Course Descriptions

REL 278 - Islamic City

Walking around on campus, have you ever stopped to wonder how one would study Davidson’s culture and life? What if you were to consider its space, art, and architecture as a window into the community? As one might at Davidson, in this course, to understand Islamic societies and their inhabitants, “the Muslims” we approach Islamic civilization “spatially”. That is, we explore the three great Islamic empires of the pre-modern era, the Ottomans, the Safavids, and the Mughals, through their cities. How were those cities spatially arranged? What was the center of town? Where were the markets? Who lived where? Researching and imagining their societies, institutions, and cultural and artistic lives, we digitally recreate major cities of these Muslim empires. This course is joyfully co-taught with research librarian James Sponsel and Brian Little from Technology & Innovation.
 

Satisfies a requirement for Religious Studies major and minor.
Satisfies Arab Studies major and minor requirement.
Satisfies the Religious and Philosophical Perspectives requirement.
Satisfies a cultural diversity requirement.

REL 279 - Nature & Ecology in Islam

Our study is an overview and survey of the place of nature and its study in the premodern Muslim heritage. We will observe Muslim views, imagination and study of nature in Islamic worldview, scriptural, mystical, philosophical, scientific, theological, and legal traditions and texts, but also in literary and cultural expressions such as poetry, storytelling, art, architecture, gardens, and daily life.

Satisfies Environmental Studies major requirement.
Satisfies Arab Studies major and minor requirement.

Satisfies the Philosophical and Religious Perspectives requirement.

Satisfies the Cultural Diversity requirement.

REL 280 - Chinese Religions

Satisfies the Philosophical and Religious Perspectives requirement.
Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement.
Satisfies a requirement in the East Asian Studies major and interdisciplinary minor.
Satisfies a requirement in the Chinese Studies minor.

REL 282 - Tibetan Religions

Satisfies the Philosophical and Religious Perspectives requirement.
Satisfies the Cultural Diversity requirement.
Satisfies a requirement in the East Asian Studies major and interdisciplinary minor.
Satisfies a requirement in the South Asian Studies interdisciplinary minor.

REL 283 - Buddhism in America

The history and development of Buddhism in America. Topics include the American Transcendentalists and “Eastern” thought, Buddhism and the
Theosophists, the World Parliament of Religions of 1893, the “Zen boom” of the Beat generation, the varieties of Buddhism imported by Asian immigrants beginning in the 1960s, and modern “American Buddhist” communities and practices.

Satisfies the Philosophical and Religious Perspectives requirement.
Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement.

REL 288 - The Religious Question in Modern China

Pang

This course explores religion in Chinese societies during the tumultuous period between the late nineteenth and early twenty-first centuries. We will analyze the historical and cultural foundations of Chinese religion; the role of the state, intellectual, and political groups in shaping official religiosity; and the bewildering variety of religious traditions in contemporary Chinese societies.

Satisfies the Philosophical and Religious Perspectives requirement.

Satisfies East Asian Studies major and interdisciplinary minor requirement.

Satisfies Chinese Studies Minor.

REL 301 - Perspectives in the Study of Religion

Satisfies the Philosophical and Religious Perspectives requirement.

Satisfies the Methods requirement for the Gender and Sexuality Studies major in the Histories and Genealogies track.

Prerequisites & Notes
Pre/Corequisites:  Any two Religion courses or permission of the instructor.

Students intending to go abroad in their junior year should take this course in their sophomore year, if possible. 

REL 320 - The Genesis Narrative

Satisfies the Philosophical and Religious Perspectives requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
Students at all levels welcome.

REL 321 - The Exodus Tradition

Satisfies the Philosophical and Religious Perspectives requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
Students at all levels welcome.

REL 340 - Martrys, Messiahs, and Virgins

This course explores the variety of ways that early and medieval Christians understood saintliness. Beginning with a close look at how Jesus is portrayed in one of the four Gospels, the course will proceed to examine later types of Christian sanctity and their biblical precedents. These will include some or all of the following: the apostle, the prophet, the martyr, the hermit, the monk, the consecrated virgin, and the mystic.

