Dr. Benjamin M. Sutcliffe

Dr. Benjamin Sutcliffe

Education

2004 - Ph.D. -  University of Pittsburgh, Philosophy in Slavic Languages and Literatures

Dissertation title: Engendering Byt: Russian Women Writers and Narratives of Everyday Life, 1962-2001.
Advisor: Helena Goscilo.

2004 - Ph.D. Certificate in Cultural Studies - University of Pittsburgh

1999 - M.A. -  University of Pittsburgh, Slavic Languages and Literatures 

1996 - B.A. - Reed College, English Literature

Undergraduate thesis: Representation and Autonomy in Sergei Dovlatov’s Zona and Nevidimaia kniga.
Advisor: Charles Isenberg.

Teaching and Research Interests

  • Contemporary Russian literature
  • The Russian novel
  • Russian language
  • Russian folklore
  • Studies of everyday life
  • Women’s prose
  • Georgian literature in Russian

Courses Taught at Miami

  • RUS 201: Intermediate Russian
  • RUS 202: Intermediate Russian
  • RUS 301: Advanced Russian
  • RUS 302: Advanced Russian
  • RUS/ENG/HON 256: Russian Literature-Tolstoy to Nabokov
  • RUS/ENG/HON 257: Russian Literature in English Translation
  • RUS 301: Advanced Russian
  • RUS 302: Advanced Russian
  • RUS/HST 436: Havighurst Colloquium
  • POL 440/540: Havighurst Colloquium

Professional Recognition

  • Spring 2018, Spring 2010. Nomination, Outstanding Professor Award, Associated Student Goverment, Miami University.

Grants and Awards

  • Summer 2018. National Council for Eurasian and East European Research Short-Term Travel Grant for research in Georgia.

Selected Publications

Books
  • Ludmila Ulitskaya and the Art of Tolerance, a monograph coauthored with Elizabeth Skomp (Sewanee, University of the South). Forward by Helena Goscilo. University of Wisconsin Press, 2015. 238 pages. Reviewed by Publishers Weekly, Choice, Slavic Review, Russian Review, Slovonic and Each Journal.
  • The Prose of Life: Russian Women's Writing from Khrushchev to Putin. University of Wisconsin Press, 2009. 208 pages. Selected for Mellon Slavic Studies Initiative. Selected by Choice as Outstanding Academic Title. Reviewed by Modern Language Review, Choice, a/b: Auto/Biography Studies, Slavic Review, Russian Review, Slavic and East European Journal, Canadian Slavonic Papers, Slavonica.
Articles
  • “Cake, Cabbage, and the Morality of Consumption in Iurii Trifonov’s House on the Embankment.” In Seasoned Socialism: Gender and Food in Late Soviet Everyday Life. Eds. Angela Brintlinger, Anastasia Lakhtikova, and Irina Glushchenko. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, forthcoming.
  • "Trifonov's Turkmenia: Optimism, Despair, and the Intelligentsia." In Borders and Beyond: Orient-Occident Crossings in Literature. Eds. Adam Bednarczyk, Magdalena Kubarek, Maciej Szatkowski. Wilmington: Vernon Press, 2018. 125-38.

Presentations

  • "Sincerity i the Material World: Iurii Trifonov Confronts Consumerism." The Body of Things: Gender, Material Culture and Design in (Post) Soviet Russian. Aarhus, Denmark. March 8-9, 2018.

Membership in Professional Organizations

Languages

  • Bulgarian (intermediate reading)
  • English (native)
  • French (advanced reading and intermediate speaking)
  • German (intermediate reading and speaking)
  • Russian (near-native)