Irina Alekseeva
Irina Alexeeva made her first forays into translation while she was still a university student. In her graduation paper she explored German translations of Mikhail Lermontov’s Demon. Her subsequent PhD dissertation, supervised by well-known theorist and translator Andrey Fedorov, was dedicated to bilingualism in the works of Karolina Pavlova. She began her career as a translator at the Patent Office of Leningrad State University. In the 1980s she became a professor at Leningrad State University (now St. Petersburg State University). In addition to her teaching duties she developed a varied and acknowledged track record as a translator specializing in law, economics, memoirs, and literary works. Throughout the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s she published Russian translations of Ludwig Tieck, E.-T.-A. Hoffmann, Gottfried Keller, Gerhart Hauptmann, Georg Trakl, Hermann Hesse, Hermann Broch, Robert Musil, Heinrich Böll, Robert Menasse, Ilse Tielsch, Paul Nizon, Elfriede Jelinek and many others. In 2006 in collaboration with her former student Albina Boyarkina she produced A Complete Collection of Letters by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart for which she translated most of the letters. Starting in the 1990s she worked as a consecutive and simultaneous interpreter for a wide range of international events. Dr. Alexeeva has extensive experience in teaching the practice and theory of translation and interpretation. She has authored a number of Russian-language books on theoretical and pedagogical aspects of translation and interpretation, including Translatology (1998), Professional Training of Translators and Interpreters (2000), Interpreting: German (2002), Introduction to Translatology (2004), Interpreting Speeches (2005), Translation: German (2006), Text and Translation/Interpretation: Aspects of Theory (2008). She has also published over a hundred research papers. Since 2000 Dr. Alexeeva has established herself as a leading trainer and coach on translation and interpretation pedagogy, curriculum design, and programme management in Russia and abroad. Her academic contributions have been recognized with an Honorary Diploma of the Russian Ministry of Education.
Angelique Antonova
Angelique Antonova graduated from Herzen University in 1997, majoring in Philology. Simultaneously she obtained a major in Global Economy from St. Petersburg State University. She began to practice translation and cross-cultural communication during her student years. She earned her PhD with a dissertation on Russian Orthodox Church terminology in original English texts and dictionaries which she developed under the supervision of Prof. Victor Kabakchi, a recognized expert on cross-cultural communication. She has taught at Herzen University since 1997. She has authored 30 papers on cross-cultural communication and translation and edited a number of joint publications on the training of translators and interpreters. Angelique Antonova has substantial experience of working as an in-house and freelance translator, interpreter, and editor with Russian, English, and German. In 2008 she followed her passion for cultivating young talent and became Deputy Director of the St. Petersburg School of Conference Interpreting and Translation at Herzen University.
Sergei Afonin
In 1988 Sergei Afonin graduated from the Faculty of Philology of Leningrad State University with a degree in Teaching Russian as a Foreign Language. He has freelanced as an English-Russian translator since 1989. He specializes in a wide range of subjects including education, arts and culture, business, management, marketing, advertising, sports, environmental protection, law, banking, real estate, public administration, and various international cooperation programmes. Since 2000 he has also worked as a translation project coordinator, reviser, language consultant and translation test evaluator, scoring an annual volume of translation and revision of over 500,000 words.
In 1991 Sergei Afonin became a co-founder of the Institute of Foreign Languages (IFL), one of the first non-state tertiary institutions in Russia. Since that time he has served as the Academic Director of IFL’s Department of English, overseeing EFL and T&I programmes, as well as a lecturer/instructor in translation and translation theory. In 2008 he joined the St. Petersburg School of Conference Interpreting in the capacity of a translation trainer.
Aleksei Astvatsaturov
In 1970 Aleksei Astvatsaturov graduated from the St. Petersburg State University Faculty of Philology. In 1970-1974 he was a doctoral student at the Ethics and Esthetics Department of the Faculty of Philosophy. In 1974 he defended his dissertation on the Art and Culture problem in classical German philosophy (Kant, Schiller). In 1994 Dr. Astvatsaturov joined the Institute of Foreign Languages where he gives lectures and language practice classes on various aspects of the German language. He has lectured extensively on philosophy, cultural studies, history of foreign literature (18-20th centuries), linguistic poetics, semiotics, modern German stylistics, cognitive semantics, hermeneutics, mythology and ancient literature. Dr. Astvatsaturov’s various scholarly interests are reflected in his academic work and numerous publications.
