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REES 85B: Jews in the Contemporary World: Culture, Pop Culture, and Representation (HISTORY 85B, JEWISHST 85B)

(HISTORY 85B is 3 units; HISTORY 185B is 5 units.) From Barbra Streisand to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, from The Dybbuk to Broad City, and from Moscow to LA, this course applies a multicultural perspective on different experiences of Jewishness in the 20th and 21st centuries. The discussion is centered on the ways in which these experiences are represented in various types of media: in literature or on TikTok, in poetry or on Instagram, in film and on television. The themes of the course include (but are not limited to) the interplay of national, religious, ethnic, linguistic, and political identities, intersectionality, the definitions and boundaries of Jewish cultures, Queer and variously gendered experiences of Jewishness, as well as antisemitism and stereotyped representations of Jewishness. The course introduces students to the analysis of a diverse array of media as cultural texts and historical sources. Students are encouraged to apply their new skills to media of their choice.
Last offered: Spring 2023 | Units: 3 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

REES 100: Current Issues in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies (REES 200)

Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia comprise a vast region of the world that is vitally important politically, strategically, historically and culturally. This seminar series brings leading experts, from around the world - scholars and practitioners - representing a broad range of fields, to share their cutting-edge research and insights into the challenges and issues that have confronted this region in a global context.nnNote: Class meets Fridays 12:00-1:00pm in Encina Commons 123.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr | Units: 1-2 | Repeatable 3 times (up to 3 units total)

REES 100B: Current Issues in Baltic Affairs (HISTORY 2B, REES 200B)

The Baltic States, comprising a geopolitical region of the world encompassing Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, is vitally important politically, strategically, historically and culturally. This seminar series brings leading experts, from around the world - scholars and practitioners - representing a broad range of fields, to share their cutting-edge research and insights into the challenges and issues that have confronted this region in a global context. Class meets Wednesdays 12:00-1:00pm in CISAC - Encina Hall, Reuben Hills Conference room (E207).
Terms: Spr | Units: 1-2 | Repeatable 3 times (up to 6 units total)
Instructors: ; Weiner, A. (PI); Esse, L. (SI)

REES 110: Politics and Society in Early Soviet Russia: View from the Hoover Library & Archives (HISTORY 228C, HISTORY 328C, REES 211)

The course offers an examination of early Soviet history (1917-1924) based on the archival collections, digital records, and rare books and periodicals in the Hoover Library & Archives, with a focus on the papers of the American Relief Administration and the Soviet famine of 1921. Topics include Bolshevik ideology, the role of the Communist Party, Russian-Ukrainian relations, the formation of the USSR, Soviet economic policy, Soviet foreign policy and the Communist International, the secret police and political repression, culture under the Bolsheviks, demographic shifts and refugee movements, and the famine of 1921, in which six million people perished. Students will become familiar with how to research and interpret primary sources. Class will meet in Hoover Tower, in a secure room where students can work with archival and rare library materials, including early Soviet newspapers and journals. Course is open to graduate students and upper-level undergraduates. Students may take the course for either 3 or 5 units. Those enrolled for 5 units will submit a research paper. Russian language ability is not required. Offered in conjunction with the Hoover Library & Archives exhibition Bread + Medicine: Saving Lives in a Time of Famine.
Last offered: Winter 2023 | Units: 3-5

REES 117: The Eurasian World From Plato to NATO: History, Politics, and Culture (HISTORY 127, POLISCI 142, REES 217, SLAVIC 117)

The course explores the history, politics and culture of the Eurasian space, covering themes such as the rise and fall of civilizations; political and ideological movements; literature and art; and geopolitics. See HISTORY 127 for section schedule details.
Terms: Spr | Units: 3

REES 128: Literature of the former Yugoslavia (COMPLIT 128, SLAVIC 128)

