Mar 29, 2024  
2018-2019 Catalogue 
    
2018-2019 Catalogue [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Course Descriptions


Course Numbering

The College of Wooster uses a five-digit course numbering system. The first three digits indicate the primary course number. The next two digits are the secondary course number and indicate whether there is a special focus for the course. For example:

The first letters are the department or program abbreviation. The next three digits are the primary course number (101 is the primary course number for all Introduction to Historial Study courses). The last two digits are the secondary course number. These two digits indicate that the special focus for this HIST 101 course is The History of Islam. A course with a given three-digit primary course number can only be taken once for credit unless specifically indicated otherwise by the department.

The following policy has been used in assigning primary course numbers:

  • 100-level courses are usually introductory courses; some 100-level courses do have prerequisites, and students are advised to consult the description for each course.
  • 200-level courses are usually beyond the introductory level, although many 200-level courses are open to first-year students and to majors and non-majors.
  • 300-level courses are seminars and courses primarily for majors but open to other students with the consent of the instructor.
  • The following numbers are for Independent Study: I.S. 40100 (Junior Independent Study), I.S. 45100 and I.S. 45200 (Senior Independent Study).

In addition to the regular course offerings, many departments offer individual tutorials under the number 40000 and internships under 41000. On occasion, departments will offer a course on a special topic as approved by the Educational Policy Committee, designated 19900, 29900, or 39900.

Abbreviation

In keeping with the general education requirements of the College’s curriculum
(see Degree Requirements ), course listings employ the following abbreviations:

W Writing Intensive 

C Studies in Cultural Difference

R Religious Perspectives

Q Quantitative Reasoning

AH Learning Across the Disciplines: Arts and Humanities

HSS Learning Across the Disciplines: History and Social Sciences 

MNS Learning Across the Disciplines: Mathematical and Natural Sciences

Except where otherwise noted, all courses carry one course credit.

 

Russian Studies

  
  • RUSS 10100 - Beginning Russian Level I

    Course Credit: 1
    BEGINNING RUSSIAN (LEVEL I) An introduction to understanding, speaking, reading, and writing Russian; acquisition of basic grammar; conversational practice and short readings. Cultural content. Four hours per week. Annually. Fall.
  
  • RUSS 10200 - Beginning Russian Level II

    Course Credit: 1
    BEGINNING RUSSIAN (LEVEL II) Continuation of RUSS 10100, with increased emphasis on conversational, reading, and writing skills. Cultural content. Prerequisite(s): RUSS-10100 Annually. Spring.
  
  • RUSS 20100 - Intermediate Russian Level I

    Course Credit: 1
    INTERMEDIATE RUSSIAN LEVEL I Review and enhancement of basic grammar; practice through speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Attention to reading strategies. Exposure to cultural material. Three hours per week. Prerequisite(s): RUSS-10200 or placement Annually. Fall.
  
  • RUSS 20200 - Intermediate Russian Level II

    Course Credit: 1
    INTERMEDIATE RUSSIAN LEVEL II Continuation of RUSS 20100, with still greater emphasis on speaking, reading, and writing. Cultural content. Prerequisite(s): RUSS-20100 Annually. Spring.
  
  • RUSS 21000 - Russian Civilization: Folklore to Philos

    Course Credit: 1
    (CMLT, GLIS)
    RUSSIAN CIVILIZATION An introductory and interdisciplinary study of Russian culture from folktales and medieval chronicles to Romantic novels, absurdist stories and contemporary art movements. We will examine a broad range of writers, artists and composers including Pushkin, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Solzhenitsyn, Stravinsky, Borodin and Pussy Riot, among others.The course is open to students at all levels, knowledge of Russian is not required. [AH, C, W]
  
  • RUSS 21001 - Russian Civ: From Folklore to Philosophy

    Course Credit: 1
    (CMLT)
    RUSSIAN CIVILIZATION: FOLKLORE TO PHILOSOPHY An introductory and interdisciplinary study of fundamental aspects of Russian culture from medieval Russia through the post-Soviet era, with emphasis on the changing and evolving concept of Russian identity over the centuries. A broad range of texts will include folktales, memoirs, fiction, painting, poetry, philosophy, music and film. No prerequisite. [AH, C, W]
  
