This year, Harvard University will offer courses focused on Ukraine and the Russo-Ukrainian war through the Slavic, Government, and History Departments, as well as the Kennedy School. Further courses (not listed here) at the Law School and Kennedy School aim to incorporate the war in Ukraine as one of their core examples or case studies.
Fall Semester
Language
UKRA AA. Elementary Ukrainian I
Dr. Volodymyr Dibrova
MWF 9:00-10:00am
Science Center B06.20
An introductory course in modern Ukrainian language and culture, designed for students without previous knowledge who would like to speak Ukrainian or use the language for reading and research. All four major communicative skills (speaking, listening comprehension, reading, writing) are stressed. Students are exposed to Ukrainian culture through work with prose and poetry as they learn to use the language both as a means of communication and as a tool for reading and research.This year-long full course satisfies the foreign language requirement and prepares students for continued study of Ukrainian in intermediate-level courses and for study or travel abroad in Ukraine. Part one of a two-part series.
History
HIST 1270. Frontiers of Europe: Ukraine since 1500
Prof. Serhii Plokhii
TTh 10:30-11:45am
CGIS South S354
The history of Ukrainian territory and its people within a broad context of political, social and cultural changes in Eastern Europe in the course of the half of a millennium. Special emphasis on the role of Ukraine as a cultural frontier of Europe, positioned on the border between settled areas and Eurasian steppes, Christianity and Islam, Orthodoxy and Catholicism, as well as a battleground of major imperial and national projects of modern era.
Government
IGA 622. The Future of the European Union: The EU as an International Actor Facing Russia's War in Ukraine
Prof. Daniela Schwarzer
T 4:30-7:15pm
Rubenstein G21 (HKS)
Russia’s war on Ukraine which started in February 2022 has destroyed the European security order and is causing major global disruptions. Governments have changed their defense and energy policies, the transatlantic alliance has been reinforced and European responses in terms of sanctions and arms deliveries have been swift and strong. At the same time, the war has provoked tensions within the EU which are likely to grow, it has caused a humanitarian catastrophe resulting from the food crisis and it has led to a geopolitical reorganization around Europe which pushes governments to rethink their strategic partnerships and foreign policy orientations.
This course will analyze Europe’s role in a profoundly changing world through a scholarly and practitioner lens. We will study the new international security environment and regional and global trends which will shape it in the future. We will analyze the institutional, legal and ideational base of European foreign policy, as well as key relationships the EU has with major partners (Russia, the US, China, India, the Indo-Pacific, Africa). We will examine the theoretical and empirical debates surrounding the EU and its member states as a foreign policy actors and we will study some of the most dynamically evolving dimensions of EU external relations such as defense, tech, energy, climate, migration, trade and foreign policy. The course puts a strong focus on policy relevant discussions and writings, introducing participants to the way foreign policy think tanks shape their work in an increasingly uncertain and conflictual environment.
GOV 1199. Negotiating Post-Soviet Conflict: The Geopolitics of Eastern Europe and the Caucasus
Prof. Arvid Bell
T 9:45-11:45am
TBA
This undergraduate course will use case studies and virtual immersive negotiation simulations to explore the dynamics underpinning hot spots in the post-Soviet space with a focus on Georgia, Eastern Ukraine and US-Russia relations. Students will not only gain a deeper understanding of current political events in Eurasia, but they will also improve their individual negotiation and conflict management skills.
Seminars
FRSEMR 64T. Immigrant Memoirs: Women's Lives from Eastern Europe to America
Prof. Aleksandra Kremer
W 3:00-5:00pm
Barker 211
In this seminar we will read memoirs and personal essays (as well as a few poems and a play) written by women who had moved from eastern Europe to the United States (and in some cases to the UK and Canada, too). What did they think about their new countries? What happened to their first languages as they lived surrounded by the English language? What did their alienation and assimilation look like? How did their attitude to English evolve? We will read about identity, memory, and loss, about abandoning and rediscovering one’s ancestry, about children and adults, about working-class immigrants, successful writers, and part-time college teachers, and their varying reasons for emigration, which included wars, discrimination, poverty, and love. The authors we will discuss come from Poland, Ukraine, and Russia, from former Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, and include several Jewish and Yiddish-speaking writers. The earliest migrations described in these memoirs take place around World War II and the Holocaust, the most recent texts refer to the war in Ukraine. What image of eastern Europe emerges from these texts? How do these stories inform our views of ethnicity and immigration today? What do they tell us about our own identities? All students interested in these questions are welcome to join us, there are no prerequisites.
UKRAN 200A. Seminar in Ukrainian Studies
Prof. Serhii Plokhii
TBA
TBA
Interdisciplinary seminar in Ukrainian studies with broad regional and comparative perspective. Faculty and invited scholars discuss a variety of topics in the humanities and social sciences. Background readings and follow-up discussions help students put the specific lectures in broader context. Students also conduct an individually tailored reading and research project under the guidance of a faculty advisor and in consultation with other resident specialists. Part one of a two part series.
HURI Note: The Seminar in Ukrainian Studies takes place on Wednesdays at 4:30-6:00pm in CGIS Knafel K-354. These events are open to the public.
