Master of Arts in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies

CREEES offers a one-year intensive interdisciplinary master's degree program in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies for students with a strong prior language and area studies background. The program structure allows students the flexibility to pursue their particular academic interests, while providing intellectual cohesion through a required core curriculum that addresses historical and contemporary processes of change in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. This core curriculum consists of three core courses and REES 200, Core Seminar Series. The program may be taken separately or coterminally with a B.A. degree program. The interdisciplinary M.A. program typically serves three types of students:

Those who intend to pursue careers and/or advanced degrees in such fields as business, education, government, journalism, or law, and who wish to establish competence in Russian, East European and Eurasian studies.
Those who intend to apply to a Ph.D. program involving Russian, East European and Eurasian studies and who need to enhance their academic skills and credentials.
Those who are as yet undecided on a career but who wish to continue an interest in Russian, East European and Eurasian studies.

ADVISING

The advising structure is two-tiered: each M.A. candidate works with the CREEES associate director who advises on the program of course work and monitors the student's progress toward completing the degree. Candidates are also assigned a faculty adviser from the Academic Council faculty, who provides intellectual and academic guidance.

ADMISSION

Applicants apply electronically; see http://gradadmissions.stanford.edu for a link to the electronic application and general information regarding graduate admission. In addition, prospective applicants may consult with the CREEES associate director regarding the application process.

To qualify for admission to the program, the following apply:

Applicants must have earned a B.A. or B.S. degree, or the equivalent.
Applicants must have completed at least three years of college-level Russian language study or the equivalent prior to beginning the program. Other languages of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Caucasus may be accepted on a case-by-case basis.
Applicants whose native language is not English are ordinarily expected to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) and have the results sent to Graduate Admissions, Office of the University Registrar.
All applicants must take the General Test of the Graduate Record Examination and have the results sent to Graduate Admissions, Office of the University Registrar.
Applicants must submit a writing sample in English on a topic in Russian, East European, or Eurasian studies.

The deadline for submission of applications for admission and for financial aid is January 5, 2010. Admission is normally granted for Autumn Quarter, but requests for exceptions are considered.

The successful applicant generally demonstrates the following strengths: requisite foreign language study, significant course work in Russian, East European and Eurasian studies in multiple disciplines, outstanding grades in previous academic work, strong writing skills, high GRE scores (particularly verbal and analytical writing), study or work experience in the region, strong letters of recommendation, and a persuasive statement of purpose explaining why and how the program fits the applicant's academic and career goals.

DEGREE REQUIREMENTS

Candidates for the M.A. degree must meet University requirements for an M.A. degree as described in the "Graduate Degrees" section of this bulletin.

The M.A. program in REEES can ordinarily be completed in one academic year by a well-prepared student; longer periods of study are permitted.

Requirements to complete the interdisciplinary M.A. degree are principally ones of distribution, with the exception of three required core courses and a core seminar, as described below. Each student, with the advice of the CREEES academic coordinator, selects courses according to the student's interests, needs, and goals.

All students in the M.A. REEES program must complete a minimum of 48 academic credit units within the following guidelines.

Core courses: students must complete three core courses. Each year, four to six courses, typically from the History, Political Science, and Slavic Languages and Literatures departments, are designated as M.A. core courses; students may select three of these to meet the core course requirement. Courses selected as core courses examine subject areas of fundamental importance within modern Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, and address questions of research, methodology, and current scholarship.
Core seminar: REES 200, Current Issues in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, is required of all students in the M.A. program for a total of three academic quarters. The goal of this course is to survey current methodological and substantive issues in Russian, East European and Eurasian studies, acquaint students with Stanford resources and faculty, and present professional development and career options.
Interdisciplinary course work: a minimum of five graduate courses in Russian, East European and Eurasian studies must be completed and distributed among at least three disciplines. All course work applied to the 48-unit minimum must deal primarily with Russian, Eurasian, or East European studies.
Language study: students in the program are expected to study Russian or another language of Eastern Europe, Central Asia or the Caucasus. Credit towards the 48-unit minimum (maximum 3 units per quarter, 9 units total) is allowed for advanced language work; in the case of Russian, "advanced" is defined as third-year Russian language instruction and above. Similar standards apply for other languages.
All course work qualifying for the 48-unit minimum (except REES 200) must have a letter grade of 'B' or higher. ('B-' does not count for degree credit, nor does 'S' or 'CR'.)
All courses counting towards the 48-unit minimum must be approved by the CREEES associate director, who ensures that planned course work satisfies requirements towards the degree. The CREEES director and steering committee determine the requirements.

