Teaching Fellow in Russian Studies

The Role and Department

The School of Modern Languages and Cultures

The School of Modern Languages and Cultures (MLAC) at Durham University seeks to appoint a talented individual to the role of Teaching Fellow in Russian Studies. The appointment will be on a fixed term part-time (0.5 FTE) basis for 9 months starting on 1 September 2025 or as soon as possible thereafter, and we invite applications from those with research expertise in Russian Studies. Applications are particularly welcome from candidates with interests in literary studies, visual culture and translation studies. The post offers an exciting opportunity to make a major contribution to the development of internationally excellent teaching while allowing you the opportunity to progress and embed your career in an exciting and progressive institution. While independent research is not part of the role, the postholder will be able to participate in the School’s research community.

Russian Studies

Russian Studies at Durham University is one of the best performing academic units with this specialism in the UK. It is consistently placed among the top-ranked equivalent departments in major national league tables. In 2024, it was ranked 3rd in the Good University Guide, contributing strongly to Durham University’s top-twenty placing for Arts and Humanities in the Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings.

There are currently eight full time members of staff in Russian Studies at Durham. They specialise in a wide range of research topics in Russian, Soviet and post-Soviet culture and history including poetry, musical culture, cinema and the visual arts, literary and critical theory, history of the sciences and professions, material culture, gender, and historical linguistics. This expertise is reflected across a wide range of general and specialist undergraduate modules. Staff in Russian also contribute to the School’s cross-cultural taught Masters programmes, including the MA in Visual Culture and the MA in Translation Studies, and supervise PhD and Masters by Research projects on Russian, Slavonic, and Russophone-related topics.

Russian language courses are taught at all levels, from beginners to advanced, by highly experienced language instructors. In the first year, students who have no prior experience of studying Russian take an intensive ab initio course. Those with an A-level or equivalent in Russian are enrolled on an intermediate course. Both strands build on this in the second-year core language courses, intensive for the post-beginners and standard for the post-A-level cohort. All students then normally spend their third year abroad in a Russian-speaking country currently at one of our partner institutions in the Baltic states or Kyrgyzstan. In the final year, in addition to the core language option, students can take an optional language course in Russian for Professional Communication.

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