Two New REES Courses: Spring Quarter 2016

We are happy to offer two new REES Courses for Spring Quarter 2016: Cities of Empire: An Urban Journey through Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean and Media, Democratization and Political Transformations in Post-Soviet Societies. Please find descriptions of each course below:

REES 204/304  Cities of Empire: An Urban Journey through Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean

Instructor: Jovana Knezevic

Day/Time: Thursdays, 1:30PM - 4:20PM

Description: This course explores the cities of the Habsburg, Ottoman and Russian empires in the dynamic and turbulent period of their greatest transformation from the 19th century through the Two World Wars. Through the reading of urban biographies of Venice and Trieste, Vienna, Budapest, Cracow, Lviv, Sarajevo, Belgrade, Salonica, and Odessa, we consider broad historical trends of political, economic, and social modernization, urbanization, identity formation, imperialism, cosmopolitanism, and orientalism. As vibrant centers of coexistence and economic exchange, social and cultural borderlands, and sites of transgression, these cities provide an ideal lens through which to examine these themes in the context of transition from imperial to post-imperial space.

REES 206/306  Media, Democratization and Political Transformations in Post-Soviet Societies 

Instructor: Dariya Orlova

Day/Time: Fridays, 1:30PM - 4:20PM

Description: The course provides an introduction to the study of media transformations in post-Soviet countries and the role of media in the democratization of post-communist societies. The course addresses theoretical approaches and concepts developed for the study of media and their role in the democratization of societies in transition, provides an extensive empirical overview of media developments in the post-Soviet countries, with a central focus on Ukraine and Russia, and explores the relationship between media and politics in these countries.