andrew d. kaufman

Teaching Overview

Andrew D. Kaufman has been teaching courses in Russian literature, language, and culture to undergraduate and graduate students as well as adults for over 25 years. 

 His teaching has been featured on NPR, in the Washington Post, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and in What the Best College Students Do by Ken Bain, international education expert and best-selling author of "What the Best College Teachers Do". 

Andrew has a well thought-out teaching philosophy, and frequently develops courses that integrate the best practices of traditional college teaching with ground-breaking innovations that provide students with a transformative humanities education.

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“Professor Kaufman lives up to his title in the way that everyone should—he is a professor, a teacher, an educator; someone who opens the gates of a different kind of knowledge to students who are searching to find a little bit more about themselves. For that, I am grateful.”

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“Professor Kaufman taught me a new way to read. He showed me how to experience a book, how to engage, question, and actively participate in the work. By the end of a book, I’ve made decisions, learned lessons, lived the lives of each character and, frankly, it’s exhausting. As it should be. Kaufman inspires his students to foster such a deep relationship with literature that it becomes an integral part of our being. I will always be grateful to the man who showed me how to read at 22.”

- from A tribute from the Z Society
in the words of your students, colleagues, and friends at the University of Virginia

soon to be a motion picture

The Gambler Wife:

A True Story of Love, Risk, and the Woman Who Saved Dostoyevsky

A revelatory new portrait of the courageous woman who saved Dostoyevsky’s life—and became a pioneer in Russian literary history