What do Slavoj Zizek, Novak Djokovic, Marina Abramovic, Melania Trump, Emir Kusturica, and the captain of the Croatian national football team have in common? All were born in a country that no longer exists, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1945-1992). This course will introduce masterpieces of Yugoslav literature and film, examining the social and political complexities of a multicultural society that collapsed into civil war (i.e. Bosnia, Kosovo) in the 1990s. In English with material available in Serbo-Croatian and Slovenian.
Last offered: Autumn 2019 | Units: 3-5

REES 185B: Jews in the Contemporary World: Culture, Pop Culture, and Representation (CSRE 185B, HISTORY 185B, JEWISHST 185B, SLAVIC 183)

(HISTORY 185B is 5 units; HISTORY 85B is 3 units.) From Barbra Streisand to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, from The Dybbuk to Broad City, and from Moscow to LA, this course applies a multicultural perspective on different experiences of Jewishness in the 20th and 21st centuries. The discussion is centered on the ways in which these experiences are represented in various types of media: in literature or on TikTok, in poetry or on Instagram, in film and on television. The themes of the course include (but are not limited to) the interplay of national, religious, ethnic, linguistic, and political identities, intersectionality, the definitions and boundaries of Jewish cultures, Queer and variously gendered experiences of Jewishness, as well as antisemitism and stereotyped representations of Jewishness. The course introduces students to the analysis of a diverse array of media as cultural texts and historical sources. Students are encouraged to apply their new skills to media of their choice.
Last offered: Spring 2023 | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

REES 200: Current Issues in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies (REES 100)

Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia comprise a vast region of the world that is vitally important politically, strategically, historically and culturally. This seminar series brings leading experts, from around the world - scholars and practitioners - representing a broad range of fields, to share their cutting-edge research and insights into the challenges and issues that have confronted this region in a global context.nnNote: Class meets Fridays 12:00-1:00pm in Encina Commons 123.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr | Units: 1-2 | Repeatable 3 times (up to 3 units total)

REES 200B: Current Issues in Baltic Affairs (HISTORY 2B, REES 100B)

The Baltic States, comprising a geopolitical region of the world encompassing Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, is vitally important politically, strategically, historically and culturally. This seminar series brings leading experts, from around the world - scholars and practitioners - representing a broad range of fields, to share their cutting-edge research and insights into the challenges and issues that have confronted this region in a global context. Class meets Wednesdays 12:00-1:00pm in CISAC - Encina Hall, Reuben Hills Conference room (E207).
Terms: Spr | Units: 1-2 | Repeatable 3 times (up to 6 units total)
Instructors: ; Weiner, A. (PI); Esse, L. (SI)

REES 204: Cities of Empire: An Urban Journey through Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean (HISTORY 223E, HISTORY 323E, REES 304)

This course explores the cities of the Habsburg, Ottoman and Russian empires in the dynamic and turbulent period of their greatest transformation from the 19th century through the Two World Wars. Through the reading of urban biographies of Venice and Trieste, Vienna, Budapest, Cracow, Lviv, Sarajevo, Belgrade, Salonica, and Odessa, we consider broad historical trends of political, economic, and social modernization, urbanization, identity formation, imperialism, cosmopolitanism, and orientalism. As vibrant centers of coexistence and economic exchange, social and cultural borderlands, and sites of transgression, these cities provide an ideal lens through which to examine these themes in the context of transition from imperial to post-imperial space.
Last offered: Spring 2019 | Units: 3-5

REES 205: The Business of Socialism: Economic Life in Cold War Eastern Europe (HISTORY 227B)

This colloquium investigates the processes of buying, making, and selling goods and services in Cold War Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. We will familiarize ourselves with a variety of approaches to writing the history of economic life and discuss to what extent they are applicable to state socialist systems. Our focus will not be on theories of socialism but on empirically grounded studies that allow for insights into how the system operated in practice and interacted with capitalism. We will, among others, explore the following questions: What was the role of the state in the economies east and west of the Iron Curtain? Are socialism and capitalism two incompatible systems? How did women experience and shape economic life after the Second World War? What had a greater impact on the economies of the region: Cold War politics or globalization?
Last offered: Autumn 2020 | Units: 5 | UG Reqs: WAY-SI

