January 1, 2009

EMIL DRAITSER

(212)772‑4963 ‑ office

e-mail: <emil.draitser@hunter.cuny.edu>

EDUCATION

1976‑1983    Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literatures, UCLA

1972‑1974    MA in Journalism, Moscow Institute of Journalism.

1966-1967    Diploma in Editing, Moscow Publishing Institute.

1955‑1960    BS in Electrical Engineering, Odessa Polytechnic Institute

 

Languages:  Russian (native), Ukrainian (near‑native); reading knowledge of Polish, French, and German.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

1986‑pres.    Professor, Russian Division, Hunter College of CUNY

1994-2000    Adjunct Professor, New York University, School of Continuing Education

1986-1994    Member of Faculty, The New School for Social Research

1982‑1986    Member of Faculty, Russian Division and Writer’s Program, UCLA.  

1982‑1986    Technical Writer, Hughes Aircraft Company, Los Angeles

1981‑1983    Staff Writer, Citicorp’s Retail Consumer Services, Marina Del Rey, California

1976‑1981    Lecturer, Teaching Associate, and Teaching Fellow in the Department of Slavic Languages  and Literatures, University of California, Los Angeles.

1975-1976    Translator, Agnew Translation Agency, Los Angeles

1966‑1974    Editor, Nedra Publishing House, Moscow, USSR.

1964-1974        Correspondent for Crocodile, Moscow, USSR.

1964-1975        Contributor to leading Russian newspapers and magazines, including Izvestia, Literary Gazette, Literary Russia, Labor, Evening Moscow, etc.

1964-1976        Television Writer and Journalist, Central Television Studios, Moscow Script Writer for Mosfilm Studios.

 

CITIZENSHIP: U. S. Citizen (Immigrated to the USA 12/30/74)

 

PUBLICATIONS

 
Books

 

            Shush! Growing Up Jewish Under Stalin: A Memoir (Univ. of California Press, 2008)

            Wedding in Brighton Beach and Other Stories (in Polish; Midrasz, Warsaw, 2008)

            Kto ty takoi (Who Are You: A Memoir) (in Russian; Seagull Publishers, 2005)  
            The Supervisor of the Sea and Other Stories (Xenos Books, 2003)
            Twentieth Century Russian Poets (ed. & compl.) (Hermitage, 2000)

Nineteenth Century Russian Poets (ed. & compl.) (Hermitage, 1999)

Making War, Not Love: Gender and Sexuality in Russian Humor (St. Martin’s, 1999)

Taking Penguins to the Movies: Ethnic Humor in Russia (Wayne State UP, 1998)

Techniques of Satire: The Case of Saltykov‑Shchedrin (Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1994)

Poterialsia mal’chik (The Lost Boy and Other Stories) (in Russian; Moscow Worker, 1993)

Peshchera neozhidannostei (The Fun House) (in Russian; NYC: Possev-USA, 1984).

Forbidden Laughter: Soviet Underground Jokes (ed.& compl.) (Almanac, 1980).

     

Books-in-progress

 

            Stalin’s Romeo Spy: The Real Life of Dmitri Bystrolyotov (a biography) 

            Chekhov in Brighton Beach (a novel-in-stories)

            From Here to Wherever (a historical narrative on Jewish emigration from the USSR)

       

Short stories and essays

 

Over thirty short stories and essays published in Los Angeles Times, Partisan Review, The Kenyon Review, North American Review, Michigan Quarterly Review,  San Francisco Chronicle, The Literary Review, Midstream, Prism International, Confrontation, International Quarterly,  The New Renaissance, Icarus, American Writing, New Press Literary Quarterly, Studies in Contemporary Satire,  and others.

    

Over a hundred short stories and satirical columns published in Russia (Izvestiia, Yunost’, Literaturnaya gazeta, Ogonyok, Trud, Evreiskoe Slovo, etc.), various Russian-lan­guage publica­tions in the US and Israel (Novyi zhurnal, Novoe Russkoe Slovo, Slovo, Vestnik, etc.), and in Polish translation (Midrasz, Warsaw).

 

Scholarly articles 

 

            Around twenty articles published in Slavic and East European Journal; Journal of Popular Culture;  Canadian‑American Slavic Studies; Studies in Contemporary Satire; Slavic and East European Folklore Association Journal; Humor: International Journal of Humor Research; META (Translators' Journal); Studies in Comparative Communism; Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization, Gulag Studies, Journal of Intelligence History.

HONORS FOR PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE

 

            New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship in Creative Writing, 1992-3, 2003-4

            American Council of Learned Societies, Grant‑in‑Aid, 1987

City University of New York Grants in Fiction and Non-Fiction, 1987-2007.

            Memorial Jewish Cultural Foundation Research Grant, 1990‑91

            Social Science Foundation Summer Stipend, 1987

            All‑Union Literary Competition, Special Prize, Odessa, USSR, 1971

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

The New York Times, February 6, 1980; Washington Post, April 9, 1980; Daily Telegraph (London), Nov. 23 1980; Los Angeles Times, May 13,1984;  October 11, 1985; Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Feb. 26, 1980; Literaturnaia gazeta (Moscow), April 4, 1991; Literaturnoe obozrenie,  Moscow, #3‑4, 1992; Crocodile (Moscow), # 35, 1990; Ogonyok  (Moscow), #36, 1990; Stolitsa (Moscow), # 41‑42, Nov. 1991; The Jewish Week (New York), March 19, 1999.