Most “Great” Russian Writers Were Men. Here’s How We Need To Change That Today
Russian Writers In History I’ll never forget the uncomfortable conversation I had years ago with my good friend, writer, and philosopher Marietta McCarty. She was sharing with me her struggles to get men in her field to take seriously the notion that women could be philosophers, too. Surely I was more enlightened than that? she…
Read MoreThe Humane Russia I Love, The Brutal Russia I Hate
As someone who’s dedicated much of my professional life to studying Russian literature and culture, I’m following the tragic war in Ukraine with great interest and sadness. It is teaching me lessons both personal and political: how dictatorships work, how bullies maintain their grip on power, how leaders’ deep inferiority complexes often masquerade as superiority…
Read MoreHow Loss And Struggle Can Lead To New Insights
Loss and Struggle At the beginning of December, I finally got the total hip replacement I’d been avoiding. All that was left of my right hip for the past few years was a pile of jagged spurs and dead bone rubbing excruciatingly against one another like a constant, throbbing toothache in my leg that a…
Read MoreThis is How Gratitude in a Broken World Looks
Tragedy Strikes A few weeks ago, on Monday, November 14, I woke up to the news that three students at the University of Virginia, where I teach–Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr., and D’Sean Perry–had been murdered and two others wounded the night before by another UVa student who opened fire inside a charter bus…
Read MoreHow a Different Kind of Classroom Can Save Our Democracy
We’re about a month into the new school year, and already the grind has set in. In our family, that grind takes on a special significance this year as my ten-year-old son started fifth grade in a different school, with a new set of routines and expectations (did someone say homework?) amid a sea of…
Read MoreWhat Are We Really Teaching Our Kids?
I published this article in Inside Higher Ed in September 2020. Even though it addresses the crisis in education brought about by both COVID and the George Floyd tragedy, its message seems highly relevant to our current climate, as well: What or why to teach are more important considerations than how to teach if we are to…
Read MoreHow to Have Radical Hope in Troubled Times
Hope In The Sadness A few weeks ago it was a beautiful Monday in Northern Virginia, where I celebrated the Fourth of July with my family. I felt good about life and at peace with the world, a rarity for me these days. Late in the afternoon, a headline popped up on my phone…
Read MoreWhy Most Russians Still Love Putin
I’m often asked how Russian literature of the past can help illuminate Russian politics today. I recently wrote an article on this very subject and received a number of follow-up questions. One of the most interesting of them was: Why is Putin still so popular in Russia despite the world’s response to his war and…
Read MoreWhy I Choose Love
A few months ago, I watched my 9-year-old son conquer his fears and climb to the top of an indoor rock wall, a big accomplishment for him. As I lingered over the photos a day later, I thought of the parents of those children massacred in Uvalde who will never again get to watch their…
Read MoreIf Only Putin Had a Soul, Tolstoy Could Be the One To Save It. Here’s Why.
I wrote this article back in 2014, when Putin annexed Crimea. Back then the title was “How Tolstoy Can Save Putin’s Soul.” The tragic stakes are much higher now and Putin’s soul is clearly beyond saving, but the cultural backdrop is still entirely relevant so I wanted to share it with you. The drama being…
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