REES 210: Readings in Russian Realism (SLAVIC 325)

For graduate students or upper-level undergraduates. What did Realism mean for late imperial Russian writers? What has it meant for twentieth-century literary theory? As we seek to answer these questions, we read Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, and Chekhov, alongside their brilliant but less often taught contemporaries such as Goncharov, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Leskov, Garshin, Korolenko, Gorky, Andreev, and Bunin. Taught in English; readings in Russian. Prerequisite: Three years of Russian.
Last offered: Autumn 2022 | Units: 3-5

REES 211: Politics and Society in Early Soviet Russia: View from the Hoover Library & Archives (HISTORY 228C, HISTORY 328C, REES 110)

The course offers an examination of early Soviet history (1917-1924) based on the archival collections, digital records, and rare books and periodicals in the Hoover Library & Archives, with a focus on the papers of the American Relief Administration and the Soviet famine of 1921. Topics include Bolshevik ideology, the role of the Communist Party, Russian-Ukrainian relations, the formation of the USSR, Soviet economic policy, Soviet foreign policy and the Communist International, the secret police and political repression, culture under the Bolsheviks, demographic shifts and refugee movements, and the famine of 1921, in which six million people perished. Students will become familiar with how to research and interpret primary sources. Class will meet in Hoover Tower, in a secure room where students can work with archival and rare library materials, including early Soviet newspapers and journals. Course is open to graduate students and upper-level undergraduates. Students may take the course for either 3 or 5 units. Those enrolled for 5 units will submit a research paper. Russian language ability is not required. Offered in conjunction with the Hoover Library & Archives exhibition Bread + Medicine: Saving Lives in a Time of Famine.
Last offered: Winter 2023 | Units: 3-5

REES 213: US-Russia Relations After the Cold War (POLISCI 213, POLISCI 313)

A quarter century ago, the Soviet Union collapsed and the Cold War ended. At the time, Russian leaders aspired to build democratic and market institutions at home. They also wanted to join the West. American presidents Democrat and Republican encouraged these domestic and international changes. Today, U.S.-Russia relations are once again confrontational, reminiscent of relations during the Cold War. This course seeks to analyze shifts in U.S.-Russia relations, with special attention given to the U.S.-Russia relationship during Obama¿s presidency. Readings will include academic articles and a book manuscript by Professor McFaul on Obama's reset policy. Open to students with previous coursework involving Russia.
Last offered: Spring 2017 | Units: 2

REES 217: The Eurasian World From Plato to NATO: History, Politics, and Culture (HISTORY 127, POLISCI 142, REES 117, SLAVIC 117)

The course explores the history, politics and culture of the Eurasian space, covering themes such as the rise and fall of civilizations; political and ideological movements; literature and art; and geopolitics. See HISTORY 127 for section schedule details.
Terms: Spr | Units: 3

REES 219: A New Cold War? Great Power Relations in the 21st Century (INTLPOL 211, POLISCI 312)

Thirty years ago the Cold War ended. Today, great power competition is back - or so it seems - with many describing our present era as a "New Cold War" between the United States and China and Russia. What happened? Is the Cold War label an illuminating or distorting analogy? What should the U.S. do to meet the challengers of great power competition in the 21st century? This course seeks to answer these questions about contemporary great power relations, first by tracing the historical origins of the U.S.-Russia and U.S.-China relationships, next by assessing the similarities and differences between the Cold War and U.S.-Russia relations and U.S.-China relations today along three dimensions -- (1) Power, (2) Ideology, (3) Interdependence and Multilateralism - and third by discussing unilateral, bilateral, and multilateral policy prescriptions of US. policymakers.The main text for this course will be a new book in draft by Professor McFaul, as well accompanying academic articles.
Terms: Win | Units: 5
Instructors: ; McFaul, M. (PI)

