March 20 , 2006

NORMAN – One of the world’s leading experts on Russian author Mikhail Kuzmin will visit the University of Oklahoma Norman campus this month for a free, public presentation.

Alexander G. Timofeev, senior researcher at the National Pushkin Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, will discuss “From the Word Reality to the Reality of the Word: The Essential Literary Movements in Russian Literature of the Silver Age” beginning at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, March 23, in 140 Kaufman Hall, 780 Van Vleet Oval, Norman.  A reception will follow the presentation.

Aside from his interest in Kuzmin, who wrote the first substantial body of free verse poetry in Russian, Timofeev has published extensively on a variety of Russian literary and cultural topics. He has authored seven books, more than 30 articles and 10 scholarly publications.

Prior to completing his doctoral degree from the Institute of Russian Literature in 2005, Timofeev taught as an assistant professor and guest lecturer at numerous educational institutions, including the universities of Rome; Siena, Italy; and Salerno, Italy. In 1998, Timofeev also taught as the Fae Rawden Norris Visiting Professor in the Humanities at Oklahoma State University. He is a current member of the St. Petersburg Writers’ Union and the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages.

This lecture is being presented as the seventh in a series of faculty colloquia in the College of Arts and Sciences Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Linguistics.  The faculty colloquium consists of eight lectures for the academic year, which cover diverse topics in the areas of German, Spanish, Mexican, Italian, Chinese, Russian and French literature.

“The Faculty Colloquia series is a long-standing institution that over the years has contributed a great deal to the strong intellectual community in our diverse department,” said Karin Schutjer, adviser in the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Linguistics.  “It showcases exciting new research by our own departmental colleagues, by colleagues in related fields at OU and by leading scholars at other institutions.”