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Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures

Graduate program, welcome to the graduate slavic program.

The Princeton Slavic Department offers the Ph.D. degree in Russian Literature and Culture. The program provides students with a firm foundation in their major area as well as the opportunity to explore related fields, for example: comparative literature, literary theory, and other Slavic languages and literatures.

Leonid Lazarev, Next to Pushkin (Moscow, 1957).

Program Size

Princeton's Ph.D. program is small: this enables us to offer graduate students accepted into the program a support package for the entire five years required to complete the degree. Princeton provides a scholarly, small-town atmosphere in close proximity to both New York City and Philadelphia.

Program Goals

The aim of our graduate program is to further interest, knowledge, and scholarship relating to Russia and Slavic Central Europe, primarily through the cultural humanities. To this end we urge our students to explore new intellectual paths and approaches, having first provided them with a strong background in the Russian literary tradition, an introduction to major schools of theory, and the opportunity to conduct research abroad.  (Please note that the program in Slavic Linguistics has been discontinued.) 

Our Students

Our students play a central role in the life of the Department in ways that hone their professional skills – teaching language and/or literature, helping select speakers, participating in the dissertation colloquium, and organizing conferences. They also take active part in the profession, presenting papers at national and international conferences and publishing in journals in the field.

Graduate Seminars

Proseminar and graduate seminars in our Department cover the development of literary movements, genres and styles; theoretical approaches to literature and culture, as well as specific authors; language pedagogy and academic Russian.

Cultural Periods, Aesthetic Movements and Trends

• 18 th Century Russian Culture
• Russian Sentimentalism and Romanticism (Karamzin, Pushkin, Zhukovsky, Gogol)
• Russian Realism (Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Chekhov)
• Russian Modernism (Symbolism; Acmeism; Futurism; V. Ivanov, Khlebnikov, Tsvetaeva, Pasternak, Eisenstein, Vetrov, Rodchenko)
• Socialist Realism
• Underground/Uncensored Literature
• Soviet Literature and Culture
• Post-Soviet Literature and Culture
• Postmodernism 

Theory and Genre

• Russian Critical Tradition
• Russian Poetry and Poetics
• Russian Prose and Narratology
• History of Emotions
• Formalism and Constructivism
• Productivism
• Translation
• Literature and Science
• Documentary Genres
• Film and Media Theory
• Medical Humanities
• Russian Music (Tchaikovsky; Prokofiev) and Ballet
• Moscow-Tartu Semiotics
• Children’s Literature
• Language Pedagogy
• McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning

All Princeton graduate students have access to the resources of the  McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning , In our Department students who have passed their general examinations receive supervised training in undergraduate teaching and have the opportunity to gain classroom experience by teaching elementary or intermediate languages courses and precepting (leading discussion sections in) larger nineteenth- and twentieth-century Russian literature survey courses. which offers workshops and training sessions related to all aspects of the academic career.

Kate Fischer Office Manager

Michael Wachtel Director of Graduate Studies

Graduate School

Visit 

We strongly encourage prospective students to contact the Department and if at all possible to come to campus to meet the faculty. 

To arrange a visit, please e-mail the Office Manager Ms.  Kate Fischer .

Princeton is a lovely small town conveniently situated approximately mid-way between New York City and Philadelphia. Information on housing, including graduate dorm rooms and apartments can be obtained from the  Housing Office .

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Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures

12 Quincy Street, Barker Center 3rd Floor Cambridge, MA 02138

• Russian Language Program

Russia has long fascinated the Western imagination, with its huge land mass extending eastward from the center of Europe to the Pacific, its Christian ties to the East, rather than Rome, its culture walled off from the European Renaissance by two centuries of Tartar occupation and then, after another two centuries, forcibly and imperfectly harnessed to European models by Peter the Great, its self-image – no less than the image held of it by outsiders – replete with accumulated contradictions and mysteries. In the nineteenth century, this autocratic society astonished the world by producing several generations of brilliant novelists, playwrights, and poets whose art, broadly accessible and profoundly democratic, touched depths of human experience seldom plumbed before.  The main character in Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Chekhov seemed to Virginia Woolf to be the human soul itself, presented with unprecedented fullness, directness, and variety.  But by the time she wrote of these matters in the early 1920s, Russia had already passed through a brilliant Silver Age of modernist experiment in all the arts, and was now embarked on one of the defining experiences of the twentieth century, the great, tragic, and utopian experiment of Communism, which ended with unforeseen abruptness (and with consequences still unforeseeable) in 1991.  Here is endlessly fascinating material for students of human nature, modern writing in its many forms, political theory and practice, history, economics, high culture and mass culture—and it is available for firsthand exploration through an incomparably rich and expressive language which, once acquired, can be used to open new doors throughout a lifetime.

Whether you are interested in the language, culture, literature, or history and politics, you will find courses to exercise both your linguistic abilities and your mind, and a friendly community of students and faculty eager to welcome you to this fascinating area of study. The department's Russian program has the largest selection of courses of any college or university in the country, with a number of innovative "topic courses" at the intermediate and advanced levels.  Study here or study abroad, in dozens of locations from St. Petersburg to Siberia, for a unique and unforgettable language experience.  

Director of the Language Program

Steven J. Clancy Email:  [email protected] Barker Center 325 12 Quincy Street Cambridge, MA 02138 phone: (617) 495-4065

SCLA Conferences at Harvard

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Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies

About the program.

The Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies (CERES) at Georgetown University offers one of the nation’s most distinguished and influential master’s degree programs in Russian, Eurasian and East European Studies, and hosts a rich outreach program of events and conferences. Founded in 1959 to prepare scholars, policymakers and practitioners who understood the Soviet Union and could analyze its secretive system, CERES has evolved in the wake of the Soviet Union’s demise and today incorporates a variety of scholarly disciplines for the study of this culturally rich region. The Master of Arts in Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies (MAERES) degree provides students with a solid grounding in the languages and cultures of the region and multidisciplinary depth in the social sciences. Students in the program will achieve:

• knowledge of the region from broad disciplinary perspectives and using a variety of methodologies;
• the ability to integrate theoretical with practical knowledge of regional affairs;
• a thematically focused-curriculum that develops expertise;
• proficiency in at least one regional language;
• original research utilizing the student’s language of proficiency; and
• effective oral presentation and critical writing skills.

Connect with Us

Program Contact: Lisa Gordinier – [email protected]

Begin your application today!

Degrees Offered

Accelerated programs (georgetown students only), joint programs.

• M.A./Ph.D. (Government)

Admissions Requirements

For general graduate admissions requirements, visit the Office of Graduate Admission’s Application Information page. Review the  program’s website  for additional information on program application requirements. Application Materials required:

• Application Form
• Non-Refundable Application Fee
• Academic Statement of Purpose (see program website for specific information)
• Optional: Statement on Diversity, Personal Background & Contributions
• Writing Sample
• Letters of Recommendation (3)
• Transcripts – Applicants are required to upload to the application system copies of official transcripts from all undergraduate and graduate institutions attended. Visit the Office of Graduate Admission’s Application Information page for additional details and FAQs.
• TOEFL = 100 minimum
• IELTS = 7.5 minimum
• Language Skills: All applicants must include evidence that they have completed the equivalent of at least three years of college-level study of a language of the region relevant to their proposed course of study. Students may satisfy the CERES language requirement with an appropriate language of the region other than Russian. CERES places a strong emphasis on language proficiency and requires a portion of the degree credits to be taken in advanced language courses.

Application Deadlines

• January 15 (priority/scholarship)
• April 1 (final)

Degree Requirements

The M.A. degree curriculum is designed to take 4 semesters to complete. It requires:  

• 36 credit hours of course work, including two core courses (Introduction to Area Studies and the Capstone Seminar) and two advanced language courses;
• a presentation of the student’s research before CERES faculty and students prior to graduation.

