Russian Across the Curriculum

As part of the advanced coursework requirement, Russian Flagship students are required to take a Russian Across the Curriculum tutorial in Russian for one credit, usually with a native-speaking graduate student (or one with Superior-level proficiency on the ACTFL scale) or, if a graduate student with disciplinary expertise is not available, with a specialist in the discipline from UW-Madison or the community. Occasionally, the professor of the course to which the tutorial is linked may prefer to lead the tutorial in Russian. If the professor does not guide the tutorial, then the instructor of record for the tutorial is the Russian Flagship director, Dr. Karen Evans-Romaine.

The Russian Across the Curriculum tutorial is intended to provide Russian Flagship students with vocabulary and the opportunity to read about and discuss issues of importance in the student’s major, or, less frequently, in an area of strong academic interest that might provide the basis for further study of that area during and after the ROF capstone year abroad. This tutorial is also intended to prepare the student for a direct-enrolled course in the student’s major area, or an area of strong academic interest, at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University during the academic-year capstone program. Ideally, this tutorial should be linked to a course, in order to provide a Russian-language component to that course and structure to the tutorial. (Thus the term “one-credit add-on” is sometimes used for this tutorial.) For a listing of possible courses, see the CREECA’s course listings. If a course which might be appropriately linked to a tutorial is not offered during the semester of the tutorial, then the student may choose to base that tutorial on a course already taken, and can use that course syllabus to help provide a framework for the tutorial. If it is not feasible to link the one-credit tutorial to any specific course, either current or past, then the tutorial is intended to provide a general introduction in Russian to vocabulary and important issues in that subject area. This final option is recommended only if the student can prepare questions of interest, or a list of specific topics, in advance of that tutorial, in order to help the tutor find appropriate readings and assignments for this tutorial, and to help lend structure to the tutorial.

The summative exercise for the Russian Across the Curriculum tutorial should be a five-page paper in Russian on a topic to be determined by the student in consultation with the tutor. That paper is submitted to the course professor (if the professor leads the tutorial) or to Russian Flagship director Dr. Karen Evans-Romaine or assistant director Dr. Anna Tumarkin, by a due date assigned by the professor or Russian Flagship faculty. This paper must be in Russian and must be the result of the student’s own work, although the student may consult with the tutor and with the professor or Russian Flagship faculty while writing the paper. The paper must include a bibliography, which may include sources in Russian and English. The more Russian-language sources, the better. If the course professor prefers to lead the tutorial, then the professor determines the form of the summative exercise, which might, for example, be a presentation in Russian or a presentation or paper in English extensively citing Russian-language sources studied during the tutorial.