The Russian Program at UIC provides an opportunity to develop vital language skills and cultural competence. Russian is the native language of 150 million citizens of the Russian Federal Republic, and it ranks as a language of national strategic importancefor the United States government.
Our courses in literature, film, and theater illuminate Russia’s significant contributions to world culture. We place works by such world-renowned figures as Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Vladimir Nabokov, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Igor Stravinsky, Vassily Kandinsky, and Kazimir Malevichin the Russian historical context and in relation to great works by other European writers and artists.
Russia’s cultural heritage includes contributions from the country’s wide variety of ethnicities and religions. Cities such as Kazan (pictured above) have multi-lingual, multi-ethnic populations that practice a range of faiths including Judaism, Islam, and Eastern Orthodox Christianity.
We encourage our students to study abroad to experience Russia for themselves. Visit the Study Abroad Office for more information on programs approved by UIC.
New Course for Summer 2023! Heading link
We’re excited to offer a new online asynchronous course for Summer 2023.
RUSS 140: The Body in Literature
Through the prism of Russian literature and art, the course explores the various ways in which the human body is socially constructed and imbued with political and aesthetic significance. In particular, the course examines the body as the site of competing desires and interpretations, at the intersection of medical, scientific, and aesthetic discourses. To what extent do medicine, science, politics, and art influence, inform, or clash with each other in their approaches to physicality? The course will discuss such topics as labor efficiency and fatigue, production and reproduction, health and illness, biopolitics and bioethics, and finally, the concepts and experiences of ability, gender, class, and race.
Taught in English. No knowledge of Russian required. Creative Arts or World Cultures course.