Russia and Eurasia

Duke in the Region

Duke formed its first international partnership with St. Petersburg State University, then called Leningrad State University. This agreement was also the first of its kind between an American university and a Soviet university. In 1988, the first visiting faculty member arrived at Duke from St. Petersburg, and since then, Duke has hosted a visiting faculty member every semester except for fall 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Duke in Russia

Duke in Russia: Nice offers two academic tracks – Russian Language & Culture or Neuroscience and Multilingualism (taught in English) – taught by Duke faculty from the Duke Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies. Whether you’re advancing your Russian skills or exploring how the brain processes multiple languages, this six-week program combines rigorous academics with cultural immersion in one of Europe’s most stunning coastal cities.

Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies

The Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies explores the cultures and histories of Russia in its various historical incarnations (the tsarist empire, the Soviet Union, Russia) and Central/Eastern Europe – Bosnia, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia.  Our courses and faculty research interests focus on a wide variety of topics: Russian language, literature, film, and translation; cognition and culture; semiotics; gender and language, literature, and film; medical humanities; death studies; imperial studies, gulag studies; Islamic studies; Jewish studies in Eastern Europe; and power and politics.