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Prof. Maria Carlson

Maria Carlson


Degree: Ph.D., Indiana University
Position: Professor, Director of Graduate Studies, and Associate Chair
Teaching interests: Russian intellectual history ("Main Currents of Russian Thought"); Slavic folklore and mythology; Russian symbolism; modern Russian poetry; Soviet literature; the Devil in Russian and European culture; the 18th century; Andrei Belyi; Mikhail Bulgakov; Russian art and culture; interdisciplinary studies.
Research interests: Russian cultural and intellectual history (18–21st centuries) and non-Marxist thought; Russian occult movements and speculative mysticism, current and retrospective; East Slavic folklore, Slavic mythology, Russian neo-paganism; Literature, thought, and culture of the Russian Silver Age (1885–1922), with comparative European dimension; the work of Andrei Bely (1880–1934); folklore, mythology, and neo-paganism.

Selected recent publications and presentations

  • 2008 encyclopedia article: "Blavatskaia, Elena Petrova." Forthcoming in The Encyclopedia of Women in World History, Oxford University Press.
  • 2007 encyclopedia article: "de Roberti (De Roberti de Kastro de la Serda), Evgenii Valentinovich (1843–1915; also: Eugène de Roberty). Neo-positivist philosopher, sociologist." For Modern Encyclopedia of Russian, Soviet, and Eurasian History (MERSH).
  • 2007 review: Aryan Idols: Indo-European Mythology as Ideology and Science, by Stefan Arvidsson. Translated by Sonia Wichmann. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. In: Folklorica; Journal of the Slavic and East European Folklore Association 12. Also: "A More Detailed Look at Stefan Arvidsson’s Aryan Idols."
  • 2007 lecture: "Culture and History Matter: Russia's Search for Identity after the Fall." Featured Speaker, Hall Humanities Lecture Series, 10 April.
  • 2006 lecture: "The Alphabet of the Magi and 'The Word' Made Text in Andrei Belyi's Silver Dove," for the Princeton University Colloquium on Magic. Princeton, NJ, 8 May.
  • 2006 review: New Myth, New World: From Nietzsche to Stalinism, by Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal. Cornell University Press: 2002. In: Slavic and East European Journal 50:2 , 358–359.
  • 2005 article: "Theosophy and History in Andrei Belyi's Peterburg: Life in the Astral City." Russian Literature 58, 29–45.
  • 2005 conference presentation: "The Occult, the New Paganism, and the Political Right in Russia: Lessons from the Book of Veles." VII International Congress of ICCEES (International Council for Central and East European Studies), Berlin. 26 July.
  • 2003 essay: "Old Battles, New Challenges." In NewsNet: News of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies. 43:5 (October), 2–3. (Series: Regional Studies in the Twenty-First Century)
  • 1997 article: "Fashionable Occultism: Spiritualism, Theosophy, and Hermeticism in Fin-de-siecle Russia," in The Occult in Russian and Soviet Culture. Edited by B.G. Rosenthal. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 135–152.
  • 1996 article: "Gnostic Elements in the Cosmogony of Vladimir Solov'ev," in Russian Religious Thought. Edited by Richard Gustafson and Judith Kornblatt. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. 49–67. 1993 book: 'No Religion Higher Than Truth': A History of the Theosophical Movement in Russia, 1875–1922. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. 310 pp.

    Selected Awards and Recognitions

  • AATSEEL [American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages] National Award for Excellence in Post-Secondary Teaching, 29 December 2005
  • Keeler Intra-University Professorship, Spring 2004
  • Excellence in Graduate Teaching Award, awarded by the KU Center for Teaching Excellence, May 2003
  • Visiting Professorship, Duke University, Spring 2001
  • Distinguished Service Award for Academic Leadership in International Studies, awarded by the Board of Directors of the International Relations Council, Kansas City, MO, 6 December 2000

    Selected Grants Held

    External: IREX, Fulbright, NEH, SSRC; Internal: Hall Center for the Humanities; Institutional: US Department of Education; SSRC; USIA

    Selected National Service

  • NCEEER Board
  • Dante Fascell Board (U.S. State Department)
  • AAASS Board
  • Council of National Resource Center Directors
  • (Also CIES/Fulbright, NEH, CIEE, ACIE, et al.)

    Physical location of office:
    2139 Wescoe Hall
    Mailing address:
    Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures
    1445 Jayhawk Blvd., Rm. 2133
    Lawrence, KS 66045-7590, USA
    Tel.: (785) 864-2350
    E-mail: mcarlson (at) ku.edu