Spring Semester
Language
UKRA AB. Elementary Ukrainian II
Dr. Volodymyr Dibrova
TBA
TBA
An introductory course in modern Ukrainian language and culture, designed for students without previous knowledge who would like to speak Ukrainian or use the language for reading and research. All four major communicative skills (speaking, listening comprehension, reading, writing) are stressed. Students are exposed to Ukrainian culture through work with prose and poetry as they learn to use the language both as a means of communication and as a tool for reading and research.This year-long full course satisfies the foreign language requirement and prepares students for continued study of Ukrainian in intermediate-level courses and for study or travel abroad in Ukraine.Part two of a two-part series.
Literature
SLAVIC 163. Understanding Ukraine: Personal Voices and Collective Imagination
Prof. Olena Haleta, Ivan Franko University of Lviv, Ukraine (visiting professor at Harvard)
TBA
TBA
This course will introduce students to contemporary Ukrainian literature as a collection of individual voices that, through practices of collective reading and interpretation, are transformed into a common experience. Beginning with a discussion of the modern, modernist, and contemporary, we will explore contemporary literature as post-totalitarian, post-colonial and post-modern. Aesthetic exploration and linguistic inventions will be considered in the context of social challenges, historical traumas, and the inheritance of a multicultural and multilingual tradition; students will come to understand contemporary Ukrainian literature as both an "unexpected phenomenon” and as participating in a rich, thousand-year tradition that serves as a key to understanding Ukrainian identity today. As part of our discussions, we will speak on Zoom with influential contemporary poets and novelists, giving us the opportunity to critically analyze developments in Ukrainian literature over the last thirty years.
Authors to be read (in English translation) include Yurii Andrukhovych, Oksana Zabuzhko, Serhiy Zhadan, Halyna Kruk, Oksana Lutsyshyna, Iryna Shuvalova, Marianna Kiyanovska, Ostap Slyvynsky, Kateryna Kalytko, Sophia Andrukhovych, Liubov Yakymchuk, Olena Huseinova, Victoria Amelina and others.
SLAVIC 267. Modern Ukrainian Literature: Canon, Community, and Cultural Experience
Prof. Olena Haleta, Ivan Franko University of Lviv, Ukraine (visiting professor at Harvard)
TBA
TBA
This course will examine modern Ukrainian literature as evidence of belonging to the common European cultural space and as the basis of current cultural identity. Discussion of varied literary texts will reveal the changes in the literary tradition that have taken place throughout the 20th century, from neo-romanticism to postmodernism, including intellectual drama and philosophical theater, the avant-garde movement, neo-baroque, existentialism, surrealism, and neomodernism. Literary phenomena will be considered in the context of the collapse of empires and the formation of Soviet totalitarianism, intercultural contacts and the development of social movements, wars and emigration. Taking the perspective of literary anthropology, this course critically reflects on the involvement of unique literary voices from Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Lviv, as well as from Paris and New York, in the formation of a modern cultural community united by the practices of writing, reading, and interpretation.
Authors to be read (in English translation) include Lesia Ukrainka, Olha Kobylianska, Pavlo Tychyna, Mykola Bazhan, Valerian Pidmohylny, Mykola Kulish, Mykhaylo Semenko, Bohdan-Ihor Antonych, Iryna Vilde, Sophia Yablonska, Ihor Kostetsky, Bohdan Rubchak, Emma Andijewska, Vasyl Stus, Ihor Kalynets, Yurii Andrukhovych, Oksana Zabuzhko, Serhiy Zhadan and others.
Government
IGA 353M. Frontline Negotiation Lab: Assessing the HUmanitarian Response to the Ukraine Crisis in Europe (note: January term)
Claude Bruderlein
TBA
TBA
Policy professionals are confronted with the constant politicization of the humanitarian response to crisis situations as well as deepening ideological tensions surrounding the provisions of life-saving assistance and protection to populations affected by armed conflict. The recent events in Eastern Europe bring into focus the challenges and dilemmas of addressing large scale man-made disasters while maintaining a neutral and impartial standing to allow the conduct of frontline humanitarian negotiation with all the parties concerned. To plan the engagement with all stakeholders and design sustainable solutions, humanitarian professionals must develop capabilities to lead constructive dialogues with a vast array of stakeholders while considering a wide range of policy options to respond to complex humanitarian problems. Such capabilities require building trust with unreceptive or adversarial counterparts, managed negotiation processes under pressure, and deal with the use and misuse of information to further political and humanitarian agendas.
Through an experiential learning approach that emphasizes direct engagement with relevant actors of the domain in the field, the course examines a set of complex humanitarian emergencies as a means to furthering a critical reflection on global issues, set the basis of a professional dialogue with leading humanitarian organizations and thinkers, building exchanges between Harvard University graduate students and field practitioners, and to shed light on professional negotiation practices on the frontlines of humanitarian action. Such cases represent an interesting and sophisticated political, social, legal, and policy environment for graduate students to analyze the various agendas and situational factors involved in a humanitarian crisis through interdisciplinary, scientific lenses while also acquiring a systematic methodology to engage in crisis situation in a proactive, critical, and practical manner.
Seminars
UKRAN 200B. Seminar in Ukrainian Studies
Profs. Serhii Plokhii and Michael Flier
TBA
TBA
Interdisciplinary seminar in Ukrainian studies with broad regional and comparative perspective. Faculty and invited scholars discuss a variety of topics in the humanities and social sciences. Background readings and follow-up discussions help students put the specific lectures in broader context. Students also conduct an individually tailored reading and research project under the guidance of a faculty advisor and in consultation with other resident specialists. Part two of a two part series.
HURI Note: The Seminar in Ukrainian Studies takes place on Wednesdays at 4:30-6:00pm in CGIS Knafel K-354. These events are open to the public.