I have enjoyed being a Lecturer of world literature and philosophy at Columbia University, as well as teaching a variety of languages, literatures, and cultures at universities across Europe, the Middle East, and the U.S.A.

 

In my scholarship, I focus on the comparative study of literature, art, philosophy, and religion.

 

I also write poetry, essays, and other non-fiction, and have published a memoir entitled "Näher an die Ferne" (Closer to the Faraway, 1999) that chronicles my growing up under a communist regime and my escape through the Iron Curtain, an academic study of Andrei Bely's novel "Petersburg" under the title "The Red Jester. Andrei Bely's Petersburg as a Novel of the European Modern" (2012), a collection of stories of old people at the end of their lives called "The Holy Dusters" (2015) and a book about the life of spiritual communities in the Indian Himalaya titled "Blue Poppies. A Spiritual Travelogue from the Himalaya" (2016) 

 

My personal interests include classical music, Vedanta and yoga philosophy, and high altitude trekking.