Fall 2023 Courses
- For day, time, room, and TA information, see our PDF SCHEDULE or the class search tool https://registrar-apps.ucdavis.edu/courses/search/index.cfm.
- For all courses not described here, please refer to the General Catalog course descriptions: https://catalog.ucdavis.edu/courses-subject-code/rus/
Lower Division
RUS 001 Elementary Russian
Liliana Avramenko
RUS 004 Intermediate Russian
Lecturer: Jekaterina Galmant
Russian 4 is designed as a continuation of Russian 3 and promotes pronunciation and grammar, as well as the development of listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, with an emphasis on communicative skills, through compelling conversation topics, creative presentations and engaging discussions. The course integrates new vocabulary and syntax into previously acquired language. The purpose of the course is facilitate a maximum exposure to the language and culture and to give the student the opportunity to use Russian as much as possible.
Prerequisites: RUS 003 or Language Placement Test
Textbooks: OER, no required materials for purchase
Office hours: Tu/Th 12 - 1 pm at Sproul 105
Upper Division
RUS 101A Advanced Russian
Liliana Avramenko
RUS 102 Russian Composition Through Contemporary Media
Lecturer: Jekaterina Galmant
Improve your written communication skills in Russian while analyzing contemporary Russian media and culture! Course materials will focus on such topics as current events (including the war in Ukraine), tech and media, youth culture and art. We will read sources produced in various centers of the Russian-speaking world, including émigré communities in Europe and the United States. Students will learn how to write in various genres and to employ different types of writing (narrative, description, critique). Developing writing skills has a proven positive impact on oral speech, therefore making spoken language richer and more imaginative. Conducted in Russian.
Prerequisites: RUS 006 or Consent of Instructor
Course materials: OER, instructor-created handouts, no materials for purchase
GE credit: AH, WC, WE
RUS 142 Women in Russian Culture
Prof. Jenny Kaminer (jekaminer@ucdavis.edu)
This course focuses on the representation of (and by) women in Russian fiction (prose, poetry, and drama) and film, with special attention devoted to the late-Soviet and post-Soviet period. Beginning with Anna Akhmatova’s classic narrative poem “Requiem," set during the darkest years of the Stalinist terror of the 1930s, the readings will span over eight decades and take place against the backdrop of profound social, cultural and political shifts, including the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The texts and films covered in the course will explore such issues as family dynamics/motherhood, sexuality, work, and women’s relationship to the state. Fictional texts will be supplemented by sociological readings that illuminate the conditions of women's lives during the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. Students will become familiar with the works of several prominent contemporary female authors, including Liudmila Petrushevskaia, Svetlana Vasilenko, and recent Nobel Prize in Literature recipient Svetlana Aleksievich.
Taught in English
Required texts:
-Lydia Chukovskaia, Sofia Petrovna, trans. Aline Werth (Evanston: Northwestern UP, 1967).
-Various texts and films, available on Canvas.
