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Assistant Professor Malynne Sternstein

Associate Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures and The College

Czech and Russian Literature


404 Foster Hall
phone: (773) 834-0894
fax: (773) 702-7030
email: msternst@midway.uchicago.edu

Born: May 6, 1966 in Bangkok,Thailand
Citizenship: U.S.

MAJOR FIELDS

Czech Literature and Culture; Russian Literature and Culture; Avant-Garde Studies; Central European Studies; Literary, Psychoanalytic and Cultural Theory; Art and Media Theory; The “Retro-Avant-garde”; Czech Film

DEGREES AND EDUCATION

Ph.D. University of Chicago. Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Spring 1996.
Dissertation: Purposing the Liberated Word: Czech Poetism and Russian Cubo-Futurism.
Defended with Distinction.

M.A. University of Chicago. Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Spring1991.
With Distinction.

B.A. University of Chicago. Russian Language and Literature. June 1987.
Thesis: The Lyrics of Velimir Xlebnikov. Includes original translations.
Graduated with Honors.

Certificate Masarykova universita , Brno, Czechoslovakia. Fifth course in Czech Language and
Literature, Summer 1991.

Certificate Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana. Intensive advanced Russian.
Certificate of fluency, Summer 1988.

Certificate Leningrad State University, Leningrad, U.S.S.R. Intensive course in Russian Language. C.I.E.E., Bryn Mawr University, Summer 1986.

PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYMENT AND AFFILIATIONS

  • Associate Professor of Slavic Languages & Literatures and The College, University of Chicago, 2004-present;
  • Assistant Professor of Slavic Languages & Literatures and The College, University of Chicago, 1996 to 2004;
  • Interdisciplinary Studies on East and Central Europe, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Chicago, 2002-present;
  • Affiliate Professor, Department of Germanic Studies, University of Chicago. 2000-present;
  • Resource Faculty, Cinema and Media Studies, University of Chicago. 2002-present;
  • Resource Faculty, Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities, 2002-present;
  • Fellow, Franke Institute for the Humanities, University of Chicago, 1998-99;
  • Lecturer, Czech literature, 1996;
  • Lecturer, Czech language, first and second-year courses, 1993-96;
  • Lecturer, Russian language, first-year courses, 1990-93;
  • Teaching Assistant, Russian language, 1989;
  • Freelance Czech and Russian-language translation and tutoring, 1993-present.

    COURSES

    The Modern Central European Novel
    Slavoj Zizek and the Slovenian Lacanian
    School of Critical Theory
    Milan Kundera
    Kitsch
    Slavic Critical Theory: From Jakobson to
    Zizek
    Vladimir Nabokov
    Czech Literature I: Origins to 18th century
    Czech Literature II: 19th century
    Czech Literature III: 20th Century
    The East/Central European Avant-Garde Kafka in Prague
    Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita
    Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire
    Vladimir Nabokov’s Ada, or Ardor
    The Czech Avant-Garde
    The Slavic Vampire
    Bohumil Hrabal
    Lev Tolstoy’sAnna Karenina
    Antonin Artaud
    Contemporary Czech Literature
    Contemporary East-European Novel
    Václav Havel
    Jan Svankmajer and Contemporary Surrealism
    Lewis Carroll: The Alice Books
    Czech Surrealism
    Fin-de-siècle Czech Literature
    Medieval Czech Literature
    Jan Svankmajer
    Lewis Carroll’s Alice
    Russian Modernist & Post-Modernist
    Prose
    Nationalism and National Identity in East
    and Central Europe
    Theory of Circus and Performance
    Elementary and Intermediate Czech
    Elementary Russian
    Human Being and Citizen I and III
    Readings in World Literature, I, II and III
    Interdisciplinary Studies in Slavic and
    East European Literatures and
    Cultures: Proseminar Survey: Words
    and Things I
    Karel Capek and the Idea of Modernity
    Dubravka Ugresic and the Sense of
    Collecting
    Hegel’s Others
    Cult of Personality: Hitler, Stalin, Mao
    Ostalgie: Longing for the Soviet Past
    Kafka’s Diaries