REES 221: Ukraine at a Crossroads (SLAVIC 121, SLAVIC 221)

Literally meaning "borderland," Ukraine has embodied in-betweenness in all possible ways. What is the mission of Ukraine in Europe and in Eurasia? How can Ukraine become an agent of democracy, stability, and unity? What does Ukraine's case of multiple identities and loyalties offer to our understanding of the global crisis of national identity? In this course, we will consider the historical permeability of Ukraine's territorial, cultural, and ethnic borders as an opportunity to explore the multiple dimensions of its relations with its neighbors. In addition to studying historical, literary, and cinematic texts, we discuss nationalism, global capitalism, memory politics, and propaganda in order to understand post-Euromaidan society. All required texts are in English. No knowledge of Ukrainian is required. NOTE: To satisfy a WAYS requirement, this course must be taken for at least 3 units.
Last offered: Spring 2023 | Units: 3-5

REES 222B: The Baltic World (HISTORY 222B)

What makes a small, shallow and cold sea surrounded by very poor farming land stand out? Can we talk about a sea surrounded by nine countries as a single unit? This course traces and analyzes the interconnectedness and interdependence that shaped the region, side by side with the cataclysms that repeatedly fragmented it from the Viking marauders; warring empires; WWI and the Russian Revolution; WWII and the totalitarian nightmare of Nazi & Soviet policies; the Cold War and present-day geopolitics.
Last offered: Spring 2023 | Units: 3-5

REES 223: Getting the Picture: Photojournalism in Russia and the U.S. (AMSTUD 123, COMM 123, SLAVIC 123, SLAVIC 323)

The vast majority of photographs printed and consumed around the world appeared on the pages of magazines and newspapers. These pictures were almost always heavily edited, presented in carefully devised sequences, and printed alongside text. Through firsthand visual analysis of the picture presses of yesteryear, this course considers the ongoing meaning, circulation, and power of images as they shape a worldview in Russia as well as the US. In looking at points of contact between two world powers, we will cover the works of a wide array of authors, photographers, photojournalists and photographed celebrities (Lev Tolstoy, Margaret Bourke-White, Russian satirists Ilf and Petrov, John Steinbeck and Richard Capa, and many others). We will explore the relationship between photojournalistic practice of the past with that of our present, from the printed page to digital media, as well as the ethical quandaries posed by the cameras intervention into/shaping of modern history. No knowledge of Russian is required.
Last offered: Autumn 2021 | Units: 3-5

REES 223E: Topics in Early Modern Russia and Ukraine (HISTORY 322E, SLAVIC 342)

Explores and contrasts Ukraine and Russia ca 1450-1800, when most of Ukraine had not yet been conquered by Russia: governmental structures, religion and culture, ideology, social organization, agrarian economy.
Last offered: Autumn 2022 | Units: 4-5

REES 224A: The Soviet Civilization (HISTORY 224A, HISTORY 424A)

(History 224A is an undergraduate course offered for 5 units; History 424A is a graduate course offered for 4-5 units.) Socialist visions and practices of the organization of society and messianic politics; Soviet mass state violence; culture, living and work spaces. Primary and secondary sources. Research paper or historiographical essay.
Terms: Aut | Units: 4-5 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci
Instructors: ; Weiner, A. (PI)

REES 224C: The Balkan World: History, Culture, Politics (HISTORY 24B, HISTORY 124B)

The Balkans is a region that is often marginalized, even though throughout modern history it has stood at the crossroads between East and West and has been the locus of the major developments of the 19th and 20th centuries - the site of Great Power competition, the first de-colonization movements, the rise of the modern nation-state, the outbreak of the First World War, Nazi occupation and resistance, genocides, the rise of emancipatory communist regimes that have challenged the hegemony of the Soviet Union, the leader of the Non-Aligned Movement, and a challenge for democratization and western-based military intervention. Today the Balkans are a region where the European Union, Russia and the China vie for control. This course draws on a range of primary and secondary, literary, historical and policy sources as well as a range of scholars from a variety of disciplines to explore the significance of the Balkans to global affairs in historical and contemporary contexts. Section REES 224C is offered for graduate student enrollment.
Terms: Spr | Units: 3-5
Instructors: ; Lazic, J. (PI)

