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Audacity, Agency, Authenticity.

A Culture of Care

Read Smith’s plans for the spring 2021 semester.
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Course Search

You may search for courses meeting the criteria offered below. If a search results in too many courses, add criteria or select a more narrow category. If you searched only by department and term, cross-listed courses will be displayed at the bottom of the list.

    COURSE CATALOG SEARCH RESULTS

    6 courses found for the selected term.
    Click on a course title for more information.
    Click on a department code to view complete departmental listings.
    If you searched only by department and term, cross-listed courses will be displayed at the bottom of the list.


  • Credits: 5Max Enrollment: 999
    Course Type: LectureSection Enrollment: 9
    Instructional Method: Enhanced remoteWaitlist Count: 0
    Reserved Seats: No
    Time/Location: Class M W F 10:55 AM-12:10 PM

    The four-skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) introduction to the Russian language with the focus on communicative skills development. Major structural topics include pronunciation and intonation, all six cases, all tenses and verbal aspect. By the end of the course, students are able to sustain conversation on basic topics, write short compositions, read short authentic texts, as well as develop an understanding of Russian culture through watching, discussing and writing on movies, short stories, folk tales and poems. This is a full-year course. Yearlong courses cannot be divided at midyear with credit for the first semester. {F}
    Linked Course: No
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  • Credits: 4Max Enrollment: 999
    Course Type: LectureSection Enrollment: 7
    Instructional Method: RemoteWaitlist Count: 0
    Reserved Seats: No
    Time/Location: Remote Instruction M W 3:15 PM-4:30 PM / REMOTE

    How does a culture conceptualize its natural environment in aesthetic, political, and even religious terms, and what does a landscape “mean” in this context? This interdisciplinary course explores how Russian writers, filmmakers, and artists have represented the vast territory comprising Imperial Russia, the USSR, and the Russian Federation, from the Enlightenment to present. In addition to considering how artistic production has reflected and shaped understanding of the Russian “anthropocene,” we will compare these works with cultural production of the Western tradition. The course also explores initiatives to legislate and transform the Russian environment, which often precipitated ecological and social disasters. {H}{L}{S}
    Linked Course: No
    ENV Crosslist, WLT Crosslist
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  • Credits: 4Max Enrollment: 999
    Course Type: LectureSection Enrollment: 7
    Instructional Method: Enhanced remoteWaitlist Count: 0
    Reserved Seats: No
    Time/Location: Class M W F 9:20 AM-10:35 AM

    The second half of a two-semester sequence. Students continue to practice all four language modalities: reading, listening, writing and speaking. The course incorporates a variety of activities that are based on a range of topics, text types and different socio-cultural situations. Authentic texts (poems, short stories, TV programs, films, songs and articles) are used to create the context for reviewing and expanding on grammar, syntax and vocabulary. Prerequisite: RES 221 or equivalent. {F}
    Linked Course: No
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  • Credits: 4Max Enrollment: 999
    Course Type: LectureSection Enrollment: 4
    Instructional Method: RemoteWaitlist Count: 0
    Reserved Seats: No
    Time/Location: Remote Instruction T Th 3:15 PM-4:30 PM / REMOTE

    Same as REl 242. As devotional objects, political symbols, and art commodities, Russia’s sacred art—the icon—has been revered as sacred, vilified as reactionary, embraced in rebellion, destroyed as dangerous, and sold as masterpieces. Engaging the fields of religion, material and visual culture, and ritual studies, this course examines the life and language of this art form, and its role in shaping Russia’s turbulent history. Topics include the production and reception of images; diverse meanings and functions of sacred imagery; visuality and spirituality; secularization and commodification; history, memory, and collective identities; the icon, avant-garde art, and film; controversial images and protest culture. No prerequisites. Open to first-year students. {H}{L}
    Linked Course: No
    REL Crosslist
    View Textbook Information

  • Credits: 4Max Enrollment: 999
    Course Type: LectureSection Enrollment: 10
    Instructional Method: RemoteWaitlist Count: 0
    Reserved Seats: No
    Time/Location: Remote Instruction T Th 10:55 AM-12:10 PM / REMOTE

    Same as WLT 264. Focuses on close reading of the major novels, short fiction, and journalism of Dostoevsky, one of the greatest writers in modern literature. Combining penetrating psychological insight with the excitement of crime fiction, Dostoevsky’s works explore profound political, philosophical, and religious issues, in a Russia populated by students and civil servants, saints and revolutionaries, writers and madmen. In our close reading of his fiction and nonfiction, we’ll trace the development of Dostoevsky’s style and ideas, considering how these texts engage with issues specific to nineteenth-century Russia, as well as the broader traditions of European literature and intellectual history. In translation. {L}
    Linked Course: No
    WLT Crosslist
    View Textbook Information

