Fall 2023 Class Schedule and Descriptions
fall 2023 class Schedule
fall 2023 course descriptions
Polish 108-1 – Intermediate Polish Language & Culture
This course is the first in a three-quarter sequence introducing students to Polish language and contemporary culture. We will learn the fundamentals of Polish grammar, and students progress in speaking, listening, writing, and reading through a variety of communicative, content-based activities, games, and projects in a proficiency-orientated curriculum. Emphasis is placed on practical communication so that students should be able to function at a basic level in several authentic situations by the end of the year. This course will use Chicago as a laboratory for understanding Polish American spaces and offer students an opportunity to experience and use their Polish skills in real life.
Russian 101-1 – Elementary Russian
Welcome to first-year fun and easy Russian! RUSSIAN 101-1 is the first part in a three-quarter sequence designed to get students using Russian quickly (by week 3) with fun instruction and projects (games, virtual excursions right from our classroom in Russia, cartoons, tv shows, and movies, etc). You'll be using ChatGPT, Online translators (like Google Translate, but also the better Yandex Translate), and Artificial Intelligence ChatBots (like the Russian Alice/Alisa or Алиса) to learn and practice Russian while also thinking about ethical aspects of these technologies. Emphasis is on practical communication so that students start speaking in week 3 and will be able to function in many authentic situations by the end of the quarter! Our main textbook https://mezhdunami.org/ is free and online and one of the most diverse and inclusive Russian language textbooks available today. Students will also use either the DuoLingo or Mango app for Russian (Mango is available for free to any Northwestern student through the Evanston Public Library). There is no final exam instead there is a final project.
Russian 102-1 – Intermediate Russian
Welcome to Intermediate Russian! Добро пожаловать! This is the first part in a three-quarter sequence focusing on the modern Russian language and culture. It is designed for students who have completed a beginner-level course or have equivalent proficiency in the Russian language. Students will build their vocabulary and develop the skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing while learning about everyday culture and life in Russia today. This course aims to help acquire intercultural communicative competence based on language used in various real-life situations in order to start speaking like a true Russian. In addition to learning about Russian culture in daily life, students will explore Russian literature and art. A variety of highly engaging authentic materials (stories, text messages, interviews, and opinions shared by real people about their experiences with culture and society in Russia), as well as various fun activities (participating in virtual tours to Moscow and Saint-Petersburg with a professional guide, completing numerous interactive exercises, and learning how to use Russian websites in search of the relevant information in Russian on the studied topics) are incorporated in the course curriculum. Most of the classroom time is devoted to practice in conversation, role-play, and discussions. By the end of the year students are expected to advance in Russian from the Novice level of the ACTFL scale to the Intermediate Low/Intermediate Mid level of proficiency in Russian.
Russian 302-1 –Advanced Russian in Conversations
Russian 302-1 is the first part of a three-quarter sequence intended for students who have attained the intermediate-level proficiency in Russian. It is taught in Russian and designed to push students to more advanced levels focusing on communication, cultural understanding, connections of Russian language with other disciplines, and comparisons of Russian and American language and culture. Emphasis will be placed on developing discussion and conversational skills. The course includes advanced topics in grammar, discussion of one of the most popular Russian movies (The Autumn Marathon), we will watch throughout the quarter, and readings from Russian newspapers and classic Russian poets. A professional guide will take us on virtual tours to Moscow and Saint-Petersburg!
SLAVIC 101-7 – First-Year Seminar
Brothels, bathhouses, and backrooms—take a tour through the sexual underworld of Eastern Europe. In Sex and the Slavic World, we uncover the more salacious parts of history that no one dare talk about, covering the history of sexuality in Eastern Europe from the mid 19th century to the present. We will cover such topics as fin de siècle culture and sexual decadence; the medicalization of sexuality; prostitution and sex-trafficking; sex reform and sexology; the World Wars and sexuality; gender and sexuality under state socialism, and representations of queerness in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Additionally, as a College Seminar, this course will help students develop the tools they need to help them transition to college life including creating healthy study habits, nurturing meaningful relationships, and gaining awareness of the so-called "hidden curriculum."
SLAVIC 367-1 – Russian Film: Eisenstein
(Co-listed with RTVF 351-0-2)
This course offers a survey of the major films by Sergei Eisenstein and his contemporaries Yakov Protazanov, Lev Kuleshov, Vsevolod Pudovkin, Alexander Dovzhenko, Grigory Kozintsev, Leonid Trauberg, Vasiliev "Brothers," and Dziga Vertov. The major focus of this course is the innovative system of film thinking invented by Eisenstein and known in the history of cinema as Russian/Soviet Montage. Nowadays, it is widely used by all national cinematographies, including Hollywood. One of the objectives of this course is to help students' understanding the ways of watching the silent and early sound films, which demand a good deal of our own intellectual participation. The goal of this course is to help the students to enrich themselves with the innovative cinematographic concepts and perspectives, start enjoying them, and to be able to trace their roots in contemporary filmmaking.
SLAVIC 360-0 – Forging the Russian Soul: Nineteenth Century Russian Poetry
Nineteenth century Russian poetry was born, it could be argued, under a foreign star. The very terms we use to describe Russian literature generally and poetry specifically--литература, беллетристика, автор, поэт, поэма, поэзия, лирика, баллада, эпос, ода, элегия, роман, муза, жанр, и т.п.--derive as often as not from foreign sources. Indeed, translation from such sources plays a key role in the development of modern Russian poetry. How then did poetry come to be perceived as the "prestige" genre in Russian culture, literary and otherwise? What role did poetry play in the formation of nineteenth century Russian national identity? We will address such questions through specifics of verse structure and language from the Golden Age of the early 19th century to the later "Age of Prose." Advanced knowledge of Russian. Instructor consent.