Satisfies Religious Studies major and minor requirement.
Satisfies Philosophical and Religious Perspectives requirement.

REL 341 - Religions of the Roman Empire

Satisfies the Philosophical and Religious Perspectives requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
Students at all levels welcome.

This course is also cross-listed with Classics and could be applied towards a Classics major.

REL 343 - Modern and Postmodern Theologies

A multidisciplinary examination of a contemporary theological issue; topics change each time the course is offered. Past topics include: feminist theologies, postmodern theologies, humans and other animals.

Satisfies the Philosophical and Religious Perspectives requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
Recommended preparation: either REL 141 or REL 245.

REL 344 - Modern Critics of Religion

Satisfies the Philosophical and Religious Perspectives requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
 

REL 345 - Early Christian Texts on Poverty

This course examines early Christian discussions about the poor, the role of almsgiving in Christian life and the problems-as well as the possibilities-of wealth. Texts to be studied include relevant selections from the Christian Bible, The Shepherd of Hermas, 2 Clement, Cyprian On Works and Alms, Augustine’s Enchiridion, John Chrysostom’s sermons and other relevant Christian texts written before the modern period. This course will also attempt to put these early Christian texts in dialogue with modern debates on poverty and economic inequality.

Satisfies the Philosophical and Religious Perspectives requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
This course is also cross-listed with Classics and could be applied towards a Classics major.

Students at all levels welcome.

REL 346 - Modern Jewish Thought

Satisfies the Philosophical and Religious Perspectives requirement.
Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement.
Satisfies the Middle East Studies interdisciplinary minor.

Prerequisites & Notes
Students at all levels welcome.

REL 347 - Christian Latin Writers

Foley

Readings and research on selected Christian Latin authors from 200-600, including Tertullian, Cyprian, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, and Gregory the Great.

Satisfies the Philosophical and Religious Perspectives requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
LAT 201 or equivalent

REL 352 - Protestant and Roman Catholic Ethics

Satisfies the Philosophical and Religious Perspectives requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
Students at all levels welcome.

REL 353 - Theological Perspectives on Christian Faith

Christian beliefs and moral norms as they are expressed by the Apostles’ Creed, The Ten Commandments, and the Lord’s Prayer. In addition to critical studies of the history and composition of these texts, this course also includes classical and contemporary interpretations of what they mean from Augustine, Martin Luther, and Thomas Aquinas to Rosemary Radford Ruether and Leonardo Boff.

Satisfies the Philosophical and Religious Perspectives requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
Students at all levels welcome.

REL 354 - Major Figures in Theology and Ethics

Each time it is offered, this course explores the theology and ethics of a major figure. For the Fall 2014 semester, the focus will be on H. Richard Niebuhr. 

Satisfies the Philosophical and Religious Perspectives requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
Students at all levels welcome.

REL 358 - Humans and Other Animals

Satisfies the Philosophical and Religious Perspectives requirement.
Satisfies depth and breadth course requirement in the Humanities track of the Environmental Studies major or interdisciplinary minor.

Prerequisites & Notes
Students at all levels are welcome.

REL 360 - Myths America Lives By

Satisfies Religious Studies major and minor requirement.
Satisfies the Philosophical and Religious Perspectives requirement.
Satisfies a major or interdisciplinary minor requirement in Communication Studies.

Prerequisites & Notes
Students at all levels welcome.

REL 365 - Women in American Religion

Satisfies a major or interdisciplinary minor requirement in Communication Studies.
Satisfies the Philosophical and Religious Perspectives requirement.
Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.

REL 366 - Mormonism

Examines an indigenous American religion, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, exploring its historical origins, beliefs, related theological and political controversies, and cultural heritage.

Satisfies the Philosophical and Religious Perspectives requirement.

 

Prerequisites & Notes
Students at all levels welcome.