Vera Bischitzky
Vera Bischitzky is a slavist, literary translator into German (specializing mostly in Russian classics), writer, and a freelancer. She lives in Berlin. Her accomplishments as a translator include works by Andrei Tarkovsky, Dina Rubina, Semen Dubnov (also as an editor), Anton Chekhov (short stories such as The Lady with the Dog, The Darling and many others, plays such as The Cherry Orchard and Uncle Vanya), Nikolai Gogol (Dead Souls), Ivan Goncharov (Oblomov, letters). In 2010 she was awarded the Helmut-M.-Braem-Übersetzerpreis for her translation of Gogol’s Dead Souls.
She has shared widely her explorations of the authors she translated and her experience of translating books by Gogol, Chekhov, Goncharov, Dubnov and Rubina with lectures in Germany, around Russia (in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Taganrog, Ulyanovsk) and in Israel.
Tatiana Bodrova
Born in Moscow, and having studied at the Moscow State Institute of Foreign languages for four years, Tatiana Bodrova continued her studies in France and graduated from the Interpreting department at the Ecole Supérieure d’Interprètes et de Traducteurs (ESIT) at the Paris 3 University – Sorbonne Nouvelle in 1981. Since then she has been working as a freelance conference interpreter (AIIC) for international organizations and European institutions, including UNESCO, UNIDO, IAEA, UNOV, WHO, ITU, ICAO, UNEP, FAO, IMF, WB, OECD, EBRD, NATO, the European Parliament, the European Commission, the Council of Europe, and the G8 and G20 summits. Since 1982 she has been teaching consecutive and simultaneous interpreting from French and English into Russian at ESIT. Her PhD thesis in Translation Studies in 2000 (Paris 3 University – Sorbonne Nouvelle), published in French in 2001, was devoted to Russian theories of translation and M.M. Bakhtine’s works on unilingual communication. Author of several articles in academic journals in Russia, France, and the USA, she supervised and coordinated the translation into Russian of Professor Marianne Lederer’s book La traduction aujourd’hui. In charge at ESIT of several training programmes and workshops for teachers of translation and interpreting from numerous Russian Universities (Voronezh, Nizhniy-Novgorod, Volgograd, Moscow, etc.), she was one of the coordinators of the TEMPUS programme Master’s Degree in Translation and Interpreting, with Herzen State University. She became Director of the Interpreting department at ESIT in 2010 and Director of ESIT in 2011.
Alexandra Borisenko
Alexandra Borisenko graduated from Moscow State University s.c.l. in 1992. Her PhD thesis was devoted to issues of literary translation and the ‘Soviet translation school’. Since 1997, she has taught (jointly with Dr. Victor Sonkin) a workshop on literary translation at the Department of Philology of Moscow State University. The workshop has published several books translated by the students, including two major anthologies of British and American crime fiction (2009, 2011) Dr. Borisenko also teaches a course on theoretical aspects of translation.
Alexandra Borisenko is an Associate Professor at the Department of Philology of Moscow State University, the author of numerous critical and theoretical works on literary history and literary translation. She has translated numerous works of British and American literature into Russian. She often works as technical translator and conference interpreter.
Andrei Chuzhakin
Andrei Chuzhakin est interprète diplômé du célèbre Institut Maurice Thorez de Moscou et de l’Académie des Sciences Sociales. Doyen et Professeur de la MGLU. Auteur de très nombreuses publications sur la théorie et la pratique de la traduction et de l’interpretation de conférence. Il est également journaliste, essayiste et consultant pour diverses organisations politique et économiques. Spécialiste des questions du tiers monde. Lauréat du prix «Mirotvorets» pour son implication dans la défense et le developpement de la langue et de la culture russes. Ses langues de travail sont l’anglais et le portugais. Il est l’auteur de la première partie de ce manuel «Interprétation Consécutive & Prise de Notes : Le B.A.-BA».
Bienvenue sur son site apchuzhakin.narod.ru
Brian Fox
Brian Fox is the Director responsible for the organization of Interpreting in the European Commission’s Directorate-general for Interpreting, serving the large majority of EU institutions and bodies.
Educated in the Duke of Northumberland’s School and the Universities of Edinburgh and Aix-en-Provence, he was selected for the Commission’s own in-house course and trained as a conference interpreter. Upon joining the staff, he became a key trainer, helping also to set up or run SCIC courses in Italy, Portugal, and Spain. Subsequently appointed Head of Unit responsible for all training and university outreach, he also co-founded the European Masters in Conference Interpreting.
