Courses

All of the courses listed on this page count towards Notre Dame’s Globally Engaged Citizens Program. For more information, visit the Center for the Study of Languages and Cultures website. 

Please visit Class Search for our full range of courses, which include a large assortment of offerings in both Russian and English. 

Courses offered every Fall 

RU 10101 – Beginning Russian I

Develops students’ skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing while also fostering an appreciation for Russian culture. Emphasis is placed on the acquisition of basic structures, vocabulary, and sound systems. Students will be encouraged to use their language skills to communicate and interact in a variety of situations and contexts. 4 credits; meets 3 days a week.

RU 20101 – Intermediate Russian I

This is the first half of a 2-semester review of Russian grammar designed to facilitate a near-native proficiency with the form and function of Russian nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Exceptional forms are stressed, and reading selections on contemporary Russian life and excerpts from literature are employed to improve comprehension and build conversational and writing skills. Open to students who have completed RU 10102 or have placed into the course via online placement exam. 3 credits.

RU 30101 – Advanced Russian I

The first half of a year-long course designed to significantly improve students’ comprehension and self-expression skills in Russian, serving as a preparation for Russian literature courses in the original. The course will include an intensive review of Russian grammar; Russian stylistics, syntax, and grammar at the advanced level; reading and analysis of a wide range of 19th-century Russian literary texts; writing essays in Russian; and extensive work on vocabulary building and advanced conversation skills. Open to students who have completed RU 20102. 3 credits.

Courses offered every Spring 

RU 10102 – Beginning Russian II

Continuation of Beginning Russian I. Develops students’ skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing while also fostering an appreciation for Russian culture. Emphasis is placed on the acquisition of basic structures, vocabulary, and sound systems. Students will be encouraged to use their language skills to communicate and interact in a variety of situations and contexts. Open to students who have completed RU 10101 or have placed into the course via online placement exam. 4 credits; meets 3 days a week. 

RU 20102 – Intermediate Russian II

This is the second half of a 2-semester review of Russian grammar designed to facilitate a near-native proficiency with the form and function of Russian nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Exceptional forms are stressed, and reading selections on contemporary Russian life and excerpts from literature are employed to improve comprehension and build conversational and writing skills. Open to students who have completed RU 20201 or have placed into the course via online placement exam. 3 credits.

RU 30102 – Advanced Russian II

This is the second half of a year-long course designed to significantly improve students’ comprehension and self-expression skills in Russian, serving as a preparation for Russian literature courses in the original. The course will include an intensive review of Russian grammar; Russian stylistics, syntax, and grammar at the advanced level; reading and analysis of a wide range of 20th-century Russian literary texts (including fiction, poetry, interviews, songs, and newspaper materials); writing essays in Russian; and extensive work on vocabulary building and advanced conversation skills. Open to students who have completed RU 40102. 3 credits.

Slavic language courses in languages other than Russian

RU 10505 - Introductory Ukrainian (Tetyana Shlikhar)

This is an introductory course for complete beginners in Ukrainian. The course aims to provide a solid foundation in four major communicative skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Students will learn to communicate effectively across cultural and linguistic boundaries while developing knowledge of the Ukrainian language, traditions, and culture. Emphasis is placed on the acquisition of basic structures, vocabulary, and sound systems. Students will be encouraged to use their language skills to communicate and interact in a variety of situations and contexts. Cultural awareness will be enhanced with authentic audio-visual materials, literary texts, and cultural artifacts. By the end of the course, students will be able to read short original Ukrainian texts and communicate on everyday topics. No prerequisite. 3 credits. 

Fall 2024 courses taught in Russian

RU 32103 – Advanced Russian Tutorial (TBD)

This course is limited to students who are concurrently enrolled in RU 40102: Advanced Russian II. Students work with a native speaker in small groups of two or three to activate and intensively practice the material covered in Advanced Russian II. Although this course focuses on all modes of language learning - speaking, listening, reading, writing, and cultural proficiency - particular emphasis is given to improving students' speaking abilities. 1 credit.

RU 33100 - Special Topics in Advanced Russian (Tetyana Shlikhar)

The course is designed for students of advanced level of Russian who are looking to deepen their proficiency through specialized study. This course explores complex aspects of the Russian language, such as advanced grammar, nuances of style and syntax, as well as cultural and idiomatic expressions. Each semester, the course will focus on different themes or topics, ranging from contemporary Russian literature, film, media, or art to advanced translation techniques. The course provides an interactive environment where students can engage in sophisticated conversational practice, detailed textual analysis, and extensive writing exercises. Students will work with authentic Russian texts, multimedia, and other resources to enhance their understanding and appreciation of the language in real-world contexts. 3 credits.