REL 369 - Religion and Politics

In this discussion-based course, we will examine sites in contemporary culture where politics and religion interact. How do political and religious convictions inform each other? How shall we understand the complex synergy between political and religious impulses? The end-time theology of many American evangelicals drives much American foreign policy towards Israel-Palestine. Attitudes (and policies) towards the environment are likewise influenced by religious beliefs and convictions. Some readers of the Bible argue that Donald Trump is a latter-day Cyrus, the Persian king who helped rebuild the walls of Jerusalem (Make Jerusalem Great Again!). Each week, we’ll examine a different case. While the course is offered at the seminar level, there are no expectations that students come with a background in the theory and method of Religious Studies or of Political Science. We will acquire these tools along the way.

REL 370 - Asian Meditation Texts

REL 371 - Hindu Mysticism

Interpretive and comparative study of Hindu sacerdotal, philosophical, contemplative, and devotional mystical sensibilities as presented in various textual genres.

Satisfies the Philosophical and Religious Perspectives requirement.
Satisfies the Cultural Diversity requirement.
Satisfies South Asian Studies requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
Students at all levels welcome.

REL 377 - Designing Life in Middle Ages

Today there is much discussion of striking an appropriate work/life balance, finding happiness in life, and pursuing a life worth living. These are by no means new conversations. In fact, these questions have been of perennial and global interest. Situating ourselves historically in medieval Christian and Muslim worlds, and drawing on their theological and intellectual traditions, we invite students to discover how our medeival predecessors answered these questions. Students will then apply these medieval lessons to designing their own lives in the 21st century. In the process, students will also discern the challenges and gaps in implementing lessons drawn from the past in a different religious culture and historical period.

Satisfies Religious Studies major and minor requirement.
Satisfies History major and minor requirement.
Satisfies Philosophical and Religious Perspectives requirement.
Satisfies Cultural Diversity requirement.

REL 378 - Islam in the Modern Age: Tradition, Fundamentalism and Reform

Satisfies the Philosophical and Religious Perspectives requirement.

Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement.
Satisfies Middle Eastern Studies requirement.
Satisfies South Asian Studies requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
Students at all levels welcome.

REL 379 - From Taj Mahal to Taliban

This is an overview of Islam in South Asia with a particular emphasis on Islam in pre-partitioned India. Besides introductory and concluding sections, our study will be divided into three historical phases: 1) Muslim India during the Mughal era; 2) Muslim India during the British colonial era leading up to political independence in 1947; 3) the post-independence era till early 1990s when Taliban emerged to power in Afghanistan. In this third phase our attention will shift more toward contemporary states of Pakistan and Afghanistan. In addition to scholarly studies we will read primary texts, watch movies and documentaries and will also benefit from occasional guest speakers on diverse themes.

Satisfies Religious Studies major and minor requirement.
Satisfies South Asain Studies minor requirement.
Satisfies Philosophical and Religious Perspectives requirement.
Satisfies Curltural Diversity requirement.

REL 382 - Zen Buddhism

Satisfies the Philosophical and Religious Perspectives requirement.
Satisfies the Cultural Diversity requirement.
Satisfies a requirement in the East Asian Studies major and interdisciplinary minor.
Satisfies a requirement in the Chinese Studies minor.

Prerequisites & Notes
Students at all levels welcome.

REL 395 - Independent Study

REL 401 - Senior Colloquium

REL 405 - US Religions, US Revolutions

How have religious commitments moved people to work for (or retrench in opposition to) societal change?  This seminar will address this question by examining several episodes in which religious affiliation shaped action: the movements for American independence in the eighteenth century, abolition in the nineteenth century, women’s rights in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and civil rights in the twentieth and twenty-first.

REL 413 - Sacrifice

Snyder

A comparative and cross-cultural look at the phenomenon of sacrifice in different religious traditions. We’ll examine concrete instances of the practice, read narratives about it, and draw upon theoretical models for understanding it. 

REL 419 - Science and Religion

Religion and science are often described as different paths toward truth. Many scholars interpret the claims of religion and science as referring to different spheres of meaning, with each realm characterized by distinctive methods, aims, and forms of discourse. Such distinctions, despite their cogency, are also problematic. Christianity, for example, appeals to both Revelation and nature, to both transcendence and immanence. And Western science raises important theoretical and empirical issues for religious beliefs about creation and redemption, as well as the meanings of, and relations between, nature and human nature.

