BRAMA, Aug 20, 2004, 1:00 pm ET
Press Release
Columbia University Offers Ukrainian Courses in Fall
(USF New York) Columbia University will offer a number of courses in Ukrainian language, sociolinguistics, literature, and history in the fall 2004 semester, which begins on September 7. The expanded curriculum was organized following a successful development campaign earlier this year that brought a key endowed fund for teaching Ukrainian history at Columbia to the million dollar mark. As support for Ukrainian studies strengthens, Ukrainian language instruction will also increase.
The history courses offered are: “History of Modern Ukraine” (W3226), an undergraduate lecture course on modern 19th-20th century Ukrainian history that will be taught by Dr. Yaroslav Hrytsak, Jacyk Visiting Professor at the Harriman Institute, and "Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union" (W3222), an undergraduate lecture course on the political and social history of the former Soviet Union that will be taught by Dr. Mark von Hagen, Professor of History at Columbia. Dr. Hrytsak is Professor of History at the L'viv National University and Dean of Humanities at the Ukrainian Catholic University. Professor von Hagen is a former Director of the Harriman Institute and currently President of the International Association of Ukrainian Studies.
Four Ukrainian language courses will be offered for undergraduate and graduate students. "Elementary Ukrainian" (W1101), taught by Rory Finnin (PhD candidate, Dept. of Slavic Languages at Columbia), will cover the essentials of grammar and basic oral and written communication. "Intermediate Ukrainian" (W1201), taught by Dr. Yuri Shevchuk, Lecturer at the Dept. of Slavic Languages, will review grammar and vocabulary, and build conversational skills. "Advanced Ukrainian" (W3001), also taught by Dr. Shevchuk, will further study grammar and linguistic features from original Ukrainian texts, enabling students to debate opinions and conduct research in Ukrainian. A special course for graduate students, titled "Language Development in Post-Totalitarian Space" (U6888), will examine the development of language in the former Soviet Union and how language reflects sociopolitical and cultural changes. This course, taught by Dr. Antonina Berezovenko, Visiting Scholar at the Harriman Institute, will use the Ukrainian language as a primary case study, in addition to Belarusian and Russian.
An advanced undergraduate seminar titled "Literature and Identities in Post-Soviet Ukraine" (W4100) will be taught by Dr. Maria Rewakowicz, a Canadian Foundation for Ukrainian Studies Neporany Fellow at the Dept. of Slavic Languages. Lectures will focus on how various identities (national, ethnic, territorial, religious, class and gender) are reflected in contemporary Ukrainian literature. Major literary trends in post-Soviet Ukraine and the most representative texts of the past decade will be examined.
Many of these courses are open, in addition to Columbia students, to students from other universities in the New York metropolitan area, as well as to individuals interested in non-credit continuing studies. Students from New York University can register directly with their school for Ukrainian language classes at Columbia, while PhD candidates and master degree students from universities which are part of the Columbia University Consortium (e.g. NYU, CUNY, New School) can register for non-language courses by obtaining appropriate approval from both their home school and Columbia.
For further information and class times, please contact Diana Howansky, Ukrainian Studies Program at Columbia University, at (212) 854-4697 or (212) 854-8624, or at ukrainianstudies@columbia.edu.
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