Fall 2024 courses taught in English

RU 13186 – The Icon and the Axe: Introduction to Russian Civilization (Sean Griffin)

This course introduces students to Russian literature and culture while also serving as an introduction to the seminar method of instruction. The course is writing-intensive, with emphasis given to improving students' writing skills through the careful analysis of specific texts.3 credits. Counts for USEM, WKAL and LIT

RU 33102 - Armenian Literature at the Crossroads of Empires (Arpi Movsesian)

Armenia, one of the oldest countries on the Silk Road and the first nation to adopt Christianity as a state religion, possesses a rich literary and cultural heritage in which one finds localized variants of devices, themes, and, broadly speaking, cross-cultural tropes. Armenia’s geographic location has also posed a hindrance to its self-determination: Arab, Persian, Ottoman, and Russian empires have shaped, reformulated, and at times suppressed literary and cultural traditions. Like the best writers of any nation, the Armenian greats have concentrated their efforts on universal themes and concepts such as suffering and strength, death and determination, sadness and joy, proving again and again that literature, like the human self it often takes as its subject, is not sui generis. In this course, we will examine Armenian literary works in their historical, intercultural, and colonial contexts, tracing these patterns through prose and verse. In this course, students will cultivate skills in close reading, critical thinking, and writing through various assignments that target these areas of growth. The written assignments in this course will help students exercise their ability to advance an argument based on textual evidence in writing and become astute interpreters of ideas presented in the assigned texts. Course discussions, in- class workshops meant to improve argumentative writing, and critical essays (expository, creative, and research) will familiarize students with literary theory and critical tools useful for the analysis of literary works and cultural elements. Moreover, specific assignments in this course will allow students to approach the topics at hand less conventionally and more creatively through art, music, or other media, approaching each text comparatively and interdisciplinarily to broaden students’ horizons in order to understand other cultures in a wider context. 3 credits. Counts for LIT , WRIT and WKAL

RU 33103 - The Russian Christ: The Image of Jesus in Russian Literature and Film (Sean Griffin)

In this interdisciplinary course, students will trace the development of Christian theology and culture in Eastern Europe—from the baptism of Rus in 988 to the classic novels of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, and from the liturgical theology of Alexander Schmemann to the religious cinema of Putin’s Russia. Throughout the course, students will grapple with the “accursed questions” that have long defined Russian religious thought, while also examining the diverse and divergent images of Christ put forward by Russia’s greatest theologians, artists, philosophers, and writers. 3 credits. Counts for FNAR, WKAL and LIT

RU 33201 – Dostoevsky: The Sacred and the Profane (Arpi Movsesian)

The philosopher Mircea Eliade, in his classic work, The Sacred and the Profane (1957), states: “Man becomes aware of the sacred because it manifests itself, shows itself, as something wholly different from the profane” (10). Seemingly oppositional modalities, the sacred and the profane are central to the poetics of Fyodor Dostoevsky, the author of such works as Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and The Brothers Karamazov. Dostoevsky, who for a lifetime preoccupied himself with pro and contra states of being and action, complicates the bearing of oppositionality itself. Idiots, madmen, ascetics, holy fools, buffoons, schismatics, zealous monks,self-sacrificing women, and other eccentric personalities make up Dostoevsky’s oeuvre and speak to his enduring interest in a broader understanding of the sacred and the profane, which in this course, we will examine as umbrella categories to better understand the ways in which the author complicates the relationships between them. Could this direction help us elucidate Dostoevsky’s approach not only to ethical issues and life’s “accursed questions” but also to eccentricity and otherness in general? Closely studying the contradictions and instances of symbiosis arising in each of these categories within their historical, religious, socio-cultural, and medical contexts will help us in our endeavor, as well is provide insight into our own fascination with this celebrated writer of human personality for whom perhaps the sacred was also a way of orientation in chaos. 3 credits. Counts for LIT and WKAL

Previously Offered Electives

Generally, courses with 4xxxx course numbers are taught in the target language. Courses with 3xxxx course numbers and below are taught in English. Detailed class descriptions can be accessed via the ClassSearch tool on InsideND.

Spring 2024

RU 43620 - Russian Journalism

RU 13186 -  The Anti-Empire Empire: Russia, Center, and Periphery

RU 33101 - Nothing is True and Everything is Possible

Fall 2023

RU 30202 - Tolstoy 

RU 30350 - Ukrainian and Russian Culture Through the Ages

RU 30355 - From Rasputin to Putin: Russia's Troubled 20th Century 

RU 33500 - Behind the Iron Curtain: Soviet Culture up to Stalinism

RU 43100 - Russian Short Stories

Spring 2023

RU 20355 – RusPutin to Putin

RU 30357 – Shadow of the Empire in Cinema

RU 33201 – Dostoevsky 

RU 43610 – Contemp Russ Culture 

Fall 2022

RU 30355 – From Rasputin to Putin

RU 30469 – Russia’s Revolutionary Century 

RU 33186 – Russian Seeks God 

RU 43620 – Russian Journalism 

Spring 2022

RU 33301 – Brothers Karamazov 

RU 43620 – Russian Journalism 

Fall 2021

RU 30113 – Russian in Revolution: Literature, Film, and the Arts, 1891-1924 

RU 30355 – From Rasputin to Putin

RU 30475 – Medieval & Early Modern Russia

RU 43102 - Twentieth-Century Russian Literature Survey