HUSI 2012 Courses

Ukrainian for Reading Knowledge (8 Units)

Volodymyr Dibrova, Preceptor, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University

This 8-unit language course is designed primarily for graduate students of humanities who wish to acquire a reading knowledge of Ukrainian for research purposes. Building on the foundation of high proficiency in another Slavic language, students will master advanced-level Ukrainian grammar and specialized vocabulary in preparation for research using original Ukrainian-language sources, both archival and interview-based. Reading selections will include annotated articles on contemporary issues in business, economics, politics, and culture. Short written reports and oral presentations will be part of the course. By the end of the course the students will be able to understand a wide range of general interest topics and some special fields of interest, hypothesize, support opinions, and deal with linguistically unfamiliar situations. Classes will be conducted largely in Ukrainian. Prerequisite: Solid proficiency in Ukrainian, Russian, or other Slavic language. (8 credits)  This is a FLAS eligible course.

Beginning Ukrainian (8 units)

Yuri Shevchuk, Lecturer, Department of Slavic Languages, Columbia University

The purpose of the Beginning Ukrainian course is to help students develop elementary proficiency in speaking, reading, listening, and writing in Ukrainian and acquire some basic knowledge of Ukrainian culture, history, geography, and way of life. The course aims to enable students to master Ukrainian pronunciation and grammatical accuracy well enough to be understood by a native speaker of Ukrainian through the use of essential vocabulary related to everyday life. The course uses the recently published textbook, Yuri Shevchuk’s Beginner’s Ukrainian with Interactive Online Workbook (2011).  This is a FLAS eligible course.

20th Century Ukrainian Literature: Rethinking the Canon (4 Units)

George G. Grabowicz, the Dmytro Čyževs'kyj Professor of Ukrainian Literature, Harvard University

A survey of the major writers and works of Ukrainian literature from the 1920s through the present with a special focus on how their reception and evaluation has been reconfigured by Ukraine’s independence.  The course will examine among others such movements and developments as modernism, the “executed renaissance” (rozstriljane vidrodzhennja), socialist realism, the literature of dissent and emigration, underground literature and post-modernism through close readings of representative works.  Prerequisites: reading knowledge of Ukrainian or permission of the Instructor.

Contemporary Ukraine: History, Geography, and Political Thought (4 units)

Mykhailo Minakov, Associate Professor, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy

What is it like to live in a new capitalist society after 75 years of socialism?  This course aims to analyze the era of Ukraine’s independence by examining individual experiences in a state of conflicting ideologies and value systems.  Through readings and class discussions, students will gain an understanding of the core ideas that were the center of Ukrainian intellectual debates of the last two decades, and the essence of current social and political issues in Ukraine.