Professor J C Troncale is co-director of the Russian Studies Program at the University of Richmond and has served as the chair of the Department of Modern Literatures and Cultures. In 1974, he received his M.A. in Russian Literature from the University of Arizona. He went on to receive his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1979 in Russian Literature and has been teaching Russian Studies since 1972. His original area of specialty is 19th century Russian literature with a focus on Dostoevsky. He has written widely on Russian writers of both the 19th and 20th centuries.
Since the beginning of his tenure at the University of Richmond, Troncale has developed an expertise in both Russian cinema and Russian painting. He currently teaches Russian languages courses in addition to courses on Russian literature, Russian painting, Russian cinema, and the history of Russian cultural and intellectual development. He has also written papers in the fields of Russian cinema and painting. In collaboration with the Museum of Nonconformist Art in St. Petersburg, he has curated two in a series of three exhibitions of Russian painting at the University of Richmond Museums: Recent Art from St. Petersburg (2002) and The Space of Freedom: Apartment Exhibitions from 1964-1986 (2006). Over the past thirty-four years, Professor Troncale has traveled extensively in the former USSR and Russia. He has received numerous grants and fellowships for his research and has been given the highest honors for excellence in teaching from the University of Richmond and from the states of Arizona and Virginia.
The most important period of formation as a teacher of Russian language and culture came during my studies at the University of Arizona. Professor Del Phillips opened my eyes to the joy of teaching Russian and Professor Alex Dunkel inspired me to the marvelous ways that literature and painting reveal the wonders of Russian culture.
