Students taking the seminar course will address the problems of post-Soviet ethnic identity and relations in historical and contemporary perspective through teacher-led group discussions. Students will learn how ethnic relations have been managed and how, in some instances, these relations have led to various forms of ethnic conflict. By the end of the course, students will be able to discuss critically ethnicity and conflict in the post-Soviet states through a student presentation and accompanying research essay.

The course will be based around a series of discussion seminars, in case study format, for each of which students will have completed a set of readings provided online. Topics will include, for example, ethno-federal relations in the USSR/Russia and post-Soviet Russian national identity; the Chechen, Osh, and Nagorno-Karabakh conflicts; language conflicts in the post-Soviet States; the contested status of Crimea; the Georgian conflicts. 

Seminars and discussions (20h), student presentations and a research essay based on the presentation (5 credits).

Readings will be provided online before the beginning of the course.

0-5. Students must prove that they are able to interpret and analyse advanced research on ethnicity and conflict in the post-Soviet states by presenting orally and submitting a research essay on a related issue to be evaluated 0-5. Active attendance and participation in the seminar is required.

Jeremy Smith (KTL) and Paul Fryer (GEO).

Autumn semester

Language of instruction is English.