This course will examine various models of the relations between religion and science developed in the recent scholarly literature. It will first focus on several historical points of conflict between science and religion - the shifts in worldview associated with Newton, Darwin, Freud, Einstein, and Heisenberg. Then, in light of participants’ interests, it will assess elements of recent physical and biological science that pose challenges to the cogency of Western theism and traditional theological understandings of divine design and providential action.

REL 433 - Religious Art, Media and Technology

The crucial role of art, medium and technology in the experience and expressions of religious worldview, convictions and ideas is so often forgotten. Medium may not be the message itself, yet it is too closely intertwined with the message to be taken lightly, or ignored altogether. Primarily through the lens of religious art (of various religious traditions, but especially the art of Islam), this course explores how art, media, and technology inform, perform, and transform religious life and its various expressions. We will be drawing on reflections on these themes of art, media and technology from religious thinkers and artists, exploring in the process illustrations from several major religious traditions.

REL 439 - Paul’s Letter to the Romans

An intensive study of Paul’s Letter to the Romans with attention to historical, critical, and theological issues.

REL 440 - Seminar: How Christians Read Scripture

This seminar will focus on the various ways Christians have read Scripture from the first to the twenty-first centuries. Topics will include allegorical, typological, fundamentalist, feminist, queer, African-American, and Asian-American readings of Scripture. 

REL 443 - The Question of the Animal

Staff

An interdisciplinary seminar in a growing subfield, Critical Animal Studies. Readings include ancient and recent reflections on human nature and on human and non-human animal relations by novelists, theologians, philosophers and scholars of religion. 

REL 444 - Black and Womanist Theology

A study of African American theological writings written since the Black Power movement of the 1960s. Black theology refers typically to works written or inspired by theologian James H. Cone. Womanist theology describes a theology written specifically by and for African American women.

Satisfies a requirement in the Africana Studies major (Geographic Region: North America).
Satisfies a requirement in the Gender & Sexuality Studies major and minor.
Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement.

REL 448 - Infinite Gesture: David Foster Wallace and the ethics of Fiction

A study of David Foster Wallace’s novel, Infinite Jest, with a particular focus on the ethical significance of fiction. Put plainly: when and how does reading such a novel make us better?

REL 449 - The Spiritual Imagination in Contemporary Literature

Plank

A study of how selected American writers have imagined transcendence and the life of the spirit, as well as a consideration of the relationship of poetic and religious language. Authors to be studied include: Christian Wiman, Fanny Howe, Franz Wright, Mary Szybist, Anne Carson and others.

Satisfies the Philosophical and Religious Perspectives Requirement.

Counts for the LIT minor. 

REL 452 - Contemplation and Action

Lustig

This seminar will explore the nature and scope of contemplation as a spiritual practice, drawing primarily on sources within the Christian tradition, both classical and current. It will review several representative approaches to contemplative prayer and assess the power of silence in cultivating the “sense of God” in the literature of mysticism. It will then analyze the relations between contemplative practice and activist commitments, paying particular attention to the ways that liturgy, worship, and prayer inform and enliven the command to love one’s neighbor as oneself.

REL 453 - Seminar: Love and Justice

This seminar will analyze classical and current theological perspectives on love and justice in order to understand areas of conceptual overlap and tensions between these norms. We will read selections from Augustine, Aquinas, Kierkegaard, C.S. Lewis, Anders Nygren, H. Richard and Reinhold Niebuhr, as well as recent discussions by Nicholas Wolterstorff (Reformed) and David Hollenbach (Catholic). In light of that theoretical discussion, the seminar will then focus on several concrete ethical issues that pose challenges of application for love and justice as useful norms.

REL 454 - A Social Gospel

Ottati

This seminar explores socially engaged theological ethics from Christian Socialists and Christian Realists to Liberation theologians.   We will read and discuss works by writers such as Walter Rauschenbusch, John A. Ryan, Vida Dutton Scudder, Reinhold Niebuhr, Martin Luther King, Jr., Gustavo Gutierrez, James Cone, Rosemary Radford Ruether, and Cornel West.  We will also pay special attention to biblical and traditional bases for the positions they advocate.

