Background
Sidney Dement likes to design courses that showcase the interdisciplinary nature of Russian Studies. In "Moscow and Petersburg," he examines Russia's capitals through the lenses of history, architecture, urban studies, and literature. In "Slavic Folklore," students learn the folk tales, healing rituals, and archaic beliefs of the Slavs while also learning the methods of folkloristics, a discipline that draws heavily from anthropology, history and literature. In addition to courses in Russian Studies, Dement also teaches students to speak, understand, read and write the Russian language 鈥 a useful skillset to have in many social and professional settings.
(University of Toronto Press) unpacks the allusive history of Russia's most famous monument to her greatest poet, Alexander Pushkin. The Monument is simultaneously a poem, a statue, and a performative space. Analyzing the interpenetration of these three dimensions tells the story of one of Russia's significant aesthetic objects while at the same time making discoveries about the works of the poets, novelists, sculptors and theoreticians who conceptualized and transformed it. In shorter publications, Dement explores other dimensions of the intersection of verbal and visual culture. For example, in one essay he explains why the architecture of the banya is significant for interpreting Mikhail Bulgakov's Master and Margarita. In another essay, he interprets Borislav Peki膰's novel, How to Quiet a Vampire, by unraveling the visual, philosophical and literary dimensions of what might otherwise seem like a quite ordinary umbrella.
Pushkin's Monument and Allusion has been reviewed in , , and .
Select Publications
- 2023. " Russian Language Journal 73.2: 23-34.
- 2018. 芦袗褉褏懈褌械泻褌褍褉邪 泻邪泻 锌褉懈械屑: 协褋褌械褌懈泻邪 懈 褔懈褌邪褌械谢褜褋泻芯械 胁芯褋锌褉懈褟褌懈械 芯褋芯斜薪褟泻邪 袦邪褉谐邪褉懈褌褘禄. 孝胁芯褉褔械褋褌胁芯 袦. 袘褍谢谐邪泻芯胁邪: Pro et contra. 袨. 袗. 袘芯谐写邪薪芯胁邪, 褉械写邪泻褌芯褉. 小邪薪泻褌-袩械褌械褉斜褍褉谐: 袠蟹写-胁芯 袪啸袚袗. ["Architecture as Device: The Aesthetics and Reader Reception of Margarita's Mansion." The Works of M. Bulgakov: Pro et Contra. O. A. Bogdanova, ed. Saint Petersburg, Russia: Russian Christian Humanities Academy Press.] (in press)
- 2016. "Architectural Details from Moscow's Sandunov Banyas in M.A. Bulgakov's Master and Margarita." Slavic and East European Journal 60.1 (Spring 2016): 87-105.
- 2015. "The Lifelike Statues of Ovid and Pushkin's Orthodoxy." Pushkin Review 18-19 (2015-2016): 85-105. Invited for re-publication in Russian as: 芦袞懈蟹薪械锌芯写芯斜懈械 褋褌邪褌褍泄 袨胁懈写懈褟 懈 锌褉邪胁芯褋谢邪胁懈械 袩褍褕泻懈薪邪禄. 袠褌芯谐懈 懈 锌械褉褋锌械泻褌懈胁褘 褝泻褎褉邪褋褌懈褔械褋泻芯泄 褌械芯褉懈懈. 孝. 袝. 袗胁褌褍褏芯胁懈褔, 褉械写邪泻褌芯褉. 袩芯谢褜褕邪, 小械写谢褜褑械: 袠蟹写-胁芯 袝褋褌械褋褌胁械薪薪芯-谐褍屑邪薪懈褌邪褉薪芯谐芯 褍薪懈胁械褉褋懈褌械褌邪 胁 小械写谢褜褑械, 2018: 168-190.
- 2012. "Umbrellas, Dialectic, and Dialogue in Borislav Peki膰's How to Quiet a Vampire." Slavic and East European Journal 56.2 (Summer 2012): 153-72.
Education
- MA, PhD, University of Kansas
- BA, MidAmerica Nazarene University
Research Interests
- Alexander Pushkin
- Mikhail Bulgakov
- Moscow-Tartu Semiotics
- Intellectual and Cultural History
- Slavic Folklore
Teaching Interests
- Slavic Folklore
- Moscow and St. Petersburg
- Russian Culture and Civilization
- Activism in Russia
- Stalingrad
- Russian Language