The last decade of the Twentieth Century saw the political map of Europe re-drawn as the communist regimes of Eastern and Central Europe collapsed. Those countries which had once been perceived as enemies of the West now became our trading partners, political allies and friends. Travel and commercial restrictions all but disappeared and exciting new opportunities for cultural exchange, tourism and business opened wide. All this has meant that there is an ever-increasing need for Westerners with a good grasp of the languages and cultures beyond the traditional mainstream.

In 2001, in the wake of these developments and after a number of key new appointments, The Slavonic Studies Section of the School of Modern Languages and Cultures radically revised its teaching programme. We are one of the very few Departments in the world where it is possible to take not simply Russian, but Czech and Polish too, to Honours level. We provide language instruction at all levels, using a blend of traditional and modern methods. Students with a prior knowledge of their chosen language/s are taught at an appropriate level, but the majority come as complete beginners. They all graduate with an ability to speak, write and read fluently in their chosen language/s.

For those with little or no interest in language learning there is a separate degree programme - Slavonic Studies - in which all the material may be studied in English, but where there are opportunities to take language courses at appropriate levels, if students so wish.

We believe that our Slavonic Studies Section combines relevant, rewarding and exciting courses with maximum flexibility, to provide just the sort of graduates that the New Europe requires.

All the staff are actively engaged in research in their chosen fields and their work feeds directly into their teaching. Their publications are regularly used at University level throughout the world.

Slavonic Studies is a constituent member of the following Glasgow University bodies: School of Slavonic, Central and East European Studies and School of Modern Languages and Cultures.

Slavonic Languages

Slavonic Studies offers a wide range of literature courses, largely but by no means exclusively, covering the period from about 1800 to the present. Great classical Russian writers such as Pushkin, Tolstoi, Dostoevskii and Chekhov loom large, as do Nobel Prize winners such as Pasternak, Solzhenitsyn, the Poles Czesław Miłosz and Wisława Szymborska and the Czech Jaroslav Seifert. The Czech novelist Milan Kundera is generally regarded as one of the finest contemporary prose writers in the world and he has acquired an almost cult status in some quarters. Slavonic Studies offers specific courses in women's writing, theatre and contemporary fiction. In film studies the work of directors such as Forman, Kieślowski, Tarkovskii and Wajda features prominently.

Language and culture cannot be divorced from society and in all the courses there is an appropriate element of history, social studies and current affairs.

All Arts Faculty students at Glasgow take three subjects in years one and two. In theory you may choose all three subjects (out of Czech, Polish, Russian and Slavonic Studies) in The Department of Slavonic Studies and these all provide pathways to an Honours Degree. In practice, however, most students will choose to take at least one subject outside the Department, though we do recommend that Slavonic Studies be taken in conjunction with any one of the three languages. The Slavonic Studies elements offer - across the three cultures and entirely in English - an introduction to modern literature, film and history. They have been designed to appeal to a wide constituency of students (mainly Arts- and Social Sciences-orientated) and simultaneously to establish an important cultural context for students of the Slavonic languages.