Fellows » Current Fellows » IHUM Fellow: Bill Leidy, PhD
William Leidy received B.A.’s in Russian and Chemistry from the University of Rochester, and is currently putting the final touches on his doctoral dissertation entitled “Scandal and Literature: Dostoevsky's Polemics and Gombrowicz's Provocations” at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Stanford University. His dissertation explores the potential of scandal to serve as a catalyst for change in the literary milieu and society as a whole, drawing on material from the Epoch of Great Reforms in 1860s Russia as well as the provocative writings of the 20th century Polish-Argentinian author Witold Gombrowicz. In addition to analyzing two landmark novels, Dostoevsky’s The Idiot and Gombrowicz’s Ferdydurke, his dissertation draws on recent work in social thought and performance theory for its framework, in particular the scholarship of Pierre Bourdieu and Judith Butler. William’s other research interests include Russian realism, Polish prose, utopian thought, satire, and war literature. In his free time, William enjoys playing sports and guitar, traveling, photographing things, following international politics, and cooking.