About
Michael Ossorgin is a specialist in 19th-century Russian literature, language, and culture with expertise in Dostoevsky, Bakhtin, Russian iconography, Russian Personalism, and Russian language pedagogy. His research integrates visual arts, literature, philosophy, and religious thought, with particular focus on time-sense in Dostoevsky's work.
Ossorgin's innovative theoretical framework reconfigures Bakhtinian time-space, distinguishing between the chronotope and what he terms the "kairotope"—two aspects of time-sense in aesthetic perception. This approach illuminates the interplay between chronological time and kairic moments of revelatory experience in literary texts.
Currently serving as Director of the Russian Program in Fordham University's Department of Languages and Cultures, he has developed an intellectual community through program-building and public-facing interviews with renowned experts on "The Russia Question," sponsored by Fordham's Orthodox Christian Studies Center. Ossorgin maintains a commitment to thoughtful critical engagement with Russian cultural heritage while addressing contemporary contexts.
His teaching emphasizes student participation and collaborative learning through careful juxtapositions of texts and contexts. His literature course offerings include a survey course on the great dialogic thinker Mikhail Bakhtin, another on Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, and a comparative course on revelatory visions in Russian and American art and literature.
As a member of Northwestern University's Research Initiative for Russian Literature, Philosophy and Religious Thought, Ossorgin continues to advance interdisciplinary approaches that bridge literary criticism, visual aesthetics, and philosophical inquiry.
Education
Columbia University
2008 –2017
Princeton University
2005 –2008
St. John’s College
Annapolis
2001-2005
Ph.D. in Slavic Languages, “Visual Polyphony: The Role of Vision in Dostoevsky’s Poetics,” May 17, 2017.
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M.Phil. Major in 19th-Century Russian Literature. Minor in Spanish Golden Age Literature, 2013.
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M.A. Dostoevsky’s Apophatic Approach to Defining a Perfectly Beautiful Person in The Idiot, May 1, 2010.
Program in Continuing Education (Russian language, Soviet and Russian literature). Princeton in Petersburg Summer Abroad Program, Summer 2006.
Bachelor of Arts with a double major in Philosophy and History of Mathematics and Science. Triple minor in Classics, Music Theory, and Comparative Literature. Senior Thesis, “The Death of Pride: Bearing Fruit in the World,” on Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov and Notes From Underground, was written under Nicholas Maistrellis.