Spetzkurs

The last two days of the fall term are upon us!!

Today was round two of our presentations. I had given mine yesterday so I was able to sit back and watch the show.

And it was quite a show! We have an amazing group of people. I was really impressed by the wide variety of classes that students found either through the help of our administrators or on their own. Students were spread all over the place, taking classes in the history, philosophy, law, art, and journalism departments, as well as the school of business.

Here are a few of the topics that came up either as course subjects or lecture topics during the term:

postmodernism in art and literature

marriage laws during the time of Yaroslav the Wise

the role of religion in industry and manufacturing

Russia as a multicultural or multiracial country

icons: the religious significance in traditional portrayals of Mary, the mother of God

The group this year was made up mostly of students who had either just graduated or for other reasons did not need to take these classes for credit. This allowed many to choose classes that they found interesting, and might not otherwise have had a chance to study.

I was in this group. Although my current degree program at PSU is in education, I wound up taking a class in the journalism department here in Petersburg.

The process of finding that class was a bit of an adventure. Our program administrators had drawn up a list of courses in a few of the university departments. This was a feat even for our administrators at it involved them having to walk to each department and looking at a list of courses (often hand-written) posted on a bulletin board. Yes, the university has a website, but not every department uses it the same way.

I’d decided I didn’t want to wind up in a course with other students from our program (there was one class that three of our students were attending), and I was also trying to find something that would work with my grad degree back home even though I wouldn’t get credit for it. I went to the Department of Eastern Studies, the Sociology Department, and the conservatory (which is a separate school entirely but I was curious about their program).

I visited the Department of Eastern Studies twice, trying to find courses. There was no list to be found anywhere, and as I found out later, the office hours posted on the door had been from the previous year. I just opened the door and walked into the office.

In my experience, people are nice. Just explain politely who you are and what you’re looking for, and they will try to help. But also be brave and be persistent.

All the spetzkurses were morning classes, so I had to look elsewhere.

The Department of Sociology is located on the Smolny Institute campus, which is a metro and a marshrutka ride away from the main campus (although there may be a university shuttle bus. I’m not sure). I went to the campus and couldn’t find a list of courses anywhere, so again, I walked into a random office to ask. The professor working there couldn’t tell me anything, but we did have a fascinating conversation. Turns out he had spent some time doing research in the southern United States.

In that case, calling the head of the department directly was the more effective method. But I found out that spetzkurses in that department were also scheduled for mornings. So I went to the conservatory.

The conservatory is not a part of the main university so if you attend their program, you have to pay. I called first and set up an appointment with their course adviser, who was very nice and dragged me around the whole building, introducing me to various teachers, including the clarinet professor. He was willing to take me as a student, and if I’d had the money, I think I would have taken a course and lessons there. They had some interesting ethnomusicology courses available.

After all of that, I couldn’t think of anything else related to any of my specializations so I went with a teacher’s suggestion to try journalism. It was a far cry from anything I thought I needed, but I find journalism interesting so I took the advice. I went to the department, found a list of courses, got the times and room numbers from a secretary, showed up for class and waited.

And no one else showed up.

I wandered around the building, looking for the evening office (it was an evening class) to find out if anyone knew anything about the class. No one did. The people who knew were all gone for the day. So I went back the next day to ask the secretary if that class was going to be held. Of course it was. I managed with some effort to convince her that yes, I’d had the correct room and time and that no, no one had actually showed up. I had a witness in the form of a late-working professor, who happened to also be sitting in the office as I was explaining, so he was able to confirm my story.

In the end, I wound up tracking down the actual course instructor between class sessions to ask her directly if I could attend her class. She agreed. And I gave my end-of-term presentation on a class about journalistic methods and political crises.