Slavic Languages and Literatures Graduate Program

The department supports doctoral study in the literatures and cultures of the Slavic, East European, and Eurasian worlds, with primary strength in Russian and faculty expertise in Ukrainian, Polish, and Yiddish literatures. Core faculty in Slavic offer a broad geographic, linguistic and intellectual range of approaches to culture, including formal, historical, and philosophical approaches in literature, history and memory studies, digital techniques, and linguistic anthropology. For detailed information on the areas of research of the Slavic faculty, see Faculty .

Our students gain a broad expertise in the Russian canon even as they are required to take at least three courses in another field or discipline; some choose to complete a Ph.D. minor in at least another department or program. The department is part of the Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages, and our students may undertake cross-disciplinary work within the division through team-taught seminars, focal groups, research groups, lecture series, graduate conferences, and other opportunities for intellectual exchange with peers in cognate departments. In addition to Russian and one quarter of Old Church Slavonic, Ph.D. students in Slavic are required to learn to read at least two other languages: while they often choose french, German, or another Slavic language, they can make other choices depending on their research interests. To explore the languages offered at Stanford, see the Language Center .

Department benefits from experts in the Department of History, Art and Art History, Religious Studies, Theater and Performance Studies, Linguistics, Music, Political Science, and the Freeman Spogli Institute. Together with us, these faculty and their students constitute a very large and diverse community of scholars. The department maintains close links to the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies , which is a venue for lectures that complement the department's offerings; it hosts annual cohorts of M.A. students as well as research fellows. The department enjoys the wealth of the Stanford library system, with its dedicated Slavic curator . It also benefits from the proximity of the Hoover archive, with its world-renowned collections of Russian and Eurasian materials , which some of our students choose to use. 

The Division in general and Slavic in particular are known for their innovative approach to the cultural disciplines, personalized guidance of graduate students, and insistence on the highest intellectual standards. Stanford has been repeatedly voted the top university in the world in the humanities . Slavic offers various opportunities for collaboration between graduate students and faculty, including the co-organization of workshops , conferences, and team teaching. Graduate students have ample opportunity to present their work and are encouraged to prepare their best essays for publication and given ample help to do so. 

Graduate students in Slavic receive professional training in second language pedagogy, and they have the opportunity to teach for at least five quarters, including literature as well as language teaching. Language instruction takes place in the Stanford Language Center . Further training in teaching literature and culture is available in the department by working with faculty either as a teaching assistant or co-instructor. Our Ph.D.s graduate with an unusual combination of skills and cultural breadth, qualifying them to compete for a range of academic and non-academic positions. Our Ph.D.s have been successful in obtaining positions in research universities and small liberal arts colleges, as well as at research institutions, in academic administration, government, the technology sector, and other professional venues. 

Graduate students may also take advantage of the resources available in Stanford's Center for Teaching and Learning , where highly qualified staff provides support and training in public speaking and presentations, dissertation writing, effective teaching, and other professional skills. 

For more detailed information on our program, please see the corresponding pages in the Stanford Bulletin :

• Master of Arts in Slavic Languages and Literatures
• Doctor of Philosophy in Slavic Languages and Literatures
• Doctor of Philosophy Minor in Slavic Languages and Literatures

Graduate Program Application Details

Yuliya Ilchuk Director of Slavic Languages and Literatures Pigott Hall, Bldg 260 yilchuk [at] stanford.edu (yilchuk[at]stanford[dot]edu)

Judy Nugent Student Services Manager Pigott Hall, Bldg 260, Rm 127 (650) 723-1967 jnugent2 [at] stanford.edu (jnugent2[at]stanford[dot]edu)

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Doctoral Program

Program requirements.

The Ph.D. Program in Slavic Languages & Literatures requires completion of 90 credits, and includes five components —  coursework, completion of a graduate certificate, general exams, the dissertation, and the final exam. Students in the program designate a primary and secondary language of focus, and choose to complete either the literature or linguistics track.

1.   Coursework

While all of the core courses are required, the program is designed to allow you to take classes in areas that align with your fields of interest.  In consultation with your faculty adviser, you should choose courses that will help you prepare for the general exams.  In some cases, an independent study may be used to satisfy one or more requirements.

The coursework requirements are as follows (you can download a Literature Track or Linguistics Track spreadsheet to monitor your progress):

2.   Graduate Certificate

In addition to the coursework necessary for completing Ph.D. in Slavic Studies, all students must complete a Graduate Certificate, which will require you take additional courses not listed above.   All Graduate Certificate options can be found on the  Graduate School Website .  Once you have identified a few certificates of interest, you should consult with your faculty adviser to determine the certificate most beneficial for your course of study.

PLEASE NOTE : As per  Graduate School Policy 1.2.1 , t here are no restrictions regarding the number of credits that may apply to both a graduate certificate and towards the PhD in Slavic.  Students should discuss any class taken outside the department with their adviser to determine if it can also apply to Slavic program degree requirements.

3.   General Examina tion

The general examination includes both a written and oral part, and is meant to prepare you to write your dissertation.  The first step towards completing this degree requirement is setting up your Supervisory Committee .  You should start by asking a member of the Slavic Department Graduate Faculty to serve as the Chair of your Supervisory Committee.  Once he or she agrees, together you will form your four-member committee, which, in addition to the Committee Chair, includes two other graduate faculty members (at least one of whom must be from the Slavic Department), and a Graduate School Representative (GSR).   Guidance on selecting a suitable GSR may be found on the  Graduate School website.   Once all members of your proposed supervisory committee have accepted, the names of the committee members must be communicated to the Graduate Program Adviser so that your committee can be formally  established in MyGrad .  

The written part of your General Examination should be taken no later than the spring quarter of your third year, and consists of separate exams in two fields related to your areas of interest.  In consultation with your Supervisory Committee Chair, you will determine the two fields in which you will be examined, as well as the member(s) of your Supervisory Committee who will serve as the examiner(s) for each field.  You will then work with these examiners to develop a reading list for each field, establish the expectations for your responses, decide on the format each exam will take (a 4-hour in situ exam, or a 3-day take home exam), and determine the written exam schedule.   When developing reading lists, graduate students in Russian literature should refer to the general  Ph.D. Exam Reading List  established by departmental faculty.

The oral part of the General Examination should take place no later than the the fall of your fourth year, and consists of discussing the responses produced for the written part of the General Exam, as well as writing and presenting a dissertation prospectus and annotated bibliography (30-40 primary sources and 20-25 secondary sources). It is important to begin scheduling this exam early, as General Exam requests must be submitted to the Graduate School at least three weeks prior to the date of your exam and it can often be difficult to find a time in which all of your Supervisory Committee members are available.  Please also be aware that the oral exam may not take place during Finals Week.  Once you have found a time that is convenient for everyone, you will need to submit a Doctoral General Exam Request via MyGrad .

PLEASE NOTE : Students  may be excused from one field examination if their Supervisory Committee accepts a paper published in a reviewed journal in lieu of that examination.

3.   Dissertation

After the successful completion of the General Examination, your focus will turn toward writing your dissertation .  The Graduate School has many guidelines for writing and submitting the dissertation , which you should familiarize with early on in the process.  Expectations for the content and length of your dissertation should be discussed with the Chair of your Supervisory Committee, and will vary from student to student.  

During this period, you will also need to establish your Reading Committee , which is made up of at least 3 members of your Supervisory Committee.  As the name implies, the duty of this committee is to read your dissertation, and their approval is necessary before you schedule the Final Examination.  Once you have identified the members of your Supervisory Committee that will participate in your Reading Committee, and they have agreed to serve in this role, notify the Graduate Program Adviser so that the information can be entered into MyGrad.  

