Slavic Literary/Cultural Studies

Graduate students at the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (Harvard Griffin GSAS) have the opportunity to pursue a secondary field in Slavic literary and cultural studies. Students may focus on a single national literature and culture, such as Czech, Polish, Russian, or Ukrainian, or design a comparative secondary field in consultation with the appropriate faculty members. Within the secondary field, students may also focus on a single form of cultural expression, such as poetry or film, but are warmly encouraged to make their field interdisciplinary, drawing on courses that study literature, history, film, philosophy, the visual arts, anthropology, and political science. The secondary field is designed to prepare students for both teaching and scholarship. For example, those who may find employment in a modern languages department will be prepared to offer comparative courses that include Slavic material, and those whose scholarship draws on Russian or East European works will find the secondary field a source of broad and deep knowledge.

Requirements 

Students will complete four half-courses for the secondary field, chosen in consultation with the Slavic Department director of graduate studies (DGS); all will be taken for a letter grade. All will use materials in the original language, and at least one must lead to a long seminar paper. Ordinarily, language courses are not counted, although one term of advanced language work, normally Russian 115: Advanced Russian for Academic and Professional Communication, may be included, or, where appropriate, a comparable tutorial may be designed for another Slavic language at the advanced level. As an alternative, students may wish to take the Slavic Department’s Proseminar as one of the four half-courses and are invited to do so. Of the required four half-courses, three should be graduate seminars in the Slavic Department or their equivalent.

The Slavic Department’s Harvard Griffin GSAS Workshop, Current Research in Russian and East European Literature and Culture, welcomes graduate students pursuing this secondary field for participation throughout their time of study at the University. Presentation of a paper in the workshop is encouraged for students completing the secondary field.

Students completing a secondary field in Slavic literary/cultural studies will be considered for teaching fellow (TF) positions in courses taught by Slavic Department faculty and, wherever possible, offered placement in at least one such course.

Contact 

For more information, contact the director of graduate studies in the Slavic Department.