M.A. Degree Program

Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies (REECAS)

Objective of the Program

The M.A. Degree Program for Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies provides interdisciplinary area studies training. The curriculum is designed to promote a broad understanding of the cultural, political, economic, social, and historical factors that have shaped the development of societies in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe; mastery in Russian, East European, or Central Asian languages at a level necessary for doing advanced research on and professional work in the region; knowledge of methodological and analytical approaches of different disciplines that will contribute to a better understanding of the region; and knowledge of the methodological approaches in the student's chosen discipline to prepare the students for advanced research.

Program Admissions

Students entering the Master's Program must have a Bachelor's degree from an accredited institution and provide evidence of academic achievement and intellectual ability, including a minimum total grade point average of 3.0 on a four-point scale and a 3.4 in related area courses, letters of recommendation, and sufficiently high scores on the Graduate Record Examination. No rigid prior course of study is required for application. Applications will be reviewed by a faculty committee, who will judge students' readiness for the program. The M.A. advisor will work closely with the committee to ensure that the students' courses of study are appropriate, given different levels of preparedness. There is no minimum admission requirement for language, but students will be strongly advised to complete two years of area language study before entering the program. Although a typical student will already have pursued language and regional studies before applying, it will be possible for students to enter the program with no regional language or area studies experience.

Degree Requirements

The M.A. program is designed to be completed in two years, but motivated students who enter with language skills have the option of completing the course of study within 3 semesters. Students will work closely with the M.A. advisor to ensure that their course of study is both coherent and sufficiently interdisciplinary. Students will also work with the faculty advisor in their department of concentration.

Credits Requirements

In addition to language classes each term, students will be requited to complete a minimum of 27 non-language credits from the course list to be distributed as follows:

Courses must be above the 300-level and may be drawn form any of the accepted disciplines of Russian, East European, and Central Asian studies. It is understood that M.A. students taking courses numbered 300-699 may be required to do additional graduate-level work for these classes, as is true for Ph.D. students. The choice of a student's concentration will be limited by the faculty and number of classes offered by individual departments. Currently, Anthropology, Folklore, Geography, History, Political Science, Slavic Languages and Literature, and Sociology offer four or more courses. In consultation with the M.A. advisor, students will be expected to structure a cohesive curriculum.

Seminar Requirements

At least two of the M.A. student's eight courses (6 out of 27 credits) must be graduate seminars (above the 700-level), and at least one seminar must be in the student's primary department. Students may opt to take a third graduate seminar in lieu of the master's thesis. While REECAS MA students are always encouraged to use original language source material in their graduate seminar papers, this is required for seminar papers in a third graduate seminar, if that seminar is serving as a substitute for the master's thesis.

Language Requirements

Language learning is an integral part of the program, and students will be required to enroll in language courses each term. Students already proficient in their main language will be expected to choose another Slavic or Central Asian language for the duration of their program. For degree completion, students must have a minimum of three years of Russian, or two years of the other regional languages. Currently, the university offers regular instruction in Czech, Finnish, Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Turkish, and Kazak. Bulgarian, Uzbek, Old Church Slavonic, Romanian, and Kazan Tatar are taught from time to time.

Master's Thesis and Major Discipline Research Requirements

Each student will be required to choose a department of concentration (anthropology, folklore, geography, history, language and literature, political science, sociology). Students will be encouraged to complete one faculty-supervised independent research course (3 credits) in this department of concentration producing a 40-50 page master's thesis. This master's thesis will demonstrate the students ability to engage in original research in his or her chosen field, including the ability to use original language material. Students have the option of completing this research requirement by finishing a third graduate seminar. Students have the option of completing this research requirement by finishing a third graduate seminar in which one of the requirements is a substantive seminar paper. As is true for a master's thesis, students must use original language material in this seminar paper.

Departments and Faculty

The departments offering courses pertaining to Russia, East Europe, and Central Asia are: Agriculture, Anthropology, Central Asian Studies, Communication Arts, Economics, Folklore, Geography, History, Jewish Studies, Law, Political Science, Slavic and East European Literature, and Sociology. The M.A. program is structured to provide the optimum career preparation for students interested in pursuing careers focused on the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The M.A. advisors and faculty will provide career advising and students will have access to the resources and contacts of the center.

Funding and Financial Aid

We strongly encourage qualified US citizens and permanent residents to apply for the Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowship through our office. The FLAS application generally becomes available in November and is due in early February. Please note that the application form for FLAS is separate from the application for admission, but applicants to the master's degree program in REECAS may request to have letters of recommendation, transcripts, and GRE scores copied from their MA file to the FLAS file. We regret that other sources of funding, such as teaching assistantships and project assistantships, are extremely limited in our program. We encourage all applicants to consult the CREECA funding page for additional resources.

Application Procedures

To apply for the CREECA M.A. Program you will need to apply to both the Graduate School at the University of Wisconsin and the Center for Russia, East Europe and Central Asia. The application deadline for this program is always at the beginning of January.

The application deadline for admission in September 2010 is January 4, 2010.

BE SURE TO READ THE INSTRUCTIONS ON THE APPLICATION FORM VERY CAREFULLY.

Please note that the Graduate Admissions Office will not forward application materials to our office.

Applications will not be processed without the application fee.

*International students should view the International Sudent Expenses and Financial Information page at the Graduate School's International Applicant page. International applicants are requested to not send financial documents to Graduate Admissions until requested by the Graduate School. This information will be requested upon a positive admission recommendation from CREECA.

The Graduate School Admission requirements can be found here.
The Graduate School Checklist can be found here.

All applicants also need to send the following materials to the Graduate Program Coordinator, Center for Russia, East Europe and Central Asia at the following address:

For further information or to request materials please contact Jennifer Tishler by e-mail or by telephone at (608)-262-3379.

To review the Graduate School's application requirements visit their website.

The application deadline is in early January. All parts of the CREECA application must be postmarked by this date. For admission in fall 2010, applications must be postmarked by January 4, 2010.

For More Information

Contact Jennifer Tishler, Graduate Program Advisor and CREECA Associate Director: