The Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies offers graduate training leading to the M.A. degree in Russian culture or Slavic and Eurasian cultures. Our primary and affiliated department faculty improve and diversify students' foreign language proficiency and prepare them in a variety of fields focused on the region: art history, cultural anthropology, cultural studies, film, gender studies, history, legal studies, linguistics, literature, markets and mass media, religion, theater studies, translation, and visual and information literacy. To improve our graduate students' marketable skills, we teach foreign languages for practical as well as academic use and encourage our students to apply for study and internships/employment in Russia and Eurasia through our exchanges with Russian and other universities. Our graduate students are also welcome to take courses in Duke's excellent Center for Documentary Studies and Global Health Institute.
For the Master of Arts Degree, students may concentrate in Russian culture or Slavic and Eurasian cultures. Students typically enter with the equivalent of at least three years of undergraduate courses in Russian or, if possible, another Eurasian language to enable them to do research in the original. Master's candidates who are in residence should complete all requirements within two calendar years of their first registration.
The M.A. program requires a minimum of thirty units of degree credit, at least twenty four of which must be graded course work (two courses could be below 200 level), and a final examination administered by the student's M.A. committee. A maximum of six units of graduate credit may be transferred from an accredited school, although such a transfer will not reduce the minimum number of units taken at Duke. A minimum grad of "G" or "B" (or their equivalent) must have been earned on any work proposed for transfer credit. We require that all M.A. candidates complete and defend a master's thesis by the end of their studies (typically, the fourth semester),