Benjamin C Jens

Interests

Research

19th-century Russian literature, Eastern Orthodoxy, East European cinema

Teaching

Russian language and literature, East European cinema, Eastern Orthodoxy

Courses

No activities entered.

Scholarly Contributions

Chapters

• Jens, B. C. (2025).

  Decolonizing Russian Studies: Reexamining the Nineteenth-Century Literary Survey Course

  . In Diversity and Decolonization in Teaching Russian Studies(pp 159-175). Palgrave.
• Lucey, C., & Jens, B. (2025). Decolonizing Russian Studies: Reexamining the Nineteenth-Century Literary Survey Course. In Diversity and Decolonization in Teaching Russian Studies(pp 159-175). Springer Science+Business Media. doi:10.1007/978-3-031-90694-7_7
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  This chapter proposes a framework for decolonizing the Russian Studies curriculum by starting with the nineteenth-century literary survey course, which has historically been a hallmark of undergraduate programs across North America. Instead of its usual focus on nineteenth-century Realism, today’s nineteenth-century survey course should be pluralistic by including the writings of non-ethnic Russians living under imperial rule. Course readings, discussions, and assignments can challenge students and instructors alike to confront the history of Russian expansionism, the practices of resistance among writers and cultural figures, and thus create new analytical frameworks to study the production and representation of race, gender, class, dis(ability), ethnicity, and belonging in works of literature. No less important, we argue, is offering students the opportunity to draw connections between the past and present and to foster critical conversations on the histories of settler colonialism in North America and the Russian Empire. After providing a theoretical framework for decolonizing the nineteenth-century survey course, this chapter then outlines a sample syllabus with accompanying capstone activities that integrate insights from contemporary podcasts to help foster critical discussions in the classroom.
• Jens, B. C., Lucey, C. M., & Rifkin, B. (2020). Oral History in the Russian Language Curriculum: A Transformative Learning Experience. In The Art of Teaching Russian.
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  Foreign language learners benefit from engaging with target language native speakers; oral history projects provide a theoretical framework for the purposeful integration of such interactions into the Russian-language curriculum. By incorporating oral history projects into their Russian language curriculum, instructors give students the necessary support to engage in meaningful and productive interactions with native speakers of Russian that will substantially improve learning outcomes in a number of different ways. In this chapter, we first provide a theoretical framework for the development and implementation of oral history interviews in the Russian language curriculum.
• Rifkin, B., Lucey, C. M., & Jens, B. C. (2020). Oral History in the Russian Language Curriculum: A Transformative Learning Experience. In The Art of Teaching Russian(pp 211-230). Georgetown University Press.
  More info

  Foreign language learners benefit from engaging with target language native speakers; oral history projects provide a theoretical framework for the purposeful integration of such interactions into the Russian-language curriculum. By incorporating oral history projects into their Russian language curriculum, instructors give students the necessary support to engage in meaningful and productive interactions with native speakers of Russian that will substantially improve learning outcomes in a number of different ways. In this chapter, we first provide a theoretical framework for the development and implementation of oral history interviews in the Russian language curriculum.

Journals/Publications

• Jens, B. C. (2016). Silence and Confession in The Brothers Karamazov. Russian Review, 75(1), 51-66.
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  Silence is an integral part of discourse, shaping our utterances and imparting meaning in a variety of ways. Fyodor Dostoevsky proves to be especially attentive to the communicative possibilities of silence, using the phenomenon in diverse ways in a wide range of contexts in his works. In The Brothers Karamazov Dostoevsky draws on Eastern Orthodox icon theology and tradition to imbue a particular form of silence, molchanie, with the ability to facilitate communion (in the fullest sense of the word) in certain contexts. This use of silence is most clearly articulated by Dmitrii Karamazov in his “Confession of an Ardent Heart,” and practiced by Alyosha during the confessions of his brothers Dmitrii and Ivan.