    LANGUAGES

    Czech; Russian; German; French; Thai (Native); English (Native)

    RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

  • Independent Research, Muzeum vytvarnych umeni, Prague, October 2006
  • Independent Research, Muzeum vytvarnych umeni, Prague, December 2003
  • Independent Research, Municipal Museum of Prague. December, 2002
  • Independent Research, Museum of Modern Art. Russian Avant-Garde Book. New York, May 2002
  • Independent Research, Ubu Gallery. Sexuality and Surrealism. New York, May 2002 (honorarium)
  • Independent Research, Muzeum vytvarnych umeni. Prague, May 2001.
  • Independent Research, British Library and British Museum. London. Funded by the Neubauer award. Division of the Humanities, University of Chicago. August 2000.
  • Independent Research, Eirieagal Arts festival, Republic of Ireland. Funded by the Neubauer award. Division of the Humanities, University of Chicago. July 2000.
  • Independent Research, Ubu Gallery (Frantisek Vobecky in the context of Czech surrealism). New York, NY. January-August 2000
  • Independent Research, Prague and Paris. Funded by a Junior Faculty Research Fellowship. Division of the Humanities, University of Chicago. Summer 1999
  • Summer Research Laboratory, Russian and East European Center, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. June 1999
  • Independent Research, Prague, 1997
  • Karlova univerzita (Charles University), Prague, Czech Republic. ACCELS Advanced Dissertation Research, Philosophical faculty. March-August, 1993

    AWARDS & HONORS

  • President’s Council on Teaching, University of Chicago. Appointed, May 2004.
  • Neubauer Award for Innovative Teaching and Research, University of Chicago, May 2000
  • Franke Institute for the Humanities. University of Chicago. In-Residence Research Fellowship, 1998-1999
  • Junior Faculty Research Fellowship, Division of the Humanities, University of Chicago. Summer 1999
  • Associate-ship, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Summer Research Laboratory. 1999
  • Nominee, Award for Faculty Excellence in Graduate Teaching, 1997-98
  • Nominee, Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, 1997-98
  • Chicago Humanities Institute Grant (awarded for Slavic Forum Conference) 1997
  • Honors. Purposing the Liberated Word: Czech Poetism and Russian Cubo-Futurism, 1996
  • Title IX Fellowship, 1992 and 1995
  • Dissertation Research Fellowship, American Council for Collaboration in Education and Language Study (ACCELS), Charles University, Prague, 1993
  • University of Chicago Unendowed Fellowships, 1987-1991
  • ACTR Program Grant. Masaryk University/Bryn Mawr University, Brno, Czechoslovakia, 1991
  • Social Sciences Research Council Grant, 1988
  • George V. Bobrinskoj Award for Excellence in the study of Russian Literature, awarded June 1987
  • U.S. Government Educational Grant for Study Abroad, 1986
  • Dean’s List, University of Chicago. 1983-87