4.   Final Examination (Dissertation Defense)

After receiving the approval of your Reading Committee, you will defend your dissertation in a Final Examination that is open to all faculty and invited guests.  The exam consists of a 20-minute presentation in which you will introduce your research and findings, and is followed by a question and answer session.   You should be prepared to talk about how you chose your dissertation topic, the nature of your research, significant findings, and how your dissertation fits into the literature of the field, among other things. 

It is your responsibility to schedule your final examination, taking into consideration your committee members' availability and the Graduate School's dates and deadlines  and requirements for completing the dissertation defense .  Normally you will need a two-hour block of time for your defense.  Once you have identified a time and date for your exam, inform  the Graduate Program Adviser of when the exam will take place and the exact title of your dissertation (it will not be able to change after this point).  You will then need to officially schedule the exam with the Graduate School via MyGrad .  This should take place at least three weeks before the exam date.  

The Graduate School maintains a very useful Graduation Checklist , which you should consult to ensure all necessary steps have been completed.

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Slavic Languages and Literatures

Ph.d. requirements.

Ph.D. Requirements in Slavic and Eurasian Literatures and Cultures

Contact the Slavic Director of Graduate Studies with any questions about the Ph.D. requirements. More detailed information can be found in the Graduate Student Handbook .

Language Competency and Expectations

All entering students are expected to have sufficient knowledge of Russian to allow for satisfactory work at the graduate level and are required to pass a departmental proficiency examination in Russian. If needed, students are expected to augment their language proficiency with summer study, undergraduate classes, or individualized tutorials.

Students must also demonstrate competence in a second foreign language, as soon as possible or by the beginning of the fifth term of study. Students may choose to pursue proficiency in a second Slavic language; in a language useful for broader access to scholarship (often German or French in past years); in another relevant Eastern European or Eurasian language; or in any language relevant for well-motivated comparative work.

Course Requirements

All graduate students are required to take sixteen courses in their first two years of graduate study. Students are strongly encouraged to take ownership over their individualized programs of study and to explore diverse options both within and outside the Slavic Department.

All graduate students pursuing the Ph.D. in Russian Literature and Culture must take “Proseminar: Theory and Methods” (RUSS 851). In addition to this one mandatory course, all students must fulfill the following distributional requirements through graduate-level coursework:

Minimum of one course on Slavic literature or culture before the eighteenth century

Minimum of one course on eighteenth-century Slavic literature or culture

Minimum of two courses on nineteenth-century Slavic literature or culture

Minimum of two courses on twentieth-century Slavic literature or culture

Minimum of one course on twenty-first-century Slavic literature or culture

Minimum of two (but no more than four out of the required sixteen) courses outside the Slavic Department. 

Teaching Fellowships

Since the faculty consider teaching to be an integral part of graduate training, all graduate students are expected to teach for a total of four semesters (typically in the third and fourth years of study). Students are usually assigned two semesters of language teaching, during which time they are mentored and trained by a lead language lector, and two semesters of literature/culture teaching, for which they either run discussion sections for large-enrollment lecture courses, or serve as instructor-apprentices in small undergraduate seminars.

Minor Field Portfolio

As part of their program of study, students are responsible for developing a minor field of specialization in one of the following: (1) a second language or literature; (2) visual culture or one of the other arts; (3) a topic in intellectual history or a specific interdisciplinary approach; or (4) another discipline relevant to their primary interests. The minor field requirement is intended to offer students the opportunity to develop a meaningful expertise beyond their primary specializations in Russian literature and culture and often entails acquiring a familiarity with the driving questions and methodologies of another discipline.

Qualifying Paper

Students must submit a qualifying paper no later than September 1st of their third year. The paper, which in many cases will be a revised version of a seminar paper, should be developed in consultation with a faculty adviser. The paper should highlight original research and an ambitious conceptualization, possess a logical structure, and be clearly written.

The Comprehensive Examination and the Departmental Reading List

In early October of their third year, students will take a comprehensive examination on Russian literature and culture from the nineteenth century to the present. The comprehensive is split into two 6-hour take-home exams. This exam is meant to test the students’ knowledge of the broad scope of Russian literature and culture, as well as their ability to analyze various kinds of cultural products and position specific works within their historical, cultural, and critical contexts.

Students should use the   departmental reading list as a guide in preparing for this exam, but they are also welcome to draw from beyond the list in their answers. The reading list, which is periodically revised with faculty and student input, serves as the foundation for well-rounded erudition in Russian literature.  Students are expected to build on it based on their academic interests and research needs. We do not include other media or literary traditions in the reading list, and instead encourage students with serious interests (in film or in Polish literature, for example) to develop rigorous independent lists in consultation with specializing faculty. We provide opportunities to do so through minor field requirements and specialized qualifying exam reading lists.

The Qualifying Examination

In early December of their third year, students will take a qualifying examination based on two specialized reading lists. This exam is a one-hour oral exam with twenty-five minutes allotted to each list. The exam is meant to test the student’s knowledge of two specific areas of study, which often serve as important preparation for the development of a dissertation topic. For example, a student planning to write a dissertation on the nineteenth-century Russian realist novel might create a specialized list on the French and English realist novels or realism in music; or a student planning to write on post-Soviet drama might create a list on theories of performance in Russia and elsewhere.

The Pre-Prospectus Colloquium

In early February, after the successful completion of the comprehensive and qualifying examinations, students will present a preliminary version of their dissertation prospectus to a colloquium attended by all Slavic ladder faculty.

The Prospectus Presentation

In early April, students will present the final version of their dissertation prospectus to all students and faculty in the department. The prospectus presentation will take one hour, beginning with a ten-minute introduction by the student and followed by forty-five minutes of questions and suggestions from everyone in attendance. The point of including all faculty and students is to provide the student with as much feedback as possible, to give rising students a sense of what awaits them, and to foster collegiality in the department by making everyone aware of what others are working on.   

Admission to Candidacy and the M.Phil. Degree

To be admitted to candidacy, students must fulfill all of the graduate school and department pre-dissertation requirements described above and must be in good academic standing with the department. 

Students may petition the Graduate School to receive an en route M.Phil. degree. This can be done in the semester the student expects to complete all pre-dissertation requirements.

The Dissertation The dissertation is the culmination of the student’s work in the doctoral program and an important emblem of professional competence, intellectual rigor, and academic potential. As such, it should demonstrate mastery of a defined field of research and should articulate an original and substantive contribution to knowledge. While all dissertations should have clearly defined empirical and theoretical stakes and be grounded in appropriate methodological choices, each project will approach its central questions in necessarily distinct ways: some based more heavily in archival research, others shaped more profoundly by theoretical discussions, and still others determined by entirely different disciplinary or interdisciplinary demands. While working on their dissertation, students should remain attuned to questions of writerly craft and should strive for clarity and liveliness of their academic prose.

The First Chapter Talk

During the spring semester of the fourth year, students will deliver a forty-five-minute talk on their first chapter to the entire Slavic Department. This event is intended to serve not only as an early dissertation benchmark, but also as an opportunity for students to gain essential experience writing and delivering a long lecture.

Professional Development

The Yale Slavic Department is equally supportive of students who hope to follow a traditional academic path, students who embark on non-academic or hybrid careers, and students who change their minds throughout their course of study. Support for academic careers typically involves the faculty advisers’ intensive review of application materials (cover letters, CVs, research and teaching statements), mock interviews with faculty, mock job talks with the whole department, and assistance in negotiating offers. Departmental support for non-academic careers is more variable, but might involve writing letters of recommendation or assistance identifying potential mentors.

