Jens, Benjamin C

Assistant Professor

bcjens@email.arizona.edu
Office Learning Services Building 305

Office Hours

Mondays 3:00 - 4:00 pm, Thursdays 1:00 - 2:00 pm

Dr. Benjamin Jens received his Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His main area of research is 19th-century Russian literature – especially the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky – with a focus on the relationship between literature, discourse, and Eastern Orthodoxy. He also has research interests in Eastern European cinema, science fiction, and cultural ties between the Western Balkans and Russia. Dr. Jens is also the director of the Arizona in Russia study abroad program in Moscow, Russia.

Select Publications

"Oral History in the Russian Language Curriculum: A Transformative Experience." Chapter co-authored with Benjamin Rifkin and Colleen Lucey and accepted for publication in The Art of Teaching Russian, eds. Evgeny Dengub, Irina Dubinina, and Jason Merrill.

“Silence and Confession in The Brothers Karamazov.” Russian Review, vol. 75, no. 1, 2016, pp. 51–66.

Courses Taught:

RSSS150B1 – Eastern European Cinema in a Social Context

RSSS275 – The Balkans: Identity in Crisis

RSSS304 – History of Soviet and Post-Soviet Film

RSSS310 – Red Stars, Cosmonauts, and Robots: Soviet and East European Science Fiction

RSSS315 – Werewolves and Vampires: Slavic Folklore in our Culture

RSSS325 – Eastern Orthodoxy in a Global Age

RSSS340 – The Pen and the Sword: Russian Writers and Autocracy (1825-1905)

RSSS350 – The Soviet Experiment

Currently Teaching

RSSS 210 – Utopian Visions: Promises and Reality in 20th Century Russia

A multimedia examination 20th century utopian visions through the arts in Russia and the Soviet Union.

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RSSS 310 – Red Stars, Cosmonauts, and Robots: Soviet and East European Science Fiction

This course studies a selection of the best and most influential fantastic, marvelous, and uncanny works from the region that brought the world rocketry, Sputnik, and the robot. Students will analyze a variety of media (in translation) from Eastern Europe that posit situations based in a "fantastic" space, time or world to compare how broader cultural concerns are expressed through the genre of science fiction. We will discuss the development of the genre in Eastern Europe from the era of Romanticism to the modern day, with emphasis on the historical-cultural context of the Space Race between the US and USSR and its impact on the genre. This course will explore the view "from the East" of such topics as progress, imperialism, human perfectibility, gender constructs, the nature of communication, human/other identity, and the limits of knowledge as humanity pushes further into the final frontier. Students will read all texts in translation; all films will be available with English-language subtitles.

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RSSS 335 – Healthy Places, Toxic Spaces: GeoHumanities & Health in Russia & Eastern Europe

Space, place, and ecology have long played the part of actors - rather than backdrops - for human action in Eastern European arts; by adding the concept of health, this course explores the intersection of the human person, culture, and the environment in Eastern European literature and film. By analyzing the "humanistic geography" created by artists from the region, this course will endeavor to understand how the health (broadly understood) of individuals is affected by place, and vice versa. This course will also explore how authors have contributed to creating a "cultural biography" of some of the major health and environmental issues - the legacy of Chernobyl, migration, accessibility, etc. - facing Russia and Eastern Europe today.

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Currently Teaching

RSSS 210 – Utopian Visions: Promises and Reality in 20th Century Russia

RSSS 310 – Red Stars, Cosmonauts, and Robots: Soviet and East European Science Fiction

RSSS 335 – Healthy Places, Toxic Spaces: GeoHumanities & Health in Russia & Eastern Europe