REES 225E: From Vladimir to Putin: Key Themes in Russian History (HISTORY 225E, HISTORY 325E)

Formative issues in Russian history from Muscovy to the present: autocracy and totalitarianism; tsars, emperors, and party secretaries; multi-ethnicity and nationalism; serfdom, peasantry; rebellions and revolutions, dissent and opposition; law and legality; public and private spheres; religion and atheism; patterns of collapse. Class format will be discussion of one to two assigned books or major articles per class.
Last offered: Winter 2022 | Units: 4-5

REES 227: All Quiet on the Eastern Front? East Europe and Russia in the First World War (HISTORY 227D, HISTORY 327D, REES 327)

Until recently history has been comparatively quiet about the experience of World War I in the east. Far from being a peripheral theater of war, however, the experiences of war on the Eastern Front were central to shaping the 20th century. Not only was the first shot of the war fired in the east, it was also the site of the most dramatic political revolution. Using scholarly texts, literature and film, this course combines political, military, cultural and social approaches to introduce the causes, conduct and consequences of World War I with a focus on the experiences of soldiers and civilians on the Eastern Front. Topics include: the war of movement, occupation, extreme violence against civilians, the Armenian genocide, population exchanges, the Russian Revolution and civil war, and the disintegration of empires and rise of nation-states.
Last offered: Winter 2018 | Units: 3-5 | UG Reqs: WAY-SI

REES 230: Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (INTLPOL 230, INTNLREL 114D, POLISCI 114D, POLISCI 314D)

This course explores the different dimensions of development - economic, social, and political - as well as the way that modern institutions (the state, market systems, the rule of law, and democratic accountability) developed and interacted with other factors across different societies around the world. The class will feature additional special guest lectures by Francis Fukuyama, Larry Diamond, Michael McFaul, Anna Grzymala-Busse, and other faculty and researchers affiliated with the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. Undergraduate students should enroll in this course for 5 units. Graduate students should enroll for 3.
Terms: Aut | Units: 3-5

REES 231B: Understanding Russia: Its Power and Purpose in a New Global Order (INTLPOL 231B, INTNLREL 131, POLISCI 113)

Russia presents a puzzle for theories of socio-economic development and modernization and their relationship to state power in international politics. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 brought into being the new Russia (or Russian Federation) as its successor in international politics. Russia suffered one of the worst recessions and experienced 25 years of halting reform. Despite these issues, Russia is again a central player in international affairs. Course analyzes motivations behind contemporary Russian foreign policy by reviewing its domestic and economic underpinnings. Examination of concept of state power in international politics to assess Russia's capabilities to influence other states' policies, and under what conditions its leaders use these resources. Is contemporary Russia strong or weak? What are the resources and constraints its projection of power beyond its borders? What are the determinants of state power in international politics in the twenty-first century? This course is a combination of a lecture and discussion, and will include lectures, readings, class discussions, films and documentaries.
Terms: Win | Units: 5
Instructors: ; Stoner, K. (PI)

REES 237C: Political Exhumations: Killing Sites in Comparative Perspective (ANTHRO 137D, ARCHLGY 137, ARCHLGY 237, DLCL 237, HISTORY 229C, HISTORY 329C)

The course discusses the politics and practices of exhumation of individual and mass graves. The problem of exhumations will be considered as a distinct socio-political phenomenon characteristic of contemporary times and related to transitional justice. The course will offer analysis of case studies of political exhumations of victims of the Dirty War in Argentina, ethnic cleansing in former Yugoslavia, the Holocaust, communist violence in Poland, the Rwandan genocide, the Spanish Civil War, and the war in Ukraine. The course will make use of new interpretations of genocide studies, research of mass graves, such as environmental and forensic approaches.
Terms: Spr | Units: 3-5
Instructors: ; Domanska, E. (PI)

