Courses
Ukrainian Language Courses
Beginning Ukrainian (8 units)
Alla Parkhomenko, Ph.D., Kyiv State University
This is an intensive course for students
with little or no knowledge of the language. Basic grammatical
structures are introduced and reinforced through an active
oral approach. By the end of the course students are expected
to develop the ability to conduct short conversations in
a range of familiar situations related to daily activities,
understand simple factual texts, and write routine messages.
They will be able to create with language, and initiate,
maintain and bring to a close simple exchanges by asking
and responding to simple questions. A variety of genuine
sources will be used to establish an authentic environment.
Intermediate Ukrainian (8 units)
Yuri I. Shevchuk, Ph.D., Kyiv State University
An intensive review of basic structures
is followed by expansion of these grammar fundamentals.
Emphasis will be on oral communication using basic conversational
patterns. Major emphasis will be placed on the development
of vocabulary, with readings and videotaped programs focusing
on contemporary cultural and political issues. By the end
of the course students will be able to narrate and describe
in major time frames, deal effectively with unanticipated
complications in most informal, and some formal, settings
on topics of personal and some general interest.
Advanced Ukrainian (8 units)
Volodymyr Dibrova, Instructor, Department of Slavic Languages
and Literatures, Harvard University
This is an intensive
course for students who wish to develop their
mastery of the language. Reading selections
include annotated articles on contemporary
issues in business, economics, politics, and
culture. Short written reports and oral presentations
will be part of the course. By the end of the
course the students will be able to discuss
extensively a wide range of general interest
topics and some special fields of interest,
hypothesize, support opinions and deal with
linguistically unfamiliar situations. Classes
will be conducted largely in Ukrainian.
Literature, History, Politics and Research
Methodology Courses
Twentieth-Century Ukrainian Literature: Rethinking the
Canon (4 Units)
George G. Grabowicz, the Dmytro Cyzevs'kyj Professor of
Ukrainian Literature, Harvard University
A survey of the major writers and
works of 20th century Ukrainian literature with
a special focus on how their reception and evaluation
has been reconfigured by Ukraine's independence.
The course will examine among others such movements
and developments as modernism, the "executed
renaissance"
(rozstriliane vidrodzhennia), socialist realism,
the literature of dissent and emigration, underground
literature and post-modernism, through close
readings of representative works.
Modern Ukraine (4 Units)
John-Paul Himka, Professor of History, University of
Alberta
The course explores the emergence
of the "Ukrainian idea" at the turn
of the 19th century, its thickening in a literary
renascence and political discussions, its transplantation
and transformation in Galicia, and its fate
in the international crisis of 1914-20. Then
the course examines the Soviet Ukrainian state
in the 1920s and 1930s, the Ukrainians living
outside it in "Central Europe", the
cause and effects of World War II, the crystallization
of Soviet Ukrainian nationhood, and the transformation
of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
into independent Ukraine.
Theorizing Ukraine: Politics, Theory, and Political Theory (4
Units)
Alexander J. Motyl, Professor of Political
Science, Rutgers University, Newark
A historically and comparatively
informed examination of social science approaches
to conceptualizing and theorizing politics
and political developments in Ukraine. The
course investigates concepts and theories of
the state, revolution, nation, nationalism,
empire, elite, socialism, totalitarianism,
transition, civil society, modernization, political
culture,
and democracy. Both concepts and theories
will be discussed in relation to one another,
in light of modern Ukrainian history, and
with reference to other countries.
Studying 20th-Century Ukraine: Theory, Methodology,
Identity (4 Units)
George G. Grabowicz, John-Paul Himka, Alexander
Motyl
The goal of this interdisciplinary seminar
is to examine the theory and methods that
are applied to the study of 20th-century
Ukrainian history, political science and
literature. The seminar will focus on the
present state of the disciplines, their interaction
and the problems and issues such an interdisciplinary
approach raises. Topics treated will be Ukrainian
political and cultural historiography and
the larger comparative context; the theoretical,
social and artistic articulations of nationalism
and communism; the uses of ideology and cultural
politics; and the range of articulations
of post-modernism and postcolonialism. |
