My scholarly and professional interests lie in three areas: new forms of narrative emerging in our multi-media age; comparative and environmental literature; and interdisciplinary pedagogy. Over the years, I have taught teaches a variety of writing and literature courses from The Elements of Writing and Introduction to Literature, to Moral Issues in the Modern Novel and The American Literature and the Environment. 

Together with members of ME faculty (Profs. Apelian, Mishra, Kelly and Liang) I have been co-teaching a Great Problem Seminar on Sustainable Development and Resource Recovery and Recycling for over a decade.  As I enjoy interdisciplinary modes of teaching, I have been involved with the First Year Experience program at WPI from its inception, contributing to several publications on its pedagogy and promoting WPI's project-based learning approach. 

In all of my teaching, I attempt to draw upon different disciplines and cultural traditions making parallels between epistemologies, spiritual and historic traditions as they raise important questions about moral choices, political decisions, human relationships with the natural environment and with technology.

I study and teach the great tradition of Russian classical literature from Pushkin to Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky to current authors who ask probing questions of human existence and question all forms of oppression.  I have been interested in investigating the societal implications of AI proliferation for human identity, authentic relationships, the future of our democracy and creative work. 

I have been the Founding Director of the Moscow IQP Project Center, advising student projects and engaging with the sponsors and academic structures in Russia. In 2024, I founded anew project center in Spain and am currently the acting Director of the Cádiz, Spain Project Center which offers IQP students opportunities to collaborate with students and faculty of the University of Cádiz in Andalucía.

Prior to coming to WPI, I served as a senior researcher on the nationwide study of interdisciplinary education conducted by the Harvard Graduate School of Education, evaluating interdisciplinary curricula and learning experiences at the collegiate and professional levels. I have earned a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Moscow University and an Ed.M. in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University.

I have published nature poetry as well as scholarly work on Russian, American and French literature. I have been a member of the Modern Language Association, Association for Integrative Studies, American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment, and I serve as a Trustee at the Icon Museum and Study Center in Clinton, MA.