Degrees Offered

CREEES is an interdisciplinary center through which faculty and students from a number of different departments within U.Va’s College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (and from other schools at the university) meet and interact. It does not have its own faculty, students, or degree programs. The college does offer both an interdisciplinary B.A. in Russian and East European Studies and an M.A. in Contemporary Russian Studies, but these are administered by the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures. For the undergraduate major, please click here. For the M.A. program, please click here.

Certificate in Russian and East European Studies

A student in one of the participating graduate departments, e.g., art, economics, government and foreign affairs, history, music, Slavic languages and literatures, etc., or in the participating professional schools, such as Law, Medicine, Darden, Education, etc., can broaden his or her knowledge of the Russian and East European area by applying for the Certificate in Russian and East European Studies in addition to the M.A., Ph.D., or professional degree in his or her own home department or school. As detailed below, the work for a certificate requires the student to complete a certain number of non-language courses in the Russian and East European field and demonstrate proficiency in a language of Russia or Eastern Europe.

Requirements for the graduate certificate are as follows:

1. Language Competency

Competency in a language of Eastern Europe (including languages other than Russian) is to be demonstrated by the completion of one of the following four specific arrangements approved by the center in cooperation with the student’s home department and the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures: (a) completion of RUSS 5010 with a grade no lower than B; (b) passing the Slavic department’s Russian Proficiency Examination; or (c) passing an examination devised by the student’s home department in cooperation with the center and the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures.

2. Broad Area Concentration

Successful completion of four non-language courses in Russian and East European studies with a grade average no lower than B. Students in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures must take these courses outside their home department.

3. Thesis

Successful completion of a master’s thesis, Ph.D. dissertation, or a significant and high quality seminar paper on a theme closely related to Russian and East European studies.

Russian Summer Language Institute

Now in its 34th year, U.Va.’s Russian Summer Language Institute offers an eight-and-a-half week program equivalent to the first TWO YEARS (12 credits) of study in Russian. For more information and to apply, click here or visit the SLI page on the Slavic Department website.