    PUBLICATIONS

  • The Will to Chance. Necessity and Arbitrariness in the Czech Avant-Garde from Poetism to Surrealism. Slavica Press, Indiana University, 2006;
  • “Ecstatic Subjects.” Chapter for The Invention of Politics in the European Avant-Garde, 1905-1940. Eds. Sascha Bru and Günther Martens (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2006), pp. 113-131;
  • Jaroslav Seifert. In Encyclopedia of Nobel prize Recipients. Forthcoming;
  • “Kafka’s Sympathetic Irony.” Politics, Imagination and the Individual: Essays in Honor of Paul Friedrich. Lincom Studies in Anthropology. (Muenchen: Lincom Europa, 2006), pp. 292-307;
  • “Morpheus Ascending: Vítezslav Nezval’s Decalcomania.” Russian Literature, May 2004, pp. 569-581;
  • “Laughter, Gesture and The Flesh: Kafka’s ‘In the Penal Colony’.” Modernism/Modernity. Vol. 8, no. 2. April 2001, pp. 315-323;
  • “Thailand/Siam Life Writing.” (With Nongpoth Sternstein.) In Encyclopedia of Life Writing. (London and Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2001), pp. 872-3;
  • “Sensuous Iconicity: The Manifestoes and Tactics of Czech Poetism.” Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature. Special Interarts Issue, (Vol. 2. June, 1998, pp. 77-100);
  • “Poem-Objects and Poem-Events: Word as Thing in the Russian Avant-Garde.” Foreign Language Review, (Vol. 1, May 1997);
  • Introduction to Czech Literature in Transition. Brown Slavic Contributions Special Issue. (Providence: Brown UP, Vol. XIII, May 2000), pp. 2-9;
  • Review, Ukrainian Futurism. For Modernism/Modernity. September 1999;
  • “Milan Kundera.” Collier’s Encyclopedia, revised edition, 1998 on CD-Rom;
  • “Czech Literature.” Collier’s Encyclopedia, revised edition, 1998 on CD-Rom;
  • Index to Friedrich, Paul. Music in Russian Poetry (with J. Pontius). Peter Lang, 1998;
  • Translation of Reznícek, “Animals” (with J. Pontius). In Daylight in Nightclub Inferno: Czech Literature from the Post-Kundera Generation. New Haven: Catbird Press, 1997;
  • Translation of selected poetry of Velimir Xlebnikov, Mutatis Mutandis 1 (1995): 50-55. (Used in the course “Russian Literature III: 20th-century Russian Literature” at the University of Chicago, 1996-1999);
  • “The Bed in the Background: Czech Surrealism and the Discourse of Sexual Power”, Abstract.

    ACCEPTED AND FORTHCOMING

  • Dueling Balaganchiki, or, Why Can’t Blok and Xlebnikov just get along? In Festschrift for Anna Lisa Crone. Bloomington, Indiana: Slavica Press, 2006;
  • “Jaroslav Seifert”. Essay in Dictionary of Nobel Laureates.

    WORK IN PROGRESS

  • Avant-Sade: The Discourse of Sadism in Surrealism (outline and two chapters completed);
  • Jane Austen’s jouissance: Sex and violence in Emma;
  • The Greatest Love Story of Our Time (with others.) Short animated film adapted from Vladimir Nabokov’s screenplay of Lolita;
  • Eating Red Meat Like Driving an SUV (with Thomas Gaulkin). Stop Motion film adapted from recent published scientific findings on the correlation between the consumption of red meat and large cars;
  • A comparative study of French and “minor” Surrealisms. Planned as a monograph.