REL 458 - Calvin’s “Institutes”

REL 459 - History and Literature of Non-Violence

In this course, we’ll examine the history and literature of non-violent resistance in both monotheistic and non-monotheistic religious traditions, seeking to understand points of commonality and difference. The theory of non-violence held by Martin Luther King, for example, owed a great debt to that of Mohandas Gandhi. We will pay significant attention to contemporary figures and issues.

REL 460 - Religion and Racism

REL 461 - Issues in Religion & Politics

In this discussion-based course, we will examine sites in contemporary culture where politics and religion interact. How do political and religious convictions inform each other? How shall we understand the complex synergy between political and religious impulses? The end-time theology of many American evangelicals drives much American foreign policy towards Israel-Palestine. Attitudes (and policies) towards the environment are likewise influenced by religious beliefs and convictions. Some readers of the Bible argue that Donald Trump is a latter-day Cyrus, the Persian king who helped rebuild the walls of Jerusalem (Make Jerusalem Great Again!). Each week, we’ll examine a different case. While the course is offered at the seminar level, there are no expectations that students come with a background in the theory and method of Religious Studies or of Political Science. We will acquire these tools along the way.

REL 470 - Vedas and Upanishads

A study of canonical texts from ancient India known as the Vedas and Upanishads that in many ways have served as the foundations of religious sensibilities in India throughout the generations. Attention will be given to visionary poetry, sacred narrative, sacerdotal literature, philosophical musings, theological reflections, contemplative teachings and mystical intuitions.

Satisfies cultural diversity requirement.

REL 471 - Spiritual Love in Hinduism

One of the central themes in classical Hindu thought is that the highest or deepest reality, often associated with divinity, can be known and experienced through the cultivation and expression of spiritual love. Readings and discussions in this seminar focus on a variety of canonical, theological, philosophical, and aesthetic elements of this important mode of Hindu spirituality.

REL 474 - The Daodejing

Pang

This course examines the Daodejing and its diverse body of commentarial literature throughout the centuries. We will consider both ancient and modern interpretations of the text, as well as their historical, political, social, and religious contexts. 

Satisfies the Cultural Diversity requirement

REL 498 - Honors Project

RUS 101 - Elementary Russian I

Elementary Russian serves as an introduction to speaking, understanding, reading, and writing contemporary standard Russian. If you are considering a major or minor in Russian, this is your first step towards that goal! No prior experience is expected or required. Students who have background knowledge of Russian should contact the department for appropriate placement.

In this course, students will learn to read and write using the Cyrillic alphabet, become acquainted with the principles of Russian phonetics, begin to acquire a systematic knowledge of elementary Russian grammar, and acquire a working vocabulary that will allow them to communicate about their daily lives in Russian. Students will also be introduced to Russian culture, history and traditions through authentic target-language texts, websites, and other media. Students’ acquisition of Russian will be supported by AT sessions with a native speaker.  

 

Prerequisites & Notes
(Fall)

RUS 102 - Elementary Russian II

Description coming soon!

Prerequisites & Notes
RUS 101 or placement. (Spring)

RUS 201 - Intermediate Russian I

Intermediate Russian continues to develop proficiency in speaking, understanding, reading, and writing contemporary standard Russian, and is intended for students who have completed RUS 102, or placed into the course via a placement test.

In this course, students will review and expand their knowledge of Russian grammar and vocabulary. Students will also gain a deeper understanding of Russian culture, history, and tradition through increasingly complex authentic target-language texts, songs, and other media. Highlights of the course include weekly AT sessions with a native speaker from Russia, and a pen pal exchange with Intermediate Russian students at other universities in the US.  

Satisfies the foreign language requirement. 
Satisfies the prerequisite for the Russian minor, the major in Russian Studies, and the major in Russian Language & Literature.

Prerequisites & Notes
RUS 102 or placement. (Fall)

RUS 202 - Intermediate Russian II

Description coming soon!

