REST

Subject

REST

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Combines an overview of Russian grammar with an intensive emphasis upon classroom communication and the development of oral skills. In addition to the textbook, students make use of an array of web-based materials ranging from interviews with contemporary Russian speakers, to YouTube videos, to cartoons in order to provide students with a sense for life in Russian-speaking communities today, as well to facilitate rapid acquisition of the language. Students cover the fundamentals of Russian grammar, learn a great deal of vocabulary, and should be able to converse effectively in a variety of everyday situations in Russian. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Language Study Core Component: None

Subject

REST

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

REST 121

Corequisite

None

Students in this interdisciplinary course consider how contemporary Russian pop culture—from Pussy Riot to Putin memes—engages with state ideology. Coursework is grounded in the post-Soviet era, yet also looks at how Russia's current pop cultural attitudes to "facts" and ideology relate to the artistic and political practices of the Soviet past. Course materials include films, literature, visual art, performance art, and internet memes, as well as official state sources of mass information, from the Kremlin website to press releases. Finally, students consider the relationship between these developments in Russia and in US political discourse, through conversations surrounding "fake news," deep fake, and troll farms. All students are welcome: no previous experience with Russian language or culture is expected. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No Senior Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges and The Process of Writing Core Component: None

Subject

REST

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

None

Corequisite

None

Elementary-level language courses taken abroad with a Colgate study group, an approved program, or in a foreign institution of higher learning. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Language Study Core Component: None

Subject

REST

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

None

Corequisite

None

Complete the presentation of the fundamentals of the language and focus upon further vocabulary acquisition and developing more advanced conversation and writing skills, as well as real-life Russian in context. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Language Study Core Component: None

Subject

REST

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

None

Corequisite

None

Students gain additional proficiency in the Russia language by developing more grammar skills and gaining increased proficiency in reading and writing. Oral communication is also emphasized. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Language Study Core Component: None

Subject

REST

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

REST 201

Corequisite

None

(Extended Study) Examines the history and geography of cultural and natural sites in Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan to analyze how the control of oil and water resources have shaped urban growth, prosperity, and their sustainability over time in these locations. Regarding water resources, students examine how the ancient treatment of water resources sponsored the growth of trading kingdoms along the Silk Road. Regarding hydrocarbon resources, these resources were treated religiously and only later were valued as fuel in the pre-modern world. Recent Empires and authoritarian nation-states in the region have dealt with both types of resources

Subject

REST

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

An introduction to Russian and Soviet film with an emphasis on the relations between art and politics in the 20th century. Students examine the major cinematic works of Russia and the Soviet Union from the Bolshevik Revolution to the Putin era, including works by such major auteurs of world cinema as Eisenstein, Vertov, and Tarkovsky. Films are examined in the context of Soviet history, from the 1920s avant-garde through subsequent decades of Stalinist repression, stagnation, collapse, and post-Soviet nostalgia. In addition to works from within the borders of Russia, students watch films from the non-Russian republics of the Soviet Union which offer a view of the rich artistic resources and diverse voices at the Soviet margins. Key topics of discussion include Soviet montage theory, propaganda, censorship, state-control of the arts, and the aesthetics of transnational socialist solidarity and decolonization. Students are required to view a film every week outside of class, in addition to completing regular readings. Taught in English. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Artistic Practice and Interpretation and The Process of Writing Core Component: None

Subject

REST

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

None

Corequisite

REST 214L

Required corequisite to REST 214. Credits: 0.00 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None

Subject

REST

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

None

Corequisite

REST 214

Introduces students to a wide range of science fiction literature and film from the 20th century to the present day, with a strong emphasis on works from Russia, the Soviet Union, and Eastern Europe. This region offers some of the most sophisticated works of science fiction, owing to the radical "otherness" of its philosophical

Subject

REST

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Written by an educated elite, eerily self-conscious because of czarist censorship and political repression, 19th-century Russian literature nevertheless confronts many of the crucial concerns of human existence. It often focuses upon characters who are at an existential breaking point because of ideological, spiritual, sexual, or economic pressures. Students read a combination of short stories and novels, concentrating upon canonical "greats" (Pushkin, Lermontov, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Chekhov) but also sampling lesser-known writers, including neglected female authors. By examining literary depictions of such social institutions as warfare, dueling and gambling, courtship and marriage, adultery and spousal abuse, work and leisure, coursework emphasizes the relationship between literary text and cultural context. Particular attention is paid to the cultural construction of gender, as well as the relationship between humans and nature. A range of theoretical and critical texts informs discussions, as do film adaptations of certain works. All works are read in translation. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Artistic Practice and Interpretation and The Process of Writing Core Component: None

Subject

REST

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

None

Corequisite

None

Examines life under Communism as distilled through the fiction of Russian, East European, and Jewish writers who experienced it firsthand. Students follow the intertwining of political and private life from the inception of a new regime, with many people exuberantly hopeful, through the various stages of acquiescence, resistance, escape, and sometimes death. Authors include Chekhov, Mayakovsky, Babel, Vasily Grossman, Kundera, and Nabokov. Crosslisted: JWST 254 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression

Subject

REST

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

None

Corequisite

None

Addresses problems that are contemporary and urgent. They are at the same time rooted in regional history—meaning that solutions require regional knowledge—and, for better and worse, universal. Course material oscillates between the regional and the universal, looking at texts (novels, poems, essays, histories) that focus on issues of courage and conformity under Stalin and Hitler, and trying to understand their implications for us now, including in the United States. Writers include Czeslaw Milosz (poems and essays); Vasily Grossman and Lidia Chukovskaya (fiction); Timothy Snyder (history and contemporary analysis); Jonathan Rausch (contemporary analysis). Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None

