Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures

Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures: Introduction

Faculty Affiliation

Arts and Science

Degree Programs

Slavic Languages and Literatures

MA and PhD

  • Field: Slavic Literatures  

Collaborative Specializations

The following collaborative specializations are available to students in participating degree programs as listed below:

Overview

The Graduate Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures offers instruction leading to two degrees — Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy — in one of the broadest ranges of Slavic languages and literatures available in a North American university. Courses are offered in the following areas: Croatian and Serbian Languages and Literatures, Czech and Slovak Languages and Literatures, Polish Language and Literature, Russian Language and Literature, and Ukrainian Language and Literature.

The department's literature programs are especially strong in nineteenth and twentieth century literary and cultural history, modernism, avant-garde and contemporary movements, literary theory, drama, cinema, and Slavic-Jewish cultural relations.

Over the last decade, curricula in all the languages, literatures and cultures taught in the department have been rewritten to mirror the dramatic social, cultural and political changes in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe. The department has developed new areas of research and expertise. Due to extensive internal cooperation and interdisciplinary focus, new common ground among disciplines has been found; the study of the interrelations of these cultures is promoted.

Contact and Address

Web: slavic.utoronto.ca
Email: slavic@utoronto.ca
Telephone: (416) 946-0011
Fax: (416) 978-8226

Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures
University of Toronto
Room 431, 121 St. Joseph Street
Alumni Hall, St. Michael's College
Toronto, Ontario M5S 1J4
Canada

Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures: Graduate Faculty

Full Members

Holland, Kate - MA, PhD
Koznarsky, Taras - MA, PhD
Livak, Leonid - BA, AM, PhD (Chair and Graduate Chair)
Mandusic, Zdenko - BA, MA, PhD
Obradovic, Dragana - MA, PhD (Associate Chair, Graduate)
Orwin, Donna - PhD
Smolyarova, Tatiana - BA, MA, PhD, PhD
Tarnawsky, Maxim - BA, PhD
Trojanowska, Tamara - MA, PhD

Members Emeriti

Bedford, Charles - MA, PhD
Ponomareff, Constantin - BA, MA, PhD
Thomson, Roger - BA, MA, DPhil

Associate Members

Mikhailova, Julia - AB, AM, AM, DPhil
Muhonen, Anu - PhD

Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures: Slavic Languages and Literatures MA

All applicants to the Master of Arts (MA) complete the same application process. The department's admissions committee then determines each applicant's suitability for the one-year MA or two-year MA option, depending on their level of preparation.

MA Program (One-Year Option)

Minimum Admission Requirements

  • Applicants are admitted under the General Regulations of the School of Graduate Studies. Applicants must also satisfy the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures' additional admission requirements stated below.

  • An appropriate bachelor's degree (preferably in a cognate area) with an overall standing equivalent to at least a University of Toronto mid-B in the final year.

  • A minimum A– average in all Slavic subjects taken in the final two years is recommended.

  • Proficiency in a Slavic language equivalent to at least three full years of language training, and broad familiarity with the literary and cultural history of the applicant's proposed disciplinary area(s) of interest (currently, Czech and Slovak, Polish, Russian, South Slavic, Ukrainian), as evidenced by undergraduate coursework at the 300 or 400 level, are required.

Completion Requirements

  • Coursework. Students must complete 4.0 full-course equivalents (FCEs) including:

    • SLA1040H Methods of Teaching Slavic Languages.

    • Students who provide evidence of satisfactory completion of an equivalent course to SLA1040H may be exempted from this course.

  • Language. Proficiency in the language of the major field of study must be demonstrated during the first week of the first session in the program. Additional language courses at the undergraduate level may be required. These courses will not count toward the 4.0 FCEs required to complete the program. Successful completion of all coursework in the undergraduate language courses is part of a student's good progress in the MA program.

  • Residence. Normally, students spend a year in residence when they must be on campus and consequently in geographical proximity to be able to participate fully in the University activities associated with the program.

Mode of Delivery: In person
Program Length: 2 sessions full-time (typical registration sequence: FW)
Time Limit: 3 years full-time

 

MA Program (Two-Year Option)

Minimum Admission Requirements

  • Applicants are admitted under the General Regulations of the School of Graduate Studies. Applicants must also satisfy the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures' additional admission requirements stated below.

  • An appropriate bachelor's degree (preferably in a cognate area) with an overall standing equivalent to at least a University of Toronto mid-B in the final year.

  • A minimum A– average in all Slavic subjects taken in the final two years is recommended.

  • Intermediate proficiency in a Slavic language, as evidenced by two full years of language training or equivalent, is required.

Completion Requirements

  • Coursework: Students must complete 7.0 full-course equivalents (FCEs) including:

    • SLA1040H Methods of Teaching Slavic Languages.

    • Students who provide evidence of satisfactory completion of an equivalent course to SLA1040H may be exempted from this course.

  • Language. Level of proficiency in the language of the major field of study must be established no later than the first week of the first session in the program to determine the required language courses.

  • Residence. Normally, students spend two years in residence when they must be on campus and consequently in geographical proximity to be able to participate fully in the University activities associated with the program.

Mode of Delivery: In person
Program Length: 4 sessions full-time (typical registration sequence: FW-FW)
Time Limit: 3 years full-time

 

Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures: Slavic Languages and Literatures PhD; Field: Slavic Literatures

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) students will complete the program in the field of Slavic Literatures. Although the program has been designed for completion in four years, many students require five years to complete all of the requirements.

