Courses

Fall 2019 Courses in Ukrainian Studies

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UKRAINE IN NEW YORK

History

GU4253

Points: 4

Wednesdays, 2:10-4pm

Instructor: Alexander J. Motyl

This course is a multidisciplinary exploration of the Ukrainian-American community in New York City from its beginnings in the late 19th century to the present.  The course focuses on the history, demographics, economics, politics, religion, education, and culture of the community, devoting particular attention to the impact thereon of the New York setting, shifting attitudes towards American politics and culture and homeland politics and culture, and the tensions encountered in navigating between America, Soviet Ukraine, and independent Ukraine.

Alexander J Motyl can be reached at ajmotyl@newark.rutgers.edu

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UKRAINIAN FOREIGN POLICY: RUSSIA, EUROPE, & THE U.S.

Regional Institute

U8757

Points: 3

Tuesdays, 2:10pm-4:00pm

Instructor: Valerii Kuchynskyi

The newly revised 3-point seminar-like course deals with the performance of independent Ukraine on the international arena, its relationship with major powers - Russia, Europe and the US - and the trajectory of its foreign policy. Having illegally annexed Crimea and conducting a proxy war in Eastern Ukraine, Russia has challenged the basic principles of international law, numerous bilateral agreements and threatening global peace and security. What is to be done to rebuff the aggressor? Can diplomacy still play a role? These and other issues are dealt with in this course. Special emphasis is made on the assessment of current conflict with Moscow and on the new trends in foreign policy doctrine. The issues of national security and current political situation are dealt with extensively. The course delivers first-hand insights by a career diplomat, who has been actively involved in the implementation of Ukrainian foreign policy for over three decades. The format of the course will encourage active dialogue and analytical reflection on the part of the students. The course is aimed at attracting both graduate and advanced undergraduate students.  

Ambassador Kuchynskyi can be reached at: vk2187@columbia.edu

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ELEMENTARY UKRAINIAN I

Slavic

UN1101

Points: 4

Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays,11:40am-12:55am

Instructor: Yuri Shevchuk

Designed for students with little or no knowledge of Ukrainian. Basic grammar structures are introduced and reinforced, with equal emphasis on developing oral and written communication skills. Specific attention to acquisition of high-frequency vocabulary and its optimal use in real-life settings.

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INTERMEDIATE UKRAINIAN I

Slavic

UN2101

Points: 4

Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, 10:10am-11:25am

Instructor: Yuri Shevchuk

Prerequisites: UKRN W1102 or the equivalent. Reviews and reinforces the fundamentals of grammar and a core vocabulary from daily life. Principal emphasis is placed on further development of communicative skills (oral and written). Verbal aspect and verbs of motion receive special attention.

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ADVANCED UKRAINIAN THROUGH LITERATURE, MEDIA, AND POLITICS

Slavic

UN4006

Points: 3

Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:40pm-3:55pm

Instructor: Yuri Shevchuk

This content-based modular course is designed to develop students’ capacity to use the Ukrainian language as a research and communication tool in a variety of specialized functional and stylistic areas that include literary fiction, scholarly prose, printed and broadcast journalism. It is designed for students with interest in the history, politics, literature, culture and other aspects of contemporary Ukraine, as well as those who plan to do their research, business or reporting about Ukraine. The course is taught in Ukrainian. Being equivalent to an advanced language course, the proposed course will further develop students’ proficiency in grammar to enable them to narrate and describe in major time frames with adequate command of aspect. The study of grammar includes patterns of word formation, participle, gerund, an in-depth study of such difficult subjects as verbal aspect, verbs of motion, stylistic and functional stratification of language, communicative sentence perspective.

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POST COLONIAL/POST SOVIET CINEMA

Comparative Literature/Slavic

Tuesdays, 6:10pm-10:00pm

Instructor: Yuri Shevchuk

The course will discuss how filmmaking has been used as an instrument of power and imperial domination in the Soviet Union as well as on post-Soviet space since 1991. A body of selected films by Soviet and post-Soviet directors which exemplify the function of filmmaking as a tool of appropriation of the colonized, their cultural and political subordination by the Soviet center will be examined in terms of postcolonial theories. The course will focus both on Russian cinema and often overlooked work of Ukrainian, Georgian, Belarusian, Armenian, etc. national film schools and how they participated in the communist project of fostering a «new historic community of the Soviet people» as well as resisted it by generating, in hidden and, since 1991, overt and increasingly assertive ways their own counter-narratives. Close attention will be paid to the new Russian film as it re-invents itself within the post-Soviet imperial momentum projected on the former Soviet colonies.

Dr. Shevchuk can be reached at: sy2165@columbia.edu

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