His other main areas of interest are languages, communication and culture and he has served as chair, member, or independent expert in steering committees and evaluation boards for many international projects in these fields. He is chair of the Working group on Training of IAMLADP.
Sergei Goncharov
Professor Sergei Goncharov currently serves as Vice Rector of Herzen University. He graduated from Leningrad State University in 1981 and defended his PhD thesis on Gogol’s literary works in 1998.
A member of the Rector’s office of Herzen University since 1995, he was appointed First Vice-Rector in2010. Inthis capacity he coordinates the work of other Vice Rectors and the day-to-day functioning of the university. He is also responsible for Herzen University’s relations with the Russian Ministry of Education and Science and for its external partnership networks.
His research interests range from issues of higher professional education to Russian literature and culture. He has authored over 200 published works, including articles in professional journals in Germany, Denmark, Poland, the USA, and France; lectured on Russian literature and culture in various universities in Italy, Germany, the USA; and been awarded grants from the Russian Fund of Fundamental Research, the Russian Humanities Research Fund, the DAAD, and the US Information Agency.
Konstantin Ivanov
Since 1998 Konstantin has worked as a Geneva-based freelance conference interpreter (AIIC) working for international organizations, including UNOG, WHO, ITU, ILO, UNESCO, IMF, EBRD, WTO, FAO, UNICEF, UNEP, WMO, EBU, CoE, WIPO, NATO/PfP Marshall Center for Security Studies, and UEFA. Since 2006 he has worked as a part-time teacher of conference interpreting (coordinator for the Russian language) at Faculté de Traduction et d’Interprétation (FTI) of Geneva University.
He graduated from the Faculty of International Economic Relations at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) and the UN Language Training Course at Moscow State Institute of Foreign Languages. He has worked as a staff translator and interpreter at the UN, WIPO and the IMF, as well as a freelance Moscow-based interpreter. He has taught translation and interpretation in MGIMO and the Soviet/Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He is a co-author of the Manuel de traduction économique français-russe published by MGIMO. In 2009 he obtained the degree of Master of Advance Studies (MAS) in Interpreter Training at FTI with a research project on Simultaneous Interpretation with Text.
Victor Kabakchi
Professor Victor V. Kabakchi was born1937 inLeningrad. In 1966 he graduated with honors from the Foreign Languages Faculty of the Leningrad State Pedagogical Institute (now Herzen University). He worked for a short period of time as a high school teacher and then moved to Tambov, the administrative centre of Tambov oblast, western Russia, where he worked for a couple of years in the local pedagogical institute. In 1969 he returned to Leningrad and became a post-graduate in his alma mater, acquiring a PhD in 1972.
After that he worked at Herzen University, and in 1987 he successfully defended his dissertation at Leningrad State University in the pioneering field of Foreign-Culture-Oriented English. Since then he has published over 140 linguistic works (USSR, Russia, UK, USA) in the field he entitled ‘Interlinguoculturology’. His text-books devoted to Russian-Culture Oriented English are used by students in various universities of Russia.
He is married and has two sons and two grandchildren.
Viacheslav Kashkin
Viacheslav B. Kashkin is a Doctor of Philology, and a Professor; he heads the Department of Translation Theory and Intercultural Communication at Voronezh University. Born Dec. 15, 1955, he studied English at Voronezh and General Linguistics at Leningrad (St. Petersburg) University. He was an IREX participant at ODU (Norfolk, VA, 1993) and visiting professor at Jyväskylä University (Finland, 1997-1999), Siberian Federal University (Russia, 2010-2011). He has published over 200 papers in Russia and abroad, including books on functional typology, communication theory, history of linguistic science, discourse theory and naïve metalinguistics. His research and teaching areas include communication theory, contrastive linguistics, and discourse and text analysis for translation. He is a member of several international linguistic and communication associations and editorial boards. He is the editor of Language, Communication and Social Environment which appears yearly both online and in print: http://lse2010.narod.ru/
http://kachkine.narod.ru/; email: kashkin2000@mail.ru
Tamara Kazakova
Tamara Kazakova of St. Petersburg State University, is a member of the Union of Translators of Russia, Doctor of Linguistics, professor, translator, and editor. She is interested in translation and literature studies, has published more than 100 books and articles, and gives lectures and seminars in the theory and practice of translation. She has translated and edited translations of poetry and prose from English, including the works of such authors as Walter Raleigh, Philip Sidney, John Wilmot Rochester, John Suckling, Ben Jonson, D.G. Rossetti, etc. She has studied and translated Native American mythology and published the book Когда Солнце было вождем (When the Sun was a Chief), a study of Native American myths and legends, with translation and commentary. She conducts a studio for young translators of literature.