    LECTURES AND PROFESSIONAL PRESENTATIONS

  • On Toyen. American Comparative Literature Association Conference, Puebla, Mexico, April 2007;
  • Czech Dream. Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference: 
Media in the Public Sphere, 
Chicago, March 2007;
  • On From Saturday to Sunday. Facets Cinematheque. Festival on Early Czech Cinema. February, 2007.
  • Toyen. Beyond Gender, After the War. American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages (AATSEEL), December 2006.
  • Czech Culture Underground: Dissidence in Czech Culture (with Esther Peters), Illinois Valley Community College, Oglesby, Illinois, May 2006;
  • Kafka in Prague, Illinois Valley Community College, Oglesby, Illinois, May 2006;
  • Citizen Czech, or, the Dialectics of Genderlessness in Czech Surrealism. AATSEEL, December 2005;
  • ‘One Can’t Survive without Holes in the Brain’: Bohumil Hrabal and the Gnosis of the Real. American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS), Boston, December, 2004;
  • Denuding the Naked: Toyen Politicizing Eros. Guest lecture. Indiana University. November 2004;
  • Gendercide and Hystery: An Examination of Female-Self Assassination and Hysteria in Travel Writing, with Anne Flannery. 1st Global Conference - Exploring Critical Issues in Sex and Sexuality, Salzburg, Austria, October 2004;
  • Bohumil Hrabal and the Metaphysics of Scatology. AATSEEL. San Diego, December, 2003
  • Toyen between Prague and Paris. Czech and Slovak National Council. Cedar Rapids Conference on Czech and Slovak Culture. June, 2003
  • The Marie Column Incident: Jaroslav Hasek, Anarchism and the Reformations of Czech National Identity. Czech and Slovak National Council. Cedar Rapids Conference on Czech and Slovak Culture. June, 2003
  • Jiri Menzel’s Closely Watched Trains. Franke Institute for the Humanities. Monthly Cinematheque Screening and Discussion. January, 2002
  • Ars Una: Karel Teige and the Czech Avant-Garde. Keynote. Exhibit on Karel Teige. Smart Museum of Art., Chicago. October, 2001
  • Environmental Theatre and The Piano. Symposium on Trevor Griffiths’ The Piano. Court Theatre. June 16, 2001. With Trevor Griffiths, Stan Garner, Charles Newell and Roger Smart.
  • Czech Modernism in Review. From Secession to Surrealism. Prague. May, 2001
  • Roundtable on “The Question of the Romani in Central Europe” Elbe. May 24, 2001
  • Kafka and the Kafkologists. Elbe. May 23, 2001
  • “Peripheral Megalopolis: Forgetting and the Monumental City” Berlin. University of Chicago Alumnae Lecture. May, 2001
  • “Where is Central Europe?” Krakow, Poland. May, 2001
  • “Erotislavikon or Avant-Sade. Erotic Discourse in Czech Surrealism” University of Chicago. Keynote lecture. Slavic Forum Conference. April, 2001
  • “Laughter, Gesture and The Flesh: Kafka’s ‘In the Penal Colony’’ Kafka Symposium. December 1 and 2, 2000
  • “The Shame of the Flesh: Kafka’s “In the Penal Colony.” University of Chicago Open House in conjunction with The Court Theatre’s production of Philip Glass’ adaptation of Kafka’s “In the Penal Colony.” October 2000
  • “The Rewards of Poetry.” Introduction to a panel featuring Mark Strand, Mikhail Epshtein, Andrej Voznesenskij, and Ales Debeljak. Three Lands, Three Generations, “A Conference of and on Slavic Poetry,” Northwestern University. October 1999
  • “The Future of Slavic Studies.” Presented to the Visiting Committee, University of Chicago. May 1999
  • “Czech Surrealism: The Fire of Life.” D’Arcy Museum of Art, Loyola University, Chicago. February 1999
  • “The Simultaneous Vision.” Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Northwestern University. February 1999
  • “Strucné dejiny ceské avantgardy v obrazech” (“A Brief Pictorial History of the Czech Avant-garde”), University of Chicago, Spring 1998
  • “The Slavic Vampire.” Burton-Judson Faculty Lecture, University of Chicago. Spring 1998
  • “Icon and Abacus.” Chicago Humanities Institute, Winter 1997
  • “Erotikon: the Haptic Moment and Czech Avant-Garde Film.” American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures (AATSEEL), Washington, D.C. , December 2000
  • The Hidden Question Conference: Listening to the Subjective Experience of School Life. Roundtable Conference. Francis Parker School, Chicago, December 2000
  • “The Felt Body of Film: Gustav Machaty’s Erotikon (1929) and Extase (1933).” ISSEI-Bergen Conference on Film. Bergen, Norway, August 14-18, 2000
  • “The Bed in the Background.” Re-assessing the Avant-Garde, University of Notre-Dame, April 2000
  • International Conference on La Langue Maternelle, Université de Paris, VII. Paris, March 1999
  • “Russian Avant-Garde Poetry and Intermedia: The Primitivist Project,” American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS), Seattle. November 1997
  • “The Primitivist Gesture in the Slavic Interwar Avant-Garde,” Conference on “The Space Between: 1920-1945,” University of Nevada, Spring 1997
  • “An English Futurist in Moscow,” Russian Modernism in its European Context, Texas Tech University, Spring 1996
  • “Eating Their Words: The Russian Avant-Garde,” AATSEEL, Chicago, December 1995
  • “Russian & Czech Avant-Garde Adventures in the Senses,” Slavic Forum, University of Chicago, Spring 1995
  • “The First Futurist: Walt Whitman and Russian Modernism,” AATSEEL, San Diego. December 1994
  • “Killing Time: Russian Modernism and the Fourth Dimension,” AATSEEL, Toronto. December 1993
  • “How to Create and Theoretically Motivate a De-Centered Poem,” Workshop on Poetry and Poetics, University of Chicago, Spring 1992

