Harvard Master's in Regional Studies: Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia

Tue Dec 4 22:00:15 UTC 2007

Dear Colleagues,

Please forward this program announcement to any of your students who may 
be interested in graduate work in regional studies.

Many thanks,

Donna Griesenbeck

********

Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies
invites applicants to its two-year, interdisciplinary master’s degree
program in Regional Studies: Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia
(REECA). Students in the program deepen their knowledge of this world
region through coursework in such disciplines as history, political
science, economics, languages, linguistics, and literature, and such
professional fields as finance, management, public policy, and security
studies.

Limited financial aid in the form of Harvard grants is available to
students, regardless of citizenship. Harvard grants, which may cover up
to full tuition and a modest living stipend, are offered at the time of
admission and are renewable for a second year. We also offer Foreign
Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships to eligible US citizens and
permanent residents. FLAS fellowships are awarded annually on a
competitive basis and cover full tuition plus a living stipend of $15,000.

For admission to the class entering September 2008, applications are due
on January 2, 2008. We require general GRE scores for all applicants;
applicants whose native language is other than English and who do not
hold a degree from an institution at which English is the language of
instruction must also submit TOEFL scores.

For full details on the program and other resources of the Davis Center,
please see our web site at
http://www.daviscenter.fas.harvard.edu/student_programs/masters.html.
Interested students are encouraged to contact the Davis Center’s student
programs officer, Donna Griesenbeck (griesenb at fas.harvard.edu, tel.
617-495-1194), with any questions.

Profile of Typical REECA Student
As a rule, entering students have taken the equivalent of three or more
years of college Russian and have spent a summer or a semester studying
abroad in the region. All students are required to demonstrate
proficiency in reading Russian before graduation from the program. Most
REECA students have an undergraduate degree in Russian studies, Russian
language and literature, history, political science, or international
studies. Some students have worked one or more years in the region
before enrolling in the master’s program.

Individualized Program of Study
Each student works individually with the REECA academic advisor to
develop a program of study, taking into account his or her career goals,
previous training, experience, and academic qualifications. A limited
enrollment in the program facilitates individual guidance and personal
attention. We enroll between 8-10 students each year, so that we have
16-20 students in residence at any particular time.

Faculty
REECA students may take classes with virtually any member of the Harvard
faculty whose course offerings relate to their individual plan of study.
Selected members of the faculty are available as REECA thesis
supervisors. Davis Center Faculty Associates are listed at
http://daviscenter.fas.harvard.edu/people/faculty_assoc.html.

Courses and Cross-Registration
Please see
http://daviscenter.fas.harvard.edu/student_programs/reeca_courses.html
for course listings and links to Harvard’s online course catalog.

REECA students may cross-register for individual courses at other
Harvard Schools (Business, Design, Divinity, Education, Law, Public
Health, Kennedy School of Government), the Fletcher School of Law and
Diplomacy at Tufts University, and the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology.

Studying Eastern Europe and Central Asia
Most REECA students fulfill their core program requirements with courses
on Russia, and use elective courses to pursue other regional interests.
Students who enter the program with an unusually strong background in
Russian studies may choose to focus primarily on another region of the
former Soviet Union or Eastern Europe.

Master’s Thesis
Since 1993, students in the REECA program have written master’s theses
under the supervision of a faculty member. The thesis is intended as the
capstone of the two-year program. It is supervised by a Harvard faculty
member and is based to a significant extent on sources in one or more
languages of the region. Many students conduct in-country thesis
research between program years with the help of a research travel grant
from the Davis Center.

Sample Thesis Topics

Reconciling Reform with Reality: Enforcement of Intellectual Property
Rights in Russia

Questions of Identity: Islam and Ethnicity in St. Petersburg and Moscow

Scaling the East: Orientalism in 19th-Century Russian Music

Growing Against the Odds: Russian Small Business Development and the
Role of External Finance

The Re-emergence of Ethnic-Nationalistic Concepts in Modern Russian
Philosophical and Political Thought

The Trials and Tribulations of the Soviet Timur: Historiography,
Ethnogenesis, and the Scholarly Origins of Uzbekistan’s National Hero

The Political Economy of Mass Privatization in Kazakhstan

Russian Experimental Jury Trials: A Preliminary Examination

Career Planning and Development
REECA students have full access to the services of Harvard’s Office of
Career Services (http://www.ocs.fas.harvard.edu/index.htm), including
its career library, counselors, and undergraduate and graduate
recruiting programs. The REECA Program Office develops and maintains
area-related career resources and facilitates networking with program
alumni. Graduates of the program are currently pursuing doctoral studies
at Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, UCÐBerkeley, and Trinity University in
Dublin. Other program alumni work in journalism, NGOs, think tanks,
development, diplomacy, consulting, law, investment banking, and in the
intelligence and military communities.

-- 
Donna Griesenbeck
Student Programs Officer
Davis Center for Russian & Eurasian Studies
Harvard University

617-495-1194 (tel)
617-495-8319 (fax)
http://www.daviscenter.fas.harvard.edu

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