It is also important to note that in the Yale Slavic Department professional advising does not end with the student’s graduation. Former advisers and advisees are encouraged to remain in contact after graduation, so that the department can support alumni who are moving through postdoctoral fellowships or visiting positions, navigating a switch from one kind of employment to another, or in search of a permanent or more favorable position.

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Alumni Story

Why I Chose Russian & Slavic Studies

When I began to study Russian, my life bloomed into full color.

Dana Vandersip  | B.A. Russian Studies 1988 Vice-President of Development, Make-A-Wish Foundation

Ready to begin your studies? Declare Russian major or minor

Check out our listing of current and future courses. View Course Schedule

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Choose Russian and Slavic Studies for the...

• award winning teachers and advisors.
• proficiency-based language program in Russian.
• well-established Study Abroad programs to Russia and Kazakhstan.
• excellence, we have the only graduate program in Russian in the regional Rocky Mountain corridor (Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana) and Wyoming and New Mexico.
• diverse program in Russian literature, culture, linguistics, and language.
• world-renowned scholars in Russian and Slavic language, literatures, cultures, and linguistics.

Degrees and programs available

• Bachelor of Arts in Russian with two tracks: Language Intensive Track or Culture Intensive track.
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Katie is an  informed performer  who hopes to teach music one day. By learning Russian and understanding the culture behind the pieces she plays on her harp, she can express the music better.

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Slavic Studies

The Department of Slavic Studies at Brown University focuses on the study of Russian, Czech, and Polish cultures, literature, and languages.

Undergraduate Concentration

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Department of Slavic Studies Marston Hall Brown University 20 Manning Walk, Box E Providence, RI 02912

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Program in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies

The Program in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies seeks to offer undergraduate and graduate students a diverse curriculum by drawing on a core faculty in the humanities, history and social sciences.

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Slavic Languages and Literatures

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This program offers you the opportunity to study a broad range of Slavic traditions, including Russian, Ukrainian, Czech, Polish, Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian. This wide breadth of study allows you to choose the path that most interests you.

Examples of recent student dissertations include “Miracle, Mystery, Authority: The Rise of Governmentality in Early Modern Russia,” “Unseemly Selves: Russian Realism and Early Psychiatry,” “Life Laid Bare: The Lives and Deaths of Animals in Soviet Cinema,” “The Reemergence of the Epic and Its Use in Mythmaking among Members of the Eastern European Yiddish Avant-Garde from 1914-27,” and “Ivan the Terrible’s Queer Legacy in Art.”

Graduates of the program have gone on to secure faculty positions at prestigious institutions such as Carnegie Mellon University, Indiana University, and Yale University. Others have gone into careers at organizations such as Harvard University Press and positions in libraries, museums, translation, and film direction.

If you are interested in a terminal master’s degree, please review information on the  master’s degree in Regional Studies: Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia (REECA)  offered by the  Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies .

Additional information on the graduate program is available from the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures , and requirements for the degree are detailed in Policies .

Areas of Study

Linguistics | Literature

Admissions Requirements

Please review the admissions requirements and other information before applying. You can find degree program-specific admissions requirements below and access additional guidance on applying from the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures .

Academic Background

Applicants with traditional and nontraditional preparation in the field are welcome to apply, as long as their foreign language, linguistic, and literary studies skills are strong. Formal training in literature or linguistics is highly desirable for admission.

Writing Sample

A writing sample is required as part of the application and should be a recent and extensive sample of the student’s written work in English and should be between 20 to 25 pages.

Applicants should show knowledge of Russian or other Slavic language of their choice equivalent to the Slavic courses Russian 113 and Russian 114 (fourth-year level Russian). We welcome knowledge of French or German, although this is not a prerequisite.

Personal Statement

Standardized tests.

GRE General: Optional

The department ordinarily interviews finalists for admission in late January and early February.

Campus Visits

We welcome potential candidates who wish to come to Cambridge for informational interviews during the spring or fall before submitting an application. Students admitted to the program are typically invited to visit campus in the spring. Contact the director of graduate studies for more information.

Theses and Dissertations

Theses & Dissertations for Slavic Languages and Literatures

See list of Slavic Languages and Literatures faculty

APPLICATION DEADLINE

Questions about the program.

DEPARTMENT OF SLAVIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES

Graduate program.

The Ph.D. program in Slavic Languages and Literatures at Northwestern ranks among the very best in the country. It combines rigorous training with individual attention and the opportunity to pursue a personalized program by way of coursework taken outside the department.  All students specialize in Russian literature, although our faculty also includes specialists in Polish, Czech and South Slavic literatures and cultures.  

Our greatest strengths are in Russian prose and poetry, literary theory, and in the social and intellectual context of literary works. We emphasize interdisciplinary work in both teaching and research. We also provide excellent training in language pedagogy and key linguistic training. Our full-time faculty consists of six tenure-line professors and two full-time lecturers. Our departmental affiliates include NU faculty specializing in Russian and Eastern European history, art history, Jewish studies, theater, music, and political science. 

We believe strongly in crafting a plan of studies for each student that makes the most of his or her special abilities. For example, we offer independent study opportunities, in which students either develop a paper from a prior course or pursue a new project of their own design and turn it into a publishable paper or a presentation to be given at a professional conference.   As a result, the students acquire the skills necessary for creative thinking, original research, and professional development. We also encourage students to take advantage of the university's excellent resources in adjacent fields, such as film, theater, philosophy, comparative literature, history, and English.  See our Course descriptions.

Our students regularly receive university and external honors and fellowships for teaching, scholarship, and administration, including the inaugural Northwestern University Press Graduate Internship, the inaugural Graduate School Doctoral Internship, the Beiling Wu Prize in Writing for outstanding essay by a first-year graduate student in Humanities, the Weinberg College Outstanding Graduate Student Teacher Prize, the Mellon Dissertation Completion Fellowship, Midwest Graduate Student Teaching Award, and the Northwestern Presidential Fellowship. 

Northwestern's Searle Center for Advancing Learning and Teaching offers workshops and other opportunities for graduate students to improve their teaching skills.  Slavic graduate students Polina Maksimovich and Christopher Pike are shown here leading the New TA Conference, held every fall.

For general information about program requirements and opportunities, see our Graduate Student Handbook (revised fall 2020).

Those who have completed a Ph.D. in our Department now hold tenure-line (or equivalent) positions at top public and private institutions, including Harvard, Brown, Ohio State, UC Davis, University of British Columbia, Middlebury, Bristol (UK), Cambridge (UK), Lawrence University, and others.  See our Alumni page.

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First and leading U.S. academic institution in Russian, Eurasian and East European studies

Alexander Cooley and Emma Larson Publish the Military Base Timeline of Central Asia

Exhibit: Tatiana Levitskaia

Selections from the Kolodzei Art Foundation on display from 09/03 through 10/17.

Harriman Responds to Russia's War on Ukraine

The University of Tetova Recognizes Tanya Domi for Human Rights Advocacy

On display from 9/03 through 10/17.

Harriman Institute Responds to Russia's War on Ukraine

Public programs.

The National Security Novel

The Power of Three: The Triptych in Yugoslav Cinema

From Pushkin to Popular Culture: Essays by Catharine Theimer Nepomnyashchy

In Tribute to Mark von Hagen’s Contributions to Ukrainian Studies

Keith Gessen’s “Out of the Sky” in The New Yorker

Visiting Faculty Spotlight: Gábor Egry

Tanya Domi To Be Featured Speaker at Sarajevo Security Conference 2024

Academic programs.