REES 240P: The Erosion of Democracy (POLISCI 140P)

What is populism, and how much of a threat to democracy is it? How different is it from fascism or other anti-liberal movements? This course explores the conditions for the rise of populism, evaluates how much of a danger it poses, and examines the different forms it takes.
Terms: Aut | Units: 5

REES 254: Animism, Gaia, and Alternative Approaches to the Environment (ANTHRO 254C, FRENCH 254, HISTORY 254B, HISTORY 354B)

Indigenous knowledges have been traditionally treated as a field of research for anthropologists and as mistaken epistemologies, i.e., un-scientific and irrational folklore. However, within the framework of environmental humanities, current interest in non-anthropocentric approaches and epistemic injustice, animism emerged as a critique of modern epistemology and an alternative to the Western worldview. Treating native thought as an equivalent to Western knowledge will be presented as a (potentially) decolonizing and liberating practice. This course may be of interest to anthropology, archaeology and literature students working in the fields of ecocriticism and the environmental humanities/social sciences, students interested in the Anthropocene, geologic/mineral, bio-, eco- and geosocial collectives, symbiotic life-forms and non-human agencies. The course is designed as a research seminar for students interested in theory of the humanities and social sciences and simultaneously helping students to develop their individual projects and thesis.
Last offered: Spring 2022 | Units: 3-5

REES 254W: Environmental Knowledges: Western and Indigenous (ANTHRO 254W, DLCL 254W)

The aim of the course is to analyze the relations between Indigenous and Western knowledges, and highlight the most important points of contact between the two systems. It will contribute to building inclusive and holistic knowledge in order to address the environmental and social problems facing the contemporary world. The course will explore how indigenous knowledges challenge Western worldview based on anthropocentrism, history as a way of approaching the past, individuality, progress, Cartesian rationality, and secularism. It offers opportunities for students to analyze various research perspectives, concepts, methods and approaches that attempt to bridge the human, social, and natural sciences and decolonized forms of indigenous knowledge. Students will explore art, literary and historical writing, as well as scientific artifacts of environmental engagement.
Last offered: Spring 2023 | Units: 3-5

REES 259C: Ecological Humanities (ANTHRO 159C, ANTHRO 259C, DLCL 259C)

What sort of topics, research questions, approaches, theories and concepts lead to an integration of various kinds of knowledges? Ecological Humanities provides a conceptual platform for a merger of humanities and social sciences with earth and life sciences, soil science and forensic sciences. The course will discuss such selected topics as the Anthropocene, geologic/mineral and exhumed subjects/personae, bio- and geosocial collectives, symbiotic life-forms, non-human agencies, and forensic landscapes as examples of this merger.
Last offered: Spring 2018 | Units: 3

REES 299: Directed Reading

Terms: Aut, Win, Spr | Units: 1-12 | Repeatable for credit

REES 300: MA Capstone Seminar

Required for and limited to REEES MA candidates. Colloquia with CREEES Director and Associate Director to assist with refinement of research topic, advisor support, literature review, research, and thesis writing.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr | Units: 1-3

REES 301B: Eastern European Cinema (FILMEDIA 245B, FILMEDIA 445B)

From 1945 to the mid-80s, emphasizing Polish, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, and Yugoslav contexts. The relationship between art and politics; postwar establishment of film industries; and emergence of national film movements such as the Polish school, Czech new wave, and new Yugoslav film. Thematic and aesthetic preoccupations of filmmakers such as Wajda, Jancso, Forman, and Kusturica. Permission of instructor required prior to the first day of classes.
Last offered: Autumn 2018 | Units: 5

REES 303: Dissent and Protest in Post-Soviet Culture (SLAVIC 125, SLAVIC 303)

