Bates Fall Semester Abroad

Associate Professor Browne (German and Russian Studies); Lecturer Palin (Biology)

During the fall semester 2013, Bates students, including entering first-year students, may experience the excitement of living and learning in Russia. The program is based in the beautiful and cultured city of St. Petersburg, and includes extensive travel. Courses with Bates faculty consider the history, symbolism, and reality of St. Petersburg and microbiology through the lens of Russian science and culture. No prior knowledge of Russian is required.

The program begins in late August with intensive Russian language study at the Derzharin Institute. Language courses at the institute continue through the semester. The institute arranges the homestays that place students with Russian families for the semester.

St. Petersburg has a rich and dramatic history: cradle of revolution; epicenter of industrialization; heroic survivor of the longest siege in modern history; and home of artists, poets, dancers, and musicians. Students take trips to Moscow, a city fast on its way to status as a major world capital of finance, culture, and politics, and to the ninth-century city of Novgorod, one of Russia’s most beautiful and well-preserved medieval sites. Students also travel to the Black Sea region and the Crimean peninsula of Ukraine. The program ends in mid-December. The program fulfills the requirements of General Education concentration C078, Russian in St. Petersburg.