The Harriman Institute offers a number of programs for students interested in Russia, Eurasia, and Eastern Europe, including a Master of Arts in Regional Studies (MARS-REERS) through the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences . The MARS-REERS degree program focuses on a multidisciplinary approach to the study of contemporary Russia, Eurasia, and Eastern Europe.

Harriman Courses

The Harriman Institute sponsors courses across departments and disciplines every semester. Review these as you make decisions and plans to study our region at Columbia.

Fellowships & Funding

Columbia ba/ma program, publications.

Summer 2021

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To the Russian and Slavic Studies Department at New York University.

The Russian and Slavic Studies Department offers a wide range of courses on Russian language, literature, history, and culture.

Academic Opportunities

Full list of internships, summer abroad programs, fellowships, and more.

Russian and Slavic Studies

Undergraduate, doctoral track information, m.a. in r&ss, graduate program, program information, study abroad in prague, gift announcement - rybak family ukrainian lecture & research endowed fund - may 2024.

2023 Toynbee Prize | Toynbee Prize Foundation

MLA AWARDS SCAGLIONE PRIZE FOR STUDIES IN SLAVIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES

Rossen Djagalov, New York University. for From Internationalism to Postcolonialism: Literature and Cinema between the Second and Third Worlds  (McGill-Queen's Univ. Press. 2020)

Honorable Mention

Anne Lounsbery, New York University, for Life is Elsewhere: Symbolic Geography in the Russian Provinces, 1800-1917  (NIU Pres / Cornell Univ. Press, 2019)

Annual 2019 Poetry Contest

Fulbright ETA Georgia Conference

NYU Russian and Slavic Studies Event - Careers in Russian 10/12/17

Meet Our Librarian

Alla Roylance  - New York University Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, Slavic Libranian 

The Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia

The Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia was established in 2011 thanks to a generous gift from the family of NYU alumni Boris and Elizabeth Jordan. The mission of the Center is to make Russia intrinsic to all aspects of scholarly investigation: from history to visual culture, literature to economics, anthropology to politics. Visit their website here for details of other events and news.

WHERE TO FIND US

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R&ss spotlight.

New York University's Russian and Slavic Studies Department is proud of its faculty, students, and supporters!

Graduate Student. Stephen Cohen Fellowship Scholar

Department Chair, Professor

Graduate Student, Stephen Cohen Fellowship Scholar

Best Russian Studies colleges in the U.S. 2024

Best russian studies colleges in the u.s. for 2024.

Emory University offers 2 Russian Studies degree programs. It's a large, private not-for-profit, four-year university in a large city. In 2022, 3 Russian Studies students graduated with students earning 3 Bachelor's degrees.

University of Maryland-College Park offers 1 Russian Studies degree programs. It's a very large, public, four-year university in a large suburb.

University of Washington-Seattle Campus offers 2 Russian Studies degree programs. It's a very large, public, four-year university in a large city. In 2022, 2 Russian Studies students graduated with students earning 2 Master's degrees.

University of California-Santa Barbara offers 1 Russian Studies degree programs. It's a very large, public, four-year university in a midsize suburb. In 2022, 1 Russian Studies students graduated with students earning 1 Bachelor's degree.

Harvard University offers 1 Russian Studies degree programs. It's a very large, private not-for-profit, four-year university in a midsize city.

University of California-Los Angeles offers 1 Russian Studies degree programs. It's a very large, public, four-year university in a large city. In 2022, 3 Russian Studies students graduated with students earning 3 Bachelor's degrees.

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign offers 2 Russian Studies degree programs. It's a very large, public, four-year university in a small city. In 2022, 2 Russian Studies students graduated with students earning 1 Bachelor's degree, and 1 Master's degree.

Brandeis University offers 1 Russian Studies degree programs. It's a medium sized, private not-for-profit, four-year university in a small city. In 2022, 2 Russian Studies students graduated with students earning 2 Bachelor's degrees.

University of Michigan-Ann Arbor offers 2 Russian Studies degree programs. It's a very large, public, four-year university in a midsize city. In 2022, 1 Russian Studies students graduated with students earning 1 Bachelor's degree.

The University of Texas at Austin offers 2 Russian Studies degree programs. It's a very large, public, four-year university in a large city. In 2022, 9 Russian Studies students graduated with students earning 6 Master's degrees, and 3 Bachelor's degrees.

Find local colleges with Russian Studies majors in the U.S.

List of all russian studies colleges in the u.s..

Title: The Carnegie Report: A study on MA Russia/Eurasia programs in the USA

The Carnegie Report showcases data collected from 8 well-known masters of Russia/Eurasia programs in the US over the span of 8 years, including Georgetown University’s Masters in Eurasian, Russian, and East European Studies (MAERES).  The study looks at variables such as applications, cohort sizes and student characteristics per school.  In addition to this, the study provides an overview of curricula, tuition and more.

Download and read The Carnegie Report in its original format.

The report is also outlined below:

THE STATE OF M.A. RUSSIA/EURASIA PROGRAMS IN THE UNITED STATES

Report Prepared for the Carnegie Corporation by Andrew Kuchins and Jesse Mitchell.

Introduction

In July 2015, the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) published a study authored by Theodore Gerber entitled The State of Russian Studies in the United States. This comprehensive assessment employed quantitative and qualitative analysis from 36 universities regarding faculty appointments, undergraduate and undergraduate training, research, partnerships with regional institutions and scholars, possible bias in scholarship and media, numbers of public events, and other issues. The study focused its analysis of graduate training on Ph.D. programs for social scientists, historians, and Slavicists. While its conclusions on many aspects of the field, such as research, were on the positive side, it identified two serious concerns: 1) The field of Russian studies in the social sciences was described as facing “…a crisis: an unmistakable decline in interest and numbers in terms of both faculty and graduate students” and 2) The dramatic decrease in funding from both government, federal and state, and private foundations also raises concerns that the United States will have enough well-trained experts in the field in the future.

With its principal focus on Ph.D. training, the report provided much less information on the status of M.A. ERES programs despite acknowledging their importance for the field.

“MA programs are very important. They sustain demand for graduate-level courses on Russia in social sciences that probably would not be taught otherwise because there are too few PhD students who want to take them. They provide a pipeline of graduates with at least introductory language skills and area expertise to work in government, think tanks, NGOs, and private sector jobs. They also prepare some for PhD level studies in a discipline with an initially strong background in Russia…They also can furnish a critical mass of graduate-level students to provide a sense of community and common intellectual enterprise at the inter-disciplinary area studies centers.”

This report is designed to augment the 2015 ASEEES study to bring additional quantitative and qualitative data about the state of MA ERES programs in the United States. We solicited data from 10 leading MA programs identified in the ASEEES study through questionnaires for program directors as well as for students. 8 programs agreed to take part in the study, and this report is based on the information we received in questionnaires. This data comprised the period from 2010-18. We selected this time period both to possibly show some trends over time but not to overburden program administrators with too much additional work providing more historical data that may be hard to find or simply not exist. We also sought to capture the pre-and post-2014 periods to see what impact the combination of the onset of the Ukraine crisis coupled with the sharp curtailment of federal Title VI and Title VIII funding may be discernible from the data.

Before sharing some conclusions, we should acknowledge from the outset that we purposefully sought information from a smaller number of institutions that are regarded as leaders in the field, so this selection bias may lead to somewhat more positive conclusions than a wider survey. Nevertheless, some of the key conclusions are consistent with the broader 2015 ASEEES study and are revealing of some of the successes of the field as well as challenges it faces going forward.

