During their first semester, academic year participants receive approximately 20 in-class contact hours per week; during their second semester, nine-month students with advanced Russian skills may substitute an independent research project for the American Councils area studies courses while continuing their language classes for approximately sixteen hours per week. Research projects culminate in a 15 to 20-page research paper written in Russian. In order to prepare these papers, academic year students meet regularly with a Russian-language specialist, who helps them develop stylistics and grammar, and with an expert advisor, who guides their research. Research projects require extensive work in libraries and archives and should be undertaken only after careful consultation with resident directors and faculty both in the U.S. and Russia. In recent years, graduate students have used this option to complete substantial work on M.A. theses and Ph.D. dissertations.
Recent participants in the academic year RLASP program have completed such research projects as Napoleon’s invasion of Russia; current Russian politics; intercollegiate athletics; the Russian army; Russian attitudes towards the Caucasus; nationalism in music history; the transition to democracy in Tartarstan; the acquisition of listening skills in Russian; contemporary urban youth movements; the Russian civil war and the creation of Soviet identity; and Russian theater.
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