Daniel A. Brooks

Daniel Brooks’s research focuses primarily on Russian literary and visual culture of the late imperial and early Soviet eras, with a particular emphasis on literary prose, life-writing, literary criticism, and portraiture. He is likewise interested in the historical intersections between literature and science, as well as contributions by Indigenous Siberian and Central Asian writers to the Russophone canon. Prior to his arrival at Smith, Brooks taught at Rutgers University, Franklin and Marshall College, and Mount Holyoke College.

Brooks has taught numerous courses covering the entirety of the modern Russophone literary canon, surveys of Russo-Soviet cinema, first-year/freshman composition seminars, and all courses in the elementary through advanced Russian language sequence. His students have won awards in the American Council of Teachers of Russian’s national essay competitions, the New England Olympiada of Spoken Russian, and the Russian, East European, & Eurasian Studies Northeast Network Student Conference.

Review of Silhouettes of Russian Writers. Literary and Philosophical Essays by Yuli Aikhenvald (trans. Gershkovitch and Blackwell); Slavic and East European Journal 69.4 (2025): 567–568.

“Tracking Current Events in the Russian-Language Classroom.” Russian Language Journal 73.2 (2023): 235–252.

Review of A Reader’s Companion to Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita (J. A. E. Curtis); Russian Language Journal 71.1 (2021): 221–223.

“Bitter Tears: Emotions in Texts by and about Maksim Gor'kii.” Slavic and East European Journal 62.4 (2018): 706–726.

Review of Russian Silver Age Poetry: Texts and Contexts (eds. Forrester and Kelly), The Russian Review 77.1 (2018): 134–135

“Vladislav Chodasevič's Necropolis: Writing Lives in the City of the Dead.” Russian Literature 83 (2016): 113–128.

“Fetishizing Dialog: Apostrophe and Prosopopoeia in Blok's 'Cleopatra.'” Slavic and East European Journal 60.1 (2016): 68–86.