Similarly to the 2015 ASEEES study, the picture drawn from our study of leading MA ERES programs is rather mixed. For the majority of programs, the numbers of students matriculating, while varying yearto-year, has remained fairly steady with the exception of smaller numbers at Indiana and Columbia. The level of student satisfaction with their programs is high, and all programs report 90+% job placement or continuing education within a year from graduation. However, all programs are not tracking how many of their graduates may be leaving the field. One clear trend is that the age of matriculation overall has dropped several years over the time period. Students choose programs for reasons of financial support and location mainly, with financial support looking to be the determinative factor.

The biggest concerns from the standpoint of program directors not surprisingly are fairly consistent with some of the conclusions of the ASEEES study. The first has to do with aging faculty in the social sciences whose positions are often not replaced with a younger cohort with regional expertise. While some programs have a few faculty positions they have the authority and resources to fill, all acknowledge that they have very little influence over departmental hiring decisions. The other concern is with some Slavicist positions that are not being renewed with departmental retirements.

Another major concern is for the financial sustainability of the programs, and this relates both to financial aid for students as well as faculty positions. Ideally programs would have more endowed chairs to ensure more continuity with faculty expertise. The rising costs of tuition coupled with the smaller pool of public and private funds for financial aid causes students to face increasingly high opportunity costs in thinking about pursuing an MA ERES degree.

Finally, the deep trough in US-Russia relations is a real concern. While by some measures US-Russia relations are as bad as they were during the later Cold War period, security threats arising from this deterioration in ties do not garner the urgent attention of the Washington policy community and thus federal funding as they did during the Cold War. Indeed, the Obama administration cut Title VI funding for Russia/Eurasia Studies in 2014, the very year that Russia annexed Crimea, launched a war in Southeastern Ukraine and had far-reaching economic sanctions imposed on it by the United States. Indeed, it was hoped that at the end of the Cold War that stronger economic ties between US companies and Russia would create new job opportunities for M.A. graduates in the private sector. Those hopes, however, have been dashed by the difficulty of operating in the Russian market, the absence of a legal system that protects investors’ rights and the US-imposed economic sanctions that make engaging with Russia a very risky legal and economic proposition for American companies.

Director Survey Results

During the summer of 2018, the academic directors of Russian and Eastern European MA programs were surveyed from the following universities: Harvard, Indiana, Georgetown, Columbia, Stanford, Yale, and Wisconsin-Madison. The Fletcher School at Tufts University also provided a completed survey; however, the Russia and Eurasia Program was launched in 2018, and survey responses included data for the wider student body of the school.

Responses listed here have been standardized when needed to make summaries and comparisons. Data presented here, when not otherwise noted, starts in 2010 and ends with the spring semester of 2018.

Applications and Students

The programs included in the survey received over 2,200 applications from 2010 to 2018. Georgetown University received the largest number of applications, with 535, followed by Harvard and Columbia with 351 and 340. In general, about a quarter of applicants matriculate.

On average, Georgetown has the largest cohort size, while Stanford and the University of Wisconsin Madison have the smallest.

The directors of the MA programs described the average ages of the students in their programs to be in their mid-twenties. Georgetown noted that while the average age of the students was 28 in 2010, that number has been falling, and it was 23 by 2017. Harvard noted that their students’ ages range from their early twenties to their early thirties. Specific averages from 2010-2018 at UW-Madison and Columbia were 26.7 years and 24.4 years.

The number of international students varies widely by program. Over a third of Yale’s students come from abroad, while UW-Madison has no international students in its program.

While Harvard, Columbia, and Georgetown have had more women than men in their programs, Yale, Indiana, and UW-Madison have had more men.

Academic Requirements

There appear to be broad similarities in M.A. curriculum requirements. Each requires a thesis project including original research with potential to publish. Each has regional language requirements and course requirements on students’ focus of study. All programs with the exception of Stanford, which is a one-year program, are designed as two-year MA programs. Most offer the possibility of joint degrees, although few students choose this option. More common is for students to receive a less-demanding certificate in another area of expertise offered at the graduate level.

Language requirements to enter the MA programs vary among the schools. Georgetown, Stanford, and Indiana require previous regional language study. While the other programs do not have formal requirements, they emphasize that previous language study is important or strongly recommended. While most schools require students to complete a certain number of language courses to graduate, Indiana, Yale, and Columbia require demonstrated levels of proficiency to graduate.

The number of credits required to graduate and capstone requirements vary among programs. Most programs reported only minor changes to their curriculums since 2010. More significantly, Georgetown and UW-Madison both reduced the number of credits required to complete their MA programs. It should be noted that universities count credits in different ways, so the credit requirements listed below are not always comparable.

All of the programs surveyed offer either joint degrees or certificates, with the exception of Harvard. However, the number and proportion of students that choose to pursue these opportunities is different at each school.

Every program surveyed has a program common area or lounge, except for Indiana.

Faculty and Staff

Each program draws on faculty from a wide variety of disciplines to offer very diverse course offerings for their students thus accentuating the multidisciplinary nature of the institutes/centers themselves and the nature of the degrees awarded. While each program has significant degree credit requirements, it is possible for students to design their programs for a variety of job and continuing education outcomes. All programs rely primarily on full-time university faculty, but Columbia, Fletcher, and Georgetown take advantage of the wealth of expertise in the New York, Boston, and Washington areas by employing a significant number of part-time or adjunct faculty as well. Several programs also have the capacity to host many visiting scholars who both can enrich course offerings as well as the resident expertise on a wider number of number of issues and disciplines.

The number of faculty at each school is difficult to compare due to the multi-disciplinary nature of the area studies programs, where faculty are housed in different departments. Frequently because of this same reason, program directors explained that they have little to no input regarding faculty hiring.

While Georgetown and Columbia’s programs have control over adjunct hires, they do not control other related departments’ hiring. The other programs surveyed have no direct control over hiring.

Programs reported that art history, political science, and Central Asia represent gaps in disciplines and subjects taught at the universities.

Program Funding and Student Aid

The programs surveyed are funded by a mix of private and public funds. While Georgetown and Columbia use private sources to offer funding to incoming students, Stanford and UW-Madison use public aid sources. Harvard, Indiana, and Yale use both public and private sources to provide student aid. Yale, Stanford, UW-Madison, Harvard, and Indiana receive FLAS funding from the Department of Education.

Programs offer substantial aid to incoming students. Most programs offer financial aid as well as fellowships and assistantships. While Stanford and Harvard do not provide fellowships or assistantships, they do provide some aid to nearly all students.

Nearly every program director voluntarily expressed concerns regarding the availability of student aid funding and program financing in the future. Responses to a survey question asking, “What are your greatest institutional concerns?” explained that government and university funding for regional studies are declining, and that less aid will mean fewer well qualified students.

Program costs and tuition varies depending on whether the schools are public or private, and the number of credits required to graduate. Indiana and UW-Madison, both public schools, offer the lowest tuition. Columbia and Harvard have the highest tuition rates. Few students, however, pay the full tuition rate.

Program Directors’ Concerns about their Institutions and the Field

Program directors’ concerns about the status of their position within their universities and broader concerns about the field produced a diverse set of responses, and in some cases it was difficult to separate concerns within their university from broader concerns about the field. But, unsurprisingly, a few common themes emerged.

Virtually all programs shared concerns about financial support for their programs. The greatest concern was the cutbacks in federal funding for scholarships, but the state schools also expressed concerns about cutbacks in state funding. Several institutions expressed concern about continued support from their universities, and one director stated a perception that their university was cutting back more broadly on support for international and area studies, not just Russia and Eurasia. Another director observed that their university had cut back on funding for staff support for their MA program despite the fact it continued to matriculate the same number of students. Another concern expressed by several directors was the lack of interest their university’s development office to support fundraising from private donors. The main worry about financial support across the board was insufficient funding for prospective students, especially those who may be very strong and motivated but are already overwhelmed with student debt burden.