Barbara Moser-Mercer
Barbara Moser-Mercer is Professor of conference interpreting in the Interpreting Department at the Ecole de traduction et d’interprétation, University of Geneva. Her research focuses on cognitive and cognitive neuro-science aspects of the interpreting process and on the human performance dimension of skill development. She has co-developed the Virtualinstitute©, the first fully integrated virtual learning environment for interpreters, which she leverages in partnership with ICRC, ILO, UNHCR, UNAMA and MSF for enhancing interpreting skills of interpreters working in conflict zones; she is founder and Director of InZone. She was a member of the High Level Group on Multilingualism of EU Commissioner for Multilingualism, Leonard Orban, and has coordinated the European Masters in Conference Interpreting (www.emcinterpreting.org) since 2008. She is also an active conference interpreter, member of AIIC (www.aiic.net) and of AIIC’s research committee.
Noel Muylle
From 1953‒1964 he studied classics, commerce, and economics, followed by a post graduate course in conference interpreting and translation at the Sorbonne. After a career of 40 years with the European Commission, he retired on August 1, 2004, as Honorary Director General of the European Commission.
As a manager, Noel held responsibilities for training, selection, and further training of staff involvement, i.e. quality control and staff career development; he was in charge of relations with the media as well as ensuring working relations with the other European Institutions and International Organisations (IAMLADP) with which DG Interpretation works closely. He regularly chaired selection panels and open competition juries, and participated closely in screening and audit procedures within the DG. He advised on the building and equipment of conference centres of the Institutions, and introduced the first IT system (SAFIR) in the Service. He set up the European Master in Conference Interpreting (EMCI) and advised authorities and universities in candidate countries, as well as in China, Vietnam, and Russia on the same.
Noel is a member of the ELC (European Language Council), IAPCO (the International Association of Professional Congress Organisers), the CIUTI (Inter-University Conference for Translation and Interpreting), LISA (the Localisation Industry Standards Association), the IAMLADP (International Annual Meeting on Language Arrangements, Documentation and Publications), the Institute of Linguists, the High-Level Group on Multilingualism of EC, and DYLAN (Dynamics in Languages, a R&D program financed by EU).
He is currently engaged in a study on the training of language mediators in Africa on behalf of the UN and EU. He is an active member of the Belgian Branch of the European Movement (MEB) for which he held the post of Secretary General for many years.
Magdalena Olivera Tovar-Espada
Magdalena Olivera Tovar-Espada graduated in Translation and Interpreting at Pontificia Comillas University of Madrid in 2007. She then obtained her MA in Conference Interpreting at the FTI, University of Geneva, in 2009. After teaching translation and interpreting at Alfonso X El Sabio University of Madrid, in 2010 she received a grant to develop her PhD in collaboration with Herzen State University of Russia, in St. Petersburg. She came back to Geneva in December 2011 and since then she has worked as a part-time doctoral assistant at the FTI, Interpreting Department, and as a freelance interpreter. In her PhD, she compares multitasking processes in simultaneous interpretation and musical accompaniment.
Alexander Prokhorenko
Alexander Prokhorenko graduated from Leningrad State University in1975. In1971-1976 he was the university’s secretary of the Young Communist League Committee and after that, in 1976-1988, senior lecturer at the Faculty of History. In 1980-1983 Alexander Prokhorenko served as Second Secretary of the Soviet Embassy in Finland and Director of the Centre of Soviet Culture and Science in Helsinki. For over 10 years he worked for the St. Petersburg branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where he was in charge of external relations. He was elected to the first convocation of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly where he served in 1994-1998. His other public offices included First Deputy Head of the Governor’s Office, Governor’s Representative to the Legislative Assembly and Vice Governor of St. Petersburg. He has been Chair of the St. Petersburg government’s Committee for External Relations since 2003. On June 29, 2010, he was appointed full cabinet member of the St. Petersburg government. Alexander Prokhorenko is Co-chair of the Board of Trustees of the St. Petersburg English Club. He has a PhD in Philosophy and has authored a number of books and articles on philosophy, history of Russia and Russians abroad, and international relations.
