Russian

Program Requirements & Opportunities Courses Departmental Learning Goals

Bryn Mawr’s Russian Department is a dynamic program that offers students, including majors, minors, and fellow travelers, opportunities to study the wide-ranging Russian-speaking world. We take pride in our ability to offer students individual attention and to engage with them at all levels to improve their language, critical thinking, writing, and reading skills, both in Russian and in English. With coursework and a major path that allows for individualization, the Russian Department encourages students to explore the topics that are of greatest interest to them and to uncover new ones that lead to unexpected opportunities and personal growth.  

As the world’s largest country, Russia plays an outsized role in global culture, politics, and economics, and a first step to understanding this region is to study the Russian language, which is spoken by over 250 million people worldwide. Our A.B. program is designed to help students attain an advanced level of oral proficiency in Russian by the time they graduate after completing the fundamental language sequence (first- through third-year Russian, Pre-Professional Russian I and II) and other advanced courses on topics such as Russian through Art and Current Events. Whether students begin with no Russian or have some experience with the language from high school or a family connection, we meet them where they are. We encourage (and fund) students to engage firsthand with the Russian-speaking world by studying abroad in such countries as Kazakhstan, Armenia, Georgia, and Estonia. Our students leverage their impressive language proficiency as they pursue graduate studies or career paths in fields such as education, literary studies, diplomacy, national security, academia, and open-source intelligence (OSINT) analysis. Looking toward the future, we will need more specialists who know and understand the Russophone world in various ways.  

In addition to language classes at all levels, students can take a variety of courses in Russian literature, history, cinema, and culture of all eras, from the classical Russian novel to contemporary Russia. The department also encourages its majors to pair their knowledge with other disciplines. As a result, students regularly combine a Russian major with majors or minors in areas such as other languages, linguistics, comparative literature, political science, international studies, economics, history, computer science, biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics. 

The major culminates in a senior capstone thesis or project written in English and a Russian language exam. These exercises allow students to reflect on their education and synthesize various threads of the Russian major (language study, research skills, individual interests).  

We regularly offer courses taught in English, which also count toward the major/minor, for students who are not studying the language and welcome all who are interested in learning about this rather large corner of the world and its contributions to culture, among other topics.