Kristen Welsh
Kristen E WelshDean of Global EducationAssociate Professor of Russian Area Studies
Joined faculty in 2002
Ph.D.,Yale University
M.Phil., M.A., Yale University
A.B., Brown University
Contact Information
Scholarly Interest
- Contemporary Russian-American writers
- Vladimir Nabokov, Vladislav Khodasevich, and Russian emigre writers 1922-1939
- Literary creativity and poetic inspiration
- Creative ecology
- Flipped and blended learning for Russian language teaching
- Gradeless teaching for equity
Research
The Secret Self: Olga Grushin's Novels of Hidden Identity (book project)
"Playing the Fool: Failures of Creative Process in King, Queen, Knave" (article)
"The Unbeautiful Body: Deforming Person and Place in Contemporary Russian-American Fiction" (conference paper, article)
Courses Taught
Russian language (all levels)
FSEM program: I'm New Here: Russians Discover America; Reel Russia; Coming to America
Russian culture courses: Alienation & Intimacy: Russian-American Writers*; America through Russian Eyes*; Russian & Soviet Film; Russia & the Environment; Introduction to Russian Literature; Russian Women Writers; RAS senior seminar: Petersburg
*Also designated as an American Studies course
Programs led abroad: HWS Russian Study Tour (Moscow/Petersburg), 2004; HWS Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad Siberia Summer Seminar, 2006, 2009, 2016; 2021; HWS Rome semester program, 2013; HWS Galway (Ireland) semester program 2022
Key courses taught in programs abroad: In Search of Rome; Craft, Community, Creativity: Microbusiness Galway
Publications
“Geocorporeality and the Unbeautiful Body in Contemporary Russian-American Fiction.” In Eva Hausbacher, Viola Parente-Čapková, Marja Sorvari, and Arja Rosenholm, eds. Out of the USSR: Travelling Women – Travelling Memories. DeGruyter. Expected date of publication 31 Oct. 2025. 199-221. In press.
“Playing the Fool: Failures of Creative Process in King, Queen, Knave.” Nabokov Online Journal (NOJ) XVI (2022): 1-22. http://www.nabokovonline.com/uploads/2/3/7/7/23779748/vol._16_welsh_playing_the_fool_22.pdf
"Mixing it Up with Blended Learning." With Shannon Spasova (Michigan State University). In Dengub, Dubinina, & Miller, Eds., The Art of Teaching Russian. Georgetown, 2020. 405-30. This volume received Honorable Mention for the Modern Language Association’s Kenneth W. Mildenberger Prize, 2019-2020.
“Flipped Learning: A Case Study.” Proceedings of the International Scholarly Conference on Innovative Technologies and Approaches in Intercultural Communications, Linguistics, and Linguodidactics, Barnaul (Russian Federation), 18-20 October 2018. Ed. Kolesov et al., The Linguistic Institute of Altai State Pedagogical University, 2018. 12-17.
“Between the Canvas and the Printed Page: Nabokovian Intertexts and Olga Grushin’s Soviet Artist-Hero,” Slavic and East European Journal 55:1 (Spring 2011; special issue on Russian-American fiction).
“Rapture, Sweat and Tears: Nabokov and Khodasevich on Inspiration.” Slavic and East European Journal 54:2 (Summer 2010).
“Lik’s Trilingual Pun.” The Nabokovian 62 (Spring 2009): 47-59.
In reference works or for a general readership
“Vladimir Nabokov.” Multicultural Writers Since 1945. Ed. Alba Amoia and Bettina L. Knapp. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2004. 370-75.
"Cangiari: ‘We Fight the Mafia One Thread at a Time,’” PLY Magazine 22 (Fall 2018): 24-29.
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
- ASEEES (Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies)
- AATSEEL (American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages)
- ACTR (American Council of Teachers of Russian)
SERVICE PROJECTS
- Treasurer, Zeta of New York Chapter, Phi Beta Kappa
- Executive Committee of the Middle Atlantic District, Upper New York area representative, Phi Beta Kappa
- Council on Diversity, Equity, Access, and Inclusion, American Council of Teachers of Russian (ACTR)