Considering power and resistance in contemporary Russia and post-Soviet republics across disciplines will allow us to engage with larger, theoretical questions about state-citizen interactions beyond the margins of the liberal project: How do political activists speak to the state? In turn, how does the state encourage, respond to, and censor activist speech? Drawing on examples from Putin's Russia and post-Soviet Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan will develop methodologies for studying how state power is undermined "from below" by ordinary citizens seeking to shape politics and policy. We will take protests seriously as events; consider interactions between protest participants and the social spaces in which protests take place; and situate events with respect to ordinary moments of cultural and political life. The course is structured around active student discussion with a few supplementary lectures and zoom interviews with political activists and artists in exile. Advanced knowledge of Russian is required.
Terms: Win | Units: 3-5

REES 304: Cities of Empire: An Urban Journey through Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean (HISTORY 223E, HISTORY 323E, REES 204)

This course explores the cities of the Habsburg, Ottoman and Russian empires in the dynamic and turbulent period of their greatest transformation from the 19th century through the Two World Wars. Through the reading of urban biographies of Venice and Trieste, Vienna, Budapest, Cracow, Lviv, Sarajevo, Belgrade, Salonica, and Odessa, we consider broad historical trends of political, economic, and social modernization, urbanization, identity formation, imperialism, cosmopolitanism, and orientalism. As vibrant centers of coexistence and economic exchange, social and cultural borderlands, and sites of transgression, these cities provide an ideal lens through which to examine these themes in the context of transition from imperial to post-imperial space.
Last offered: Spring 2019 | Units: 3-5

REES 304G: War and Society (HISTORY 204G, HISTORY 304G)

(History 204G is an undergraduate course offered for 5 units; History 304G is a graduate course offered for 4-5 units.) How Western societies and cultures have responded to modern warfare. The relationship between its destructive capacity and effects on those who produce, are subject to, and must come to terms with its aftermath. Literary representations of WW I; destructive psychological effects of modern warfare including those who take pleasure in killing; changes in relations between the genders; consequences of genocidal ideology and racial prejudice; the theory of just war and its practical implementation; how wars end and commemorated.
Last offered: Spring 2022 | Units: 4-5

REES 322: Chernobyl: from Soviet Utopia to Post-Soviet Apocalypse (SLAVIC 171, SLAVIC 371)

The course will introduce students to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster through the history of the late Soviet utopian project of the "atomic cities" to the intellectual, aesthetic, and artistic responses that the Chernobyl catastrophe generated in the post-Soviet Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Russian societies. During the course, we will study environmental, social, and ecological consequences of the Chernobyl disaster and analyze its many representations across a range of media and cultures. In the end of the course, we will create a portrait of Chernobyl in the collaborative multimedia project "The Control Room #4" which will assemble the representation of Chernobyl in fictional, cinematographic, oral histories, map projects, VR, photography, and other media in order to show how the disaster resonates across space and time. We will consider such issues as urban and technological utopias of the late Soviet Union, representations of the disaster; ethics; health and disease; the body and its deconstruction; ecology and climate; the appropriation of disaster narratives and disaster tourism; the media and cover-ups; and faith and religion.
Last offered: Autumn 2021 | Units: 3-5

REES 326: The Russian Revolution: Politics, Society, Culture

The centennial of the Russian Revolution of 1917 serves as the occasion for this course, which surveys the political, social, and cultural upheavals that transformed Russia under the last Tsars and the first Soviet commissars. The course will be offered in conjunction with the exhibition "The Crown under the Hammer: Russia, Romanovs & Revolution," jointly sponsored by the Hoover Institution and the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford and opening at both venues on October 18, 2017. Several class sessions will be held at the Hoover Institution, where students will be invited to examine archival documents, rare books and periodicals, and the visual arts, including propaganda posters, photographs, motion picture film, and paintings in the collections of the Hoover Institution Library & Archives. One class session will be held at the Cantor Arts Center. The course is open to undergraduate and graduate students.
Last offered: Autumn 2017 | Units: 3-5