    PERFORMANCE

    Voice of teddy bear in David Pickett (director) Lego Movie 2: Volume 2: Part 1, May 2006

    UNIVERSITY SERVICE

    Divisional and Interdivisional:

  • Policy Committee; elected, autumn 2006;
  • Whiting Fellowships past Committee members report/meeting with Whiting Fellowships Representative, May 2006;
  • Chicago Convenes Panel, May 5, 2006 (scheduled);
  • Master of the Arts Program in the Humanities (MAPH) Faculty Advisory Board, appointed for a three year term, spring 2005;
  • Humanities Governing Board, appointed spring 2005;
  • Mellon Graduate Achievement Awards Committee, spring 2005;
  • Humanities Mastership Search Committee, spring 2005;
  • Faculty Adviser, Minor Slavic Graduate Workshop, 2005-present;
  • Harper/Schmidt Post-doctoral Fellowship Selection Committee. 2004-2005;
  • Council on Teaching, Appointed for three year term, May, 2004-present;
  • Committee on Graduate Fellowships, Humanities Division, spring, 2004;
  • Examination Committee (orals) for Marta Napiorkowska, Department of Comparative Literature;
  • Examination Committee (orals) for Elizabeth Nazarian, Cinema and Media Studies;
  • Stuart Tave Graduate Student Teaching Fellowship Selection Committee. Appointed, January, 2003;
  • Faculty Adviser, Exhibit on Karel Teige and the Czech Avant-Garde. Smart Museum of Art;
  • Harper/Schmidt Post-doctoral Fellowship Selection Committee. 2000-2001;
  • Affiliate Faculty, Germanic Studies, 2000-present;
  • Faculty Adviser, Masters of Arts Program in Humanities. 1997-present;
  • Faculty Adviser, Master of Arts Program in Social Sciences, 2000-2001, 2002-2003;
  • Discussant, Central European Studies Workshop, Spring 1997;
  • Joint Appointment, Center for East European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (CEERES);
  • Dean’s Representative, Departments of English, Art History, Linguistics, Comparative Literature, Germanic Studies, Cinema and Media Studies, 1997-present.

    College Service:

  • Chair, Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities (beginning autumn 2006);
  • Society for Fellows in the College, Faculty Fellow, invitation autumn, 2006
  • College Council, appointed, spring 2005 for three year term;
  • Vienna Civilization Program, Autumn 2006;
  • Faculty Fellow, Mathews House, Burton-Judson, invited, winter 2006;
  • Faculty Advisor for McNair fellowship recipient Sheena Payne, summer 2005;
  • Field Director for BA theses: Departments of English, Cinema and Media Studies, Sociology, History, Political Science, Comparative Literature, Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities, General Studies in the Humanities, 1998-present
  • Resource Faculty, Cinema and Media Studies, Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities, Germanic Studies, 2001-present;
  • Faculty Adviser, Undergraduate Registered Student Organizations, 1997-present;
  • Theta Sorority Charity Function, Judge for “Mr. University” pageant, February 2003;
  • Faculty Speaker, East and Central European Study Abroad Programs, University of Chicago, The College. November, 2002, 2004, 2006
  • Faculty Speaker, Reception for Students Admitted to The College. New York. April 2002
  • Faculty Lecturer. University of Chicago Alumnae Tour of Central Europe. May, 2001;
  • Faculty speaker/adviser, Undergraduate Study Abroad Meeting, 1999, 2000.

