Course Requirements for the MA

• Russian 390 (Studies in Slavic Linguistics; topic: Old Church Slavic)
• 18 additional semester credit hours (six courses) in the major field of Slavic Languages and Literatures (courses with the prefix CZ, POL, RUS, SC, or SLA).
• 6 semester credit hours (two courses) of supporting work, typically outside the Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies, but possibly within the department (with permission of the graduate adviser) if the courses include a substantial comparative component. Such courses are most commonly in Education, Comparative Literature, or Linguistics, but they are by no means limited to these areas.
• 3 hours of credit in a graduate level course in advanced stylistics and conversation skills in a designated primary Slavic language of study. For Russian, the typical primary language, the department regularly offers the course Russian 380C (Advanced Russian Composition and Conversation I). If another language is to be the primary Slavic language, special arrangements must be made with the appropriate faculty member to do analogous work as an independent study course.
• Slavic 180K (Proseminar on Slavic Studies). This course, which meets one hour a week and is taken on a Credit/No Credit basis, offers an overview of the field of Slavic studies and an introduction to the research methods and resources in the field.

AND

• Russian 698A and 698B (Thesis), a two-semester sequence of work concluding with the timely presentation of an acceptable M.A. thesis in the major field of concentration

OR

• Russian 398R ("Conference Course - Master of Arts Report"), a one-semester course concluding with the timely presentation of an acceptable M.A. report.
• An additional course in the major field is required as the report is only 3 credit hours.

These course requirements permit considerable freedom in course selection in both the major and minor fields, so that you may tailor your coursework to your interests. There are, however, three constraints to keep in mind:

1. No course may satisfy more than one requirement.
2. All courses must be graduate courses (numbered x80-x99), except that up to nine hours may be upper division undergraduate courses (numbered x20-x79). These nine hours are further restricted as follows: These courses may not include any of the core undergraduate courses: Russian 218a/218b, 320K/320L, 228a/228b, 324/325, or 670a/670b.
3. No more than three of these nine hours may lie in the major field. Up to six may be in the minor.

If an upper-division course is submitted as part of the major field, the student must arrange with the instructor to do substantial reading in Russian and to write a graduate-level course paper. The selection of courses must be approved by the graduate adviser. The basic principle is that the courses present should represent a coherent program.

Conference courses, numbered Russian 395, may comprise part of the course work, provided that the work done forms part of a coherent course program. There is no formal limit on the number of such courses, but more than one in each field of concentration would probably require special justification. For each such courses intended to count toward the degree plan, a brief signed letter from the supervising faculty member is required, summarizing the work done and the recommendation that the course count toward the degree plan.

Russian 398T (Supervised Teaching in Russian: Principles and Methods of Teaching Russian) is recommended, although it does not constitute part of the degree requirements. This is a practical course in pedagogical methods used in teaching Russian. The University requires that a student have taken this course in order to be appointed an Assistant Instructor, and the department expects students appointed as a Teaching Assistant to take the course as soon as possible after their initial appointment. Other students are not only free to take the course, but if they are interested in teaching they are encouraged to do so. Student performance in this course is considered by the department when making TA and AI appointments.

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