Students' Video from Summer 2006

Russian Language and Culture at Yale in New Haven, CT, and in St. Petersburg, Russia
(June 2 - July 28, 2008)

June 20, Friday, is the departure date for St. Petersburg.

An intensive "at-home-and-abroad" eight week long course featuring language study at either second- or third-year levels of Russian. The first three weeks are offered at Yale in New Haven, CT; the remaining five weeks and one day are offered by Yale faculty in St. Petersburg, the former imperial capital of Russia, during the most enchanting time of the year, the White Nights season. Numerous cultural activities – museums, exhibitions, theater, ballet, opera, concerts and shows, as well as a day trip to Novgorod, a 1200 year old Russian city – are an integral part of the program. Language training during the first three weeks at Yale prepares students for the experience abroad. Students develop strong grammar and communication skills that are applied and enhanced during the following five weeks in Russia. This program is an excellent way to take a year’s worth of Russian language and a course on culture. Students are responsible for all travel expenses to and from Russia and costs of room and board while in New Haven and St. Petersburg. For students 18 years of age or older (or by special permission). Application deadline: April 1, 2008. Must be taken in conjunction with the Russian Culture course, RUSS S-242: The Space of The City: Petersburg through Literature and Visual Arts (Nikolai Firtich). This course explores the myth of the imperial Russian capital, founded by Peter the Great in the early eighteenth century as a window on Europe.  Since then, the city has been seen to embody all of the contradictions of Russia: East vs. West, imperial grandeur vs. the pathos of the little man, nature vs. civilization, free will vs. fate.  The course considers the semiotics of Petersburg through a careful reading of selected literary texts, both prose and poetry, including Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Blok, Bely, Gumilev, Akhmatova, Mandelstam, Khlebnikov, Mayakovsky, Kharms, and others, as well as some works of literary and cultural criticism. The classroom sessions are complimented with a rich selection of excursions and tours in and around St. Petersburg.

For further information, contact Program Director, Constantine Muravnik, at constantine.muravnik@yale.edu. Also visit the Yale Summer Session website. 

8 WEEKS: M-F 9:00 -12:00  / 4 YALE CREDITS (EQUIVALENT OF 16 CREDIT HOURS) / TUITION FOR SUMMER 2008 (INCLUDING RUSS S-242 / 3 HOURS PER WEEK): $5,200