On this Tuesday I will talk more about Afganistan, the boycotting of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, and the rise of the Solidarity movement and other dissident movements in Eastern Europe. On Thursday,  you have a rare opportunity to hear our Dean of International Education, Martha Merritt,  speak about her experiences first hand as a Russian-speaking graduate student in political science living in Moscow during … Continue reading Special Guest Speaker on Thursday

In response to those who are making travel plans for Thanksgiving, Tuesday Nov. 21 is scheduled for consultations (if necessary) on your final project,  I will not penalize people for not being in class.  In short, no “regular” class on that day. Continue reading Tuesday Nov 21

Here are the research paper guidelines, which are also posted under “graded papers” on this siteLLC 335_research project__2017 Continue reading research guidelines

To clarify:  I am just asking for a response paper.  I gave you a prompt for people who don’t know what to write about. If you would rather respond to some different aspect of the movie/text,  feel free to override the prompt and write from you own angle. The basic idea is respond in writing — about whatever you found interesting, new, intriguing, etc. Hope … Continue reading response paper

If you happen to be interested in the on-going debate about Russia’s role in the recent USA presidential election, here’s a chance to see several experts discuss it:  http://jordanrussiacenter.org/event/russia-2016-us-presidential-election-happened-know-going-find/ We will be screening this event live in Media Room C of the Global Studio in the INTC (second floor) on Monday (Oct 23) 4-6 pm         Continue reading Our Elections and Russia: What Happened?

I have made a few more adjustments to the syllabus. We will not have time to read Jamilia,  so that reading falls out.  This week, I will lecture on Tuesday and Thursday on the period of reform and hope that followed in the decade after Stalin’s death.  The following Tuesday (Nov 2) will be reserved for small group consultations, to get you started on your final … Continue reading Final Project guidelines and updates

Hello BBB Class! Your only work for Tuesday is to write a short (500 words) response paper on the film you saw,  East Side Story.   If you did not see the film or can’t remember anything,  you can write on any one of the chapters in Innocent Weapons that you have read.  The generic prompt for this response paper is: Carl Jung (psychologist who identified the notion … Continue reading East Side Story paper

I added a few of the ppt presentations and class lecture notes to the box of BBB course readings, in case some of you missed a class or find it helpful to review the notes.  Try to make sense of the lecture notes and ppt,  please don’t quote me back at myself on your tests 🙂   Continue reading lecture notes and ppt in box

My office hours are generally T/R  from 2 – 5 pm.   Tomorrow I will be here all afternoon.  Come on by if you want to talk about anything. After fall break I’ll set aside plenty of time (several afternoons in a row) for small group consultations on choosing a topic for your research project. For the time being, you don’t need to worry about that … Continue reading office hours reminder

Here is our reading for Thursday.  Last text that will be included on the midterm.  You have copies of the “worksheet” I handed out today for this reading. Hope you enjoy it! I put the reading on our Box, in case the link here doesn’t work  : Kultur and Consumption Continue reading Kulturnost and Consumption