Alexander Prokhorenko was awarded the Order of Friendship of the Peoples, the Badge of Honour and the Order of Merit to the Fatherland (IV degree). He was also a recipient of the Big Gold Badge of Merit with a Star for distinguished service to the Austrian Republic from the President of Austria (2005), Order of the Lion of Finland from the President of Finland (2009), Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of Poland (2011), Commander’s Order of the Star of Italy (2013). He is married and has a daughter.
Teimuraz Ramishvili
Teimuraz Ramishvili graduated from the International Law Faculty of Moscow State Institute for International Relations in 1979. Since 1985 he has worked in various departments of the Soviet and later Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in Russia and abroad. He held the positions of Russia’s Ambassador Extraordinaire and Plenipotentiary in South Korea (2002-2005) and Denmark (2007-2012). Currently Teimuraz Ramishvili serves as Director of the Language Support Department of the MFA of Russia. He speaks French, Italian, English and Spanish.
Ekaterina Shutova
Ekaterina Shutova is a freelance conference interpreter and translator (Russian-English) with 16 years of experience in the Russian and international markets. Throughout her career, she has worked for a number of government structures, international organizations and private companies. Her client list includes UN, ILO, WHO, IAEA, Nordic Council of Ministers, Russian Constitutional Court, Central Bank of Russia, U.S. Department of Energy, European Parliament, Intel, Master Card, GlaxoSmithKline and many others.
A teacher’s daughter, she has a passion for growing young professionals. Throughout her career she has shared her time between practicing her trade and passing it on to young interpreters, first at the Institute of Foreign Languages and then at the St. Petersburg School of Conference Interpreting and Translation.
Ekaterina Shutova obtained her first degree in translation and interpretation from St. Petersburg State University in 1996. Five years later she continued her professional education, obtaining a Master’s degree in the same field from Monterey Institute of International Studies in 2002.
Ekaterina Shutova is an accredited interpreter of the European Union institutions and a member of the American Translators’ Association and the National League of Translators.
Valery Solomin
Professor Valery Solomin is the Rector of Herzen University. He graduated from the university’s Natural Sciences Faculty in 1978. His numerous degrees and titles include Full Professor (1993), Doctor of Pedagogy (2000), Merited Worker of Russian Higher Education (2004) and Honoured Worker of Science and Technology of Russia (2011).
Professor Solomin has gained a recognized scholarly reputation in the fields of biology, environmental science, health and safety, natural sciences, didactics, and education management. He leads a research team that studies the theory and practice of multi-level education in natural sciences. His best-known research projects focus on teaching biology and environmental science, sustainable development and health and safety as well as on methodologies of multilevel natural science education and management of education systems and projects. The outcomes of his research are reflected in over 300 papers, guidance materials, books, and teaching manuals.
Professor Solomin is a full member of the International Academy of Sciences (Russian department) and the International Academy of Ecology, Man and Nature Protection Sciences. He is a recipient of the St. Petersburg Government Education Award.
Victor Sonkin
Victor Sonkin is a literary scholar, critic, and author. He graduated from Moscow State University s.c.l. in 1992, and defended his PhD thesis on Slavic verse theory in 1998. He has since worked as translator for the UN, conference interpreter, columnist for The Moscow Times and The Times Literary Supplement, and a teacher of translation practice (jointly with Dr. Alexandra Borisenko) at his alma mater. The products of their translation seminar, two anthologies of British and American crime fiction, were a critical and commercial success in Russia and received a prestigious literary award. In 2012, a major Russian publishing house published his historical guidebook Here Was Rome: Modern Walks in the Ancient City. He wrote several articles on the influence and legacy of his mentor, Mikhail Gasparov.
Lyudmila Verbitskaya
Lyudmila Verbitskaya graduated from Leningrad University in 1958 with a degree in Russian Language and Literature. Since then her professional life has been connected to this university (now St. Petersburg State University, SPbU). In April 1994 Professor Verbitskaya was elected Rector of SPbU and held the post until2008. In2008 the University Academic Council elected her the first SPbU President. She initiated and led the opening of two new faculties at the university, the Faculty of International Relations and the Faculty of Medicine.
