The history, culture, religions, and recent upheaval of Chechnya.

Examines Russian literature's extensive reflection on the nature and place of evil in human existence.

Examine Stalinism as a complex historical, ideological, and cultural phenomenon that crucially shaped Russia's destiny from the twentieth century to the present moment. Consider this phenomenon beyond popular stereotypes (blood-thirsty tyrant; miserable and terrorized population; total propaganda; etc).

Examine 20th-century European novels that function as archives of cultural memory to retrieve individual and collective memories that lay hidden and forgotten by 20th-century history. Consider critically acclaimed writers, such as W. G. Sebald, Dubravka Ugresic, Danilo Kis, Witold Gombrowicz, and Dasa Drndic.

Examine a wide spectrum of conspiracist expression, from such historical texts as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion to the fictions of Don DeLillo, Thomas Pynchon, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Viktor Pelevin, and others. Consider a number of pop culture artifacts that thematize conspiracy and paranoia, as well as secondary works by contemporary scholars working in the field of conspiracy studies.

Explore several contemporary novels, featuring comedy or satire, from different Eastern European regions (Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Dagestan, Slovenia, Romania) to consider how complex history and politics are often intertwined with fantastical, humorous, and grotesque elements.

Consider the range of protest movements and revolutions resulting from the collapse of communism in the former Soviet Union. Examine the dismantling of the "socialist realism" paradigm in literature and the arts, using a range of literary and non-fiction texts and films to explore these developments in Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, Russia, and other countries.