Benjamin Paloff

Benjamin Paloff is a Professor and Chair in Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Michigan, affiliated with the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. He holds dual appointments in Comparative Literature and the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies. His research bridges philosophy and literature, focusing on metaphysical dilemmas in Eastern European modernism and translation theory.

Paloff earned a Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literatures from Harvard University (2007) and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan. He has authored scholarly works like Lost in the Shadow of the Word (2016), poetry collections, and over a dozen literary translations from Polish, Czech, Russian, and Yiddish.

His awards include the 2018 AATSEEL Best Book Prize for Literary Studies and a 2016 National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship. Paloff currently teaches courses on Polish literature and comparative literary theory.

Grants and fellowships include the Michigan Society of Fellows (2007-2010), Poland’s Book Institute (2010), and the Stanford Humanities Center (2013). He collaborates with the Center for Russian, East European, & Eurasian Studies and the Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia.