Tom Roberts

Tom Roberts serves as Assistant Professor of Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies at Smith College, where he researches Russian literature, cinema, and intellectual history with specialization in 19th-century literary realism. His multidisciplinary teaching spans Russian cultural history, including courses on Cold War science fiction, revolutionary traditions, and Soviet avant-garde cinema.

His educational credentials include a Ph.D. and M.A. from Stanford University and a B.A. from Middlebury College.

Roberts' scholarship critically examines intersections of secular and spiritual discourses in 19th-century Russian culture, analyzing how scientific materialism and Eastern Orthodox theology shaped literary aesthetics. His current book project investigates representations of transcendence in Dostoevsky, Leskov, and Chekhov that challenge realist fiction paradigms, while his extensive cinema publications focus on directors Kira Muratova and Alexei German.

His recent publications reveal consistent thematic threads across film studies and literary scholarship, emphasizing cultural-religious-political interplay in Russian artistic expression from the imperial era through late socialism.

Roberts advises students within the Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies program, developing courses that integrate artistic forms with philosophical, political, and social discourses across historical periods.