Richard Porter

Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Emeritus

Richard N. Porter was born in 1932 in St. Louis, Missouri, and earned the Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts at Vanderbilt University in 1954 and 1957, respectively. He completed the Ph.D. at Indiana University in 1968.

Professor Porter has taught English and German at Vanderbilt, but his principal focus has been on the Russian program, in which he has taught a wide variety of courses ranging from elementary language instruction to advanced courses in literature. His research focuses on contemporary Russian literature and methods of foreign language teaching, and he has published a number of articles of literary criticism, literary analysis, and language pedagogy. Recently, he has developed an interest in writing fiction and has published three novels in Russian.

Professor Porter has also contributed to Vanderbilt outside the classroom. He has spoken at a variety of student-run functions and at Parents Weekend events and has served as editor of the Vanderbilt Alumnus and other alumni publications. His committee service has been prodigious; notably, he has chaired the Fulbright Committee and served as Fulbright adviser. Outside the University, Professor Porter has been active in the Southern Conference on Slavic Studies, the South Central Modern Language Association, the American Council of Teachers of Russian, and the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies.

In 1971/72, Professor Porter directed the Vanderbilt in Germany program, and, in 1978, he traveled to the Soviet Union as a participant in a Summer Exchange of Language Teachers sponsored by the International Research and Exchanges Board. He has conducted five May Session courses in the Soviet Union, and, in 1984, escorted a group of Vanderbilt Alumni on a trip with the theme “Passage of the Czars.”

Professor Porter’s great love is teaching. For him, this goes beyond classroom teaching to include academic advising of students and advising student organizations such as Dobro Slovo, the Russian honorary society. In 1995, he won the Jeffrey Nordhaus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, symbolic of his enormous dedication to the students of this University. 

In November 2004, Richard Porter celebrated the 50th anniversary of his graduation from Vanderbilt. Click here for more