Global Landscapes: Russia in XXI century

Catalog description

The goal of this course is to improve students' ability to engage in informed and articulate debate on a number of issues facing Russia and the world at large today, such as: political freedom, and the future of political protest, environmental problems and catastrophes and their aftermath (Chernobyl nuclear disaster), problems of social inequality and redistribution of wealth, national security, the economy, health care, international politics. This will be accomplished through intensive work on expanding lexical knowledge, increasing grammatical accuracy, and developing rhetorical skills. By the end of the course, students will be able to comprehend increasingly complex written and spoken texts on a range of topics and defend their own viewpoint in oral debate and persuasive essay formats.