Welcome
The Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures aims to equip students with knowledge and skills that are critical to understanding and operating in a complex global world. We teach and study the languages, literatures, and cultures of Russia and Eastern and Central Europe. Offering undergraduate and graduate degree programs, our department conducts its courses primarily in English with readings in English translation or in the original, depending on the course level and objectives. Our nationally and internationally renowned faculty members are active scholars who pursue innovative research agendas encompassing a variety of topics and methodologies. Our lively intellectual community welcomes you!
Learn about the USC Slavic Department and the opportunities it offers from the Department Chair, Professor Colleen McQuillen.
New and Noteworthy
New and Noteworthy
Undergraduate
The Department features small size language classes with a focus on communicating in Russian and understanding the country through its literature and culture. The department offers a Russian major; a major in Central European Studies (administered jointly with the School of International Relations); and two minors (in Russian and Russian Studies).
Graduate
The doctorate in Slavic Languages and Literatures is designed to prepare students for a career of teaching and scholarship at the university level. It provides a thorough grounding in Russian literary and cultural history as well as in the theoretical perspectives current in the field.
Faculty
Slavic Department faculty are active nationally and internationally in a variety of fields ranging from literary theory to Romantic poetry and the avant garde. They are united by a central focus on language and literature in their broader cultural context, which includes study of the fine arts, theater, history, and cinema.
Statement Against Russian Military Assault on Ukraine
As scholars who devote our lives to the study of Russia and eastern Europe, the faculty of the department of Slavic Languages and Literatures unequivocally condemn Russia’s flagrantly illegal and barbaric aggression against its fellow Slavic nation of Ukraine. We stand with the Ukrainians defending their country and nation. We stand also with the brave Russians who are protesting their government’s inexcusable actions. We remain dedicated to teaching Russian language, literature, and culture because Russia is far greater than its present regime.
Major in Central European Studies
As recent events have shown, Central Europe remains a focal point for political, economic, and cultural tensions on the European continent—with implications for the entire world. The major in Central European Studies prepares students for careers in government, finance, and academia that deal with this region. It combines background in relevant languages (Russian plus either German or Polish, or more intensive study of Russian) with course work in international relations and the history, culture and politics of the region.
Your Major & Minor
Featured Faculty
Dr. Kelsey Rubin-Detlev
Dr Kelsey Rubin-Detlev has been awarded a Level II Digital Humanities Advancement Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to build new infrastructure to expand and enhance CatCor: The Digital Correspondence of Catherine the Great. Co-led by Rubin-Detlev and Professor Andrew Kahn, the CatCor project aims to unite in a single database the letters of Empress Catherine the Great of Russia (1762-1796), whose extensive, multilingual correspondence presents unique challenges and opportunities for digital research. The NEH grant will allow CatCor to develop new solutions for coding, editing, and machine-translating Catherine’s texts, which are written in an idiosyncratic mix of early modern, non-standard versions of French, Russian, and German. By mapping the exceptionally broad range of people, places, and events discussed in the letters and constructing a new analysis platform to explore them, this phase of the project will also generate a knowledge graph of Catherine’s world, thereby enriching our understanding of Russian imperial history and the global Enlightenment.
Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this project do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Dr. Chloe Papadopoulos