The second issue that received the most attention in the survey was the drift of social sciences away from regional studies—an issue that earned much attention also in the 2015 ASEEES Report. Centers administering MA ERES study programs have no institutional power over departmental hires. The principal means to influence this is through Center faculty participation on departmental search committees.

Another concern articulated by several program directors was the lack of qualified undergraduates for advanced MA studies, as one observed that overall the level of regional expertise and language skills developed at the undergraduate level has decreased in recent years. Another program director expressed this concern in a rather different way, the risk of “oversaturation of REES MA programs given the pool of qualified students.”

The final category of observations to be noted have to do with the fall-out from deteriorating bilateral US-Russia relations and the domestic political environment in both countries. For example, the large cutbacks in embassy/consulate staffs in both countries has significantly prolonged the process of obtaining visas on both sides. More broadly , the political environment in both countries has resulted in greater ideological and bureaucratic barriers to partnerships, for example the Foreign Agents legislation in Russia as well as increasing constraints on USG funding for travel and study in Russia.

Student Outcomes

Every program surveyed offers tailored career services, and where the data is available, graduates from the programs successfully find employment. Most programs did not know how many students left the Russian and East European studies field. Stanford estimated that fewer than a quarter of their graduates left the field, while UW-Madison estimated that about half of their graduates left the field.

In sum, the picture gleaned from these surveys suggests a field clearly facing challenges, but hardly in crisis. The two factors that could darken this picture would be a more dramatic decrease in social science PhDs to maintain these interdisciplinary programs and further cutbacks in financial aid available for students. It should be noted, however, that there is a selection bias in this study since we purposefully sought data from the top 10 rated programs in the country, so virtually by definition they are less likely to be experiencing difficulties as lesser rated programs.

Student Survey

During the summer of 2018, 86 students of Russian and Eastern European MA programs were surveyed from the following universities: Harvard, Indiana, Georgetown, Columbia, Stanford, Yale, Wisconsin-Madison, and Fletcher. Because of the varied nature of the responses, rather than present a narrative we present selected answers to questions, tables and a graph. Responses listed here have been standardized when needed to make summaries and comparisons.

Entering the Field

In answering why they chose to pursue an MA, students spoke of their future careers, the desire to build language skills, and the path to a PhD. Specifically, in the 86 responses received, “career” was mentioned 23 times and “PhD” 18 times.

Examples of typical responses include:

– “To increase career opportunities” – “To gain additional regional expertise and explore the possibility of pursuing a PhD in Soviet/Russian history” – “More interesting employment opportunities” – “I did not want to immediately enter the workforce after undergrad” – “To improve my language skills and understanding of the region” – “Better job prospects, higher pay, more networking”

Students answered that they chose their particular field for similar reasons, listing their desire to pursue a field that would enhance their future careers and wanting to improve Russian language skills. In addition, students noted that they were interested in the region and the subject matter.

Examples of illustrative responses include: – “It is a way to apply my prior academic experience in real-world situations” – “Russia is an important country to know more about and Russian is a useful language to know” – “Interest in international relations, prior language study” – “Russian is a [U.S. Government] critical needs language”

Students entering MA programs had obtained bachelor’s degrees in a number of fields. Most common were students who had majored in social sciences, followed closely by regional languages. Next were students who had majored in Russian and East European Studies, followed by other humanities.

Of the students surveyed, about 65% had some full-time work experience. Of those 65%, each student had, on average, 3.9 years of work experience.

Language Studies

Student respondents had a variety of backgrounds in Russian language studies. Excluding native speakers and those choosing not to take Russian, students had on average a bit more than three and a half years of Russian language study before joining their MA programs.

Native speakers of Russian represented about a quarter of those who matriculated.

Students expected their level of Russian to improve over the course of their studies, estimating that they would improve by half of a year’s equivalent of language study by the end of their program.

About a quarter (23%) of respondents indicated that they studied at least one other regional language while studying in their MA program. The most common languages listed were Ukrainian, Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian, and Persian.

Program Perceptions

Student respondents listed several reasons for choosing their particular institutions and programs.

The most common reasons concerned finances. In the 86 responses, students explained that they made their program choice by mentioning the term “financial” 17 times, “funding” 16 times, and “aid” 11 times. “Reputation” was mentioned 16 times by students. “Location” was used 14 times and “professors” 10 times.

Examples of illustrative responses include: – “Excellent reputation and was recommended by mentors” – “Because it has a very good international reputation and because they have a good financial aid program” – “Academic rigor and prestige” – “Location, prestige, course offerings” – “Generous financial aid” – “Close to a lot of opportunities, especially federal”

When describing what is exceptional about their MA programs, respondents mentioned “professors” most often, using the word 22 times, with the term “faculty” being used an additional 11 times. “Courses” was used 14 times, “flexibility” 13 times, and “opportunities” 12 times.

Examples of typical responses include: – “Faculty and flexibility in course requirements” – “Courses are very practical, i.e. professors try to teach you skills you can actually apply to a real life job” – “Flexibility of program – Support for innovative and creative projects – Warmth of atmosphere” – “The interdisciplinary approach (ability to choose courses across departments), the course content, the endless career opportunities, and most importantly, in my opinion, the professors”

Respondents were asked to rate their programs on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest. Overall, students responded that they were very satisfied with their programs, rating them 4.56 out of 5, on average.

Student Satisfaction with Programs

When describing what is missing from their MA programs, students listed a variety of deficiencies. The word “courses” was mentioned 14 times, “opportunities” 11 times, and “career” 6 times. “Support” and “funding” were each discussed 6 times.

– “I am very content with everything my program has to offer” -“More opportunities to study abroad” – “I wish all incoming students were fully funded” – “More Russia-focused classes, scholarships/grants to travel abroad, Russia/Eurasia-related paid research positions” – “A more tightly knit cohort, an advisor that could actually advise students keeping their particular interests in mind” – “Student diversity from US (i.e. lack of African-Americans, Latino-Americans, etc.)” – “I believe there is sometimes too much of a focus on Russia, and less on other FSU countries” – “Funding. Transparency about funding”

Employment During and After the Program

The number of students who interned during their MA studies varied widely among programs. Overall, about 39% of students responded that they had interned at least once during their programs.

In describing which sector they expected to enter after graduating, a plurality of students (39%) responded that they would enter the public sector. About a quarter (23%) expect to work in the private sector, and 14% intend to continue their education.

Live the Russian language and culture—from interpreting poetry and learning the balalaika to discussing post-Soviet politics and mastering etiquette—at the Kathryn Wasserman Davis School of Russian.

Spend a summer at the School of Russian and you’ll experience the single most effective method for rapid language acquisition: a total immersion environment with the Language Pledge® —a promise to read, write, speak, and listen only in your language of study.

Recognized as one of the world’s best Russian language programs, the Kathryn Wasserman Davis School of Russian has been offering its unique blend of cultural and language immersion since 1945. Each program is open to undergraduates, recent graduates, graduate students at other institutions, professionals, and lifelong learners.

Russian Program Options

Apply to a program based on your language proficiency. High school graduates to 80+ years old are eligible.

• 8-week immersion program for beginner to advanced students who want to improve language proficiency as rapidly as possible. Please see summer Dates and Fees . 
• Graduate program options for students seeking a degree or graduate-level courses. Please see graduate Dates and Fees . 
• Refresher Course (4-week online) for School of Russian alumni or other students with a solid foundation in Russian who have been away from the language for a while, from a few years to a few decades.
• Advanced Online Course (4-week online) for students who wish to take a “deep dive” into an advanced topic and explore the subtleties of usage by educated native speakers of Russian.
• Heritage Program (4-week in person) is for heritage learners who grew up speaking Russia and seek to strengthen their reading, writing, and knowledge of grammar.

