Irina Erman, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Russian | Chair of German and Russian Studies | Affiliate Faculty - Film Studies and Women and Gender Studies

I specialize in 19th and 20th century Russian literature and literary theory. I have published articles on a variety of topics, including modernist autobiography, vampire literature, and Fyodor Dostoevsky. Spanning from 19th century literature to contemporary pop culture, my research and teaching are brought together by my underlying theoretical interest in marginality, monstrosity, and performativity. I teach classes on the following topics: Russian literature, vampires, bad books, autobiography, film, theater and performance studies, gender and sexuality studies, and contemporary Russia.

Education

Ph.D., Stanford University

M.A., Stanford University

B.A., Summa Cum Laude, Emory University

Courses Taught

All levels of Russian language

LTRS 210: 19th Century Russian Literature

LTRS 220: 20th Century Russian Literature

RUST 250: Vampires

LTRS 270: Studies in Russian Film

RUST 300: Gender and Sexuality in Russian Culture

Selected Publications

Funny Dostoevsky: New Perspectives on the Dostoevskian Light Side, co-edited with Lynn Patyk, Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2024 

“Gogol and Dostoevsky,” in The Routledge Companion to Absurdist Literature, edited by Michael Bennett, forthcoming in 2024 

“Ideas That Plague Us: Reading Crime and Punishment as a Pandemic Narrative,” Russian Literature Vol. 138-9 (May-June 2023), 43-61 

“A Symposium with Vasily Rozanov” in Socrates in Russia, edited by Alyssa DeBlasio and Victoria Juharyan. Leiden: Brill, 2022, 104-123 

“Sympathetic Vampires and Zombies with Brains: The Modern Monster as a Master of Self-Control,” The Journal of Popular Culture 54:3 (June 2021)  

“Nation and Vampiric Narration in Aleksey Tolstoy’s ‘The Family of the Vourdalak’,” The Russian Review 79 (January 2020), 7-27  

“The Autobiography of ‘A Living Plagiary’: Vasily Rozanov’s Secret Dostoevskian Genealogy,” AvtobiografiYa No 7 (2018), 171-190 

"'Husband Under the Bed': Cuckoldry, Logorrhea and Confined Spaces in Dostoevsky's Early Works," Russian Review 76:2 (April 2017), 311-330 

Honors and Awards

Winner of the Levin Article Prize for best article published in Russian Review in 2020 for “Nation and Vampiric Narration in Aleksey Tolstoy’s ‘The Family of the Vourdalak’,” 2021

Dean’s Excellence Award for Research 2022

Wiley Top Downloaded Article for “Sympathetic Vampires and Zombies with Brains,” 2023

Press and Media

“The Vampires of A. K. Tolstoy,” interview on SRB Podcast, October 2021