The REES faculty has created an MA Reading List, with required and recommended titles, for the following reasons:

• The REES academic program is interdisciplinary and encompasses a huge body of ideas and information; consequently, students needs some guidance in identifying the more reliable and important concepts and works.

• Area studies covers a lot of territory. REES students pursue interests in a variety of disciplines and cross-disciplines and take courses that are sometimes general, but sometimes very specific. The course menu is fairly extensive, and no two REES students ever take the same sequence of courses. Yet all students taking the REES MA Examination in any given semester will be asked to address the same larger issues. The Reading List assures that all students know about the key texts that address central issues of the field.

• REES faculty want REES graduates to have a synthetic, as well as analytical, understanding of the different disciplines of area studies. To achieve this, students will need to read beyond the curriculum.

• The Reading List enhances course work to ensure that students achieve a more complete understanding of the area. It will assist students in preparing adequately for the REES MA Examination, which tests for both horizontal and vertical knowledge. The fact that a central concept may not have been covered in a particular course does not absolve the student from demonstrating knowledge of that central concept. You will use many of the required and recommended books on this list in your courses, but even if you do not, you are nevertheless responsible for knowing what is in them.

• A good interdisciplinary education extends far beyond the activities of the classroom. REES expect you to play an active role in your own education and to take personal responsibility for meeting all requirements.

REES MA READING LIST

This list was compiled from the recommendations of REES faculty members and similar reading lists for other Russian, East European and Eurasian studies programs. The collection of texts below therefore offers students a number of works long regarded as fundamental in the field as well as a representative selection of important current scholarship. This list is a guide and students should make every possible effort to familiarize themselves with the major themes from these works. Highlighted entries have been traditional favorites.

This is a work in progress. Comments and suggestions are very welcome.