Live in Language

During the Russian language classes, our dedicated faculty will guide you in discovering a language that is alive and ever-changing, helping you gain both the confidence and tools necessary to take your skills to the next level.

Outside the classroom, you’ll choose from cocurricular activities that explore the range of historical and contemporary Russian culture, each activity designed to help you build new vocabulary while developing cultural fluency.

Thanks to the support of generous donors (including Language Schools alumni) and Middlebury’s commitment to provide an opportunity for as many students as possible, we are pleased to offer need-based financial aid and merit-based fellowships and scholarships .

You’ll find several options available for both the immersion and graduate programs, as well as funding for specific languages of study.

MA Degree Program

Degree program.

CREEES’s one-year interdisciplinary Master of Arts (MA) degree program in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies (REEES) provides students with a strong grounding in historical and contemporary processes of change in the Russian Federation, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia.  Core requirements provide intellectual cohesion, while electives and the capstone project give students the flexibility to pursue their own academic and professional interests drawing on Stanford’s excellence in teaching and research and rich library and archival resources.  The REEES MA program prepares students for a range of professional and academic careers. 

All students in the MA REEES program must complete a minimum of  48 academic credit units .  All course work applied to the 48-unit minimum must focus primarily with REEES, be taken at the graduate level (usually 200-level, and above), and be approved by the CREEES Associate Director,  ensuring that planned course work satisfies requirements towards the degree.  Students may enroll up for up to 18-units per quarter In the Autumn, Winter, and Spring Quarters (56 units, total, in given academic year). The MA program is typically completed in one academic year; in some cases, longer periods of study may be permitted. Details regarding REEES MA degree requirements can be found in the  Stanford Bulletin .

Core Requirements

Core Courses : Students must complete 3 core courses. Usually one course per quarter in the Autumn, Winter, and Spring Quarters in the 2024-2025 academic year. CREEES MA students must enroll in the required core courses for 5 units, for a letter grade, and with the REES course subject code.  Core course offerings may change every year.  The core courses offered in the 2024-2025 academic year are:

Autumn Quarter 2024: 

REES 221: Ukraine at a Crossroads (Instructor: Yuliya Ilchuk)

Winter Quarter 2025: 

REES 225E: From Vladimir to Putin: Key Themes in Russian History (Instructors: Nancy Kollmann and Amir Weiner)

REES 219: A New Cold War? Great Power Relations in the 21st Century (Instructor: Michael McFaul)

• REES 231B. Understanding Russia: Its Power and Purpose in a New Global Order (Instructor: Kathryn Stoner)

Core Seminar Series : All students are required to enroll in REES 200. Current Issues in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies in Autumn and Winter quarters (2 units, total). The goal of this seminar series is to survey current methodological and substantive issues in Russian, East European and Eurasian studies, acquaint students with Stanford resources and faculty, and present professional development and career options.

Interdisciplinary Course Work : Students take 1-2 elective courses per quarter. Courses in REEES that count towards the MA degree program requirements must be completed and distributed among at least three disciplines.  A list of pre-approved courses for each academic year can be found in the  Stanford Bulletin . Students can petition to have courses that do not appear on this list counted towards the degree.

Language Study : Students study Russian, an East European or Central Asian language, or a language from the Caucasus each quarter they are enrolled in the MA degree program. The Stanford Language Center can offer over a dozen area language courses .

The CREEES Associate Director works with each student to design a course of study that optimally meets the student's academic and professional interests, needs, and goals.

Capstone Thesis

The capstone thesis is a central component of the CREEES MA program, which allows students to produce a work of original scholarship during their year in the program. Students must complete the capstone thesis under the supervision of a faculty advisor, and in consultation with the CREEES Director and Associate Director. Students work on the thesis over the course of their entire time in the program, participating in a series of capstone-focused workshops throughout the year. They also enroll in the REES 300.  MA Capstone Seminar  for 1 unit in Spring Quarter.

MA Profiles

How to apply.

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• Nation & World

Ukraine renews calls on the West to approve long-range strikes on Russian territory

Meanwhile, officials in Moscow have continued to make public statements warning that long-range strikes would provoke further escalation between Russia and the West.

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A Ukrainian serviceman, left, is greeted after being released in a prisoner exchange at an undisclosed location in Ukraine on Saturday. Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine made a new call Saturday on the West to allow it to strike deeper into Russia after a meeting between U.S. and British leaders a day earlier produced no visible shift in their policy on the use of long-range weapons.

“Russian terror begins at weapons depots, airfields, and military bases inside the Russian Federation,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Andriy Yermak said Saturday. “Permission to strike deep into Russia will speed up the solution.”

As U.S. and Ukraine debate arms restrictions, Blinken visits Kyiv

The renewed appeal came as Kyiv said Russia launched more drone and artillery attacks into Ukraine overnight.

Ukrainian officials have repeatedly called on allies to greenlight the use of Western-provided long-range weapons to strike targets deep inside Russian territory. So far, the U.S. has allowed Kyiv to use American-provided weapons only in a limited area inside Russia’s border with Ukraine.

Discussions on allowing long-range strikes were believed to be on the table when President Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer met in Washington on Friday but no decision was announced immediately.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been pressing the U.S. and other allies to allow his forces to use Western weapons to target air bases and launch sites farther afield as Russia has stepped up assaults on Ukraine’s electricity grid and utilities before winter. Advertisement

He did not directly comment on the meeting Saturday morning but said that more than 70 Russian drones had been launched into Ukraine overnight. The Ukrainian air force later said that 76 Russian drones had been sighted, of which 72 were shot down.

“We need to boost our air defense and long-range capabilities to protect our people,” Zelensky wrote on social media. “We are working on this with all of Ukraine’s partners.”

Other overnight attacks saw one person killed by Russian artillery fire as energy infrastructure was targeted in Ukraine’s Sumy region. A 54-year-old driver was killed and seven more people were hospitalized, Ukraine’s Ministry of Energy said.

A KAB aerial bomb also fell on a garage complex in the eastern city of Kharkiv, said regional Gov. Ihor Terekhov. No injuries were reported.

MOSCOW WARNS WESTERN NATIONS

Meanwhile, officials in Moscow have continued to make public statements warning that long-range strikes would provoke further escalation between Russia and the West. The remarks are in line with the narrative the Kremlin has promoted since early in the war, accusing NATO countries of de-facto participation in the conflict and threatening a response. Advertisement

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told state news agency Tass on Saturday that the U.S. and British governments were pushing the conflict, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, toward “poorly controlled escalation.”

Russia expels U.K. diplomats; Putin warns against strikes with Western weapons

Biden on Friday brushed off similar comments by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said on Thursday that allowing long-range strikes “would mean that NATO countries, the United States and European countries, are at war with Russia.”

Asked what he thought about Putin’s threat, Biden answered, “I don’t think much about Vladimir Putin.”

POW’S EXCHANGED

Russian and Ukrainian officials also announced on Saturday a prisoner swap brokered by the United Arab Emirates. It included 206 prisoners on both sides, including Russians captured in Ukraine’s incursion in the Kursk region.

The swap is the eighth of its kind since the beginning of 2024 and puts the total number of POWs exchanged at 1,994. Previous exchanges were also brokered by the UAE.

Both sides released images of soldiers traveling to meet friends and family, with Zelensky commenting, “Our people are home.”

Elsewhere, Russia’s Defense Ministry said that 19 Ukrainian drones had been shot down over the country’s Kursk and Belgorod regions. No casualties were reported.

Related Headlines

NATO military committee chair, others back Ukraine’s use of long range weapons to hit Russia

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