Prerequisites & Notes
RUS 201 or placement. (Spring)

RUS 260 - Special Topics: 19th Century Cannon

Fall 2020 Topic: 19th Century Russian Literature

The canonical works of 19th-century Russian literature represent a unique flowering of literary experimentation and innovation. In this context, the city of St. Petersburg plays an outsized role. The oppressive atmosphere and sprawling bureaucracy of the artificially constructed northern capital spawned a mythical city where “the devil himself lights the street lamps” and dreamers see their hopes dashed before them. In reading the works of Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy, we will explore how these authors shaped and were shaped by the myth of St. Petersburg. Through close readings of some of the masterpieces of 19th-century literature we will investigate the role that space plays in literary creation and the ways in which it reflects the political and psychological concerns of the times. 

Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement.
Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement.
Counts as an elective in the English major and minor.
Satisfies a requirement in the Global Literary Theory interdisciplinary minor.

Prerequisites & Notes
No knowledge of Russian required or expected.
Course is repeatable for credit given different topic/title.

RUS 270 - 20th-Century Russian Literature: Modernism to Postmodernism

The twentieth century was tumultuous globally, and nowhere more dramatically so than in Russia, which witnessed revolutions, wars, and multiple changes of political regime. Alongside these socio-political shifts came aesthetic changes; from 1900 to the new millennium, Russian culture saw, broadly speaking, shifts from realism, to symbolism, to socialist realism, to post-modernism. This course samples major Russian, émigré, Soviet and post-Soviet writers, paying attention to the way they responded to, and even contributed to, historical events. Texts and discussion in English, with the option for those with advanced Russian to read in the original.

Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement.
Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement.
Counts as an elective in the English major and minor.
Satisfies a requirement in the Global Literary Theory interdisciplinary minor.

Prerequisites & Notes
No knowledge of Russian required or expected.
Course is repeatable for credit given different topic/title.

RUS 280 - Russia and the West (in English)

This course will equip you to approach contemporary relations with Russia from nuanced and historically informed perspectives. As many scholars have noted, history has essentially replaced politics as the national conversation in Putin’s Russia. Whether erecting monuments to past tyrants, rewriting the history textbooks for secondary schools, dismissing the independence of Ukraine with calls to an ancient, shared past, or leveraging WWII memory and nostalgia for the USSR, the Putin regime deftly exploits historical narratives for its present aims. One constant amidst these efforts to reshape Russian history is the place of “the West” as either an idealized model or a hostile other against which Russians define their national identity. In “Russia and the West” we will examine the vast sweep of Russian history and culture through the lens of the country’s efforts to define itself vis-à-vis the West, starting by interrogating the very notion of “the West” and the identity of “the Russians.” We will then learn about Peter the Great’s Westernizing reforms, 19th-century Slavophilism vs. Westernism, Cold War tensions, émigré culture, and today’s persistent sense of humiliation at the hands of the West still resonating almost thirty years after the fall of the USSR.

Satisfies the Cultural Diversity requirement.
Satisfies the Historical Thought requirement.
Satisfies a requirement for the Russian minor.
Satisfies a requirement for the major in Russian Studies.
Satisfies a requirement for the major in Russian Language & Literature.

Prerequisites & Notes
 

No knowledge of Russian language or culture required or expected.  All readings and discussion in English.

