Vera Proskurina

Roles & Affiliations: Vera Proskurina is an Associate Teaching Professor at Emory University's Modern Languages Department. She has held teaching positions at Cornell University, Middlebury College, and Wesleyan University since 1995. Previously, she worked at the Institute of World Literature (IMLI) of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1989-1995).

Education: PhD in Russian Literature from Moscow State University.

Research Focus: Specializes in Russian Modernism, cultural history of the Russian Empire, and the interplay between literature and political power. Key research topics include Mikhail Gershenzon's intellectual legacy, Catherine II's cultural policies, and the mythmaking around Russian imperial figures. Her work bridges literary analysis with historical and cultural studies.

Book Highlights: Authored four monographs including Mikhail Gershenzon: His Life and Myth (1998), Myths of Empire: Literature and Power in the Time of Catherine II (2006), and Catherine II’s Empire of Letters: Literature as Politics (2017). Her English-language book Creating the Empress (2011), supported by Mellon Foundation and NEH grants, was widely adopted in academic curricula.

Grants & Awards: Recipient of the Davis Center Fellowship (2001-2002) and grants from Mellon Foundation and National Endowment for the Humanities. Her research has been recognized for its interdisciplinary impact on Slavic studies.

Teaching: Instructs courses on 20th-century Russian literature, advanced Russian language, and Russian cultural history. Courses include RUSS 402 (20th-Century Literature), RUSS 313R (Topics in Russian Literature), and elementary Russian language instruction.