Alla Epsteyn

Associate Teaching Professor in Russian

Contact
Phone:
+1 (781) 283-3549
Email:
aepsteyn@wellesley.edu
Department
Russian
Russian Area Studies

Teaches Russian language; Wintersession in Moscow Program Director (2009-2021); at Wellesley since 1998.

My scholarship flows naturally from reflections on my teaching experience. I present and publish articles on language pedagogy and share my pedagogical research with colleagues in Russia and the U.S.

I view myself primarily as a teacher of Russian language and culture, and some of my most rewarding experiences come from my basic approach, which is to teach language through culture. My Advanced Topics courses focus on cultural traditions of Moscow, St. Petersburg and Odessa, Russian children’s literature and popular film comedies of the Soviet era. I also teach intermediate and elementary Russian language course.

I enjoy spending time with my family and friends, traveling and doing yoga.

Education

  • M.A., Moscow University
  • Ph.D., Academy of Sciences Institute of World History

Current and upcoming courses

Advanced Russian: Tbilisi

RUSS309

Students will become experts in one of the overarching themes of Russian and Georgian culture: the city of Tbilisi, the capital of the Republic of Georgia.
We will explore the cultural history of Tiflis/Tbilisi in the Russian Empire, in the Soviet Union, and as part of the Independent Republic of Georgia. We will use Diverse Russian: A Multicultural Exploration, a free, online, interactive textbook. Supplementary readings will be drawn from classical Russian literature (Griboedov, Pushkin, Lermontov, Tolstoy, Mayakovsky) and from Georgian poetry (Rustaveli, Baratashvili, Tabidze) in Russian translation.
We will examine the representation of Tbilisi and Georgia in film, music, songs and the visual arts.
Students will present a final project on a topic of their choice in the context of the cultural history of Tbilisi from 1800 to the present. Taught in Russian.

  • Intermediate Russian I

    RUSS201

    Conversation, composition, reading, music, comprehensive review of grammar; special emphasis on speaking and writing idiomatic Russian. Students learn and perform a play in Russian in the course of the semester. Three periods.