Presentations

• Jens, B. C. (2024). Critical Disability Studies and the Teaching of East European Cultures. AATSEEL.
• Jens, B. C. (2020, February). Dostoevskian Subtexts in the films of Christi Puiu. AATSEEL National Conference. San Diego, CA.
• Jens, B. C. (2020, February). Roundtable: Successful Strategies for Teaching Large-Enrollment Classes. AATSEEL National conference. San Diego, CA.
• Jens, B. C. (2020, November). Questions of Psychology in Dostoevsky. ASEEES National Conference. Virtual.
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  Chair / Discussant of the panel
• Jens, B. C. (2019, July). Bezobrazie and Krasota in Dostoevsky’s Idiot and Andreev’s Judas Iscariot. XVII Symposium of the International Dostoevsky Society. Boston, MA: International Dostoevsky Society.
• Jens, B. C. (2018, December). Icon, Art, and Performance in the works of Vsevolod Garshin. ASEEES. Boston, MA: ASEEES.
• Jens, B. C. (2017, November). Florensky, Tarkovsky, and the Icon. ASEEES. Chicago: ASEEES.
• Jens, B. C. (2016, January). Oral History: The Logistics of Community Engagement. AATSEEL. Austin, TX: AATSEEL.
• Jens, B. C. (2016, November). Bezlikie ikony: Gorky's Polemic with Dostoevsky. ASEEES. Washington, DC: ASEEES.
• Jens, B. C. (2015, January). Depictions of Faith in the Works of Dostoevsky and Gorky. AATSEEL. Vancouver, BC.
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  Although Maksim Gorky famously labeled Fyodor Dostoevsky an “evil genius” and railed publicly against “Karamazov-ism,” even Gorky’s contemporaries noted the influence of his predecessor. Gorky’s problematic relationship with Dostoevsky’s works has been explored by scholars such as Boris Bialik, Richard Peace, Robert Louis Jackson, and James Goodwin, to name just a few. However, Ol’ga Sukhikh warns against creating easy contrasts or strong connections between the two authors; instead she advocates for separating the social questions from the philosophical explorations in order to better understand points of conflict and intersection.One of the key issues for both authors was faith. Here, again, one encounters an easy contrast between Dostoevsky’s Christianity and Gorky’s atheism. But the search for faith calls for a more nuanced understanding of the problematic relationship between the two writers, especially when one considers Gorky’s God-Building phase. This paper will explore the ways in which Dostoevsky and Gorky depict faith and the search for faith by juxtaposing key scenes in major works by Dostoevsky with scenes from Gorky’s Mother, The Lower Depths, and Confession. In particular, special attention will be paid to the language used in these scenes to demonstrate the ways in which Gorky builds on and continues Dostoevsky’s methods.
• Jens, B. C., & Rifkin, B. (2015, November). INTERGENERATIONAL LEARNING THROUGH ORAL HISTORY. ACTFL. San Diego, CA: ACTFL.
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  In this session we will describe the design and tools necessary for conducting oral history interview projects for students to interview target-language senior citizens in the community, whether students meet with them in the community or as guests in their own classroom. We will share samples of student work from such a project and help attendees brainstorm strategies for developing such projects in their respective languages in their own schools and colleges. During the session, we will encourage attendees to consider the perspectives of immigrants from their target cultures on historic, political, cultural, and economic events and trends such as protests of the grandmothers in Argentina, the booming economy in Shanghai with the destruction of traditional neighborhoods, the impact of the Beatles in Russia, natural disasters, or regime change because it's all the stuff of cultural memory worth documenting and preserving and sharing.

Reviews

• Jens, B. C. (2019. "Celestial Hellscapes: Cosmology as the Key to the Strugatskiis' Science Fictions" by Kevin Reese.
• Jens, B. C. (2018. Digital Orthodoxy in the Post-Soviet World: The Russian Orthodox Church and Web 2.0. Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society, vol. 155.(pp 745-746). SEEJ.
• Jens, B. C. (2016. The End of Russian Philosophy: Tradition and Transition at the Turn of the 21st Century.
• Jens, B. C. (2015. "Dostoevsky and the Catholic Underground" (Review)(p. 1). Slavic and East European Journal.
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  Book review of a published volume ("Dostoevsky and the Catholic Underground", Elizabeth Blake)