Fall 2024: September 9 – December 27
Subject: HIST (History)
Course Level: 200
Number of Credits: 4 U.S. / 8 ECTS
Max Enrollment: 20
Schedule: Mon Wed 14:30 – 15:50 CET (Berlin) | 8:30 – 9:50 EDT (New York)
Distributional Area: Historical Analysis
Language of Instruction: English
Course Prerequisites: English B2 / Equivalent or higher

This collaborative with University of Cambridge course takes you on a voyage into the past. Like many of the explorers you will meet along the way, you will travel across time from when Chinggis Khan’s armies conquered Beijing and Baghdad in the 13th century and the Black Death scoured the Eurasian world to the global nomads and pandemics of our day. Do earlier modes of globalization help us to understand our own age? How can we understand old and new global divides? The dynamics of combinations, differences, and divisions are many: spiritual, economic, environmental, ideological, military, and political. The aim of this course is to understand the forces that pull the world’s parts together as well as those that drive them apart.

This course invites us to learn global history globally. It connects you to students elsewhere in the world. Across 22 locations around the world, between Bangladesh and Lebanon, between France and Nigeria, between Argentina and Afghanistan, students are taking the same course simultaneously and posting and sharing their ideas on the course Gallery site.

Guidelines for the Statement of Purpose:
Craft a reflective statement of purpose explaining your interest in the Smolny Beyond Borders online course. The file should be saved with your name and course title as the filename and uploaded accordingly. Your statement’s clarity and substance will significantly influence our selection. Convey your motivations and aspirations for this course succinctly but thoroughly. Kindly write your statement in the course’s Language of Instruction.

Application Portal Instructions:
1) Use the Latin alphabet for all entries on the portal, including your name. If the Language of Instruction is Russian, you may use Cyrillic only within the Statement of Purpose file, and the title of the file should still be in English.
2) Refrain from using email addresses associated with Russian or Belarusian educational institutions.
3) While completing the “Required Information” section, ensure you fill in the “Province” field for your address.
4) Provide an address outside Russia or Belarus in both the “Required Information” and “Geographic Location Confirmation” sections of the “Online Course Application”. This ensures we can send your transcript.
5) You must press the “Sign” button twice during the application.
6) If you hold a bachelor’s degree, select “4th+” in the “Academic Year (online)” section.
7) Applicants either unaffiliated or affiliated with educational institutions in Russia and Belarus should list ‘Smolny Beyond Borders’ as their educational institution.
8) In the student ID section, enter ‘SBB’.
9) Consider drafting your motivation letter ahead of time. Save it as a separate file with this format: LastName_FirstName_CourseTitle for a smoother application process.