SYLLABUS OF THE COURSE
Course name: National Identity
Faculty: Department of Applied Political Science of the National Research University
- Higher School of Economics (Saint-Petersburg branch)
Level of education: Bachelor’s
Author and instructor: Natalia Gennadievna Galetkina, Ph.D. in History
Program outline
1. Prerequisites
Within the frame of the course students are encouraged to pay attention to the
influence of the phenomenon of national identity in modern society and politics.
The course is interdisciplinary in its content and methodology; it combines methods
and techniques of ethnology, social anthropology and sociology. Seminar work
concentrates on discussing texts (research articles and fragments from monographs)
important for better understanding the theoretical and practical points of the lecturers.
The course can be attended by students who are acquainted with basic terminology and
concepts used in political and social sciences. Besides student should also have a
sufficient command of English to be able to read scholarly literature, to understand
lectures and take part in class discussions.
2. Goals, benefits, Learning outcomes
The course aims are as follows:
- to help student to examine national identity as a factor of political processes
- to give students knowledge of the main theoretical and methodological approaches
to national identity
- to broaden their vision by concepts, data and technique from social anthropology
and sociology.
By the end of the course students should be able to:
- identify basic ideas, concepts and notions necessary for studying national identity
- compare different conceptions of national identity
- understand changing and dynamic character of national identity and describe
different instruments of its construction
- critically reflect upon political discourse in Russia concerning national identity
- have skills for working with research literature concerning the course topics
3. Distribution of hours
Theme
1 Introduction to the course. Notions of identity,
social identity, national identity
2 Nation and nationalism: notions, conceptions, the
Class hours
Self
lectures seminars study
2
2
8
2
2
8
3
4
5
6
7
main theoretical approaches
Correlation between civic, ethnic, religious and
local components in national identity
Instruments of construction of national identity
National identity formation in post-soviet Russia
Problems of national identity formation in the
post-soviet space
Colloquium with a presentation and discussion
research project
Total
2
2
8
4
4
6
2
2
4
12
12
16
0
2
8
20
16
72
4. Course content
1. Introduction to the course. Notions of identity, social identity, national
identity.
Description of the course, its aims, objectives, requirements. Notions of personal and
social identity, main features and differences between them. Short review of the
history of studying social identity. “We” and “Others” – basic principles of
categorization in shaping social identity. Different forms and levels of national
identity.
2. Nation and nationalism: notions, conceptions, the main theoretical approaches
Nations as “imagined communities”. Different basements of the nation: civil nation
and ethnic nation. Different approaches in studying ethnic and national identity:
“primordialism”, “instrumentalism”, “constructivism”. Main theories of nationalism.
Historical variants of nationalism.
3. Correlation between civic, ethnic, religious and local components in national
identity
Correlation between ethnic, religious and national identities in the history and in the
present days. Religious diversity and religious factor in contemporary Russia. Notions
of “locality” and boarders of locality. Regional identity in today’s Russia. National vs.
regional identity.
4. Instruments of construction of national identity
Social (collective) memory, historical memory: the notions, main conceptions and
history of study. The “invention” of tradition (the conception by E.Hobsbaum). Politics
of memory in contemporary Russia. The role of Medias in construction of national
identity. State education as an instrument of national identity construction
5. National identity formation in post-soviet Russia
The main topics, images, heroes and enemies in the post-soviet Russian discourse on
national identity. Notions of “people” and “nation” in the Russian legislation. Public
discussions on the concepts of “people”, “nation”, “Russians”, “Rossianye”. National
and ethnic stereotypes and attitudes in the post-soviet Russian society. Different
variants of “national idea” as a searching a national identity in contemporary Russia.
6. Problems of national identity formation in the post-soviet space
Collapse of the USSR and formation of the new independent states on its territory.
Nation-building as an important part of state-building. National unity and the problem
of national minorities. Russians in the new post-soviet states. Specific features of
national identity formation in Ukraine and Baltic states.
7. Colloquium with a presentation and discussion research project
To the end of the term students should write a term paper on the topic offered or agreed
by lecturer. This paper should be presented on colloquium and discussed by other
students.
5. Assessment
Type of testing
Current
Form of testing
Parameters
Class attendance
Seminar work
Every week
Reading texts at home and active work in
discussion on those texts in a class
Presentation and discussion research
project
Discussion on two questions from the
list
Colloquium
Final test
Oral test
6. The reading materials
Brubaker R. Ethnicity without Groups. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 2006
Graham Smith et al. Nation-building in the Post-Soviet Borderlands: The Politics of
National Identities. Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press, 1998.
Guibernau M. The Identity of Nations. Polity Press. 2009
Hobsbawm E. and Ranger T. (eds.), The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1983.
Kidd W. Culture and Identity. New York, 2002
Nationalism / ed. by J. Hutchinson and A.D. Smith. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1994.
Rebounding Identities. The Politics of Identity in Russia and Ukraine. Edited by D.
Arel and B. A. Ruble. Woodrow Wilson Center Press, Washington, D.C. 2006
Smith A. D. National identity (Ethnonationalism in Comparative Perspective).
University of Nevada Press.
Contact person: Natalia Gennadievna Galetkina, ngaletkina@eu.spb.ru