Gary Saul Morson

Gary Saul Morson is the Lawrence B. Dumas Professor of the Arts and Humanities and Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Northwestern University, where he also serves as Chair of the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures (2006-2009 and 2019-present). He earned a B.A. in 1969, M.Phil. in 1973, and Ph.D. in 1974, all in Slavic Languages from Yale University, and was a Henry Fellow at Brasenose College, Oxford, from 1969 to 1970. Morson's career began at the University of Pennsylvania as Assistant Professor (1974-1980), Associate Professor (1980-1985), Chair of Slavic Languages (1982-1985), and Chair of the Program in General Literature (1980-1984). He joined Northwestern in 1986 as Associate Professor, became full Professor in 1987, and has held additional roles including Founding Director of the Center for the Writing Arts (1993-1996), Master of the College of Cultural and Community Studies (1999-2004), and Faculty Chair of Willard Residential College (2004-present). Previously, he was Frances Hooper Professor of the Arts and Humanities (1991-2015) and Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence (2000-2003).

Morson's research specializations include literary theory, especially narrative; history of ideas in Russian and European contexts; satire, utopia, and the novel; and the relation of literature to philosophy, with favorite writers Chekhov, Gogol, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy. He is currently working on a study of The Brothers Karamazov. Key publications encompass Minds Wide Shut: How the New Fundamentalisms Divide Us (Princeton University Press, 2021, co-authored with Morton Schapiro), Cents and Sensibility: What Economics Can Learn from the Humanities (Princeton University Press, 2017, co-authored), Prosaics and Other Provocations: Empathy, Open Time, and the Novel (2013), The Long and Short of It: From Aphorism to Novel (2012), The Words of Others: From Quotations to Culture (2011), “Anna Karenina” in Our Time: Seeing More Wisely (2007), Narrative and Freedom: The Shadows of Time (Yale University Press, 1994, René Wellek Prize, American Comparative Literature Association, 1996), and Mikhail Bakhtin: Creation of a Prosaics (Stanford University Press, 1990, co-authored with Caryl Emerson, Best Scholarly Book award, American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages, 1992). He founded and serves as General Editor of Northwestern University Press series Studies in Russian Literature and Theory (1989-present) and Rethinking Theory (1992-present), and Yale University Press series Russian Literature and Thought (1992-2010). Major awards include election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1995), Career Outstanding Scholar Award from AATSEEL (2008), LeRoy Hall Award for Teaching Excellence (2013-2014), and Kohl Education Prize (2017); fellowships at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (1996-1997) and National Humanities Center (1978-1979).