  • RUSS 22000 - Russian Culture Through Film

    Course Credit: 1
    (CMLT, FILM)
    RUSSIAN CULTURE THROUGH FILM An introduction to twentieth-century Russian society and culture through the medium of cinema, covering the immediate pre- and post-revolutionary periods, Stalinism, the post-Stalin thaw, stagnation under Brezhnev, Gorbachev’s perestroika and glasnost, and the post-communist era. Weekly screenings of films will be supplemented with readings in Russian film theory and criticism. [AH, C]
  
  • RUSS 24000 - Imagining Russia’s Landscapes

    Course Credit: 1
    (ENVS)
    IMAGINING RUSSIA’S LANDSCAPES As the largest country in the world, Russia and Russian culture is best understood through the study of diverse spaces. This course focuses on geo-political and cultural space as reflected in Russian literature, film, music, and visual arts. Students explore setting and imagined geography by drawing connections between literary and cinematic texts, and cultural, historical and geographic space. In alternate years, the course will focus on the following topics: Siberia, Moscow, St. Petersburg, The Urals, and The Caucasus. Taught in English. May be repeated once for credit in the major. Spring. [AH, C]
  
  • RUSS 24001 - Russia’s Landscapes: Siberia

    Course Credit: 1
    IMAGINING RUSSIA’S LANDSCAPES: SIBERIA Russia is the largest country in the world, occupying more than 10% of the world’s landmass. Siberia makes up almost 80% of Russia’s territory. Famous for its harsh winters, vast forests and steppes, and notorious prison complexes, Siberia features prominently in the Russian cultural imagination. This course focuses on geo-political and cultural space of Siberia as reflected in Russian literature, film, and environmental writing, and will examine the history of Siberia’s imperial conquest, its setting as a site of socialist construction and topographical experimentation, its labor camp legacy, the famous Trans-Siberian Railroad and the native traditions that have been preserved to this day. We will read works by Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Solzhenitsyn among others. [AH, C]
  
  • RUSS 25000 - Russ Lit. the Age of Dostevsky/Tolstoy

    Course Credit: 1
    (CMLT, GLIS, WGSS)
    RUSSIAN LITERATURE IN THE AGE OF DOSTOEVSKY AND TOLSTOY In the nineteenth century, Russia witnessed an unprecedented explosion of literary and intellectual activity, a renaissance which yielded some of the greatest masterpieces world literature has seen. Our course will examine the seven most prominent authors of this period, with special emphasis on Russia’s unique handling of the sudden influx of European philosophy and culture (Rationalism, Idealism, Romanticism, Atheism, Socialism). Through its literary canon, we will explore how Russia envisioned the problems of modern individualism in a culture divided between European and Slavic roots. No prerequisite. [AH, C, W]
  
  • RUSS 25001 - Men Writing Women

    Course Credit: 1
    (CMLT)
    MEN WRITING WOMEN. RUSSIAN LITERATURE IN THE AGE OF DOSTOEVSKY AND TOLSTOY 19th-century Russia exploded with literary activity. It generated some of the greatest masterpieces world literature has witnessed. This course will examine the most prominent authors of the period: Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Turgenev and Chekhov. They celebrate and satirize the elite’s worldly and intellectual pursuits, and lovingly bemoan the simplicity of provincial life. They glorify monarchs while inspiring revolutions. They expose crushing bureaucracy, yet search for redemption in prostitutes’ quarters. Looking for love, their characters find both life and death. Taught in English. [AH, C]
  
  • RUSS 26000 - The Artist & the Tyrant Creating a Perfect World

    Course Credit: 1
    (CMLT)
    THE ARTIST AND THE TYRANT Russian literature developed side by side with the myths and horrors of a cataclysmic twentieth century. In this course, we will read some of the most powerful artistic meditations on the collapse of imperial Russia, on the dream and nightmare of the Soviet experiment, and on the search for dignity and meaning in the post-Soviet contemporary world. Authors include Nobel laureates Pasternak, Bunin, Solzhenitsyn and Brodsky. We will also read novels by Bulgakov and Nabokov, short stories from a host of writers from Babel to Petrushevksaya, and some of the major poetry of the era in translation. Taught in English. Spring. [AH, C, W]
  
