of secession; Bosnian sevdalinke and hip-hop; Romanian manele; Slovenian rock; Turkish arabesk; Greek rebetika and laika; and more. Course materials will draw upon recordings, music videos, and films in addition to anthropological, area, and ethnomusicological studies. 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.
POL 115/REES 115: Intro to Polish Culture
George Gasyna
12:00PM - 01:20PM, MW, 219 Gregory Hall
Humanities – Lit & Arts, Cultural Studies - Western
Introduction to Polish culture and literature from a broad historical perspective. Drawing on novels and plays, film, the visual arts, and works of historical research, the course provides students with the basic concepts, methodologies and theories of literary and cultural interpretation, with an emphasis on modern Polish culture (1800-2010) within a broader European context.
RUSS 122: Russia and Black America
Richard Tempest
03:00PM - 03:50PM, MW, 108 English Building
Cultural Studies – US Minority
A survey of the interactions and intersections between key African American figures and cultural practices, and Russian imperial, Soviet, and post-Soviet culture, in a historical, social, and political context, with emphasis on Russian-sourced cultural transfers that influenced and sometimes shaped the Black American experience and which functioned as the currency and medium of the African American–Russian connection.
RUSS 225: Russian Lit and Revolution
Valeria Sobol
02:00PM - 03:20PM, TR, G46 Foreign Languages Building
Humanities – Lit & Arts
Major works from 1900 to the present; futurism, modernism, Stalinism, post-modernism, and after; writers may include Mayakovsky, Babel, Olesha, Akhmatova, Bulgakov, Nabokov, Solzhenitsyn, Tolstaya, and others; readings and discussion in English.
RUSS 460: Russian Culture Studies
Richard Tempest
01:00PM - 02:50PM, M, 111 David Kinley Hall
Overview of the main trends and specific features of Russian postmodernism, since its inception in 1960s up to the present time. The focus is on literature and cinema. The genesis of Russian postmodernism. Its relativistic "niche" as an instance of cultural opposition to the Soviet totalitarian system. Avant-garde and non-avant-garde currents within Russian postmodernism. Postmodernism in the perestroika and post-perestroika period. Postmodernist poetics and axiological (aesthetic/ethical) invariance and variability. The rise of pre-modern trends in "official" Russian culture, media myths about postmodernism, and the real state of affairs. Is it possible to speak of a postmodernist tragic element and postmodernist seriousness? Prospects for the further development of Russian postmodernism. Restricted to Undergraduate Students. Language prerequisite: completion of or placement beyond RUSS 301-302 or permission of instructor.
RUSS 511: Russian Literature 1800-1855
Valeria Sobol
03:00PM - 04:50PM, W, G24 Foreign Languages Building
Graduate-level study of major literary trends and developments in Russian literature from 1800-1855, from early romanticism to the emergence of a realist tradition, in criticism, drama, poetry, and prose.
REES 201: Introduction to Eastern Europe
Peter Wright
12:30PM - 01:50PM, TR, 214 Davenport Hall
Social & Behavioral Science – Soc Sci
Interdisciplinary survey of Eastern Europe focusing mostly on the 20th century to the present, exploring issues of nationalism, socialism, post socialism and EU accession. Focuses on Central Europe and the Balkans, but also references the Baltic States, Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia. Students will learn about the region using perspectives and methodology from historical, economic, political, sociological and anthropological texts.
SLAV 417: 11th-17thC Russ Lit & Lang
Laura Davies Brenier
12:30PM - 01:50PM, TR, 219 Gregory Hall
Historical grammar, origin, and development of the East Slavic/Russian literary language, survey of literary genres of Old Russian Literature.
Prerequisite: Graduate standing; for undergraduates, completion of or placement beyond RUSS 301-RUSS 302; or, consent of instructor.
SOC 366: Postsocialism Eastern Europe
Zsuzsa Gille
01:00PM - 01:50PM, MWF, 259 English Building
Examines the sociological realities of state socialism and postsocialism in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
TRST 502/CWL 512/EALC 512/GER 512/SLAV 502: Applied Literary Translation*
Roman Ivashkiv
03:30PM - 05:50PM, M, G96 Foreign Languages Building or Online
Focuses on the practice and strategies of literary translation through the study of what prominent and successful translators have written about their own experience and through comparative analysis of prize-winning translations. Students will be exposed to reader response theory and the role of the translator as cultural agent while learning how to produce paratext for their translations (prefaces, notes, etc.) and developing skills in translation, editing, grant-writing, and participation in professional associations.
TURK 270/ANTH 272/GLBL 272/SAME 272: Language and Culture in Turkey
Ayse Ozcan
11:00AM - 12:20PM, TR, Online
Cultural Studies – Non-Western
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.
Languages
Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian
BCS 102: First Year Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian II
MTWR 11:00AM - 11:50AM, 135 English Building
BCS 202: Second Year Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian II
MTWR 11:00AM - 11:50AM, 135 English Building
BCS 302: Third Year Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian II
MWF 10:00AM - 10:50AM, Location Pending
Czech
CZCH 202: Second-year Czech I
MWF: 11:30AM - 12:20PM, 113 English Building
Polish
POL 102: Elementary Polish II
MWTR 10:00-10:50, 1062 Lincoln Hall
POL 202: Second Yr Polish II
MWTR 11:00-11:50, 1062 Lincoln Hall
Russian
RUSS 102: First-Year Russian II
MTWR 11:00-11:50, 1020 Lincoln Hall
MTWR 01:00-01:50, 1068 Lincoln Hall
RUSS 202: Second-Year Russian II
MTWR 10:00-10:50, G36 FLB
RUSS 302: Third Year Russian II
MWF 11:00-11:50, Location Pending
RUSS 402: Fourth Year Russian II
MWF 12:00-12:50, 215 Davenport Hall
Turkish
TURK 202: Elementary Turkish II
MTWRF 10:00-10:50, 215 Davenport Hall & G3 FLB
TURK 404: Intermediate Turkish II
MTWR 09:00-09:50, 1024 FLB
TURK 406: Advanced Turkish II
MW 11:00 AM - 12:20 PM, Location Pending
Ukrainian
UKRA 102: Basic Ukrainian II
MTWR 02:00-02:50, 1068 Lincoln Hall
UKRA 202: Second-Year Ukrainian II
MTWR 02:00-02:50, 1068 Lincoln Hall
Uyghur
LCTL 102: Introductory Uyghur II
MWF 09:20AM - 10:10AM, Online BTAA