Rate My Professor Stephen Blackwell

Stephen Blackwell is Professor of Russian and Chair of the Russian Program in the Department of World Languages and Cultures at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, contributing significantly to the field of Literature through his expertise in Russian literary studies. He received his Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literatures from Indiana University in 1995, an M.A. from Indiana University in 1991, and a B.A. in English from Connecticut College in 1987. Blackwell has served on the UT Knoxville faculty since 1995, progressing from Assistant Professor of Russian (1995–2001) to Associate Professor (2001–2011) and Professor (2011–present).

Blackwell's academic interests center on Vladimir Nabokov, particularly the intersections of literature and science, poetics of narrative, the role of the figured reader, and metaphysical textures in Nabokov's fiction. His key publications include the monographs Zina’s Paradox: The Figured Reader in Nabokov’s Gift (Peter Lang, 2000) and The Quill and the Scalpel: Nabokov’s Art and the Worlds of Science (Ohio State University Press, 2009; Russian translation, Academic Studies Press, 2022). He co-edited Fine Lines: Vladimir Nabokov’s Scientific Art with Kurt Johnson (Yale University Press, 2016) and In Other Words: Studies in Honor of Vadim Liapunov with Michael C. Finke, Nina Perlina, and Ekaterina Vernikova (Slavica Publishers, 2003). Among his many peer-reviewed articles are “Boundaries of Art: Reading as Transcendence in Nabokov’s The Gift” (Slavic Review, 1999), “The Poetics of Science in, and around, Nabokov’s The Gift” (Russian Review, 2003), and the award-winning “Calendar Anomalies, Pushkin, and Aesthetic Love in Nabokov” (Slavonic and East European Review, 2018). Blackwell's influence extends through editorial roles, including Interim Editor and Editor of The Nabokovian (2014–2015), service on the editorial boards of Slavic Review and Nabokov Online Journal, and leadership as President (2012–2013), Vice President (2011–2012), and Treasurer/Secretary (2014–present) of the International Vladimir Nabokov Society. He has also organized conferences such as the Hidden Nabokov symposium (2021) and served as Director of Undergraduate Studies in Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures (2015–2018), Russian Section Chair, and on university committees including Faculty Senate and Fulbright Campus Committee.