    Departmental Service:

  • Acting Chair, Winter Quarter, 2006, Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures, and occasional;
  • Graduate Student Literature Adviser, autumn 2004-present;
  • Chair, Organization Committee for Slavic Forum 2006 in Honor of Anna Lisa Crone, spring 2006;
  • Discussant and Emcee, Slavic Forum 2006 in Honor of Anna Lisa Crone, spring, 2006;
  • Committee, Slavic Linguistics Search, 2005-6;
  • Chair, Russian Literature Search, winter 2006;
  • Committee, Evaluation of the renewal of Daniela Hristova, spring 2004;
  • Evaluation Committee for the Renewal of Robert Bird, spring 2003;
  • Discussant, Slavic Forum Graduate Student Conference, invited, spring 2004;
  • Search Committee, Lecturer in South Slavic Literature. Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures, 2002-2003;
  • BA/MA Joint Degree Research Committee, 2002-3;
  • Interdisciplinary Studies in Slavic committee, 2002-present;
  • Undergraduate Concentration Departmental Adviser. Slavic Languages & Literatures. 1999-2000, 2000-2001;
  • Undergraduate Concentration Chair, West Slavic Literature/Culture (Czech and Polish). 1998-2001;
  • Search Committee, Polish Literature. Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures, 2000-2001;
  • Search Committee, Polish Literature. Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures, 1999-2000;
  • Search Committee, Mellon Instructor for Russian. Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures, 1999-2000;
  • Procházka Fund Committee, 2000-present;
  • Chair and Supervisor, Russian Culture Course Committee, 2000-2001; 2001-2002; 2002-2003;
  • Faculty Adviser, Graduate Student Slavic Society, 1998-2000;
  • Discussant, Slavic Forum Graduate Student Conference, 1997-2000;
  • Organizer and Chair, Slavic Forum Graduate Student Conference, 1996-1998.

    PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

  • Illinois Valley Association of Community Colleges. Continuing Education Seminars for College Teachers on Eastern European Culture, May 23, 2006;
  • External tenure review for Martha Kuhlman, Bryant University, 2006;
  • Manuscript review, History of Intellectual Culture, winter/spring 2006;
  • Manuscript review, Slavic Review, winter 2006;
  • Manuscript review, Proceedings of the Perspectives on Slavistics Conference, winter 2006;
  • Chair, Panel on Dys- and U-topia, AATSEEL Conference, December, 2006;
  • NEH Germanic and Slavic Studies Fellowships Panel, 2005;
  • Program Committee, American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East-European Languages/Literatures (AATSEEL), 1998-present
  • Member-at-large, Program Committee;
  • Assistant Head, Program Committee, 2001-2002;
  • Division Head, Theory and Special Topics, 1998-2000;
  • Assistant Head, Division of Theory and Special Topics, 1998-99;
  • External Reviewer Canadian Slavonic Papers, November 2004;
  • Manuscript Reviewer/Reader, University of Chicago Press, spring 2004;
  • Slavist Reviewer, Perspectives on Slavistics Conference, Leuven, Belgium, spring 2004;
  • External Reviewer, Slavic and East European Journal, 2000, 2003;
  • Publications Awards Committee, AATSEEL, February 1999-2003;
  • Referee, AATSEEL annual conference, 1997-2006;
  • Chair, NAATC society sponsored “Czech Literature in Transition.” December 1999, 2000;
  • Project Adviser, Joint project with Northwestern University Department of Drama and Theatre Studies. Staging of David Albahari’s prose, Spring 2000;
  • Consultant, CMJ New Music Monthly. January 2000;
  • Liaison to the Polish Consulate of Chicago. AATSEEL conference Polish activities, 1999;
  • Chair, “Comparative Approaches to Central/East European Literature,” AATSEEL, December 1998;
  • Chair, “Text and Context,” AATSEEL, December 1997;
  • Chair, “Life Creation and Regulation: From the Avant-garde to Socialist Realism,” AATSEEL, December 1996.

    PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

  • American Association of Teachers of Slavic & East European Languages (AATSEEL)
  • American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS)
  • Modern Languages Association (MLA)
  • International Association of Teachers of Czech (IAATC)