Photo of Victoria Thorstensson

Victoria Thorstensson

Lecturer in Russian, German and Russian

Education & Professional History

Kurgan State University, BA, MA; University of Wisconsin-Madison, MA; PhD

I have a PhD in Slavic Languages and Literatures from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. At Carleton College, I teach all levels of Russian language and a variety of courses on Russian and Russophone literature and culture. I am also the Program Director for Carleton College’s Off-Campus Program in Kazakhstan, called “Russophone Studies in Central Asia.”

I have lived and worked all over the world. I immigrated from Russia to Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1999, and then left to pursue my PhD. After moving to the East Coast, I taught Russian language, literature, and culture at Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Kathryn Wasserman Davis School of Russian at Middlebury College. In 2022, I returned to Minnesota via Kazakhstan, where I was an assistant professor at Nazarbayev University in Astana. I taught world and Russian literature for eight years and advised MA theses in the Master of Arts Program in Eurasian Studies (MAES).

My primary research specialty is the 19th-century Russian polemical novel. I write on Dostoevsky, Leskov, the nihilist countercultural movement, Russian revolutionary intelligentsia, the intersections of literature and science, and on realism. Currently, I am working on a book-length study of Russian conservative novelist Boleslav Markevich. I also publish translations and develop materials on teaching Russian as a foreign language.

Please come to my office hours, join us for “Russian Table,” or take one of my classes!

Education

  • D., 2013, Slavic Languages and Literatures, Minor in Comparative Literature, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dissertation: “The Dialog with Nihilism in Russian Polemical Novels of the 1860s-1870s.” Advisor: Alexander Dolinin
  • A., 2004, Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • A., B.A., Diploma with Honors, 1997, Russia; English and German Philology, Kurgan State University
  • Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland, Summer 2005, language studies (Polish)

Professional Appointments

  • Lecturer in Russian, Carleton College, 2022 – present
  • Assistant Professor; Languages, Linguistics and Literatures, Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan, 2014-2022
  • Director, SSRES (Summer School of Russian and Eurasian Studies), Nazarbayev University, Astana, Kazakhstan, 2016-2017
  • Instructor, Kathryn Wasserman Davis School of Russian, Middlebury College, Summer 2013, Summer 2014
  • Lecturer, Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Pennsylvania, 2010-2012
  • Lector, Slavic Languages and Literatures, Yale University, 2008-2010
  • Lecturer, Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2006
  • Instructor, Department of Foreign Languages, Kurgan State University, Russia, 1998-2001

At Carleton since 2022.

Highlights & Recent Activity

Faculty Director OCS Program in Qazaqstan

Russian Language Associate Coordinator

Recent Publications:

“Anti-Darwinism as Anti-Nihilism: The Conservative Response to Darwinism in Mikhail Katkov’s Russian Messenger and The Moscow News and Boleslav Markevich’s Pedagogical Romance Marina from Alyrog (1873),” in Reading Darwin in Imperial Russia, edited by Andrew M. Drozd, Brendan G. Mooney, and Stephen M. Woodburn, Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2023, pp. 121-168.

Translations:

“from Metamorph,” by Anuar Duisenbinov. Co-translated with Mariya Deykute. Asymptote, Winter 2022.

“Два сбоя.” Russian translation of Sam Cha’s poem “Two Glitches.” With student participation. Angime Conversation. Available from: https://www.angime.com/sam-cha-two-glitches-rus. March 27, 2021.

“A Spectral Path in the Azure or Testimonies about Tea.” English translation of poetry and testimonies by Anuar Duisenbinov. “Slavs and Tatars.” Heyward Gallery. Southbank Centre, London, UK, 2021.

Recent Conference Presentations:

“Boleslav Markevich: The Types of the Past,” Presentation and Workshop, “The Other 19v” research seminar, Zoom, September 30, 2022.

“Peacocks and Crows: Populist Discourse on Progress and Individual Happiness in the Works of Osipovich-Novodvorsky and Kushchevsky,” Panel: “Populism I: Russian Populism and Literary Narrative,” ASEEES, November 10-13, 2022.

Discussant at the section “The Sisters Khvoshchinskaya IV: Historical Themes,” ASEEES, November 10-13, 2022.

 

 

Organizations & Scholarly Affiliations

Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES)

American Association of Teachers of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages (AATSEEL)

North American Dostoevsky Society

ALTA (American Literary Translators Association)

Current Courses

  • Fall 2024
    RUSS 204: Intermediate Russian
  • Winter 2025
    RUSS 102: Elementary Russian
  •  
    RUSS 242: Russian Short Story
  • Spring 2025
    RUSS 110: Russophone Studies: Intensive Beginning
  •  
    RUSS 207: Russophone Studies in Central Asia: Intermediate Intensive Grammar
  •  
    RUSS 209: Russophoe Studies in Central Asia: Intermediate Conversation
  •  
    RUSS 228: Russophone Studies in Central Asia: Contemporary Kazakhstani Culture and Post-Colonial Identity
  •  
    RUSS 228F: Russophone Studies in Central Asia: Contemporary Kazakhstani Culture and Post-Colonial Identity in Russian
  •  
    RUSS 307: Russophone Studies in Central Asia: Advanced Intensive Grammar
  •  
    RUSS 309: Russophone Studies in Central Asia: Advanced Practicum