  • Credits: 4Max Enrollment: 999
    Course Type: LectureSection Enrollment: 35
    Instructional Method: RemoteWaitlist Count: 0
    Reserved Seats: No
    Time/Location: Remote Instruction T Th 1:40 PM-2:55 PM / REMOTE

    Same as CLT 273. How did the “final frontier” of space become a “front” in the Cold War? As the US and USSR competed in the Space Race, science fiction reflected political discourses in literature, film, visual art, and popular culture. This course explores Russian and Western science fiction in the contexts of twentieth-century geopolitics and artistic modernism (and postmodernism), examining works by Bogdanov, Kubrick, Tarkovsky, Butler, Haraway, Pelevin, and others. The survey considers science fiction’s utopian content and political function, as well as critical and dystopian modes of the genre. No prerequisites or knowledge of Russian required; first-year students are welcome to enroll. {A}{H}{L}
    Linked Course: No
    FMS Crosslist, WLT Crosslist
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    • 9 cross listed courses found for the selected term.


  • Credits: 4Max Enrollment: 40
    Course Type: LectureSection Enrollment: 9
    Instructional Method: RemoteWaitlist Count: 0
    Reserved Seats: No
    Time/Location: Remote Instruction M W 3:15 PM-4:30 PM / REMOTE

    This course examines recurring issues facing the Russian state and its citizens focusing on the complex interplay between formal institutions and informal politics as well as patterns of cooperation and antagonism in relationships with other countries, in particulare the former Soviet republics of Central Asia. We will examine history to provide sufficient background information for the class, but will concentrate on the period between the end of the Soviet Union and the present day. Enrollment limit of 40. {S}
    Linked Course: No
    RES Crosslist
    View Textbook Information

  • Credits: 4Max Enrollment: 20
    Course Type: ColloqSection Enrollment: 10
    Instructional Method: RemoteWaitlist Count: 0
    Reserved Seats: No
    Time/Location: Remote Instruction T Th 1:40 PM-2:55 PM / REMOTE

    What can international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank do about corruption? This course explores the theoretical and practical dimensions of the problem of corruption and analyzes how states and international organizations have attempted to combat the problem. Enrollment limited to 20. {S}
    Linked Course: No
    RES Crosslist
    View Textbook Information

  • Credits: 4Max Enrollment: 40
    Course Type: LectureSection Enrollment: 11
    Instructional Method: RemoteWaitlist Count: 0
    Reserved Seats: No
    Time/Location: Remote Instruction M W 3:15 PM-4:30 PM / REMOTE

    An introduction to major developments and interactions among people in Europe and Asia before modernity. The Silk Roads, long distance networks that allowed people, goods, technology, religious beliefs and other ideas to travel between China, India and Rome/Mediterranean, and the many points in between, developed against the backdrop of the rise and fall of steppe nomadic empires in Inner Asia. We examine these as interrelated phenomena that shaped Eurasian encounters to the rise of the world-conquering Mongols and the journey of Marco Polo. Topics include: horses, Silk and Steppe routes, Scythians and Huns, Han China and Rome, Byzantium, Buddhism, Christianity and other universal religions, Arabs and the rise of Islam, Turks, Mongol Empire, and medieval European trade, geography and travel. {H}
    Linked Course: No
    ANS Crosslist, ARC Crosslist, RES Crosslist, SAS Crosslist
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  • Credits: 4Max Enrollment: 40
    Course Type: LectureSection Enrollment: 24
    Instructional Method: RemoteWaitlist Count: 0
    Reserved Seats: No
    Time/Location: Remote Instruction M W 1:40 PM-2:55 PM / REMOTE

    Focuses on the history of the Soviet Union during the “greater Cold War,” that is, between World War II and the disintegration of the USSR. Touches on foreign policy developments but the main focus is on the social, political and economic processes and cultural developments inside the USSR itself. Explores Soviet history in the second half of the 20th century through historical works and a range of primary sources. Topics include the post-war reconstruction, rise of the military-industrial complex, education, popular culture and dissent. {H}
    Linked Course: No
    RES Crosslist
    View Textbook Information

  • Credits: 4Max Enrollment: 35
    Course Type: LectureSection Enrollment: 28
    Instructional Method: RemoteWaitlist Count: 0
    Reserved Seats: No
    Time/Location: Remote Instruction T Th 10:55 AM-12:10 PM / REMOTE

