The Faculty members and administrative staff of the Williams College Russian Program decry Russia’s unprovoked military attack on Ukraine and its people. We stand in solidarity with all those in Ukraine, Russia, and the world at large who condemn this war. Our hearts and thoughts go out to the victims and those who have suffered injury, loss, and distress because of the war.
The Russian Program at Williams offers a wide variety of opportunities to study the language, literature, and culture of Russia and the former Soviet Union. In addition to a full curriculum of language courses conducted entirely in Russian, the program regularly offers courses in English translation devoted to the region’s literary giants and its rich cultural history. Especially popular are seminars on Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky, as well as a tutorial on The Brothers Karamazov and courses on the history of Russian and Soviet film.
The Russian program also sponsors a variety of extracurricular activities. Russian speakers on campus and from the local community gather once a week over lunch at Russian Table. During the fall semester, the program hosts a Pot-Luck Dinner, which allows students, faculty, and staff to try their hand at recipes from across Eurasia before tasting the results. In the spring, students taking Russian language classes perform at an annual Talent Night, singing songs, reciting poetry, and performing skits entirely in Russian. We encourage all students studying the Russian language to consider one of the many immersion programs available both in the United States and post-Soviet space. These include Middlebury College’s Russian Summer School, at which students can complete an entire year of language study in the span of a several weeks, and a wide variety of study-abroad programs in Latvia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Republic of Georgia, and Armenia. The Russian program also sponsors a unique travel course during Winter Study to Tbilisi, Georgia, where students undertake an internship tailored to their individual interests.
Students can earn either a major or a certificate in Russian while at Williams. The Russian Program’s small classes and intimate nature let us design courses to meet our students’ needs, fostering a warm and welcoming environment for studying the Russian language and the rich literary and cultural traditions of Eurasia.