RUS 293 - Performing Russia: The Ballets Russes

Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes was a dynamic enterprise that defined multiple artistic trends and movements in the early twentieth century. The troupe and those associated with it changed over the course of its twenty-year existence (1909 -1929), but during that period they always remained under the scrutiny of its founding impresario, Diaghilev. A master curator, Diaghilev brought together some of the most interesting artists, composers, dancers, choreographers, fashion designers, and personalities of the era, which resulted in a maelstrom of creative and collaborative output, the impact of which still resonates in the present day across artistic mediums. From the scandals to the massive successes, this course examines some highlights of the Ballets Russes, looking at visionary choreographers, such as Fokine, Nijinsky, Nijinska, and Balanchine, world-renowned visual artists, like Picasso, Matisse, and Braque, genre-breaking composers, such as Debussy, Prokofiev, and Stravinsky, and even a few guest appearances by Jean Cocteau and Coco Chanel. We also will consider the role of “Russianness” in Diaghilev’s project and how it changed over the course of the group’s history as Russia itself changed in tandem with the ever-changing political landscape of Europe in the early twentieth century. Finally, what is the Ballets Russes’ legacy? How has this group of artists creating and performing in the first decades of the twentieth century influenced the arts and culture into the present day? Our discussions will focus on topics such as theoretical approaches to media; the ways in which the Ballets Russes engaged with movements such as constructivism, cubism, futurism, impressionism, expressionism, neoclassicism, primitivism, surrealism, and symbolism; the role of nationality and nationhood in the self-exoticizing trends of the early Ballets Russes works versus later ones; othering and the role of gender and race in the Ballets Russes’ mythos. These topics will be considered through readings from varied disciplines, such as dance and performance studies, musicology, art history, cultural studies, and literary studies.

Satisfies Dance minor requirement.
Satisfies the Cultural Diversity requirement.
 

RUS 294 - Topics in Russian

Topics course, where content changes each semester.

RUS 295 - Independent Study

A topic chosen by the student and researched under the direction of the faculty member, who reviews and approves the topic and determines the means of evaluation of the student’s work.

295 (Fall)/296 (Spring)

Prerequisites & Notes
Permission of the instructor.

RUS 301 - Advanced Russian

RUS 319 - Advanced Russian: Contemporary Russian Culture

This course supports students’ development from intermediate to advanced proficiency in Russian, with a focus on contemporary Russian literature, culture, and politics. Guided by the textbook, Russian and Use, and supplemented by authentic readings and other media from contemporary Russia, students will strengthen their proficiency in reading, writing, listening, and speaking.  All assignments and discussions in Russian.

Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement.

Prerequisites & Notes
RUS 202 or equivalent.
Weekly AT session.
 

RUS 320 - Masterpieces of Russian Literature

Advanced reading and discussion of canonical works by Russian writers, such as Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Mayakovsky, Bulgakov, Pasternak, Akhmatova, and Tolstaya. This course is conducted in Russian.

Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement.
Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement.
 

Prerequisites & Notes
RUS 202 or equivalent. 

RUS 370 - Twentieth-Century Russian Literature

This class is conducted entirely in Russian. It combines the study of Russian literature with the development of vocabulary and grammar skills for advanced speaking and writing. We will read, discuss, and analyze short works by masters of 20th century Russian literature in the original. In the course of our readings, we will also learn about major events in 20th-century Russian history that form the important context for these works.

Prerequisites & Notes
RUS 202 or equivalent. 

RUS 372 - Nabokov (in English)=LIT 372

All readings and discussion in English, with the option for Russian language readings for those with Russian.

Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement.
Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement.
Satisfies an interdisciplinary minor requirement in Global Literary Theory
Satisfies a minor requirement in Russian Studies
Satisfies major requirements for CIS majors in Russian Studies, Russian Language & Literature, and Global Literary Theory

Prerequisites & Notes
(Fall)

RUS 373 - Nabokov & Global Literature (= LIT 372)

Vladimir Nabokov–brilliant writer, outrageous literary gamesman, and cosmopolitan exile–is a towering figure of twentieth-century literature. His most famous novel, Lolita, propelled him to international stardom and changed the transnational literary landscape. Child of a turbulent century, Nabokov wrote exquisite and at times disturbing prose in Russian and English, balancing between imaginary worlds and harsh realities. This seminar offers a sustained exploration of Nabokov’s major Russian and American writings as well as film adaptations of his Despair (Rainer Werner Fassbinder) and Lolita (Stanley Kubrick). In the second half of the seminar we turn to novels Nabokov haunts: Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran, J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace, Orhan Pamuk’s The Museum of Innocence, and W.G. Sebald’s The Emigrants. We will consider memory, exile, trauma, nostalgia, and identity as we read Nabokov, who saw existence as a “series of footnotes to a vast, obscure, unfinished masterpiece.” All readings and discussion in English.