PhD Program; Field: Slavic Literatures

Minimum Admission Requirements

  • Applicants are admitted under the General Regulations of the School of Graduate Studies. Applicants must also satisfy the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures' additional admission requirements stated below.

  • An appropriate University of Toronto master's degree with a minimum A– average in graduate courses and demonstrated research competence.

Completion Requirements

Students are normally required to:

  • Demonstrate proficiency in the language of the major field of study during the session's first week. Undergraduate language courses may be required. These are not tabulated as part of graduate program course requirements. Successful completion of all coursework in these remedial undergraduate courses is part of a student's good progress in the PhD program.

  • Complete SLA1010H Slavic Proseminar prior to taking comprehensive examinations.

  • Complete a major field of study and a minor field of study program.

  • Complete 9.0 full-course equivalents (FCEs) from the list below. Students may be given a course exemption up to 3.0 FCEs for work completed in the MA.

    • SLA1040H Methods of Teaching Slavic Languages if not previously completed. Students who provide evidence of satisfactory completion of an equivalent course to SLA1040H may be exempted from this course.

    • If specializing in Russian, Ukrainian, or Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian, students must complete SLA1104H Introduction to Old Church Slavonic.

  • Minor field of study programs should include 2.0 FCEs from any one of:

    • Croatian and Serbian Languages and Literatures.

    • Czech and Slovak Languages and Literatures.

    • Polish Language and Literature.

    • Russian Language and Literature.

    • Ukrainian Language and Literature.

    • A cognate discipline, with departmental approval (e.g., cinema studies, comparative literature, drama, history, philosophy).

  • Maintain a minimum annual average of A– to continue in the PhD program. Poor performance in one session (below a B average) may result in the termination of a student's PhD eligibility.

  • Acquire a working knowledge of a Slavic language other than their major field of study language of study or complete at least two approved undergraduate courses in a Slavic language that is different than their major field of study language of study by the end of Year 3. A working knowledge is defined as proficiency equivalent to a second-year course. Students must also satisfy departmental requirements for their major field of study language. Students who do not major field of study in Russian most often choose it as their second Slavic language.

  • Demonstrate a reading knowledge of French or German.

  • After successful completion of coursework and the French or German language requirement, students must pass written comprehensive examinations in the major field of study field and written and oral comprehensive examinations in the special field. The major field of study field exam cannot be taken if students have any outstanding coursework.

  • By the time of their major field of study field exam, students should have chosen their supervisor and the rest of their committee (in consultation with the supervisor).

  • Dissertation.

  • Residence. In Years 1 and 2, students must take courses and be on campus full-time to participate fully in the PhD program's activities.

Mode of Delivery: In person
Program Length: 4 years full-time (typical registration sequence: Continuous)
Time Limit: 6 years full-time

 

Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures: Slavic Languages and Literatures MA, PhD Courses

Not all courses are offered every year. Students should consult the departmental handbook for current course offerings.

General Slavic

Course CodeCourse Title
Slavic Proseminar
Kyiv-Kiev-Kijow: A City and the Text
Methods of Teaching Slavic Languages
Theatricality and Spectacle in the History of Russian Culture. From Jesters to Meyerhold.
The Imaginary Jew
SLA1241HNarrative and History
Literature and Science
SLA1335HRace, Empire, Gender in Eastern Europe and Russia
SLA1340HDesires, Dreamscapes, and the Death Drive: Psychoanalysis and Literature
SLA1405HContemporary East European Cinemas
SLA1409HLate Ukrainian Modernism
Women's Writing in East Europe
SLA1700HThe World Revealed: Cinema, Authenticity, and Theory
Reading and Research
One Term Reading and Research
Theories of the Novel
1968: The Year of Revolution and Protest
JLV5143HCensorship, Culture, Archive

Polish Literature

Course CodeCourse Title
Transgressions: Drama, Theatre, Performance
Critical Paradigms in Polish Culture

Russian Literature

Course CodeCourse Title
The Imaginary Jew
Medieval and Early Modern Literature of East Slavic Peoples
Studies in Russian Literature and Criticism in the Eighteenth Century
Nineteenth Century Russian Thinkers
Russian Poetry and Poetics
SLA1223HIntroduction to Russian Poetry and Poetics
SLA1224H19th-Century Russian Poetry
SLA1225HRussian Literature in the Age of Empire
Dostoevsky in Literary Theory and Criticism
Themes in Russian Realism
Russian Literature Between Tradition and Modernity
Russian Modernism
SLA1233HStudies in Modern Russian Poets
Chekhov
Vladimir Nabokov
Tolstoy
Gogol
Synthesis of Arts in the Late Russian Empire–Early Soviet Union

Slavic Linguistics

Course CodeCourse Title
Methods of Teaching Slavic Languages
Advanced Training in Slavic Languages I
SLA1042YAdvanced Training in Slavic Languages II
SLA1043HAdvanced Training in Slavic Languages I
Advanced Training in Slavic Languages II
Introduction to Old Church Slavonic
Studies in Old Church Slavonic

Ukrainian Literature/Language

Course CodeCourse Title
Early Ukrainian Modernism
SLA1403HContemporary Ukrainian Literature
SLA1412HLiterature of the Ukrainian Diaspora
SLA1455HExperiments in Ukrainian Prose