2024-2025 Course Offerings
Autumn
BCSN 10103: First-Year Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian I
The three-quarter sequence first-year course in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian introduces students to the four basic skills: reading, listening, speaking, and writing. It maintains a good balance of the three languages, their respective grammatical and lexical differences, and the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. Students are encouraged to concentrate on the language and culture of their interest and choice. The objective of the course is to build a solid foundation in grammatical patterns, while simultaneously working on the basics of interpretive, interpersonal, presentational, and intercultural communication. This is achieved through a communicative situation-based approach, dialogues and texts reinforced by the students and instructor, screenings of short films, video commercials, interviews, and the like. Weekly drill sessions with the instructor offer students the opportunity to review and practice the materials presented in class. All these pedagogical components improve a student’s ability to interact effectively and appropriately with people from other linguistic and cultural backgrounds—essential for establishing successful, positive relationships across cultural boundaries.
BCSN 20103: Second-Year Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian I
The three-quarter sequence second-year course in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian is designed for students who have completed the first-year sequence at the University of Chicago or equivalent formal study elsewhere. The curriculum is also well-suited to heritage speakers, and those students who have a good knowledge of other Slavic languages. The main objective of the course is to develop further communicative skills (interpretive, interpersonal, presentational, and intercultural) using authentic materials representing the contemporary spoken and written language in real-life contexts. Students are presented with a series of texts, such as newspaper articles, interviews with writers, actors, and athletes, short biographies, book and film reviews, university websites, travel blogs, etc. Audiovisual materials, showcasing both high and popular culture, constitute an integral part of every unit. Textual and audiovisual materials are selected to exemplify the highlighted themes while maintaining a good balance of the three languages and their respective grammatical and lexical differences. Weekly drill sessions with the instructor offer students the opportunity to review and practice the materials presented in class.
BCSN 10303 or consent of instructor | Nada Petković
BCSN 21101: Advanced BCS: Language Through Fiction and Media I
The three-quarter sequence advanced course in BCS is designed for both students who have completed two years of language training at the University of Chicago or equivalent formal study elsewhere, and heritage learners. While the pedagogical needs of heritage learners differ from those of second-language learners, they collectively inform central tenets of the course. The objective is to accelerate the process of language acquisition through reciprocal exchange of knowledge, skills, and cultural information. The course curriculum combines selected pieces of fiction with media—film adaptations of literary works featured in the textbook, or films addressing the weekly topic. Other materials, such as interviews with writers, directors, and humanities scholars also complement the course. Both reading passages and cinematic works, representing various subjects and styles, engage the language structure on every page and in every piece of footage. The course objective is to hone a student’s ability to analyze increasingly complex unrevised texts, identify various styles and registers of the language, and handle linguistically unfamiliar situations in both spoken and written formats. Skills like narrating, paraphrasing, comparing, describing, supporting opinions, and discussing abstract topics are among the language proficiencies to be developed. Vocabulary building is stressed as key for making progress, while issues of language structure and grammar are reinforced throughout the course as they arise in the textbook. Classes are conducted in the target language and may be taken Pass/Fail.
Winter
BCSN 10203: First-Year Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian II
The three-quarter sequence first-year course in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian introduces students to the four basic skills: reading, listening, speaking, and writing. It maintains a good balance of the three languages, their respective grammatical and lexical differences, and the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. Students are encouraged to concentrate on the language and culture of their interest and choice. The objective of the course is to build a solid foundation in grammatical patterns, while simultaneously working on the basics of interpretive, interpersonal, presentational, and intercultural communication. This is achieved through a communicative situation-based approach, dialogues and texts reinforced by the students and instructor, screenings of short films, video commercials, interviews, and the like. Weekly drill sessions with the instructor offer students the opportunity to review and practice the materials presented in class. All these pedagogical components improve a student’s ability to interact effectively and appropriately with people from other linguistic and cultural backgrounds—essential for establishing successful, positive relationships across cultural boundaries.
BCSN 20203: Second-Year Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian II
The three-quarter sequence second-year course in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian is designed for students who have completed the first-year sequence at the University of Chicago or equivalent formal study elsewhere. The curriculum is also well-suited to heritage speakers, and those students who have a good knowledge of other Slavic languages. The main objective of the course is to develop further communicative skills (interpretive, interpersonal, presentational, and intercultural) using authentic materials representing the contemporary spoken and written language in real-life contexts. Students are presented with a series of texts, such as newspaper articles, interviews with writers, actors, and athletes, short biographies, book and film reviews, university websites, travel blogs, etc. Audiovisual materials, showcasing both high and popular culture, constitute an integral part of every unit. Textual and audiovisual materials are selected to exemplify the highlighted themes while maintaining a good balance of the three languages and their respective grammatical and lexical differences. Weekly drill sessions with the instructor offer students the opportunity to review and practice the materials presented in class.