Professor Verbitskaya has authored over 300 academic works and teaching manuals on the Russian language and general linguistics, phonetics, and phonology, as well as teaching of Russian. Her works on modern Russian pronunciation were seminal to the development of a new research field, study of pronunciation norms and phonetic interference. Her academic work, as well as public appearances, feature such topics as speech standards and the stylistic, lexical and semantic challenges facing Russian today. She also devotes much attention to these issues as a member of the Russian government’s Russian Language Council and the Executive Committee of the International Association of Teachers of Russian Language and Literature (MAPRYAL). In 1999 Professor Verbitskaya was elected president of the Russian Society of Teachers of Russian Language and Literature (ROPRYAL) and in 2003 became president of MAPRYAL. Since 1998 she has presided over the St. Petersburg branch of the English Speaking Union established under the patronage of H.M. Queen Elizabeth II.
For many years Professor Verbitskaya has served as Vice President of the UNESCO commission on women’s education. She is an adviser to the Governor of St. Petersburg on education, science, and mass media, a member of the Scientific and Technical Council under the Governor of St. Petersburg, and co-chair of the Council for Culture of Speech under the Governor of St. Petersburg.
In 2000 the International Astronomical Union named small planet No. 7451 after Professor Verbitskaya. In 2006 Professor Verbitskaya was awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of St. Petersburg.
Oxana Yakimenko
Oxana Yakimenko is a translator and conference interpreter with Russian, English, and Hungarian. She graduated from the St. Petersburg State University (Finno-Ugric Studies & English Language), and completed a post-graduate course Germanic Languages: English (St. Petersburg University). She is currently doing her PhD at the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow) in Hungarian Literature. Her dissertation was on Contemporary Hungarian Drama in Late 20th – early 21st Century.
Oxana began working as an interpreter and translator in 1991. Her main topics are economics, legal texts (court interpreter since 1996), art, and music; she also translates books, both fiction and non-fiction.
Oxana’s teaching experience includes the Department of World Culture at the St. Petersburg University of Culture and Arts (senior English trainer, 2003-2008); the English Department at the Institute of Foreign Languages (Head of the Department, 2006-2008). At present she mainly teaches in the St. Petersburg State University (Finno-Ugric Department) and at the St. Petersburg School of Conference Interpreting and Translation (legal and economic translation, consecutive interpreting).
Sergei Yakovlev
Sergei Yakovlev has been as a freelance interpreter and translator (Russian and English) since 1996. He works for a wide range of Russian and international clients, including international organizations.
Throughout his career Sergei Yakovlev has combined professional activities with teaching duties as a consecutive interpretation instructor at the Institute of Foreign Languages (St. Petersburg). In 2008 he joined the St. Petersburg School of Conference Interpreting and Translation as an interpretation trainer. In this capacity he teaches Consecutive Basics, Introduction to Simultaneous and Simultaneous Retour.
Sergei Yakovlev graduated from Herzen University Department of Foreign Languages in 1995. He obtained his Master’s in Translation and Interpretation from Monterey Institute of International Studies in 2003. He is a member of the National League of Translators and an accredited interpreter of the European Union institutions
Aleksei Zherebin
Aleksei Zherebin studied Germanic philology in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) State University. In 1973 he presented his graduation paper on the dramatic writings of Frank Wedekind and began his career as a teacher of German language and literature in various educational institutions of St. Petersburg.
In 1984 Aleksei Zherebin defended his first thesis on the ideological and creative evolution of Christoph Martin Wieland. In 2005 he defended his doctoral thesis on philosophical Austrian prose from the Russian perspective and became a Full Professor.
Aleksei Zherebin currently serves as Professor at the Foreign Literature Institute of Herzen University. His area of expertise is the history and theory of 18-20th century West-European literature and culture. He has published nearly 100 research papers in addition to Russian translations of Nietzsche, Freud, Kafka, Kassner and modern authors. Since 1990 he has participated in a number of international symposia on Germanic studies in Germany, Austria, Italy, and the US. He was a guest lecturer on Russian-German connections at universities in Germany, Austria, and Finland (Berlin, Vienna, Hagen, Innsbruck, Graz, and Oulu). In 1999-2000 he was invited as a Visiting Fellow to the International Research Center of Cultural Studies, Vienna (IFK).
Aleksei Zherebin is President of the Russian Association of Germanists and member of the International Germanistic Guild, International P.E.N.-Club and the editorial board of the Russian-German annuary Das Wort. He participates actively in the work of the Thomas Mann Institute (affiliated to the Russian State Humanitarian University of Moscow) and its various educational programmes conducted jointly with the Freiburg Institute of Advanced Studies.