
Alla Epsteyn
Senior Lecturer in Russian
Teaches Russian language; Wintersession in Moscow Program Director; 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 and St. Petersburg, Russian children’s literature and popular film comedies of the Soviet era. I also teach intermediate Russian language and conversation sections of elementary Russian course.
In 2008, I developed the Russian Department’s first program of language study abroad (Wintersession-in-Moscow) which takes students to the Moscow State University for the Humanities every other winter.
I enjoy spending time with my family and friends, traveling and doing yoga.
Wintersession in Moscow - Зимняя школа в Москве
Education
- M.A., Moscow University
- Ph.D., Academy of Sciences Institute of World History
Current and upcoming courses
This course explores Soviet and Russian popular film classics loved by generations of viewers and that have become cultural symbols. We will study G. Aleksandrov's musicals of the 1930s; sentimental, detective and fantastic comedies by the masters of the genre, L. Gaidai, E. Riazanov, and G. Danelia, in the 1950s-80s; and post-Soviet crime comedies of the twenty-first century. We will attempt to determine the source of their enduring popularity and cult status through an examination of their aesthetics and of their social and political context.
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Elementary Russian II
RUSS102
Continued studies in Russian grammar through oral, written, and reading exercises; special emphasis on oral expression. Four periods. -
Intermediate Russian II
RUSS202
Conversation, composition, reading, popular music, continuation of grammar review; special emphasis on speaking and writing idiomatic Russian. Students read unadapted short stories by Pushkin and Zamiatin. Three periods.