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Students and Teaching Methodologies
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Students and Teaching Methodologies
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My students have included college students at Stanford and the University of Virginia,
executives at American companies, national television
and radio audiences, as well as professional theater audiences. Thanks to this variety
of teaching venues, I have enjoyed the challenge of finding creative pedagogical approaches
that make the study of Russia relevant and exciting to a very wide audience.
Although my teaching experiences go beyond traditional academia, I believe they are quite
applicable to the current interdisciplinary academic environment.
In my teaching of Russian language, I try to balance the traditional study of grammatical
rules with contemporary teaching methods, which emphasize pragmatic, real-world communication
at an early stage of study. |
In my teaching of literature, I attempt to create a balance
between the “cultural studies” approach to literature and the more traditional art of
“close reading.” I use the close reading approach to help students not only with
their analytical skills, but also to help them appreciate the unique poetics contained in
a work of literary art. In other words, I encourage students to appreciate literature
as literature.
In many of my literature courses, I include a “Making It Personal” component,
in which students are encouraged to reflect on how the ideas discussed in the course might apply to contemporary
life and to the specific concerns of their own lives. Most students find this approach refreshingly unique, and their excitement
shows itself in their written work and spirited class discussions.
I also introduce students to some of the current sociological and other theoretical approaches in
the humanities. By understanding Russian literature and other artistic forms within
the context of political and socio-economic forces, students gain insight into the larger
evolutionary processes of Russian cultural history. An example of a course I have taught
with this approach is “Tycoons, Tyrants, and Tortured Souls in
Russian Literature.”
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