Core Courses for 2009-10—

FILMSTUD 345. Politics and Aesthetics in East European Cinema

HISTORY 125. 20th-Century Eastern Europe

HISTORY 223F. The Nationality Question in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union

HISTORY 321A. Classics of Russian Historiography

POLISCI 210R: International Conflict: Management and Resolution (Same as IPS 250)

REES 320. State and Nation Building in Central Asia

SLAVLIT 225. Readings in Russian Realism

SLAVLIT 310. Civilizing Process: Paradigms of Society and Culture in Modern Russian Literature and Film

Recommended 2009-10 courses which may be counted for the M.A. degree—

ANTHRO 147A. Folklore, Mythology, and Islam in Central Asia

ANTHRO 248A. Nomads of Eurasia: Culture in Transition

COMPLIT 248. Afghanistan: Literature and History

HISTORY 120A. Russian Civilization from Beginnings to the Enlightenment

HISTORY 123. Reform and Revolution in Modern Russia, 1856-2009

HISTORY 220G. Demons, Witches, Holy Fools, and Folk Belief: Popular Religion in Russia, 19th and 20th Centuries

HISTORY 221A. Men, Women, and Power in Early Modern Russia, 1500-1800

HISTORY 221B. The Woman Question in Modern Russia

HISTORY 227. East European Women and War in the 20th Century

HISTORY 229. Poles and Jews

HISTORY 236C: Reordering Europe, 1917-1923

HISTORY 236S. European Nationalism, 1600 to Present

HISTORY 238K. European Collaboration, Resistance, and Retribution: 1938-1948

MS&E 293. Technology and National Security

POLISCI 116. History of Nuclear Weapons (Same as History 103E)

POLISCI 140C. The Comparative Political Economy of Post-Communist Transitions

POLISCI 210R. International Conflict: Management and Resolution (Same as IPS 250)

POLISCI 216E. International History and International Relations Theory

POLISCI 314D. Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (Same as IPS 230)

POLISCI 314S. Decision Making in U.S. Foreign Policy (Same as IPS 314S)

SLAVGEN 245. Age of Experiment: From Pushkin to Gogol

SLAVGEN 246. The Great Russian Novel: History and Other Theories of Time and Action

SLAVGEN 248. Dissent and Disenchantment: A Survey of Russian Literature and Culture, 1953 to Present

SLAVGEN 251. Dostoevsky and His Times (Same as COMPLIT 219)

SLAVLIT 167. Introduction to Russian Cultural Studies

SLAVLIT 169. Advanced Russian Seminar: Reading Pushkin's Evgenii Onegin (in Russian)

SLAVLIT 200A. Introduction to Russian Literary Scholarship: Russian Formalism and Structuralism

SLAVLIT 200B. Introduction to Slavic Bibliography and Archival Research

SLAVLIT 226. Bakhtin and His Legacy

SLAVLIT 229. Poetry as System: introduction to Theory and Practice of Russian Verse

SLAVLIT 245. Age of Experiment from Pushkin to Gogol

SLAVLIT 269. Pushkin and the Golden Age

SLAVLIT 284. History of Russian Literary Language

SLAVLIT 288. From Alexander Blok to Joseph Brodsky: Russian Poetry of the 20th Century

Additional 2009-10 courses which may be counted for the M.A. degree—

ARTHIST 411. Animation, Performance, Presence in Medieval Art

FILMSTUD 300A. History of World Cinema I, 1895-1929

FILMSTUD 406. Montage

FRENGEN 361. Theories of Resistance

HISTORY 137. The Holocaust

HISTORY 185B. Jews in the Modern World

HISTORY 299X. Design and Methodology for International Field Research

IPS 211. The Transition from War to Peace: Peacebuilding Strategies

INTNLREL 122A. The Political Economy of the European Union

IPS 241. International Security in a Changing World (Same as POLISCI 114S)

LINGUIST 167. Languages of the World

RELIGST 222B. Sufism Seminar

RELIGST 224B. Unveiling the Sacred: Explorations in Islamic Religious Imagination

SLAVGEN 221. Modernism and the Jewish Voice in Europe (Same as COMPLIT 247)

Other courses may be counted towards the M.A. by special arrangement with the instructor and the CREEES associate director.

A description of the M.A. program is also available on the web at http://CREEES.stanford.edu/academic/graduate-masters.html and by request from the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies.

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