Subject

REST

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

None

Corequisite

None

Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty. Credits: variable Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None

Subject

REST

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

None

Corequisite

None

Intermediate-level language courses taken abroad with a Colgate study group, an approved program, or in a foreign institution of higher learning. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Language Study Core Component: None

Subject

REST

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

None

Corequisite

None

Subject

REST

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Reading, discussion, and writing in Russian. Texts will be from contemporary online sources. Focus is on improving spoken Russian skills. Grammar review will be included as needed for readings. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Language Study Core Component: None

Subject

REST

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

REST 202

Corequisite

None

The Arctic is one of the most rapidly changing regions of the world today, environmentally, culturally, and politically. Rapid biophysical change occurs here today due to climate change, but equally noteworthy are cultural, social, and political transformations experienced by people living in the Arctic. Individuals and communities are under increasing pressure to change along with biophysical and socioeconomic transformation, particularly as new actors express interest in the Arctic and space opens up to global people and phenomena. Grappling with Arctic change means addressing complex issues related to social and biophysical changes, which often originate beyond the region but have specific meanings for the region. Within Russian and Eurasian regional studies, interest in the Arctic is long-standing and currently increasing with the "opening up" of this space due to climate change and the economic interest shown in it by global actors. Students examine environmental change, demographic shifts, human-environmental wellbeing, the ideas of security and cooperation as they relate to Arctic geopolitics, and the future of the Arctic. While the exclusive focus of the course is not on Russia, Russia's role in Arctic transformations – especially politically and geographically – are highlighted concerning the actions and transformations occurring in other Arctic nations and other nations interested in Arctic transformations. Crosslisted: GEOG 323 Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges and The Process of Writing Core Component: None

Subject

REST

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

None

Corequisite

None

Addresses human rights in Russia and Eurasia. Begins by comparing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with the Soviet Union's conceptualization of citizen rights and builds from there to understand current issues and concerns regarding rights in this world region. Part 1 provides an historical understanding of how human rights were envisioned and practiced in the Soviet era. Part 2 explores how human rights conceptualizations changed when the Soviet Union and Russia engaged openly with the West during perestroika and the 1990s. Parts 3 and 4 investigate the continuing legacy of authoritarianism in this region and what this suggests for individual (Part 3) and societal (Part 4) rights. A mixture of lecture and discussion assumes timely completion of readings and assignments to participate in small- and large-group class discussions throughout the semester. The final project asks students to develop a country profile to examine one human rights concern in one of the fifteen post-Soviet republics. Final student presentations place human rights in Russia and Eurasia in historical, cultural, and spatial contexts to understand how they are linked by shared histories and enduring entangled futures. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: No First-year Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges and The Process of Writing Core Component: None

Subject

REST

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

None

Corequisite

None

Examines and re-examines the Russian revolution(s) through a close study of histories, cultural products, historical roots, later interpretations, and re-imaginings. Beginning with the idealists, nihilists, and terrorists determined to bring the Russian monarchy to an end in the 19th century, students explore history, politics, and culture through a range of genres and media--from the 19th-century Russian realist novel, the political manifesto, the avant-garde film, revolutionary poetry, to the works of seminal historians who have shaped how we "read" the Russian revolution today. Is the revolution over, so to speak? Are we ever finished with an historical event of such monumental consequence? Course requirements include readings, film screenings, local Colgate events, and an excursion to New York City's Museum of Modern Art. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Confronting Collective Challenges and The Process of Writing Core Component: None

Subject

REST

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

None

Corequisite

None

Examines the domestic and international politics of the world's largest country. Students track the weakness and disorder of the chaotic 1990s under Boris Yeltsin, and the birth of a new system on the ashes of Communism. Students examine the rise of Russian power and prestige under Vladimir Putin and his centralizing innovations to strengthen political and economic institutions. The course also considers dissent and protest movements, the national conflicts with internal minorities, as in Chechnya, and projection of power over the post-Soviet "Near Abroad" and the construction of a corporatist-style system that presents new challenges to the global dominance of ideas about democracy and capitalism.

Subject

REST

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty. Credits: variable Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None

Subject

REST

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

None

Corequisite

None

Advanced-level language courses taken abroad with a Colgate study group, an approved program, or in a foreign institution of higher learning. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: Language Study Core Component: None

Subject

REST

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

None

Corequisite

None

Students explore the theoretical, methodological, and linguistic challenges that underlie serious research in Russian and Eurasian studies. In addition to common readings and assignments, each student pursues an individual research topic, updating other seminar participants periodically via presentations and selected readings. By semester's end each student has produced a substantial research paper that utilizes Russian primary sources appropriately. Students who wish to pursue a thesis topic in the spring are required to obtain permission from the faculty supervisor and the program to enroll in an independent study in the spring semester following the senior seminar.

Subject

REST

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

None

Corequisite

None

Students pursuing honors in Russian and Eurasian Studies enroll with permission of the REST director. Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: Human Thought and Expression Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None

Subject

REST

Credits (min)

1

Credits (max)

1

Credit unit

Credits

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

None

Corequisite

None

Opportunity for individual study in areas not covered by formal course offerings, under the guidance of a member of the faculty. Credits: variable Major/Minor Restrictions: None Class Restriction: None Area of Inquiry: None Liberal Arts Practices: None Core Component: None

Subject

REST

Type

course

Edition

2025-2026

Source

catalog.colgate.edu

Prerequisite

None

Corequisite

None