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Program Codes:
BARUSST
Bachelor of Arts
The World Languages and Cultures program is a vehicle for the development of the whole person in a multicultural context through the most essential activities of human life: personal expression and social interaction.
We offer majors in Russian Studies, Spanish, and Spanish Education. Students may also pursue minors in Arabic and Islamic Studies, Asian Studies, Chinese, Russian Studies, Spanish, and Teaching English-Language Learners. In addition, we offer coursework in French and American Sign Language. Through these programs we prepare students for a future that demands a high level of linguistic proficiency and cultural competency.
Mission Statement
Our programs support the mission of the University by fostering meaningful language acquisition and cultural study that will enable our students to “exercise leadership in service toward a just world.”
World Languages and Cultures promotes the acquisition of indispensable skills in intercultural communication for our students’ future careers and personal development. Understanding the fundamental importance of language in human relationships and global communication, we focus on rich, student-centered instruction in reading, writing, speaking, and listening comprehension skills. Courses in culture, literature, and linguistics are a vital complement to language study and support the University core value of global responsibility, which “challenges us to learn how to steward the resources of the Earth wisely and to act in solidarity with its diverse peoples.”
In addition to classroom experience, we offer study abroad experiences, sponsor cultural events on campus, and serve as a language and cultural resource to the greater Erie community. In all of our programs, we work to foster respect for others, an openness to diverse experiences, and productive relationships facilitated through intercultural communication.
Major Program Outcomes
Major Requirements
All majors must maintain an overall 2.5 GPA and at least a 2.75 GPA in major courses. Spanish Education majors must also meet all the requirements of the Education Department, including their GPA minimums. All majors and those students seeking teaching certification are expected to maintain a portfolio which will be used for assessment at Sophomore and Senior Review (see advisor for portfolio requirements).
Students with previous experience in a language offered by the department (including native and heritage speakers) must consult with the department faculty to be placed into an appropriate level course. We reserve the right to reassign students whose level of experience is not appropriate for the course.
Sophomore Review
During spring semester of the sophomore year, the faculty reviews the student’s academic record, the language portfolio, and recommendations from professors to determine academic progress. At this time, qualified students are formally invited into the major and are informed in writing of the Department’s decision.
Senior Review
Spring semester of the senior year, students will meet with faculty to conduct an exit review. Seniors will also participate in a formal oral proficiency interview in the spring of their senior year, resulting in on official rating from Language Testing International.
Chinese or Spanish Minor
Students who wish to earn a minor in Chinese or Spanish may do so by completing any eight courses in their language/culture area. However, students who begin their language study at the level of Intermediate I or higher may complete the minor with seven classes instead of eight. Minors may only satisfy two requirements with a literature or culture course taught in English (for example: SPAN 125 or ASIA 125). Students must maintain a 2.5 GPA in the minor.
Russian Studies Minor
Students will take eight courses, five in Russian language and three from other courses as offered, including courses in history, political science, culture, literature or linguistics.
Students may major in Russian Studies which combines courses in language, literature, culture, and history by following the sequence below:
• Eight courses in Russian language
• Two courses in Russian culture or literature
• One course in history or political science, related to Russia
• One course in Sociolinguistics (WL 314)
An introduction to the Russian language, including development of the basic skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Learning activities aimed toward a flexible command of the language are included.
Further study of the skills introduced in Russian I, including study of grammar and aural-oral practice designed to reinforce the basic language skills. Prerequisite: RUSS 101 or equivalent.
A study of the more sophisticated grammatical patterns and idiomatic structures of Russian designed to increase proficiency in reading and writing the language. Increased speaking practice enables the student to become more orally proficient in the Russian language.
RUSS 102 or equivalent
The continuation of RUSS 203 with study of the four skills, reading, writing, listening and speaking.
RUSS 203 or equivalent
A synthesis of Russian grammar and a focus on conversation designed to increase proficiency in all four skills, culminating in a student-designed portfolio assessing their own proficiency. This course is the final requirement for students wishing to continue on to advanced Russian classes.
Students will develop their communicative skills, while building vocabulary and a greater understanding of structure and idioms, through composition and guided as well as spontaneous conversations.
RUSS 208 or equivalent
Select two (2) of the following courses:
Historical and cultural development of Russia are studied. Lectures, class discussions, and reports on the most significant aspects and trends of political, literary, economic, social and artistic life are included. Course conducted in English.
This interdisciplinary course explores Russian culture through Russia's two capitals, Moscow and St. Petersburg. We will traverse these cityscapes as historical, cultural, and mythological spaces - from the past to the present day - in literary works, historical accounts, art, and film. We will investigate the sites of key landmarks, including the Moscow metro, the Hermitage, and Red Square, in order to excavate the layers of cultural history, which underlie contemporary Russian identity. From Dostoevsky's Petersburg underground to Bulgakov's fantastic Moscow, we will contrast and synthesize the cultural landscape, questioning whether these two distinctly different, but undeniably Russian cities, reveal certain constants in Russian culture across time and space. No previous Russian language or Russian culture necessary.
Study of the major works and writers of the first half of the 19th century. Includes Gogol and Lermontov as well as Pushkin and Turgenev. Particular emphasis on the growth of Russian realism in light of the Slavophile-Westernizer debates of this era. Conducted in English.
This course explores Soviet history through its media: film, art, literature; and the producers of this media: artists, who worked with the support of the State, those worked in secret "for the desk
drawer," and those who did both. It investigates the structure and aesthetics of ideology, propaganda, and resistance. It accesses the reception of this media and how they shaped people's imagination about what it meant to be a Soviet citizen. The course asks: Is ideology a static backdrop throughout the Soviet Union? How does ideology inform projects that had official State endorsement and those the State considered suspect? What makes a work of art successful in this historical context? Finally, what response does art provide when ideology fails?
Readings, media, and discussion are all in English. No knowledge of Russian is necessary.
With instructor approval, students may use this course to develop an independent study program based on their experiences abroad. Students must have spent at least four weeks abroad and must arrange prior to departure, to complete a research or creative project and present it publicly in the semester following their return.
Select one (1) of the following courses:
This course does not assume prior language or linguistics study but rather introduces students to the social aspects of language, in general, and to the relationship between language and social factors that affect its usage, such as geography, gender, ethnicity, age and socioeconomic class.
Select four (4) 200-300 level RUSS courses, or any other course that focuses on Russia, subject to the advisor's approval. (12 credits)
Students will explore the culture and geography of Contemporary Russia. Course material will cover the geography, politics, arts, and other social and cultural phenomena of the late 20th and 21st-century Russia. They will also focus on developing and improving their skills in written and spoken Russian. The language of instruction for this course is Russian.
RUSS 208, recommended RUSS 210
From the Muppets to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) to the television show "Stranger Things," Russian prisons feature in the Western imagination as male-dominated spaces of totture, gangs, seclusion, and secrecy. Against such imagined backdrops are real-life stories that emerge in English-speaking media of jailed political opponents, out-of-favor oligarchs, and ex-American servicemen and athletes facing serious prison time. This course investigates the context and sources of the imagination of Russian prisons as well as the experiences and challenges in the search for transparency and justice in Russia's fraught history of crime and punishment. Discussion, readings and other media are in English. No knowledge of Russian necessary.
Students will develop more sophisticated composition and conversation skills, such as techniques for persuasion, debating, analysis and creative expression. Prerequisite: RUSS 210. 3 credits.
RUSS 210