  • RUSS 26100 - The Artist & the Tyrant

    Course Credit: 1
    THE ARTIST AND THE TYRANT Russian literature developed side by side with the myths and horrors of a cataclysmic twentieth century. In this course, we will read some of the most powerful artistic meditations on the collapse of imperial Russia, on the dream and nightmare of the Soviet experiment, and on the search for dignity and meaning in the post-Soviet contemporary world. Authors include Nobel laureates Pasternak, Bunin, Solzhenitsyn and Brodsky. We will also read novels by Bulgakov and Nabokov, short stories from a host of writers from Babel to Petrushevksaya, and some of the major poetry of the era in translation.Taught in English. [AH, C]
  
  • RUSS 29901 - Putin and New Gender Order

    Course Credit: 1
    (WGSS)
    PUTIN AND NEW GENDER ORDER This course investigates how the particular form of hypermasculinity, championed most sensationally by Vladimir Putin, came to dominate the contemporary gender order in Russia. Using Judith Butler and Raewyn Connell’s contributions to gender studies and exploring various kinds of artistic production in English (film, literature and music), this course will trace the ideological development of the 20th and 21st century Russian gender order, with particular attention paid to the woman question in early Soviet discourse, the heroic father figure of the Soviet Union, the crisis of masculinity in the late Soviet period and the emrgence of Vladimir Putin’s particular brand of hypermasculinity. [AH, C]
  
  • RUSS 29902 - Introduction to Linguistics

    Course Credit: 1
    (ENGL)
    INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS This course introduces students to the field of linguistics, the scientific study of language. They will learn about the two primary approaches to the study of language (functionalism and formalism), learn about the sounds of language (phonetics and phonology), how languages put together words (morphology) and sentences (syntax), and the meaning of words and sentences (semantics and pragmatics). A special emphasis will be placed on sociolinguistics and historical linguistics: how linguists study variation and change in all of the above. Other topics to be covered include language acquisition and psycholinguistics. The course is taught in English and counts as an elective towards the English major. [AH, C]
  
  • RUSS 29903 - Topics in Advanced Russian

    Course Credit: 1
    TOPICS IN ADVANCED RUSSIAN This course examines several major cultural modes of production of Russia, while developing your reading, listening, writing abilities in Russian. The class will focus on developing high-level oral and written communication skills that will enable you to study and critically evaluate authentic materials from the target culture. Materials include Russian fairytales, contemporary Russian media reports on topical issues in politics and society, as well as Russian film. Prerequisite(s): RUSS-20200, or equivalent. [AH, C]
  
  • RUSS 40000 - Tutorial

    Course Credit: 0.25
    Maximum Credit: 1
    TUTORIAL Individually supervised advanced language learning. By prior arrangement with the department only. Prerequisite: RUSS 20200 or equivalent; the approval of both the supervising faculty member and the chairperson is required prior to registration. May be repeated. Prerequisite(s): RUSS-20200 or equivalent; the approval of both the supervising faculty member and the Chairperson is required prior to registration. Annually. Fall and Spring.
  
  • RUSS 40100 - Independent Study

    Course Credit: 1
    JUNIORINDEPENDENT STUDY Bibliographical and research methods in Russian Studies, including the preparation of one longer research paper. Normally taken Semester II of the junior year. Annually. Fall and Spring.
  
  • RUSS 45100 - Independent Study Thesis

    Course Credit: 1
    SENIOR INDEPENDENT STUDY–SEMESTER ONE The first semester of the Senior Independent Study project, in which each student engages in creative and independent research of a specific topic in Russian Studies guided by a faculty mentor and which culminates in a thesis and an oral examination in the second semester. Prerequisite(s): RUSS-40100
  
  • RUSS 45200 - Independent Study Thesis

    Course Credit: 1
    SENIOR INDEPENDENT STUDY–SEMESTER TWO The second semester of the Senior Independent Study project, which culminates in the thesis and an oral examination. S/NC. Prerequisite(s): RUSS-45100