    Whether revered as the Mother of God or remembered as a single Jewish mother of an activist, Mary has both inspired and challenged generations of Christian women and men worldwide. This course focuses on key developments in the “history of Mary” since early Christian times to the present. How has her image shaped global Christianities? What does her perceived image in any given age tell us about personal and collective identities? Topics include Mary’s “life”; rise of the Marian cult; Marian apparitions (e.g., Guadalupe and Lourdes) and miracle-working images, especially in Byzantium and Russia; liberation and feminism; politics, activism, mysticism, and prayer. Devotional, polemical and literary texts, art and film. Enrollment limited to 35. {H}
    Linked Course: No
    MED Crosslist, RES Crosslist, SWG Crosslist
    View Textbook Information

  • Credits: 4Max Enrollment: 999
    Course Type: LectureSection Enrollment: 5
    Instructional Method: RemoteWaitlist Count: 0
    Reserved Seats: No
    Time/Location: Remote Instruction T Th 3:15 PM-4:30 PM / REMOTE

    Same as RES 242. As devotional objects, political symbols, and art commodities, Russia’s sacred art—the icon—has been revered as sacred, vilified as reactionary, embraced in rebellion, destroyed as dangerous, and sold as masterpieces. Engaging the fields of religion, material and visual culture, and ritual studies, this course examines the life and language of this art form, and its role in shaping Russia’s turbulent history. Topics include the production and reception of images; diverse meanings and functions of sacred imagery; visuality and spirituality; secularization and commodification; history, memory, and collective identities; the icon, avant-garde art, and film; controversial images and protest culture. No prerequisites. Open to first-year students. {H}{L}
    Linked Course: No
    RES Crosslist
    View Textbook Information

  • Credits: 4Max Enrollment: 999
    Course Type: LectureSection Enrollment: 30
    Instructional Method: RemoteWaitlist Count: 0
    Reserved Seats: No
    Time/Location: Remote Instruction M W 1:40 PM-2:55 PM / REMOTE

    What is a Holocaust story? How does literature written in extremis in ghettos, death camps, or in hiding differ from the vast post-war literature about the Holocaust? How to balance competing claims of individual and collective experience, the rights of the imagination and the pressures for historical accuracy? Selections from a variety of genres (diary, reportage, poetry, novel, graphic novel, memoir, film, monuments, museums), and critical theories of representation. All readings in translation. No prerequisites. {H}{L}
    Linked Course: No
    GER Crosslist, JUD Crosslist, RES Crosslist
    View Textbook Information

  • Credits: 4Max Enrollment: 999
    Course Type: LectureSection Enrollment: 9
    Instructional Method: RemoteWaitlist Count: 0
    Reserved Seats: No
    Time/Location: Remote Instruction T Th 10:55 AM-12:10 PM / REMOTE

    Same as RES 264. Focuses on close reading of the major novels, short fiction, and journalism of Dostoevsky, one of the greatest writers in modern literature. Combining penetrating psychological insight with the excitement of crime fiction, Dostoevsky’s works explore profound political, philosophical, and religious issues, in a Russia populated by students and civil servants, saints and revolutionaries, writers and madmen. In our close reading of his fiction and nonfiction, we’ll trace the development of Dostoevsky’s style and ideas, considering how these texts engage with issues specific to nineteenth-century Russia, as well as the broader traditions of European literature and intellectual history. In translation.  {L}
    Linked Course: No
    RES Crosslist
    View Textbook Information

  • Credits: 4Max Enrollment: 999
    Course Type: LectureSection Enrollment: 2
    Instructional Method: RemoteWaitlist Count: 0
    Reserved Seats: No
    Time/Location: Remote Instruction T Th 1:40 PM-2:55 PM / REMOTE

    {A}{H}{L}
    Linked Course: No
    FMS Crosslist, RES Crosslist
    View Textbook Information

The data in the course catalog are refreshed daily. Information concerning current and future course offerings is posted as it becomes available and is subject to change.

Smith College reserves the right to make changes to all announcements in the online Smith College Catalog Database, including changes in its course offerings, instructors, requirements for the majors and minors, and degree requirements. Course information contained herein is compiled and updated at regularly scheduled intervals by the Office of the Provost/Dean of the Faculty from data submitted by departments and programs. All data listed are as officially and formally approved by the Office of the Provost/Dean of the Faculty, the Committee on Academic Priorities and the faculty-at-large.