Dr. Vadim Shneyder

Biography

Vadim Shneyder is an Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Slavic, East European & Eurasian Languages & Cultures at UCLA. He holds a Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literatures from Yale University (2015). His academic work focuses on Russian literature during the age of realism, particularly in relation to the intellectual, social, and ideological contexts of the Russian Empire and Europe. Shneyder's research extends to various topics including nineteenth- and twentieth-century European and Russian philosophy, aesthetic theory, Soviet literature and film, as well as national cultural identity in Eastern Europe. His book, 'Russia’s Capitalist Realism: Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov' (Northwestern University Press, 2020), investigates the challenges posed to Russian realist prose by nascent capitalism and explores how literature reflects and engages with the economic conditions of its time. Shneyder aims to reconcile formalist and historicist approaches in literary study, examining how fiction articulates historical change and the emergent phenomena that shapes societal understanding. He teaches a range of courses on Russian literature from both graduate and undergraduate levels, and his research interests include the intersection of literature and economics within the context of Russian and Eastern European narratives.

Research Interests

Courses