REES 327: All Quiet on the Eastern Front? East Europe and Russia in the First World War (HISTORY 227D, HISTORY 327D, REES 227)

Until recently history has been comparatively quiet about the experience of World War I in the east. Far from being a peripheral theater of war, however, the experiences of war on the Eastern Front were central to shaping the 20th century. Not only was the first shot of the war fired in the east, it was also the site of the most dramatic political revolution. Using scholarly texts, literature and film, this course combines political, military, cultural and social approaches to introduce the causes, conduct and consequences of World War I with a focus on the experiences of soldiers and civilians on the Eastern Front. Topics include: the war of movement, occupation, extreme violence against civilians, the Armenian genocide, population exchanges, the Russian Revolution and civil war, and the disintegration of empires and rise of nation-states.
Last offered: Winter 2018 | Units: 3-5

REES 328: Russian Nationalism: Literature and Ideas (SLAVIC 228, SLAVIC 328)

Russia is huge and linguistically and religiously diverse. Yet the ideology of nationalism --the idea that culturally unified groups should rule their own territories-- took root in Russia in the early 19th century and is powerful today. What made this happen? Political thinkers, writers, and other artists have argued for the superiority of the Russian nation. Meanwhile, the tsarist, Soviet, and post-Soviet governments have worked to reconcile the ideology of nationalism with the realities of the administration of a diverse state. This course examines the roots of nationalism itself and the paradox of Russian nationalism, looking at literary and political writers including Dostoevsky, Stalin, and Solzhenitsyn.
Last offered: Spring 2022 | Units: 3-5

REES 348: Slavic Literature and Culture since the Death of Stalin (SLAVIC 148, SLAVIC 348)

The course offers a survey of Soviet and post-Soviet literary texts and films created by Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian artists and marginalized or repressed by the Soviet regime. The first part of the course will focus on the topics of opposition and dissent, generational conflict, modernization, Soviet everyday life, gender, citizenship and national identity, state-published and samizdat literature, "village" and "cosmopolitan" culture, etc. The second part of it will be devoted to the postmodernist aesthetics and ideology in the dismantlement of totalitarian society, as well in the process of shaping post-Soviet identities. The reading materials range from the fictional, poetic, and publicistic works written by Noble-prize (Solzhenitsyn, Brodsky, Alexievich) and other major writers of the period to the drama, film, and popular culture.
Terms: Spr | Units: 3-5
Instructors: ; Ilchuk, Y. (PI); Page, S. (TA)

REES 398: Graduate Internship in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies

Provides graduate students with the opportunity to pursue their area of specialization in an institutional setting (e.g. laboratory, clinic, research institute, academic institution, or government agency). F-1 international graduate students enrolled in this course cannot start working without first obtaining a CPT-endorsed I-20 from Bechtel International Center (enrolling in the CPT course alone is insufficient to meet federal immigration regulations).
Terms: Spr | Units: 1-2
Instructors: ; Weiner, A. (PI)

REES 409: Theories of the Image: Byzantium, Islam and the Latin West (ARTHIST 209C, ARTHIST 409, CLASSICS 158, CLASSICS 258)

This seminar explores the role of images in the three major powers of the medieval Mediterranean: the Umayyads, the Carolingians, and the Byzantines. For each the definition of an image- sura, imago, or eikon respectively-became an important means of establishing religious identity and a fault-line between distinct cultural traditions. This course troubles the identification of image with figural representation and presents instead a performative paradigm where chant or recitation are treated as images. As such, students will be able to see the connections between medieval image theory and contemporary art practices such as installation.
Last offered: Spring 2021 | Units: 5

REES 801: TGR Project

TGR project course for graduate MA students in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies who have completed all program course requirements, with the exception of the Final Capstone Master Paper (project), and minimum of 48 Stanford units.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr, Sum | Units: 0
Instructors: ; Lazic, J. (PI)
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