The First Two Years

Course Requirements

• Students must successfully complete at least sixteen approved half-courses. Two half-courses pertaining to the region must be completed in four of the disciplines listed below. At least two of the four disciplines must be in the social sciences (history, government, economics).

History
Government
Economics
Literature
Linguistics
Upper-level Russian (Slavic 104, 105, 111, 112, 113, 114, 118, 119, 120r)
A non-Russian language from the region

• One half-course must address questions of national identity and state structure of Russia, the former Soviet Union, and Eastern Europe. This half-course may also be counted toward one of the discipline requirements.
• At least two of the sixteen half-courses must be seminars, but students are strongly urged to take as many as possible.
• Students are required to maintain at least a B average to remain in good standing.

Language Requirements

All program students must successfully complete a three-hour written Russian language qualifying examination, which is given each year in September, January, and May. To pass this examination, students must demonstrate the ability to read and accurately translate articles from the Russian press and scholarly journals.

Policy on Incompletes

• Students are prohibited from having more than two outstanding Incompletes at any time.

Teaching

• There are no provisions for students in the regional studies program to teach. However, on rare occasions second-year students have been able to arrange a teaching fellowship.

Advising

• Academic advising in the Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia (REECA) program is done on a regular basis by the academic coordinator. In addition, the director of graduate studies and individual faculty members are available for consultation.
• At the beginning of their first term in the program, first-year students draft a two year plan of study, which they discuss with the academic coordinator and modify if necessary. The plan of study is formally approved by the REECA academic committee.
• At the beginning of each subsequent term, all students meet with the academic coordinator to review course selections and to discuss any necessary or desired modifications in their plan of study.
• Students are responsible for making arrangements with their thesis supervisors, but the academic coordinator is available to assist in identifying potential supervisors.
• Once or twice annually the academic coordinator holds group sessions where students meet with their cohort for discussion of the thesis-writing process and any other relevant matters.

Master of Arts (AM) Thesis

• The AM thesis should be an in-depth scholarly investigation of a particular problem, demonstrating original research, and be based, to a significant extent, on sources in one or more languages of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) or Eastern Europe. The thesis should demonstrate the candidate’s familiarity with previous scholarship related to the topic.

Supervisor and Second Reader

• Preparation of the thesis is supervised by a Harvard faculty member. As a rule, the supervisor should be a member of the Standing Committee on the AM in Regional Studies, or appear in the faculty list on the regional studies program page in Courses of Instruction. The student is responsible for making arrangements with the supervisor. The choice of a supervisor who is not a member of the Harvard faculty must be approved by the academic coordinator. The supervisor works with the student in developing the prospectus and meets regularly with the student throughout the thesis process. The anonymous second reader is assigned by the academic coordinator, and serves simply as a co-grader. His or her area of expertise may or may not coincide with that of the supervisor.

Prospectus

• Early in the second term of the first year, students submit a thesis prospectus to the academic coordinator. It should be signed by the thesis supervisor. The prospectus is generally approximately four pages in length, and should include the proposed topic, hypotheses, goals, and methodology.

Course Credit and Grade

• The thesis will be counted as the equivalent of two half-courses, listed in the catalog and on the transcript as RSRA 299 and RSRA 299b. RSRA 299a will receive a grade of SAT if a ten-page detailed outline is submitted by the due date. RSRA 299b will receive a letter grade, which will be an average of the grades of the supervisor and the anonymous second reader. In the event of a serious disparity, a third reader will be assigned.