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Faculty


Sheila A. Gunther

Associate Professor of Foreign Languages

B.A., M.A., A.B.D., University of Pennsylvania

Description

Professor Gunther completed her graduate and undergraduate work at the University of Pennsylvania, where she specialized in Russian language and literature, and graduated with honors and distinction. Professor Gunther is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Mortar Board and the National Russian, French, Education and Foreign Language Honor Societies. She was a National Defense Fellow for three years.

Professor Gunther has been teaching Russian and French language, literature and culture; English; and world literature at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University for five decades. She is a tenured, full-time faculty member and has served as chair of the Foreign Language Department for many years. Professor Gunther has chaired the Faculty Council, the Admissions Committee, the Academic Standing Committee and the Core Curriculum Committee, and she has served on many other university committees.

Professor Gunther has acted as a translator for government and industry, and has lectured extensively on Russian literature and culture. More recently, she has addressed both scholarly and community audiences with lectures on “The Making of the Superhero in Literature and Film,” “Horror in Literature,” “The Roots of Russian Anti-Semitism,” “The Origins of Nicknames in Baseball” and “A Formalist Approach to Contemporary Literature.” Professor Gunther has traveled extensively throughout Eastern and Western Europe and the Asia.

Specialties

Russian Literature and Culture (19th & 20th centuries), Superheroes in Literature and Film, Horror Literature, Baseball Nicknames

Performances

Public Interest Lectures (selected):

  • “Bending Rules in Literature and Baseball: Alexander Pushkin and Eddie Gaedal”
  • “Chekhov’s Short Stories: Introduction for Celeste Holmes,” Tilles Center
  • “‘Crime and Punishment’ as Psychological Realism”
  • “‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’: From Novel to Film”
  • “‘Eugene Onegin,’ Superfluous Man”
  • “Formalist Critique of Jerzy Kosinsky’s “The Painted Bird”
  • “Isaac Babel: A Soviet Anomaly”
  • “The Making of the Superhero: From Moses to Jackie Chan”

Affiliations

  • Member, American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages
  • Member, American Name Society
  • Member, Modern Language Association