Winter Session 2024/25
SLAV 105: Introduction to Southeastern Europe
Term 1 through Term 2 | online | asynchronous | 6 credits
How many countries and cultures do you know about in Southeastern Europe? Where does it begin and end? How far back does its history go, and what do people in the region hope for in the future? This fully online 6-credit course introduces you to the cultures, societies, literatures, histories, and pop cultures of Southeastern Europe and South Slavic cultures—some of which are referred to as “the Balkans” or “the former Yugoslavia.” What is the region’s relationship with the former Soviet Union and Russia? How did these lands liberate and reinvent themselves after the fall of the Iron Curtain? Fully asynchronous, no high-stakes invigilated exams. Meant for total beginners or those with some heritage / interest in the region.
SLAV 307A: In the Shadows of War: Slavic Cultural Landscapes
Term 2 | in-person | Tues/Thurs 11:00 – 12:30 | 3 credits
Do you hate war, want peace and are willing to do the thinking that precedes the abolition of war? Then this course is for you. It maps out the present-day terrain in the life of Slavic countries, where violent conflicts, transformed by technologies, blur the traditional borderlines between war and peace. The course teaches how to think about war by exploring its artistic representations in authentic prose, poetry, film, and song in English translation. The answers to be found can determine the major course of our lives and the lives of those who come after us.