Satisfies a major requirement in CIS Russian Studies

Satisfies a major requirement in CIS Russian Language and Literature

Satisfies a major requirement in CIS Global Literary Theory

Satisfies a minor requirement in Russian Studies

Satisfies an interdisciplinary minor requirement in Global Literary Theory

Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing & Rhetoric requirement

Satisfies the Cultural Diversity requirement

RUS 395 - Independent Study for Advanced Students

Advanced study under the direction of the faculty member, who reviews and approves the topic and determines the means of evaluation of the student’s work.

395 (Fall)/396 (Spring)

Prerequisites & Notes
(Permission of the instructor.)

RUS 401 - Russian Folklore

Folkloric traditions and texts are a vitally important element of Russian culture. In this course we will read a range of Russian-language folktales, including medieval byliny, popular fairy tales as well as contemporary responses to folklore. We will also explore the folkloric traditions of some of the non-Slavic indigenous peoples whose ancestral lands are now part of the Russian Federation. Primary texts in Russian with secondary texts available in Russian and English.  Students will have one weekly AT session with a native speaker.
Satisfies the 400-level Russian language requirement for the major in Russian Studies and the major in Russian Language & Literature.

Prerequisites & Notes
RUS 202 or equivalent. 

Appropriate for any student who has completed RUS 202. Taught in Russian.
 

RUS 420 - Tolstoy’s War and Peace (in English)

In this course we devote the entire semester to Tolstoy’s masterpiece, War and Peace, alongside selected critical and theoretical readings. We consider everything from genre and historiography to the text’s surprising relevance in our current era of global upheaval and populism. War and Peace is frequently deemed the greatest novel ever written, yet its sheer size can be intimidating. Students find that tackling the novel for a class, alongside their peers, is the best way to keep up with the reading, while also getting the most from this incredibly rich text. After immersing yourself in War and Peace this semester, you will find that it stays with you throughout your life. No small promises, to be sure, but War and Peace delivers.

Satisfies the Cultural Diversity requirement.
Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement.
Satisfies a requirement for the Russian minor.
Satisfies a requirement for the major in Russian Studies.
Satisfies a requirement for the major in Russian Language and Literature.
Satisfies an ENG seminar requirement.

 

Prerequisites & Notes
No knowledge of Russian required or expected.
Course is repeatable for credit given different topic/title.

RUS 430 - Dostoevsky (Special Topics in English)

This course offers an in-depth engagement with a range of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s works, including his first novella Poor Folk, The Double, major novels such as Crime and Punishment and Brothers Karamazov, his pseudo-autobiographical prison memoir Notes from the Dead House, as well as a selection of his shorter experiments from Diary of a Writer.

Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement.
Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement.
 

RUS 497 - Independent Study in English

A topic chosen by the student and researched under the direction of the faculty member, who reviews and approves the topic and determines the means of evaluation of the student’s work.

Prerequisites & Notes
Permission of the instructor.

RUS 498 - Independent Study in Russian

A topic chosen by the student and researched under the direction of the faculty member, who reviews and approves the topic and determines the means of evaluation of the student’s work.

Prerequisites & Notes
Permission of Instructor

SIL 111 - Beginning Dutch

SIL 115 - Beginning Italian

SIL 116 - Continuing Italian

SIL 117 - Intermediate Italian

SIL 120 - Beginning American Sign Language

SIL 121 - Intermediate American Sign Language

SIL 122 - Continuing American Sign Language

SIL 125 - Beginning Korean

SIL 126 - Continuing Korean

SIL 131 - Beginning Modern Greek

SIL 132 - Continuing Modern Greek

SIL 138 - Beginning Swedish

SIL 139 - Continuing Swedish

SIL 140 - Intermediate Swedish

SIL 141 - Beginning Brazilian Portuguese

SIL 142 - Continuing Brazilian Portuguese

SIL 143 - Intermediate Brazilian Portuguese

SIL 150 - Beginning Danish

SIL 151 - Continuing Danish

SIL 161 - Beginning Amharic

SIL 162 - Continuing Amharic

SIL 165 - Beginning Hungarian

SIL 171 - Beginning Hindi

SIL 172 - Continuing Hindi

SIL 181 - Beginning Swahili