BCSN 10303 or consent of instructor | Nada Petković
BCSN 21102: Advanced BCS: Language Through Fiction and Media II
The three-quarter sequence advanced course in BCS is designed for both students who have completed two years of language training at the University of Chicago or equivalent formal study elsewhere, and heritage learners. While the pedagogical needs of heritage learners differ from those of second-language learners, they collectively inform central tenets of the course. The objective is to accelerate the process of language acquisition through reciprocal exchange of knowledge, skills, and cultural information. The course curriculum combines selected pieces of fiction with media—film adaptations of literary works featured in the textbook, or films addressing the weekly topic. Other materials, such as interviews with writers, directors, and humanities scholars also complement the course. Both reading passages and cinematic works, representing various subjects and styles, engage the language structure on every page and in every piece of footage. The course objective is to hone a student’s ability to analyze increasingly complex unrevised texts, identify various styles and registers of the language, and handle linguistically unfamiliar situations in both spoken and written formats. Skills like narrating, paraphrasing, comparing, describing, supporting opinions, and discussing abstract topics are among the language proficiencies to be developed. Vocabulary building is stressed as key for making progress, while issues of language structure and grammar are reinforced throughout the course as they arise in the textbook. Classes are conducted in the target language and may be taken Pass/Fail.
Spring
BCSN 10303: First-Year Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian III
The three-quarter sequence first-year course in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian introduces students to the four basic skills: reading, listening, speaking, and writing. It maintains a good balance of the three languages, their respective grammatical and lexical differences, and the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. Students are encouraged to concentrate on the language and culture of their interest and choice. The objective of the course is to build a solid foundation in grammatical patterns, while simultaneously working on the basics of interpretive, interpersonal, presentational, and intercultural communication. This is achieved through a communicative situation-based approach, dialogues and texts reinforced by the students and instructor, screenings of short films, video commercials, interviews, and the like. Weekly drill sessions with the instructor offer students the opportunity to review and practice the materials presented in class. All these pedagogical components improve a student’s ability to interact effectively and appropriately with people from other linguistic and cultural backgrounds—essential for establishing successful, positive relationships across cultural boundaries.
BCSN 20303: Second-Year Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian III
The three-quarter sequence second-year course in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian is designed for students who have completed the first-year sequence at the University of Chicago or equivalent formal study elsewhere. The curriculum is also well-suited to heritage speakers, and those students who have a good knowledge of other Slavic languages. The main objective of the course is to develop further communicative skills (interpretive, interpersonal, presentational, and intercultural) using authentic materials representing the contemporary spoken and written language in real-life contexts. Students are presented with a series of texts, such as newspaper articles, interviews with writers, actors, and athletes, short biographies, book and film reviews, university websites, travel blogs, etc. Audiovisual materials, showcasing both high and popular culture, constitute an integral part of every unit. Textual and audiovisual materials are selected to exemplify the highlighted themes while maintaining a good balance of the three languages and their respective grammatical and lexical differences. Weekly drill sessions with the instructor offer students the opportunity to review and practice the materials presented in class.
BCSN 10303 or consent of instructor | Nada Petković
BCSN 21103: Advanced BCS: Language Through Fiction and Media III
The three-quarter sequence advanced course in BCS is designed for both students who have completed two years of language training at the University of Chicago or equivalent formal study elsewhere, and heritage learners. While the pedagogical needs of heritage learners differ from those of second-language learners, they collectively inform central tenets of the course. The objective is to accelerate the process of language acquisition through reciprocal exchange of knowledge, skills, and cultural information. The course curriculum combines selected pieces of fiction with media—film adaptations of literary works featured in the textbook, or films addressing the weekly topic. Other materials, such as interviews with writers, directors, and humanities scholars also complement the course. Both reading passages and cinematic works, representing various subjects and styles, engage the language structure on every page and in every piece of footage. The course objective is to hone a student’s ability to analyze increasingly complex unrevised texts, identify various styles and registers of the language, and handle linguistically unfamiliar situations in both spoken and written formats. Skills like narrating, paraphrasing, comparing, describing, supporting opinions, and discussing abstract topics are among the language proficiencies to be developed. Vocabulary building is stressed as key for making progress, while issues of language structure and grammar are reinforced throughout the course as they arise in the textbook. Classes are conducted in the target language and may be taken Pass/Fail.
BCSN 21300: (Re)Branding the Balkan City: Contemporary Belgrade/Sarajevo/Zagreb
“The freedom to make and remake our cities (and ourselves) is one of the most precious yet most neglected of the human rights,” argues David Harvey. In this course, we use an urban studies lens to explore the complex history, social fabric, architecture, infrastructure, and cultural transformation of the former Yugoslav capitals. Since their inception, these cities have relied on multifaceted exchanges of peoples and political projects, forms of knowledge, financial and cultural capital, means of production, and innovative ideas. Among others, these exchanges produced two phenomena, Yugoslav architecture, embodying one of the great political experiments of the modern era, and the Non-Aligned Movement, as explored in recent documentary films (Turajlić 2023), museum exhibits (MoMA 2018, “Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia 1948-1980”), and monographs (Tito in Africa: Picturing Solidarity). Drawing on anthropological theory and ethnography of the city, we consider processes of urban destruction and renewal, practices of branding spaces and identities, metropolitan citizenship, arts and design, architectural histories and styles, and the broader politics of space. The course is complemented by cultural and historical media, guest speakers, and virtual tours. Classes are conducted in English.